Recently, I have had a very interesting email exchange with a potential client about why photobooks cost what they do. And, one of my students who is designing his first photobook made an interesting discovery about them too... they take a LONG time to design!
To make a photobook, you have to design each page just like you would for any "regular" wedding album. The storyline in each book needs to flow and make sense just like a regular album. So picking out the photos and laying them out on the page has to be logical from page to page. And, each facing page must "relate" to the other page as well.
The cost of the books really are a combination of two things... the book itself and the labor it takes to do the album design. And, in the case of designing albums from photos taken from other photographers, sometimes the images used must first be Photoshop corrected for exposure and color as well before they can be used for the layout design. That also adds expense.
This is why photobooks from photographers often cost more than if you did it yourself by ordering one directly from an on-line service who prints the books. Often people don't realize that the cost of the books on-line do not include any design. While you can use some of the on-line layout templates that some companies offer, they don't have the same design quality as a custom made book. And, there are different "qualities" from one brand of photobook to the next. Some use pages that are just like photo paper and others have laminated pages which resist water damage.
Each of my photobooks are custom designed and I only offer top quality photobooks as well. No two books are exactly alike in terms of layout. It takes longer to do it this way, but my clients enjoy knowing that their books are completely unique. Be sure to click on each image to take a closer look.
To make a photobook, you have to design each page just like you would for any "regular" wedding album. The storyline in each book needs to flow and make sense just like a regular album. So picking out the photos and laying them out on the page has to be logical from page to page. And, each facing page must "relate" to the other page as well.
The cost of the books really are a combination of two things... the book itself and the labor it takes to do the album design. And, in the case of designing albums from photos taken from other photographers, sometimes the images used must first be Photoshop corrected for exposure and color as well before they can be used for the layout design. That also adds expense.
This is why photobooks from photographers often cost more than if you did it yourself by ordering one directly from an on-line service who prints the books. Often people don't realize that the cost of the books on-line do not include any design. While you can use some of the on-line layout templates that some companies offer, they don't have the same design quality as a custom made book. And, there are different "qualities" from one brand of photobook to the next. Some use pages that are just like photo paper and others have laminated pages which resist water damage.
Each of my photobooks are custom designed and I only offer top quality photobooks as well. No two books are exactly alike in terms of layout. It takes longer to do it this way, but my clients enjoy knowing that their books are completely unique. Be sure to click on each image to take a closer look.
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