Is a wedding album worth the $$$?

[panda08]

I''m willing to splurge on a photographer because the pics are very important to me. I''ll probably print pics for ourselves, friends and family. But do I need to spend $$$ for an album? I know so many people whose albums are collecting dust on their bookshelf and I have a feeling mine will too.

 

[tlh]

panda, I''d look into the photog... some don''t let you keep the images... which is messed up.. and the images are more expensive than the albums.. so I''d check that out!

That said, the albums ARE nice... but it sucks when you have to pay for every single photo...

 

[Bia]

Date: 1/30/2009 3:03:47 PM
Author: tlh
panda, I''d look into the photog... some don''t let you keep the images... which is messed up.. and the images are more expensive than the albums.. so I''d check that out!

That said, the albums ARE nice... but it sucks when you have to pay for every single photo...

You have to pay for your photos too?

Really?

Why didn''t I know this?

 

[SarahLovesJS]

So are you not sure you want an album? I knew upfront that I wanted an album even if it does collect dust..just to have it. My Mom pulls hers out every once and a while and it''s nice and fun to look at. Do you see yourself at least doing that?

 

[Mediterranean]

Hi Panda!

Out of curiosity, what does your photographer''s contract say about ownership of the negatives (or DVD of all unedited images, if they''re shooting digital)?

If there''s a way for you to negotiate a set price for your negs/DVD maybe you can look into something like creating your own album from those images? The ones I''ve seen look great: I''ve seen couples put together "coffee table" style books from places like blurb for less than $100USD.

It''s one of those decisions where you have to go with what''s right for you. A lot of it will depend on your shooter''s price for the image rights, and how much time you really feel like spending to assemble it all...

Honestly? If my fiance wasn''t a photographer, I probably wouldn''t bother buying an album. But he''s way into it and it''s his favorite part of all this, so we''ll probably end up with a whole bunch of albums that he puts together and sends out to everyone in creation

even though I''d be happy with a handful of nice prints, plus whatever prints our parents want...

but, yeah, see what the photographer says about buying the image rights. That price will probably be the deciding factor...

 

[Elmorton]

I've looked at my parents' album since I was a little kid - I knew I wanted one like it. White leather, metallic edging on the pages, the whole works. I love my album and I drag it out from time to time and I treasure it as a keepsake. Worth it, IMO.

But I don't think it's worth it for everyone. We have a huge album from Target (maybe $20?) that holds 300 pics and that's where all of the proofs went. It doesn't have the same feel as the official wedding album, but it's certainly functional and cost a lot less since 400 proofs was included in our photography package (the wedding album was extra).

A friend of mine got rights to her digital proofs as part of her photography and did her album on her own on Snapfish. I made a snapfish album, and it's really nice too (magazine like pages, glossy hardcover).

ETA: To clarify, my snapfish album was just regular photos from last year, not wedding. It normally costs about $40 including shipping, but from time to time they run specials.

Also, our photographer did not give us digital rights with our package (we could have chosen that option, but to do so, she would not handle any of our prints, and it was a lot easier for family and friends to just go on the webpage she set up to order their own, plus she'd also photo edit, do B&W, sepia, etc, whereas that wasn't included if you asked for digital rights instead). For our second anniversary, we she sends us the DVD and then we get the rights to the photos (basically because she cleans out her files after 2 years).

 

[Mediterranean]

Date: 1/30/2009 3:07:25 PM
Author: Bia

Date: 1/30/2009 3:03:47 PM

Author: tlh

panda, I''d look into the photog... some don''t let you keep the images... which is messed up.. and the images are more expensive than the albums.. so I''d check that out!


That said, the albums ARE nice... but it sucks when you have to pay for every single photo...

You have to pay for your photos too?

Really?


Why didn''t I know this?

Bia,

most shooters sell wedding packages, which generally include a certain number of prints of your favorite shots. Beyond that, they''ll usually have a per-print price, which traditionally is determined by size: for instance, 5 x7 = $13 each, 8 x 10 = $30 each, and so on and so forth...

 

[elrohwen]

We agreed with you that the album wasn''t really important (much more important to get all of the pics on a dvd). So we negotiated with our photographer to get a cheaper album by getting the 5x7 size. We wouldn''t know what to do with a huge 8x10 album, but I think a nice little 5x7 is worth it. So maybe you can discuss with your photographer and get a discounted album. Or get no album! I don''t see anything wrong with that either. In the days of computers it''s just not that important to have a spectacular album.

