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Binding and assembling your (wedding) albums???

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Karl Petersson

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Hi everybody.

I occasionally do some weddings but are mainly in other fields of photography (architecture, advertising e.t.c)

but I would like to be able to do albums as a nice presentation to the newly weds.

I am not to keen on the 5x7 albums with glued in images but more like the azuka books and such. When I am saying that I dont mean the style but the format, images assempled stand alone and in collage on printed paper inkjet or photographic paper and then bound into a coffe table book.

I have acces to the printing both in large format inkjet printing and photo paper and also a laminator but how do you people acctually bind the albums.

Are there any good looking standard systems out there or do you have any good book binders that you go to.

How do you practically imposition (arranging) the pages when you are assembling the album.
Do you glue the facing pages together or what?

How important do you think it is to laminate the pages for dirty fingers and such and wear and tear.
If you could help me or stear me in the right direction it would be great.
Karl
 
It's really not practical for a photographer to assemble and bind his/her own albums, especially if you're shooting only a few weddings a year.

Sure, you could do it on the cheap-- make up some composite images in Photoshop, get them printed, and run off to your local Kinko's to get them spiral bound, but don't expect your client to be very happy with this!!

Books offered by Azuka, Viovio, mypublisher, and now even Shutterfly (along with a host of others) are basically small run offset press jobs printed on heavy magazine-type paper.

A more traditional wedding album, with the actual composite photos laminated to a hard, cardboard-like stock, and professionally bound with leather covers, imprinting, etc., will run you a good chunk of change.
 
Tom Lane said:
It's really not practical for a photographer to assemble and bind
his/her own albums, especially if you're shooting only a few
weddings a year.
Click to expand...
No I am well aware of that but I still dont want to cut the client short, the thing that might put me apart is that I have acces to large print facilities on a very cheap rate both RA4 and Inkjet facilities and laminating machinery.
Tom Lane said:
Sure, you could do it on the cheap-- make up some composite images
in Photoshop, get them printed, and run off to your local Kinko's
to get them spiral bound, but don't expect your client to be very
happy with this!!
Click to expand...
Thats is exactly what I do not want to do, I already do this as an added bonus to some clients who mainly order a digitally delivered job but it is always appreciated to get a little extra, but is is far away from that kind of thing that I wish to delivere to a wedding client. The product I am thinking of is nicely bound collection of good images layout in a very clean and nice manner.

I am acctually not very keen on the Azuke style wich is really the only one I have seen and I find it a bit to much DIY look to the whole thing.
Tom Lane said:
Books offered by Azuka, Viovio, mypublisher, and now even
Shutterfly (along with a host of others) are basically small run
offset press jobs printed on heavy magazine-type paper.
Click to expand...
Today they are mainly digital offset are they not?
Are not any of these products laminated or printed on archival paper or similar?
Tom Lane said:
A more traditional wedding album, with the actual composite photos
laminated to a hard, cardboard-like stock, and professionally bound
with leather covers, imprinting, etc., will run you a good chunk of
change.
Click to expand...
Well that is acctually what I was thinking more to do but I would leave the binding to someone proffesional but possibly do the output myself and then possibly the laminating and leave the rest in someone elses capable hands.

It was acctually that I am most interested in and I as hopng that there might be someone that knows more on that subject that could help me out.
Have you done any book like that?

Thanks for you input. And I will have a look at the other companies that you mentioned in respect of Azuka
Karl
 
Karl Petersson said:
Well that is acctually what I was thinking more to do but I would
leave the binding to someone proffesional but possibly do the
output myself and then possibly the laminating and leave the rest
in someone elses capable hands.
It was acctually that I am most interested in and I as hopng that
there might be someone that knows more on that subject that could
help me out.
Have you done any book like that?
Thanks for you input. And I will have a look at the other companies
that you mentioned in respect of Azuka
Karl
Click to expand...
I do books like that all the time. I shoot for and do production work for a studio, and produce wedding albums on a weekly basis.

