Long gone are the times when you would always get a printed wedding album made up by your wedding photographer. I probably do one a year, if that! But I think getting your photos printed either as an album or large prints for your wall is still an important thing to do. However, with so many companies offering competitive printing these days, it can be rather confusing on what to decide on.
Recently, I have been asked about what printing I offer as an optional extra and some people are quite surprised at my answer. To the man with the ‘business hat’ on, my advice goes against everything - Lord Sugar would fire me on the spot.
I am more than happy to create you an album that you would treasure for life and I offer two variations that are suited to different requirements.
The first most common one you would see a wedding photographer offer is the leather-bound luxury wedding album. I use a company called Loxley Colour - one of the leading product service providers for professional photographers. You have so many options to choose from, such as lay flat pages, choice of leather covers with font choice on the front, presentation boxes, paper quality, the list goes on. For this I give a rough guide of £400, but obviously, the more you choose, the more you will spend.
My other option is the less customisable album and printed by a widely available printer such as Photobox - this costs £200. For people who would like an album but aren’t looking for the absolute very best fine art print quality and do not have the time to do it themselves, this is for them.
Here’s the bit Lord Sugar would hate, my advice… If you have time, do it yourself; don’t pay me to do it! I am very honest about this simply because if I was on the other side, I would want to know where my money is going.
For me to print you an album, you are not only paying for the album itself but also for my time. The USB drive that I post to you contains the same full-sized high resolution photos that I would use to create your album so I wouldn’t use anything special and if the printers needed it, I would be more than happy to send you your photos again in a different file format or resolution for free.
There of course is something special about receiving your photos in printed form and it would be exciting to open, but if you have time to sit down with a glass of something and arrange your photos the way you like them, then do it, you would save money.
As I have said, I am more than happy to organise the printing for you and it’s something that I quite like to do, but I would hate for someone to realise that the product they bought from me could have been bought for £110 less if they had sat down and arranged it.
I am very honest with everything when it comes to my wedding photos, as you can see from the hundreds of photos from each wedding I post and the ‘Try Before You Buy’ pre-wedding photo shoot. The open and honest approach I like, which is the way I would like to be treated, applies to photo printing as well!
If you have any questions about printing or would like to chat about your big day, give me an email and we can arrange to meet-up soon!
Christopher Bell Photography is a wedding photographer based in Kent - serving Kent and surrounding Canterbury and Ashford. Find out more about his wedding photography packages and pricing. Kent Wedding Photography Awards Finalist 2019.
Comments