 

[ash313]

We knew we wanted an album, because we knew that as much as we SAID we would put together something nice-looking after the wedding and get it printed, life would get in the way, and a year after the wedding, we''d still be putting it off.

So we are paying for the upgraded package to have our photographer put together a really amazing-looking 30 page album of pretty high-quality.

It is a lot of cash, but I just feel that with the time/energy it will end up saving me, it''s worth it. And the wedding isn''t cheap, and photos are one of our top two priorities, so we''ll be scrimping elsewhere to pay for this.

My two cents!

 

[October2008bride]

We definitely wanted an album, but I knew that I''d rather put in the time and effort myself and have an album made. As far as I saw, albums through a photographer are super pricey.

I guess my only concern is whether I''ll regret having a coffee-table style book as my photo album in 20+ years...

However, I''d rather spend 100-200 for an album now and save the extra money to go towards...oh...I don''t know....diamond studs

???

I had an album made for my parents at mypublisher and it was honestly amazing - I was really surprised!!

I''m going to ''splurge'' a bit and get our album done at www.pikto.ca. They are extremely high quality and I think worth a bit more money since this will be our ''forever'' album.

 

[lovinsparkles]

This is a great question, Panda08!

I''m facing the same predicament. We do have digital images, so I am leaning toward printing them off and assembling my own album, but I really don''t know where to start. If anyone has ideas, that would be great! For example, where would I get a pretty album for this purpose (Target?)? How should the photos be attached (is it with a plastic sheet, or some other way for fancy albums)? Do you put other things besides the pictures in it? I know nothing about this (pretty obviously!), and haven''t seen a lot of others for ideas, so I can definitely see the advantage of having the photographer figure it out, if the cost weren''t an issue right now. Hopefully I''ll get on this project pretty soon because I think it would be great to have some kind of keepsake album for memories.

 

[PearlDahhhling]

Personally I don''t think that buying an album from the photographer is a good idea. It depends on if you get all your images and how much the albums are I suppose, but personally FI and I are going to make our own album. We''ve found several sites online that make them for you where you can completely design the entire thing and they are WAY more afforable than the ones offered to us by different photographers we''ve met. I have a pile of brochures from photographers who list their album prices in the $1000''s which I think is ridiculous! Plus I''d rather design the entire thing myself.

 

[EricaR]

Date: 1/30/2009 4:17:19 PM
Author: lovinsparkles
This is a great question, Panda08!

I''m facing the same predicament. We do have digital images, so I am leaning toward printing them off and assembling my own album, but I really don''t know where to start. If anyone has ideas, that would be great! For example, where would I get a pretty album for this purpose (Target?)? How should the photos be attached (is it with a plastic sheet, or some other way for fancy albums)? Do you put other things besides the pictures in it? I know nothing about this (pretty obviously!), and haven''t seen a lot of others for ideas, so I can definitely see the advantage of having the photographer figure it out, if the cost weren''t an issue right now. Hopefully I''ll get on this project pretty soon because I think it would be great to have some kind of keepsake album for memories.

I''d start by looking at online services. You can pick a template you like, upload your photos, arrange them a bit and they''ll print and ship it to you. Most cost around $50 and it is well worth it.

 

[AmberGretchen]

I think MPix makes the nicest DIY albums for a really professional look.

I think whether the pro album is "worth it" is totally up to you - whether you can afford it and how much you really want it. Some want it for the sentimental value or to look at it sometimes, and to some its not worth it - totally up to the individual couple.

 

[newbie124]

Our photographer offers these beautiful silk wrapped albums and we were also able to negotiate the package a bit to include everything w/in our budget. FI and I prefer the mounted albums (where the printed photo is on the page) rather than coffee table style. If we didn''t mind the latter, I probably would have just created one myself as our photographer gives us all the images.

I''ll probably DIY the parent albums, but we wanted something nicer for our own copy. I''ve also done a DIY mounted album before using a kit from PaperSource and let me tell you it was quite labor and time intensive.

