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I want to find a photog that will just release me the CD-- I agree with you, I want to print my own.
A well made photo album will hold up way better over time then prints. Also the quality of a photo is lost when it is not printed properly. Im not a photographer but I have seen albums from some friends that have made them themselves. If photos are not important to you there is no need, but if you are already spending a lot on a photographer you should be able to have the photos in a good quality album.
Can't I buy a nice, well made album and get the prints done myself? $800 or more still seems outrageous for an album...
I made an albulm using an online service and I was a little dissappointed with it. It looks nothing like the fancy one my photographer did for my boudior book. I think I'm going to bite the bullet next year and have her go back and create one for me. It really is worth it.
I think the super expensive albums are the newer type of album where the images are printed directly on thick pages. From what I have seen, there isn't really a way to make these books without spending a lot of money. Blurb/mypublisher/etc. books just aren't the same.
If you just want to get prints of the pictures made (professional quality) and put those in an album like our parents would have had, then I don't see a benefit to paying a photographer to do that.
I think I'm going to go with a traditional album and keep all the images on CD (part of my package). My photographer has very reasonable print prices, so I will print though him and purchase and assemble the actual album myself. I prefer the traditional album to the new-age albums. I'll probably also make a book in blurb to have as a coffee table book.
Your photographer is creating an album on archival-quality paper (or should be!), so it will stand the test of time. They are more than likley also using a vendor that only professionals order through, and with whom they have worked with the ensure that the colors print true to what they should (vs. you ordering from a random place on your own, where the colors could be off depending on print quality). They are also spending the time to lay it out, which can be rather time intensive.
Assuming your photographer is doing all of the above, it also means that they are not making a massive profit off of your album (as I think is often assumed). A good quality album will more than likely cost your photographer $400 or $500 produce, so after paying for the album and paying taxes, your photographer is probably not making very muhc off of the album sale.
With that said, a top quality album is awesome - when you see one in person, you realize why they are so pricey! But, that's definitely not in everyone's budgets. It's definitely not in ours...Mr. Stiletto is a photographer, so he'll be designing and ordering our album, which will still be pricey but definitely a lot cheaper for us. I definitely know that if this wasn't an option for us, we don't have $800 or $1,000 for an album at the moment!
Maybe consider instead ordering some of your favorite prints from your photographer and putting them together in a nice Kolo album? Your photographer is also going to be ordering professional quality prints that are definitely worth it (compared to going to the local drug store and ordering prints, big difference!). This is a little more of an economical option, and I'm sure either way the end result will be beautiful!
To me, there's just no comparison between making your own and a professional one. From the editing, to the print quality, to how it holds up over time. You should also check out this post from Mrs. Avocado: http://www.weddingbee.com/2009/11/20/the-avocado-wedding-album/
Album prices are crazy. My options were around $2000 so we went for a wedding book for $450 instead. They hold 300 pages of photos and read more like a story than just an album. You might see if they are an option for your photographer.
I paid waaaaay too much money for my albums, BUT I think it's better than if I made my own. The pictures are printed right on the thick pages. I also opted for the pages that if you spilled drinks on it, all you have to do is wipe it off. So I think they're worth it.
I think it depends on what you can afford. Putting together an album is a lot of work and the materials are expensive. So if you don't have experience then you're taking a TON of time to make the album.
If my husband and I were making more $$ maybe we would pay to have it done but it really it just isn't in our budget right now for a coffee table book so we'll do it ourselves eventually.
http://www.weddingbee.com/2007/08/23/album-companies/
Our parents and even grandparents DIY wedding albums are still around (albeit a little faded) so if they can do it I'm hoping we can do it with all the improved tech around.
As others have said, the printing of the album is what makes it so expensive. We can't afford it, either. Our album options started at $500 and went up from there. Nope, can't do it. I'm sure we'll look at our album a lot, but not enough to justify that cost.
We'll be making our own using an online source like shutterfly. I've used them in the past for albums, and while the quality isn't perfection, it's still pretty good. For the photos we want to display in our home in frames in the wall, we'll be asking our photog to print them herself so the quality is very high. But for the album, the cheaper solution is right for us.
We went for it. I wanted archival paper and photos that would last a lifetime.
I have a family friend that did DIY in the 80's for her wedding. She thought she got good quality acid-free paper.
Her photos are now completely green and orange with age, and that was only from the 80s. I just didn't want to take that chance with how much we spent on photography.