We use Zook Binders (www.zookbinders.com) for our composite albums, but there are plenty other binders out there who do similar work. Check out their "Zook Book" and flush albums on their site.

Using their templates or templates created in Photoshop. we produce appropriate sized composite prints (10x10, 8x8, etc.) from our commercial printer. We supply the prints, they laminate them to the ablum stock and bind them into the books.

Cost is probably twice that of Azuka, plus the cost of the prints, but it produces a high quality, long lasting album.
 
Great this is the kind of stuff that I am looking for, do you know any one else that does similar products, it's always nice to shop around and find alternative to products, the "there are plenty other binders out there who do similar work" sounds great but do you possible know any of them? Tends to do good things with the price as well ;-)
Thanks a loot for this tip.
Karl
Tom Lane said:
We use Zook Binders (www.zookbinders.com) for our composite albums,
but there are plenty other binders out there who do similar work.
Check out their "Zook Book" and flush albums on their site.

Using their templates or templates created in Photoshop. we produce
appropriate sized composite prints (10x10, 8x8, etc.) from our
commercial printer. We supply the prints, they laminate them to the
ablum stock and bind them into the books.

Cost is probably twice that of Azuka, plus the cost of the prints,
but it produces a high quality, long lasting album.
Click to expand...
 
Karl Petersson said:
Great this is the kind of stuff that I am looking for, do you know
any one else that does similar products, it's always nice to shop
around and find alternative to products, the "there are plenty
other binders out there who do similar work" sounds great but do
you possible know any of them? Tends to do good things with the
price as well ;-)
Thanks a loot for this tip.
Karl
Click to expand...
Just flipping through the August issue of "Professional Photographer" magazine, I found the following ads:

http://www.thebookalbum.com
http://www.gpalbums.com
http://www.bucknerdesigns.com
http://www.wnalbums.com
http://www.wgbooks.com
http://www.pictobooks.com

I didn't have time to visit any of the sites, but from their ads it appears all offer some type of composite wedding album.

Hope this helps,

Tom
 
I have never assembled one before, but I am about to go with Pictobooks.

I have not done an exhaustive price comparison, either. As a previous poster stated - - it ain't cheap!

I did, however, visit the Pictobooks plant itself. It is in Rockville, MD. Everything there is hand-made. I believe the materials and workmanship is probably second-to-none. (Just look at their clients)

The full cameo option is very cool, too. I don't know exactly how unique it is, but you really can't appreciate it until you actually hold it in your hands.
Highly recommended if you want to lay the price..
--
Photo Bill
 
http://www.pclwest.com/ServicesAlbums.htm

Click around on this site for some ideas. Look at the system
they use, then go on Google and find more companies that use
the same systems and are maybe more local to your city.

Books, albums or just proofing are getting automated online.
You can choose from various quality books or albums by researching
the companies.

LabPrints or Roes are common ordering programs. After that, each
printer has their own products including slideshows, books, albums
and direct prints.
 
We use WHCC to do our printing (we don't have access to a print lab like you) and then send the prints to Art Leather. I think art leather has some of the most affordable albums that are really quality products. We use the Montage Art Book: http://www.artleather.com/products/Books/Montage_Art_Book.shtml

Their customer service isn't the best and sometimes the turn around can be slow. So make sure you give yourself some time. But I have been really impressed by the look of the album and the durability.

I hope that helps.

--
------------------------------------------------------------
Save 5$ off your to smugmug!
http://www.smugmug.com/?referrer=
 
Thanks a loot for these tips, it is great to have all this help and most important your personal experience of the companies and their products.

I am looking forward to look at artleather to see how they come out, I really liked the products of zook books but unfortunatly they did not send their books overseas.

If anybody else has some good experince of these kind of products it would be great to find out.

