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KISS Wedding Books is a favorite of many photographers, including DoodleDo. Their impressive success is no doubt due, in part, to the incredible simplicity of their selections and ordering, as well as outstanding customer service. In this What’s in the Box, we take a look at one of Robin’s new studio samples featuring one of their exciting cover choices - Forbidden Green.
KISS produces a consistent product along with outstanding customer service Overall: Album Quality: Print Quality: Customer Service:
Packaging (based on new):
Color is such a fascinating subject, so I will spend a couple of posts discussing this important element in our Style series.
First I think we should take a look at color theory just a little. At its core, color theory relates to choosing a palette of aesthetically pleasing tonal relationships. In short, it is deciding which colors work well together. When developing an album style you will probably be drawn to a certain background color. I think there are three basic directions you can go – black, white or chromatic. I define chromatic as a color found in the images themselves that will be used for the background.
Understanding color theory will help you choose your palette by knowing what colors go well together. It also allows you to be more creative without making a color mess. There are three color harmonies that, I believe, lend themselves well to album design and creating a style: complimentary, analogous and monochromatic. You’re certainly not limited to these three relationships, but based on our experience, they’re the most effective for developing your style because they are clearly defined.
Even if you switch up your album background colors, your color harmony can really give you a distinct album style. Let’s look at each of the harmonies.
Complimentary – Color pairs that are opposite one another on the color wheel as shown here.
For example, red and green are complimentary colors, as are yellow and violet. Using complimentary colors makes for a bolder design.
Analogous – Colors that are adjacent to one another on the color wheel. These tones have similar light ray wavelengths, so they are easiest on the eye.
Monochromatic – Color schemes made up of shades and tints of the same color. By changing opacities, you can use the same color to layer tones and create depth and complexity.
Your background color choice is important for obvious reasons. I find that summer weddings tend to be complimented by light tones and shades, or white backgrounds that allow the images, strokes and graphics to really dominate the design. Fall and winter weddings tend to look great on darker colors. Black seems to always work and is very popular, but try to stretch your creativity a little if your photography style allows.
Multicolored backgrounds in an album can be tough since this can overwhelm the images. The image collection must be considered first and foremost when choosing your background so, again, your image style will be important in setting the stage. I tend to choose one or two colors to work with, and then add a stroke color for accent.
Always take a close look at your images and determine which of the three color harmonies would best compliment the collection and your style. If you have preferences, be sure to indicate them on the DoodleDo Design Order & Preferences Form so that we create a design using the colors you really love. If you leave it to us, we will certainly choose colors that will compliment and enhance your image collection in a beautiful design.
In our next Style post, we’ll take a look at actually choosing the color for your next design and discover if it works for emphasizing the style you want to portray in your albums.
For those of you seeking eco-friendly products, look no further than Loktah. The website describes their beautiful line of hand-made boxes, folios, and media cases as, “inspired by the natural beauty of the earth, featuring products that recall the planet’s majestic form.” Organic papers dipped in beeswax, soft twine, and organic beads combine to create an innovative, all-natural choice in green products. For a close-up look, check out this latest What’s in the Box in-depth review by DoodleDo.
Our last post encouraged you to think more carefully about the number of images to include in a design that reflects your style. After deciding how many images, the next logical questions are which images and who decides? There are generally three options: the client, the photographer, or both. I’d like to share a little on my experience with these different options to help you decide what your policy will be.
Client’s choice
The obvious advantage is that you know your client will like the images in their album! In my opinion, this is the only advantage, and there’s a lot you may want to consider if this is how you work - you may be missing out on some value for your client. When the client chooses, the collection is usually their favorite images. There is nothing wrong with this, but typically many of your favorite images are left out, and their selection tends to be repetitive. This can break up the story-telling element of the album. I once had a wedding client choose eight images of the ring exchange and no images of the cake cutting or the garter toss. I wondered if they liked anything that I showed them. After speaking to the bride, I learned that she didn’t even realize it! If your clients will be choosing the images, at least add in a few of your favorites as a surprise. These will add a dimension to the design that your client will most likely appreciate.
