by Bill Hurter
Magazine-Style Albums. The magazine-style album features graphic page layouts with a sense of design and style. Images are not necessarily treated as individual entities but are often grouped with like images bounded by theme rather than in chronological order. This affords the photographer the luxury of using many more pictures in varying sizes throughout the album. As a result, collages and other multimedia techniques are common features of these magazine-style albums. In many cases, you also will see type used sparingly throughout the album.
Perhaps the most attractive feature of the digitally produced magazine-style albums is that they are an ideal complement to the storytelling images of the wedding photojournalist. Because there are no boundaries to page design or the number of images per page, the album can be designed to impart many different aspects of the overall story.
The difference between the standard drop-in album type and the magazine-style album is almost like the difference between an essay and a novel. The first tells the story in narrative terms only, the latter illuminates the story with subtleties.
SOFTWARE FOR ALBUM DESIGN
Martin Schembri’s Design Templates. Award-winning photographer Martin Schembri has created a set of automated design templates that come on four different CDs and are designed to help photographers create elegant album page layouts in Photoshop. Four different palettes are available: traditional, classic, elegant, and contemporary. The tools are cross-platform, meaning that they can be used for Macs or PCs, and are customizable so that you can create any size or type of album with them. The program includes hundreds of templates that can be resized or edited to suit any format you wish. No Photoshop experience is required! Easy to learn and simple to use, just import your images, select a template, and drag your photos into each opening. You can also design your own template or purchase more designs directly from Schembri’s web site: www.youselectit.com.
Yervant’s Page Gallery. Page Gallery software incorporates beautiful, artistic designs and layout options, individually designed by Yervant, who is one of the most high-profile wedding and portrait photographers in Australia. Yervant pioneered this style of artistic album layout some years ago, creating phenomenal demand by the marketplace and setting a major milestone in the industry. All you have to do is choose an image file, then the software will crop, resize, and position the image into your choice of layout design. Page Gallery gives you fully automated options for changing a color image into black & white, introducing color tones and special effects for extra artistic results. The templates vary from very simple and classic designs to more complicated options, allowing the individual artist to compose a personalized album with each and every client. Visit www.yervant.com.au for more information.
Yervant’s Page Gallery is a drag-and-drop program that works within Photoshop. His templates, some 475 of them, are only available to photographers and not to labs—unless they pay an exorbitant licensing fee. He devised this business model so that his pages would be unique and not “show up everywhere.”
TDA-2. Albums Australia’s software, TDA-2 (TDA stands for total design ability), is a simple drag-and-drop application that produces a finished design in record time. Additionally, the program also features all of the materials variations that the company offers, such as different colors and styles of leather cover binding and interior page treatment.
THE DESIGN FACTOR
Charles Maring, a New England wedding photographer who has won numerous awards for his wedding albums, sees the digital revolution producing a whole new kind of photographer. “I consider myselfas much as a graphic artist and a designer as I do a photographer,” he explains. The majority of Maring’s images have what he calls “layers of techniques that add to the overall feeling of the photograph.” None of these techniques would be possible, he says, without the creativity that Photoshop and other programs such as Painter give him. “Having a complete understanding of my capabilities has also raised the value of my work. The new photographer that embraces the tools of design will simply be worth more than just a camera man or woman,” he says.
Aufstralian wedding and portrait photographer David Williams has created a genre of pictures that he produces at weddings called “Detail Minis,” which are a series of shots loosely arranged by theme, color, or subject matter. He carries a camera with him specifically for doing the minis. It’s a Finepix S2 Pro DSLR with a 50mm f/1.4 lens. He shoots with the lens wide open and uses a fast ISO speed (800) so that he can shoot in any light. He’ll often use a small handheld video light for accent. The minis Williams shoots are sometimes incorporated into double-truck image panels with larger more conventionally made images. Sometimes the minis appear on a window pane-style page in groups of six or twelve. They add a flavor to the album that is unsurpassed, because invariably the minis are things that Williams saw and almost no one else even noticed.
“The design factor has also given our studio a whole different wedding album concept that separates us from other photographers in our area. Our albums are uniquely our own and each couple has the confidence of knowing that they have received an original work of art. I am confident that this ‘Design Factor’ will actually separate photographers further in the years to come. I have seen a lot of digital album concepts, some good, some not so good. When you put these tools in the hands of somebody with a flare for fashion, style, and design, you wind up with an incredible album. There is something to be said for good taste, and with all of these creative tools at hand, the final work of art winds up depending on who is behind the mouse, not just who is behind the camera.” Charles and Jennifer Maring own and operate Maring Photography, Inc., in Wallingford, Connecticut.
DAVID WILLIAMS’ AWARD-WINNING ALBUM DESIGNS
David Williams’ albums represent design purity without compromise. He uses no templates and designs each page individually. In order to get a cohesion and unity among the diverse pages, he uses gray panels and strips in the background, designed in a way that helps the viewer’s eye traverse the panoramic-style pages. He has found this element (the gray areas) to be unobtrusive but functional. While calling very little attention to themselves, they provide a fluid visual function.
