*Updated December, 2020

Benefits of an Album

I like to describe albums as one of your family’s first heirlooms. I love digital photography, but there is something special about picking up an album and flipping through the pages that is hard to mimic online. We also have a tendency to hoard digital images, and with ever-changing technology, there is a risk for these images to be left on a broken hard drive, or on a dusty DVD on a shelf. For these reasons, I strongly advocate the value of printed photographs. I created this post to let you know a bit more about the album options that I offer.

Page Thickness

The first thing to consider when ordering an album is if you want your album to have thin pages, or thick pages. I like to describe the thin pages as card stock, and the thick pages as the traditional thick page albums from back in the day. If you’d like paper texture pages, please let me know and I can tell you about a third hardcover option!

This is is a flush mount album with thick pages. You can see that it has thicker binding.
The flush mount album can have one image that goes across both spreads. This is great for the showcase images from your wedding. Bonus, it is Doodle (my cat) approved.

Square Albums vs. Rectangle Albums

Shape is a matter of preference. Square albums will generally have more cropped square shaped images in them. They both fit nicely on the lap and are comfortable to hold.

These are two rectangle albums. They are both flush mount. The album on the left is 12×8 and the album on the right is 10×7.
This is the 12×8 album when opened. You can see the the images in the album are quite large. I try to leave the pages as uncluttered as possible so that the eye has time to rest between viewing the different images.
These are two square albums. They are both flush mount with thick pages. The album on the left is 10×10 and the album on the right is 8×8.

Size

Size is also a matter of preference. For personal albums, I recommend sizes of 8×8 and larger. Larger albums will hold more images. For gift albums, 5x7s or 3×3 albums can provide a great option. Parents especially love receiving these albums that they can carry around with them to show off to other family and friends. So much so, that the 3x3s are nicknamed “brag books!” (Bonus, the 3×3 albums come in sets of 3, so they make a great thank you gift or stocking stuffer.)

This is an 8×8 album – great for showcasing approximately 75 images.
This larger 12×8 album comes with longer wedding packages or is available as an upgrade.
These are albums that I recommend for gifts – the hardcover 8×8, hardcover 7×5 or the 3×3 accordion mini-albums.

Engagement Albums

There are two types of engagement albums that I design for my clients. The first is a standard engagement album, which is a collection of your favourite images. The second option is an engagement guestbook. For this option, there are signing pages at the beginning of the album, or interspersed throughout the album. This is a fun guest book option for your wedding as guests enjoy looking through your engagement photographs and it makes your keepsake that much more meaningful.

A solid leather cover with engraving is a beautiful option for engagement guest books. Some couples also choose this option for their wedding albums.
For this engagement guest book, the guests will have the option to sign in the white space around the images. There are also spreads in the album that have large white space for signing.

Ordering Process

The size of the album that you order provides a guideline for how many images go into the album. At the time of ordering, I provide you with an approximate number of ‘favourites’ to select in your online gallery. Once you have selected your favourites, I use these images as the base of my album design. There are two complimentary rounds of revisions, where you tell me your thoughts about layout, colour, background and image selection. This is all done through an online proofing system. The turnaround time for albums varies based on time of year, and type of album, but can take anywhere from three weeks to three months. Provided that image selection is timely, all engagement albums will be delivered before the wedding day.

There are many customization options when ordering an album. For example, for the cover alone you can choose between leather, faux leather, or fabric. Many couples choose to have a combo cover which also features an image from their photo session.

Album Value

I hope that provides you with a more detailed picture of the album options that I offer. The print company that I send my albums to specializes in high-quality printed products for professional photographers. If you are on the fence about ordering an album, and you have purchased digital files, you also have the option of creating and printing your own album. I can speak from personal experience when I say that I went 3 years after my wedding saying that I was going to make my own wedding album. But life sneaks up on you and things get left behind. I was fortunate that my photographer was able to design an album for us after all that time, and I am so glad. We should have went that direction from the beginning! I have no hesitation in saying that albums are a worthwhile investment that will last a lifetime and I would be happy to help you decide which album investment is best for your needs.