Photographer’s choice
Many photographers using a pre-design method choose the images for the initial design. The primary disadvantage to choosing alone is that you may not select your client’s favorite images. The biggest mistake I see photographers make is minimizing or even neglecting the family photographs. These are usually pretty important to the client, so make sure they get plenty of coverage. An advantage to selecting yourself is that you can show your clients something they may have never considered. You will also have greater artistic control - an important consideration. You might be opening yourself up to more changes, but if you include a good balance of classic and creative images, changes should be minimal.
Both client and photographer choose
When you and your client choose the images together, you will achieve a good balance between their favorites and yours, while still allowing you almost complete artistic freedom in the design. It’s a good idea to give them a maximum number to select, often called the “must have” images. This should expedite the selection process so you can get to work on their design, while freeing them from the laborious (and time-consuming) process of wading through hundreds of images to come up with a large enough collection to fill a full design. I’ve learned that if you limit their selection to the “must haves”, they determine their favorites pretty quick. The advantages to this method are obvious: you and the client include your favorites, the story and artistry is managed by the photographer or designer, and changes will be minimal if any at all.
Let DoodleDo do it!
Most DoodleDo clients leave the selection to us. We occasionally receive entire wedding collections, but usually the photographer has made a first edit and we then choose those that best represent the event and produce a beautiful, complementary design. We still strongly recommend that you or your client pick those important “must have” images, and there is sometimes a collection of these from both client and photographer. When editing prior to submission to DoodleDo, we suggest narrowing to about five times the number of pages you are ordering. Photographers who follow our recommendations and have turned over the selections to us have been very happy, and in many cases their album process has become much more efficient.
One such photographer is Andrea Murphy, whom we’ve been featuring in this series on album style. In another recent design, DoodleDo chose the album images from Andrea’s edited collection, a process that works very well for her workflow. To see this gorgeous new design, click on the thumbnail below.
Next, we will consider the impact of color on design. Choosing wisely is critical!
As photographers we are constantly striving to refine our style. We know what we like and dislike. We compose, light, and expose our subjects in a manner that we feel is most pleasing, and when we reach the point in our career where we actually have defined a style, we have set ourselves apart!
In this new series, we will be offering our ideas, concepts, tips, and suggestions on developing your own style and, particularly, a design style. We started off in our last post with a simple introduction, focusing on the image selections. We now consider the number of images in a design.
Setting ourselves apart. Isn’t that really the definition of style? When you see three photographs taken by three different photographers, do you recognize their work? Why? Because they have set themselves apart. You would never confuse the work of Yervant with an image by Denis Reggie, would you? They have set themselves apart.
It’s also important to have a design style. It might constantly evolve as you refine your style, but you still need to start somewhere. Leaving it up to your client is what many do, to varying degrees, but this does’nt set you apart nor allow you to stand out. If you can show a client a design that is similar to the one they will receive, one that defines your style, you will not only set yourself apart, you will set yourself above. Of course this takes a little work on your part.
What is your style? How do you begin?
Start with the number of images. One of the questions I get from almost every potential client is, “how many pictures will be in my album?” I always answer, “I have no idea! We haven’t photographed your wedding yet.” But I can show them a sample design and tell them, “You can expect something similar to this.” I love to see their eyes light up, and I enjoy explaining the style so they can imagine their own wedding album. The most basic decision the photographer needs to make is how many images to include in the albums. If your style allows one image per page, then you can easily tell your clients how many images to expect. If your style allows for about four images per page, you can give your client an expectation based on that number, and this simple decision will lead you to certain design themes that will accommodate the image selection. It is, however, the responsibility of the photographer to give the client direction, just like the photographer gives the client direction when they are being photographed.
So, how many images? How do you know? Count them! Look through designs that you like and count the images, then divide that total by the number of pages, and you have how many images per page – simple! But you need to keep this number in your mind. Offer your client a general image count or a short range to stay within instead of a specific number, which can create an expectation that may be tough to meet in the design. You want to focus on the final album, not the exact number of images.
As designers, we suggest that you edit to 2-3 images per page. So in a 40 page album you can expect to use about 80-120 images depending on the layout and style. That’s quite a range! We also suggest that you choose all or most of the images. But that is another topic, so be on the lookout for an upcoming post about whose album is it anyway, and who chooses the images.
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