Jewelie's Digital Darkroom

Helping a bride pick images can be a big task. You need to decide if you want some say in these images or if all picking will be done by the bride. Some will feel that choosing images is overwhelming and not fun….this can lead to procrastination and an album never being finished. Another thing to think about is if they pick images that do not show off your artist brilliance the album will be a Wow! for them but will not be a reflection of your style.On the other hand, leaving the image selection solely to the bride will give her exactly the album she wants in the end. No matter which direction you take here are some hints to make it easier on you and your bride!

Alright….to make image selection easier think of the wedding as chapters. “Most” brides want the album to tell the story of their wedding in the order it happened.  So while you are organizing the images put groups of images together. Have the number of folders (chapters) match the number of spreads you will be ordering in the album.

• Bride Getting Ready
• Bride with Bridesmaids and parents
• Groom Getting Ready
• Groom with Groomsmen and parents
• Bride and Groom seeing each other for first time (if before the ceremony)
• Ceremony
• Family Portraits
• Whole Wedding Party
• Getting to the Reception
• Reception – now this can be divided into Cake Cutting, First Dance, Toasts and Party if need be
• I also like having a folder of detail shots that would make great backgrounds

Now, if you are having the Bride pick all the images….make sure you give some guidance. Ask what style album they like.

More Classical? Where they want nice large images with very few embellishments and basic black, white and grey backgrounds? Then lead them to choosing 4 or 5 images per chapter. This will help give that clean, uncluttered look they are after.

Are they more Contemporary? This is where they like the fun, energetic style that has more images to a page and colors from the wedding used as backgrounds. This is sometimes called Magazine style albums. There is movement and images at angles, etc. Lead this bride to choosing 6-7 images per chapter.

Maybe they like color but they really do not like the feel of a true Magazine style album. Lead them to the Fusion then. These albums will have straight pictures like the classic design but the added benefit of images in the backgrounds and colors from the wedding added to the album. They should choose 5-6 images per chapter here.

When you explain to them that to keep the timeline of the album each chapter will be represented by a spread they will be able to visualize the album. They will also know that if they pick 20 ceremony images one of the other catagories needs to be smaller or cut in order to make it work. They will also know that there is a possibility that they will need to pay a fee to add pages to the album to get the images they want.

Now….also ask them which images are their favorite and let me know. I always want to feature the Bride and Grooms favorite images. It will make the album special to them.

If you are picking the images for the bride….ask her to pick her 10 favorite images so they are definately in the album. Then you can go thru the above process to fill in the blanks.

For details/background shots. These should be extra images that you tell the bride may or may not appear in the album. This will give the designer images to use without the pressure of finding a way to use them all!

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