It’s a fresh New Year AND it’s convention season…. time to get inspired at the multiple conventions and promote yourself at bridal fairs and schmooze the scene for new customers to book. You’re busy shooting in the spring and summer running around like mad…. and by Fall you’re catching a breath and really making big sales on their last few months of heavy shooting. Quickly thereafter is the prep for all the deadlines for your clients holiday orders. Right now is the perfect time to get some fresh albums to show your best work in time for the onslaught of new client meetings.
Everything dates – and albums are no exception. Studio sample albums should be redesigned at least every two years, if not annually. Show your freshest work, keep the albums hot and current. Today’s consumers are ruthlessly savvy and to be on top of it you need to keep your portfolio of offerings just as fresh. Now keep in mind – fresh doesn’t necessarily mean trendy by any means. Trendy is NOT always good. We’re talking awesome design coupled with your clients’ latest events. Consumers are basically salivating on pinterest trying to represent their best dream vision of themselves to their circle. You know that they are spending huge money on the best flowers, the best table decor, the best guest signing art pieces, the hottest dresses…. all of this is shown in your photography.
If you do not have any albums to show, all the more reason to have us help you with designing your samples. While overstated – the key to selling anything …. is the ability for your customers to see, hold and personally experience what you’re selling. Once they hold it in their hands they are already taking ownership of it in their mind. They want to see themselves in these pages – and that’s what they are thinking when they are looking at a sample.
WHAT TYPE OF ALBUMS SHOULD I SHOW IN A MEETING?
That depends on the following factors:
- your market (low, middle, high, ultra-high)
- subject (wedding, bar/bat mitzvah, family/kids/babies, pets, boudoir, High School Seniors, Guest Signing, etc.)
- possibly age of your customer (ie. grandparent duplicate VS High School Senior signing book)
MARKET:
Ask yourself honestly what range are your prices at within your market? If your packages are under $2,000 for a whole day wedding… you probably won’t be selling $3,000 retail priced deluxe flush mount albums. If your packages are more like $10,000+++ for a whole day wedding then yes, you can easily sell higher priced retail deluxe flush mount albums and if you showed lower cost albums that aren’t of the same quality they would be likely turned off possibly.
For a lower end market, this doesn’t mean selling a sub par book however.. you never want to sell that. But you can look at the nicer reputable labs which offer nice flush mount albums at decent prices or you can go to a press printed or giclee ink jet type album perhaps. Another tip is often there will be “Press Printed Books” or “Press Printed Albums”…. both are press printed…. but the books tend to cost even less and be ‘lighter’ with more limited cover materials VS the album which might have more cover material options and possibly a slightly thicker page possibly for a bit more money BUT still less cost than a ‘flush mount’ album would cost.
For high end you might venture up into the pricier flush mounts with hand distressed leathers or fancy metal or acrylic type front panels etc. or even move into the hybrid albums – the combo mat/flush capable albums that use mats and sometimes ‘liners’ for a very tactile and artisan feeling. Some albums have hand torn edges which are lovely too for that hand made feeling. Middle range market .. you can dip either way.
SUBJECT:
Events like weddings, mitzvahs etc. typically are the heavier flush mount albums with leather, acrylic, metal or cameo type covers. Real photographic printed pages with thick or medium substrate. Family/kids/babies can be either the same flush mount album as a wedding or could be the lower priced press printed album or giclee inkjet type album. Unless you are a high end portrait photographer, you might not be able to sell portrait albums for what you would a wedding album retail …. something to think about. High School Seniors and Guest Signing books are most often of the press printed, or giclee type albums. For Guest Signing books these must have the lay flat hinge structure.
AGE:
In my experience the older the clients that the photographer is selling to – the more conservative perhaps the cover material choice. Leathers over say textured red materials type thing. Not always… but often. Boudoir type albums have a lot of flexibility for fun… wild, bold, lush fabrics, velvets, animal skins etc. Families/Kids/High School seniors often go with full photographic covers with text possibly on the spine etc. Younger subjects, pets etc may enjoy brighter colors within the design as well, more graphic elements, more lighthearted. Weddings tend to not wish to be ‘fun’ but ‘classic’ and look awesome 25 years from now without cringing. High School senior books tend to be more trendy, more textured, sometimes have text etc…. more personality of the subject. If the High School senior is classic in style … then you go classic white and clean still. Totally depends on the subject and setting obviously!