Some time ago I did see a norwegian portrait photographer who acctually did all the binding herself with lamination and printing on Epson 4800 and 9600 prints and the product was very nice and slik looking, does anybody else have the experience of binding yourself?
Thanks to everybody
Karl
 
I like your idea of a self binding system. Asuka books have a magazine look, and are not the dynamic range photos that can be printed on quality ink and pigment printers. Printing them yourself gives control and turn-around time to meet any client demands. Mounted album prints are clutsy, heavy and are no longer the state of the art.

I have done some test runs on printing my own pages using double sided Red River paper up to 11x14. They have turned out supurb and can be laminated or sprayed with resin coatings. The problem remains as you have stated. How can they be bound into a quality album without sending them off to an expensive binding service. A do-it-yourself binding system would be great. Standard office style binding with plastic combs de-value the results but work okay for proof level booklets. A nice set of leather-look covers and a page clamiping/holding mechanism would be a good start.

I will monitor this post to see if anyone comes up with good ideas.
 
Have you considered Unibind?
http://www.unibind.com

It's a system comprising a steel spine filled with glue with plastic and hardback covers, into which you place your copy. You stand the book on their desktop machine which detects the spine with magnets andclicks on, heating the spine, melting the glue to hold the papers securely, as long as you've positioned them properly.

I got one and use it for preview albums in conjunction with my colour laser printer, but inkjet prints would look great on double sided paper and I'm looking at this for portrait and commercial portfolios.
Looks much more slick than comb binding!

I have no links with this company other than as a customer, by the way!

--
pauldodo
'What does this button do....?'
 
I hadn't realized that there were quite a few thermal binding systems out there. With a Google search, I found some very economical setups, one that has hardcover supplies for around $5 each with cutouts and different colors. It seems that they are all based on the 8.5x11 size, but that is fine for a book, and it simplifies paper cutting.

I am certainly going to try it. The result should be about the same as a hardcopy library book, but without a printed cover, just the cutout hole. For small projects like pet portfolios, seniors, and even weddings, it may be super. If a client wants the feel of soft padded leather, embossed, well that is another category, he will have to pay much more for it.
 
I know Unibind do lots of cover options- I'd visit the site to have a look- in fact I need to do just that, I need to see if the products have been updated...

--
pauldodo
'What does this button do....?'
 
Hi Paul.

Yes I did have a look at this at some stage but I did skip them for two reasons, first they dont look slik enough to work for an event like a wedding or such and secondly they will not allow to open up in the middle completely so that you can design with full spreads.

I do agree these are a loot better then ringbinder and would be great for demos and as an added extra for a commercial client in some usage but its just not that coffe table book feel.

I am starting to think that I should just print on double sided inkjet paper and then go to a real old fashined book binder but unfortunatly I do guess that will be both slow and expensive and with very little input from me.

To all of you manufacturer out there and to the companies like unibind, do a solution that would allow me to print on RA4 or inkjet double or single sided paper and mount them in such a way that they would allow bleed and an a spine that can be opened all the way so it would allow spreads and then a simple binding that would be modular in thickness depending on how many images goes into the album in a set of different sizes and slick design and beutiful material and I am quite shure that you would have a killer product, any takers.
Karl
pauldodo said:
Have you considered Unibind?
http://www.unibind.com
It's a system comprising a steel spine filled with glue with
plastic and hardback covers, into which you place your copy. You
stand the book on their desktop machine which detects the spine
with magnets andclicks on, heating the spine, melting the glue to
hold the papers securely, as long as you've positioned them
properly.
I got one and use it for preview albums in conjunction with my
colour laser printer, but inkjet prints would look great on double
sided paper and I'm looking at this for portrait and commercial
portfolios.
Looks much more slick than comb binding!

I have no links with this company other than as a customer, by the
way!
Click to expand...
 
I'm starting to sound like a salesman here.....

I've just looked on the Unibind site and they do a steel spine at differing widths and colours- you could then use whatever cover and page materials you wanted, including leather covered card and good quality print paper.

Actually, get in touch with them if you have any new ideas- they might just take you up on them!
--
pauldodo
'What does this button do....?'
 
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