Wedding Photo Album Software, what do you use ?

[Soumendra Jena]

Hi, Im on a lookout for the best and most loaded Photo Album Maker Software, which can do modern to old school, whatever layouts and should be loaded with a lot of templates and layouts.

What do you use ?

[Soumendra Jena]

I found those options on internet, but would like to know, what all you guys use.

Web Album Maker v2.20
Album Ds v9.2.4 For Adobe Photoshop (Cs-Cc)
Wedding Album Maker Gold 3.53 Multilingual
Album Design v.4.0 Plugin For Photoshop
Album Express 5.9 Win Pro

[Chris Harding]

We don't supply albums any longer as it means YOU have to choose both the design and the images (or wait 3 months for the bride to decide)

It's far easier nowdays to give them the images on a DVD, They choose their own album (and pay for it themselves) and then print whatever they want to put in the album.

If the bride really wants an album, why not charge her for it and then give HER coffee table book software (all free) and she can design her own layout and you simply upload the file to the coffee table book publishers and deliver when it's ready

[Peter Riding]

The high-end album manufacturers operating internationally such as GraphiStudio, Queensberry, and Jorgensen have their own album design software. This can cope with all the types of album that they each supply but the downsides include 1) that you cannot normally design in one software and then decide to use another company 2) the layouts for client approval tend to be quite low resolution - you can't export a finished design in high resolution otherwise you could use their software to design and then simply place the high-res export in another company's order.

Some are getting more flexible now and include several approved manufacturers in their inhouse design software - I think Queensberry is one.

If you're looking at matted albums - that is where several photos on each page are surrounded by a thick card with bevel edges where they meet the edges of the photos your options are much more limited, you've pretty much got to use the manufacturers specific software.

You have to be approved for an agency with high-end manufacturers.

If you're looking at flushmount albums - in which each double page spread is either an enormous edge to edge photo or a montage of photos you have much greater choices. You can design in lots of different programs and then import into the relevant manufacturers online order system.

Popular choices include Fundy Album Builder, Lumapix Fotofusion, and of course Adobe Indesign.

I prefer to design everything from scratch in Photoshop making a lot of use of layers, and various "smart" functions. This enables me to do anything I want or the client requests. With software that relies on templates your choices can be very limited and client requests for revisions a nightmare.

Don't underestimate how much time and effort is involved in album design if your designs are truly designs and not just drag and drop jobs. It hard to make it profitable - the wholesale costs alone are very high and then you have to factor in your design time, not to mention the learning curve getting there.

There are plenty of specialist album design agencies but again be careful they are not just doing drag and drop into corny or boring templates - you could do that yourself :- )

There is a lot to know about any high-end manufacturers products and most of us find it most practical to specialise in just one that meets most client needs whilst maintaining agencies with a few others for the occasional order. Again you will need physical samples - people buy what they see - and this is expensive especially if you have a range from several manufacturers.

You can see a bunch of designs etc on my albums page here:
graphi studio wedding albums and photo books flushmount digital magazine coffee table by ashton lamont professional photographers

If there is a big trade show in your area its worthwhile getting along to that to compare sources. The main one in the UK is "The Photography Show" at the NEC Birmingham early each year:

The Photography Show 2015 - Welcome

Pete

[Soumendra Jena]

We already have the album making app and we use photoshop and the app.

But there are 10% of customers, who like it old school, the old album it used to be, which really looks horrible.

So, Im looking for another album making app, which should have a lot of layouts and templates so staff can simply drag drag, merge pictures, export and then put it to our main album app.

[Peter Riding]

Originally Posted by Soumendra Jena

We already have the album making app and we use photoshop and the app.

You started to lose me there .... and finished the job there:

and then put it to our main album app.

Can you be more specific? You need an app that does not require any skill what so ever on the part of the operator? They just drag and drop and don't even need to know how to resize? Thats hardly designing, thats what your client does when they order a press-printed book from a consumer online service!

Why not just make your own templates in photoshop and make use of smart layers and the transform tool when dragging from Bridge into a Photoshop spread. I've done that for matted albums - which is the sort you appear to be alluding to.

Or would Photojunction work:

Queensberry | Photojunction

Or get Fundy to write you an app to do exactly what you need.

Pete

[Arthur Gannis]

I use and recommend Lumapix. Easy to use. They have a demo version for you to try.
PC or Mac platform.

[Dave Partington]

We have always used InDesign with the AlbumFlow plug-in. This gives us maximum flexibility and the option to change from one album company to another very easily.

[Rob Cantwell]

I hardly do albums any more, but if I have to do a layout the fastest and easiest is Photojunction works pretty good and is free as well.