DESIGN STRATEGIES FOR STUDIO SAMPLE ALBUMS
Really the name ‘sample’ sounds dull …. we should really call it a Studio Exhibit or Portfolio really because you’re going to show the very best of your images in a profound storytelling experience. We tend to have more leverage to work on what the photographer loves – and not have to squeeze in images of extended beloveds etc…. It’s a time to showcase your very favorite images, with a smoothly flowing storyline and fit your own style aesthetic. I tell my clients who are new to selling albums that it is critical to show sample albums that really gel with your own taste because what the couples see…. is what they’ll expect.
ONE AWESOME WEDDING PER BOOK:
PROS: This best shows the couple what their story could look like and draw them in – this is the closest to what their book will be like when they receive theirs. This frees you up to offer a different ‘type’ of book with another wedding or topic ie. engagement shoot and sell that as a unique level of product. ie. flush VS press printed lay flat etc. I’d say 90% of studio sample albums follow this structure.
CONS: If you are just starting out in photography you might not have one event that you LOVE 100% from start to finish with all the ideal components shown of the day as you wished it to be…. (ie. you missed the kiss….. the cake fell over…. etc.)
Example of one wedding in an album – ceremony layout
Danny Weiss Studios
MULTIPLE BEST OF WEDDINGS PER ONE BOOK:
Now – for a multiple wedding album sample. I have done this a number of times. This is probably the hardest book to design of all the types because of the continuity factor as each wedding is SO different from the other. Color, lighting, decor etc. So it’s up to us to find the commonality. 😉 And not to confuse the couple looking at it.
OPTION 1: Allocate 1-3 layouts PER unique couple – then move on to the next couple. so they get a hint per wedding couple. (pro: same couple, less confusion. con: still is best to limit ‘theme’ per layout to a specific time of day roughly. ie. mixing prep with reception on one layout can be messy.) So would show different times of their day per couple. Multiple times through the book per couple.
Example of one wedding but wide ‘time’ range from that wedding on one layout for ‘Mixed’ Sample
Michael Terri Studios
or
OPTION 2: Book flow from beginning of day through to reception….. all the way through. BUT pick the ‘best’ examples from your weddings to represent say, prep, groom and groomsmen, bridal party, ceremony, post ceremony, fun bride groom shots etc. so flows from day to night so to speak. so you show a mix of weddings all the way through. BUT each layout would only show one particular couple. Not a mix of people. (pro: great for book flow. con: harder to tell which couple did what.)
or
OPTION 3: Mix up the weddings and do layout by layout by ‘theme’…. ie. flower details from all, cakes – reception details from all, bride groom intimate moments mix up of all. (pro- can be fun. but con- with different colors, lighting etc.. still can be a mish mash. There always has to be a common tie. I did one album once that was purely details and images but by color.
Example of mixed details & photos organized by color – blues/greens/primaries
Audra’s Photography – Canada
Example of mixed details & photos organized by color – red
Audra’s Photography – Canada
Example of mixed details & photos organized by color – purple/yellow
Audra’s Photography – Canada
Each has it’s challenges. Prob. #1 is most common though.
PROS: show more weddings in one book like a portfolio. CONS: can be confusing to the viewer, not enough breadth per couple’s wedding to show what a WHOLE wedding coverage is truly like if they were to hire you, can be impressive like ‘wow, you’ve done a lot of weddings’….
HOW CAN I SAVE SOME MONEY ON STUDIO SAMPLE ALBUMS?
Most album manufacturers/bookbinders will offer a healthy discount (~30%-50% off) for studio sample books. They might stamp the book somewhere inconspicuous with “STUDIO SAMPLE” and are not allowed to be sold resale to customers. There is a limit to how many are allowed to be ordered per year.
If you need to save more money … another option is to use a current album design that we’ve done for one of your recent clients and you can simply ‘piggyback’ and order the same book but at the studio sample price to keep for your own use. If you don’t care for some of the images that THEY picked for their book 100% … we can simply edit out some layouts, swap in some images etc.
OR
I’ve designed multiple wedding albums for you – and they are all the same format (ie square) you pick out favorite layouts per album and we just combine those together in one album ‘mixed’ type sample. No new design.
A few photographers who contact us ask if we discount our design fees for studio samples. We do not because honestly, designing photographers’ studio samples can possibly take MORE time and effort because I take them extremely seriously – the stakes are higher. This is not a ‘discount’ job in my mind….. but a white glove type job in my mind.
BOTTOM LINE
A memorable and special sample album will result in MORE sales and MORE happy clients for you…. and your clients will end up with their own beautiful books to treasure for their lifetime because they fell in love with you and your sample in the first place. More books produced, more employees supported at the bookbinders’ employ, more employed – the better the economy…. Everyone wins.
HappyFish LOVES designing studio sample albums! If yours are tired….. give us a shout !!
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