After the big day
High-end photography must be followed up with great customer service and top-notch products. If you want to cultivate a high-end clientele, then every element of your process must be consistent, from your initial contact with a prospect to the delivery of your final materials. There can be no weak links in this chain.
I send my clients the photos taken, selected and already optimized so that they can choose which photographs to include in the album. If they don't have the time or desire to make this choice, I'll take care of it directly.
I make sure to archive the images I send them in chronological order. You can't just hand someone a box of confusing images and expect them to appreciate the full scope of your work.
The album planning process begins two to three weeks after the couple receives the DVDs. If they haven't contacted me about their one year anniversary album, I'm pretty sure they'll never ask me to make an album. Since many couples have difficulty creating a reasonably sized album from the DVD photos I send them, I help them by selecting my seventy-five favorite images for their album.
Albums are among our additional services! Or go directly to the album page.
When I have the choice made by the bride and groom (usually an album is made up of 40 to 70 pages) I begin the process of retouching each individual file. I never sharpen the images because I'm looking for a softer look to the images.
Then I start laying out the album page by page. The album design is very important in the overall presentation of my images. As I photograph, I think about how the images might fit into the final album design. Then, when I arrange the images, I use lots of white space for a clean, open design that matches the photography. I try to incorporate all the different elements that my clients include in their wedding, so the album tells the complete story of the day.
A typical wedding album
A typical book has 30 to 70 pages, usually organized chronologically. When I have a draft ready, I email clients my page layouts and have them sign, move photos, or add more on request. We often go through two or three revisions before we are ready to print the final book. I personally check the album one last time before sending it to the bride and groom.
I have already delivered the original photos on DVD to my clients (it is a service that is part of all my packages). If customers would like additional larger prints, I also make prints, posters and canvases in any size. A highly requested service until some time ago consisted of printing the most beautiful photo directly at the wedding (available formats: from a5 to a3): all the guests said goodbye very happy to receive one last tangible memory of the evening. For smaller prints, these can be recreated directly from the DVD of high resolution scans, even without my intervention.
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