Customer DIY albums?

zoomer

I have had a few requests from customers for info regarding places they can get a decent DIY wedding photo album from the photos they purchased on their disc.

I found Snapfish and Shutterfly but believe that is not good enough quality.
Blurb books are pretty good and Sommerset looks like probably the top of the scale that I might want to send them to.

Also are there any that they can just send them their favorite pictures and the company would design and send the finished book to them.

Just looking for some options to send them to where they can get good quality without breaking the bank.

I am trying to get out of the doing photo albums business.

Agnieszka

Hmmm. I doubt there is a good company that offers good quality albums for DIY brides (especially if they want this album company to come up with a design too). Are you talking about wedding or engagement albums? I'd definitely not have my wedding album be a snapfish (or any other) album ... they fall apart ... you do gorgeous work, and an album like this would just not do the photos justice.

Do you have any photographer friends that would offer to create albums with their fav photos for less $? I'd send them to other photographers, as far as I know only professionals have access to the good brands, and who knows, maybe somebody is willing to give a "special price" ...?

mercphoto

Agnieszka wrote:

Hmmm. I doubt there is a good company that offers good quality albums for DIY brides (especially if they want this album company to come up with a design too). Are you talking about wedding or engagement albums? I'd definitely not have my wedding album be a snapfish (or any other) album ... they fall apart ... you do gorgeous work, and an album like this would just not do the photos justice.

Do you have any photographer friends that would offer to create albums with their fav photos for less $? I'd send them to other photographers, as far as I know only professionals have access to the good brands, and who knows, maybe somebody is willing to give a "special price" ...?

I'd agree your clients aren't going to find anyone to do the book design for them "without breaking the bank". And I also agree that all the good vendors only the professionals have access to. Red Book, for example, charges I think something on the order of $8 to $10 per page just for the design process, with a minimum page count required. Add the cost of the album on top of that.

Your clients can either do all the work themself, go with Blurb, and not break the bank. Or pay someone else to do the design work for them (not cheap) and get a higher quality book (again, not cheap, though I recommend Pounds Photo Labs for a great quality product at a relatively low price).

urbanaries

I don't have anything helpful to say except that albums are a PITA. :bash

How much time do I really need to be in front of a computer in this life!!!!

zoomer

Yes this is all a work in progress.
My partner is moving so I am having to re-evaluate my entire business plan.
I know I do not want to design wedding albums so am looking at alternatives.

Agree with you Angnieszka, I have already decided the Blurb book would be the lowest quality I would want to go, they actually make a very good product for the price. Plus they are really easy to do...so says my partner.

Have any of you ever tried StoryBook Pages? They do the design and then have printed and deliver most of the major book makers books.

Thanks for the info so far!

zoomer

urbanaries wrote:

I don't have anything helpful to say except that albums are a PITA. :bash

How much time do I really need to be in front of a computer in this life!!!!

Yeah exactly, I spend enough time there already just processing.

mercphoto

zoomer wrote:

Yes this is all a work in progress.
My partner is moving so I am having to re-evaluate my entire business plan.
I know I do not want to design wedding albums so am looking at alternatives.

Then don't do the design yourself. Get some design templates (I've given one link below) so you can drag and drop, or see if your existing book provider has a design service or not. I know that Asuka Book and Forbeyon both have or partner with design services. And the same might be true of Pounds Photo Labs.

http://asukabook.com/getstarted_rbdtemplates.html

I'm starting to push the idea of photo books for racing customers (we'll see how well that does!) and one thing I am doing is creating custom master pages in Aperture's book design flow, simply to make the design process as fast and painless as possible. If you think wedding clients are fussy on price talk to a racer who thinks any dollar spent on photos is a dollar that can't go to tires! (and, I have to agree with them on that, being a former racer!)

mutti_wilson

My wife has made a few albums through Shutterfly and the quality seems plenty good as far as I'm concerned. The price is fine also.

smurfy

Here's a link from a bridal website. If you scroll down, there's a list of album makers that brides can use. I think some include design services.

http://www.ayleebits.com/wedding-resources/#planning

Although Adorama is not on this list, I'm really impressed with their quality for price point, and they will allow the public to use them, not just professionals.

sweet caroline

I use Blurb for the yearbooks at my school. We've had a good experience. Definitely not as nice as a professional album, but an alternative for a bride on a budget. I think you can get design services through them, as well, or at least a reference to a design pro.

Caroline