So we went with one of these. It's handmade with silk and ribbon covering, but I believe the book itself is art:
Hand binding
Archival paper
Thick pages
Flush mounting
Those are the things you pay for. Also, the templating of having your album laid out JUUUST right. It's a pain in the booty. I think the $800 sticker prices are a little high, but I'm not aware of DIY professional albums yet. You might be able to find a photographer who'd be willing to make yours on the side for you for not such a huge price. She/he may only profit, say $200 from your album, so your price tag may be more like $600. Yes, albums really do cost like $250 and up, easily, for wholesale costs. They are definitely not cheap!
You could always go with a DIY now, then consider an album for your first anniversary if you still feel the "need" for it.
I'm getting one, but it was included in my very expensive package, so I know i already paid for it, lol. Mine looks really pretty freakin' sweet though. I can't wait to get it in.
Things like leather covers and whatnot aren't really my thing--I'm more about the quality of photos and quantity. I didn' twant only 40 photos--we got 85 and it's just right.
@ Mrs. DG, did you have to go through a professional to get an album from cypress? Is the price quite comparable to the price ranges discussed here.
Are we talking about albums with pictures printed right on the pages, or albums where you print out the photos and insert them into sleeves?
If I get high resolution files that have been edited from my photographer, and I print from a higher quality printer than shutterfly/snapfish on acid free archival paper, won't I be good to go? I am assuming I can buy a nice album to put everything in on my own. I feel like I'm still missing something!
Thank you everyone.
Its really up to you and what you decide to do. The photo albums photographers make( with pictures printed directly on the hard pages) are actually very expensive to make. Our photographer actually told us she does not mark those up at all. She sells them to us at the price they cost her. Having a photo album like this is very important to me. If you do not need one, I say do what you want. It is not possible to match the quality of photo album yourself though. Most companies that produce these albums only supply to professional photographers.
My photographer included them in her package, so I'm not sure if you can use them as an individual. I'm totally thrilled, though!
Hey guys! You all made some really great points. I am a professional wedding photographer who just got married myself and I KNOW how expensive it all gets to be! I paid my photographer $4,000 and walked away with nothing but the disc. Now on top of that, I'm having to lay out my own album... which luckily I have the software, design experience, and access to the best printers in the world. On top of laying it out myself, I will be spending another $800-$900 (that's just cost!) on a Queensberry album... it's like a digital flush-mount married a classic matted album. GORGEOUS!!! I get to design my entire layout and they cut the matts to suite... vs. pre-cut standard (and somewhat boring) mats/layouts. But photographs are what I value, so for me it's worth it.
If I was selling this album, I would charge my time in layout plus the value of the book. A 40 page album usually takes me about 16-20 hours for a digital flush-mount and about 10 for a matted flushmount... but I'm one of those photographers that really cares. So I end up adding another $600 for my design time... which is $30 an hour... standard for most trades-people. Nobody else gives their time for free... why should photographers?
I know people say they don't want to spend much on an album, but what's the one thing you'd run back into a burning house to get? Photographs!! They are irreplacable once lost! And that's why I LOVE LOVE LOVE what I do!!
I think one thing we need to make sure is clear in this discussion is the difference between an album you make yourself from prints - where you physically add the photos to the album, and the album your photographer gets printed, which is printed directly on the pages - because these are very different.
On top of that, the albums you can order through your photograph vary widely as well. There are some that are more like nice paperback books, there are some that are like nice hardback books, there are some that lay-flat, but are not super thick, and then there are the flush mount albums, which are by far the most expensive. None of these are cheap, though, if you want the high quality printing, the archival paper, etc. and they cost the photograph a lot in both time and money to design and get printed - or to pay someone else to design. The flush mount albums start in the mid-hundreds as a base cost for very few pages (something like 10), and the more pages you add, the more expensive it gets and the longer it takes. Photographers do not make much from albums usually, but you have to look at what they are offering and decide if it is worth it to you. Do keep in mind though, that they are very expensive to begin with for a quality album that will really last. They are also exquisite.
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What's the benefit of paying like $800 for an album from the photographer when I can buy my own empty album, order my own prints, and put it together myself? Apart from the benefit of saving time (which to me is not worth $800). Also please assume the quality of the pictures would be the same, if the photographer provides all edited images on a CD for me. Am I missing something? All photographers I've looked at have albums in this price range, and it seems absurd to me.
Thanks!