Also, several former brides who told me they opted out of ordering an album b/c they wanted to do their own also told me they haven''t really gotten around to it, even a year or so later, so that might be something to also consider (whether you think you really would motivate yourself to do it or if it''d end up being one of those terminal "I''ll get to it" projects and if that would bug you or not)

 

[honey22]

I am not yet married, but my best friend has just got married and got her pics and I would say do it. If you decide to get the images and print yourself be very careful of the fine print and make sure you know what you are getting.

Some photogs will only provide you with a disk of low res pics so you can order prints from them. You can print these low res pics but they are poor quality. A friend of ours got their disk and the pics are already small enough to post straight to PS, so you can understand how little the resoltion is. The average res was under 100kb, whereas our other friends images were around the 3000kb mark!

If they do provide you with the high resoltion images, they won''t necessarily all be touched up and individually edited. If, cropping, effects etc are usually done when they go to make the album (not to mention, it''s a lot of work and if you are not buying the album, they have to make their money somewhere or not do the work).

Our friends disk are high res images, but not altered so you can print them and they look fabulous quality, you can see a difference in their professional album as the colours have been enhanced in some pics, and some minor alterations made. Unless you are a real neatfreak, you wouldn''t notice but there are subtle (and quite effective) differences in their album.

So, if you can get a disk and the copyright of all your images, that are high resolution and altered, enhanced whatever you want to call them, you can make a fabulous album at home. I made a quite cheap one recently from their pro pics with My Photobooks Australia and for $112 inc delivery for 60 pages, I was very impressed with the price and quality.

You will notice a vast difference in prices for photog packages that include the disks/prints only and not the album, and it has a lot to do with the stuff I just mentioned. A disk of low res, unaltered images wil be next to nothing, as they havn''t done anything with them yet and they are not really printable. High res images will be worth more, and the full high res, fully edited images will be worth more again.

As lovely as my little album I designed for myself of their wedding pics, nothing comes close to a professional album. It''s really a work of art, and a keepsake to pass down to your kids etc.

Good luck!!!

 

[emilina22]

M and I were discussing this when we were looking for our photographer...and we bothn thought that the albums that the many photographers we looked at just weren''t us. i like simple albums and all the ones that were available weren''t my taste at all and i couldn''t bring myself to pay the prices that they were asking for something i didnt love.

we actually got lucky because a very good friend of ours is a photography student who specializes in wedding photographer and she has done some amazing work with other weddings, and she had agreed to work our wedding also and because she is a student shes only charging us $500!!

so anyway back to album talk i also found Mpix (im checking out other album sights too...just for a comparison) and loved what they offered, it was the style i liked alot. so i ordered and album to see what a final product would look like!! holy cow did i love it...and since she is giving us all our negatives we''re gonna make our own album through them!!

depending on how many pictures we have we might get 2 albums (one ceremony pictures, one for all the other ones)which would only cost us $150 or so!! so a total of about $650 for all our wedding photo stuff!! i think its a good deal!

 

[Italiahaircolor]

Most photographers copywrite their work so you cannot simply print out picture...if your photog won''t let you have the pictures, and you don''t want an album, then I would skip the photographer all together and give a friend the responsibility...you could actually buy a **really nice** camera for the same money.

 

[glueck]

I feel the same way you do about the photography...splurrrrrge. That being said, photographers charge and arm and a leg for these albums. The rights to the best 400 photos are included (with a small charge for touch-ups for additional photos). I too want to design my own album. It seems reasonably priced these days to do so.... Perhaps I will start a new thread on Photobook making sites. Maybe we can get some more information on the best places to go! Good luck with your decision

 

[honey22]

It''s worth noting, that in Australia, if you hire a professional photog to take your wedding shots, you are entitled to the copyright as they are photos of yourself, however, most photogs will write into their contracts that you turn the copyright over to them and they have rights to use the pics. If you purchase a disk of images or album etc, then the copyright is given once again back to you to use and prints those pics (of course, due to the contract the photog can also use them).

I never knew this until reading up info from our association for photogs in Australia. I am sure different countries would have different rules, but it''s worth reading the fine print of your contract and finding out what your rights are regarding copyright issues.

And I would have to disagree, just because you don''t want to pay top dollar to have a pro album done, doesn''t mean you should get a pro to take the shots and do your own thing with them. There is a vast difference between good pro shots and a friend taking them. I am yet to hear of someone that is truly happy with the pics taken by a ''friend'' at their wedding.