Here are four different spreads from four different wedding albums designed by photographer David Williams. You can see the common design elements used in each one. His use of light gray background panels gives each album a brand. David also loves to use transparent images as secondary design elements. His sense of flow from page to page is impeccable.
Charles Maring is considered not only an expert wedding photographer but an expert album designer. You can see his design sense in this “double truck” in which the antique car seems to swoop across the pages.
He often uses semi-transparent vellum-like overlays on his album pages. These contain images that relate to the formation of the page beneath or the tools involved. It is a very clever way of giving the album narrative detail.
Williams uses mattes (black and white) with one-inch borders. His prints slide into these matt pages and the pages get mounted in the album by Williams. They are cost-effective and elegant. He likes the mattes because they protect the prints and provide a formality and uniformity throughout the album.
ALBUM FEATURES
Covers. Albums Australia offers everything from stainless steel covers to something natural, like pearwood with a golden spine of leather imprinted with autumn leaves. Or perhaps the cover should be something artistic like “fusion,” a brushed metal cover that can be accentuated with a spine that resembles modern art. Or how about clear cedar with a leather spine emblazoned with monarch butterflies. Or maybe something hot, like Chili Red Leather. And what could be more classically modern than the black & white photo cover with an elegant black leather spine?
Title Page. An album should always include a title page, giving the details of the wedding day. It will become a family album and it is an easy matter of using a fine-quality paper and inkjet printer to create a beautiful title pa
ge. Many inkjet printers use archival pigment inks, thus making the digital album heirloom quality. The title page will add an historic element to the album’s pricelessness.
Double-Trucks and Panoramic Pages. Regardless of which album type you use, the panoramic format can add great visual interest—particularly if using the bleed-mount digital or library-type albums. Panoramics shouldn’t be created as an afterthought, though, since the degree of enlargement can be extreme. Good camera technique is essential.
David Williams also uses the concept of modulation, matching small and large images together on the same spread to create balance or tension within the layout. He does all his layouts from scratch, using no templates, and works strictly in Photoshop as his design program.
Yervant’s albums capture joy, love, and romance on every page.
Yervant is an amazing album designer. You can see his impeccable design sense in how he treats routine pages such as the church or synagogue interior and small groups. Alternately, he will employ precise symmetry and then wild asymmetry from page to page. Cinematic techniques, like foreshadowing, make his albums a cut above the rest.
Jerry Ghionis is another master album designer. His albums often incorporate stylistic techniques like paneled portraits that have an up-and-down rhythm to the page.
Gatefolds. One of the more interesting aspects of digital albums is the gatefold, which is created using a panoramic print on the right- or left-hand side. This is hinged so that it folds flat into the album. Sometimes the gatefold can be double-sided, revealing four page-size panels of images. The bindery can handle such pages quite easily but it provides a very impressive presentation—particularly if it is positioned in the center of the album.
Border Treatments. Whether they are created by the lab or by the photographer in Photoshop, border treatments can enliven a special section of the album.
One edge that is quite popular is called “sloppy borders,” which calls for the lab to print the negatives with milled, oversize negative carriers so that the negative or frame edges show.
For digital imaging, a wide range of edge treatments is available as a series of plug-ins. Extensis frame effects operate in page-layout programs like Photoshop, which also has a full range of border treatments that are accessed by going to the Actions menu and activating Frames.atn.
Collages. Collages are image assemblies using any number of images organized either by theme or design elements. They are best used when there is a logic and architecture to the image collage, as opposed to randomly combining images of varied sizes—although with wedding albums, a collage of reception or ceremony shots works quite well.
Jerry Ghionis often ventures into the experimental, choosing a very small subject and lots of space and color that delight the eye.
MINI ALBUMS
All of the album companies now offer a miniature version of the main album, small enough for brides to pop in their handbags to show all of their friends at work or at lunch. Being so portable, the mini albums get far more exposure than a large, precious album. It also works as a great promotion for the photographer.
THE PHOTOGRAPHERS
Michael J. Ayers, MPA, PPA-Certified,M.Photog., Cr., CPP, PFA, APPO, ALPE, Hon.ALPE. A world leader in album design, Michael J. Ayers runs a studio in Lima, Ohio, with wedding clients all over North America. He has received the Honorary Lifetime Achievement Accolade from WPPI (Wedding and Portrait Photographers International) and the International Leadership Award at the United Nations. His work can be viewed at www.TheAyers.com.
Stuart Bebb. Stuart Bebb is a Craftsman of the Guild of Photographers UK and has been awarded Wedding Photographer of the Year in both 2000 and 2002. In 2001 Stuart won Cosmopolitan Bride Wedding Photographer of the Year, in conjunction with the Master Photographers Association, he was also a finalist in the Fuji wedding photographer of the Year. Stuart has been capturing stunning wedding images for over 20 years and works with his wife Jan, who creates and designs all the albums.
David Beckstead. David Beckstead has lived in a small town in Arizona for 22 years. With help from the Internet, forums, digital cameras, seminars, WPPI, Pictage and his artistic background, his passion has grown into a national and international wedding photography business. He refers to his style of wedding photography as “artistic photojournalism.”
Marcus Bell. Marcus Bell’s creative vision, fluid natural style and sensitivity have made him one of Australia’s most revered photographers. It’s this talent combined with his natural ability to make people feel at ease in front of the lens that attracts so many of his clients. Marcus work has been published in numerous magazines in Australia and overseas including Black White, Capture, Portfolio Bride, and countless other bridal magazines.
Clay Blackmore. Clay Blackmore is an award-winning photographer from Rock-ville, MD. He has been honored by the PPA and WPPI and is a featured presenter on the lecture circuit around the United States. He started out as Monte Zucker’s assistant. Clay is a member of the prestigious CameraCraftsmen of America, and is a Canon Explorer of Light.
Joe Buissink. Joe Buissink is an internationally recognized wedding photographer from Beverly Hills, California. Almost every potential bride who picks up a bridal magazine will have seen Joe Buissink’s photography. He has photographed numerous celebrity weddings, including Christina Aguilera’s 2005 wedding, and is a multiple Grand Award winner in WPPI print competition.
Becky Burgin, APM. Becky Burgin is the mother of Alisha Todd Burgin and Erika Burgin—and all three are award-winning wedding photographers. As a child, Becky loved fantasy stories. As an adult, she believes in wedding photography as romance and creates a “happily ever after” theme in her photographs. She holds an Accolade of Photographic Mastery from WPPI.
Drake Busath, Master Photographer, Craftsman. Drake Busath, owner of Busath Photographers, has 25 years experience and is a second-generation professional photographer. He has spoken all over the world and has been featured in a wide variety of professional magazines. Drake has had Italy-on-the-brain since 1977 when he lived and worked for two years in Northern Italy. He now returns two or three times every year to visit and get his “fix” of Italian images, cuisine, and attitude adjustment.
Mark Cafiero. Mark graduated from the University of Northern Colorado with a degree in Business Administration with special emphasis in Marketing. He is the owner of several photography businesses, including Pro Photo Alliance, an online proofing solution for labs and professional photographers, and his own private wedding, event, and portrait business.
Ron Capobianco. Ron Capobianco’s images have appeared in Vogue, Glamour, Harpers Bazaar, The New York Times, Modern Bride, and Wedding Bells. He has collaborated on several book projects including Eclectic Living: At Home with Bari Lyn (Harper Collins, 1998) and Hair: The Inter-Beauty Collection (Intercommunication Magazine, 1979) by Elena Domo.
Anthony Cava, BA, MPA, APPO. Anthony Cava owns and operates Photolux Studio with his brother, Frank. He joined WPPI and the Professional Photographers of Canada ten years ago, and at thirty-three years old became the youngest Master of Photographic Arts (MPA) in Canada. He won WPPI’s Grand Award with the first print that he ever entered in competition.
Frank Cava. The co-owner of Photolux Studio in Ottawa, Frank is a successful and award-winning wedding and portrait photographer. With his brother Anthony, he has presented workshops for professional photographers in the U.S. and Canada. Frank is a member of the Professional Photographers of Canada and WPPI.
Mike Colón. Mike Colón is a celebrated wedding photojournalist from the San Diego area. Colón’s natural and fun approach frees his subjects to be themselves, revealing their true personality and emotion. His images combine inner beauty, joy, life, and love frozen in time forever. He has spoken before national audiences on the art of wedding photography.
Cherie Steinberg Coté. Cherie Steinberg Coté began her photography career as a photojournalist at the Toronto Sun, where she had the distinction of b
eing the first female freelance photographer. She currently lives in Los Angeles and has recently been published in the L.A. Times, Los Angeles Magazine, and Town & Country.
Mauricio Donelli. Mauricio Donelli is a world-famous wedding photographer from Miami, FL. His work is a combination of styles, consisting of traditional photojournalism with a twist of fashion and art. His weddings are photographed in what he calls, “real time.” His photographs have been published in Vogue, Town & Country, and many national and international magazines. He has photographed weddings around the world.
Tony Florez. Tony Florez calls his unique style of wedding photography “Neo Art Photography.” It is a form of fine-art wedding photojournalism that has brought him great success. He owns and operates a studio in Laguna Niguel, California. He is also an award winner in WPPI print competition.
Jerry Ghionis. Jerry Ghionis of XSiGHT Photography and Video is one of Australia’s leading photographers. In 1999, he was honored with the AIPP (Australian Institute of Professional Photography) award for best new talent in Victoria. In 2002, he won the AIPP’s Victorian Wedding Album of the Year; a year later, he won the Grand Award in WPPI’s album competition.
Ann Hamilton. Ann Hamilton began her professional career as a journalist. Now, her wedding photography combines her journalistic sense with her artistic flair. Her images have been featured in Wedding Bells and The Knot. She also won two honorable mentions at the WPPI print competition.