why are PHOTO ALBUMS so expensive?

When I did my search the cheapest was hotbooks which was one free per month. As already mentioned. The quality isn't that good but for free is a nice little extra to give BM GM and family but for sure not something for a real gift or for anything impressive.

The layout that I liked the best was at photoworks.com but I haven't used them yet so I can't comment on the quality.

I will say there is a big different between the traditional albums some photographers do and the more contemporary albums that are popular lately. And there's a difference in quality between those so test things out if you go that route. One of the biggest expenses is their time to edit the photos and determine a nice looking layout. If you decide to DIY here are more vendor comments when I asked for info to do my own.

https://www.weddingwire.com/wedding-forums/making-our-own-wedding-album-vendors-opinions-welcome/5b2f333c484c1a9a.html

People tend to think that you either can get a relatively cheap photo book from services like shutterfly or a quite expensive personalized photo album from a photographer.

This is not true! We wanted more than just a photo book for our wedding album and our photographer simply charged too much for what he was offering. There are however websites that offer high-quality photo albums plus professional design for reasonable prices.

We ordered from http://www.sweetmemoryalbums.com, got a great flush-mount album, and payed about half of what our photographer wanted to charge us.

Definitely talk to your photographer about getting a) a disk of hi resolution images, and b) a copyright release to allow you to use the images as you want. In some instances, photographers keep the cost of the photography session down by making you go through them for all prints and albums. Not only can this cost you money, but it limits your ability to share pictures with family and friends.

Albums are costly, even at our cost. As with everything, quality varies with cost. The cheapest album that I can buy would start around $30 w/o shipping. Add in pages, etc. and the cost begins to add up. There are albums that are several thousand dollars, and that is just for the book portion, w/o any pages in them.

Creating an album is more than dropping a single picture onto a page, or into a sleeve. A well laid out album design tells your wedding story. You can have a lay-flat album with pictures spanning two pages with smaller images overlaid on top of the spread and so on. So now these images have to be organized in a manner that they can be sent off for printing. This all takes time. Some albums then are peel and stick while others require more manual mounting.

Just as you get paid for doing your job, a photographer needs to get paid for doing your album. Album layouts are VERY time consuming!

Wedding albums these days aren't what they used to be. Contemporary albums feature high quality photographic paper and binding that rivals that of professionally printed books you would see at your local book store.

Moreover, wedding photographers now spend lots of time designing your albums with unique layouts to really get that "wow" factor.

In the "old days", you just had page upon page of boring photos. Today you've got photo-journalistic style with a high quality storybook album that really tells the story of your day. This really allows the viewer to connect with your at a much more personal level.

It really is all the rave, and a good quality, well laid out album is truly worth it.

Hope that helps,

Salman

www.salmanPhotography.com

(954) 667-7770

Classic mount albums are expensive due to the high cost of a purchasing a truly beautiful album (i.e. see Jenni Bick albums), fabulous, long-lasting, paper for prints, and the ink used to print photos. A classic album can easily cost $500, as the album itself will cost $150-$250 and each photo probably costs $2-3 just to print.

I just noticed that the link I supplied is broken. Here we go again:

http://www.sweetmemoryalbums.com

Greetings all,

I must agree with Matt and Salman on this. Brides and Grooms, please consider the costs of creating an album. For digital albums, I normally set aside about 20 hours for design & consulation with the couple. The layouts take time and effort to put together to create a flow and tell a story. The images require editing, and of course, each page needs to be designed from scratch, customized for the B&G.

It is like getting a custom dress tailored for you w/the finest materials to picking up a ready made standard dress at Target. It may not be the same quality, same fit, your choice of everything..but it is still the same thing....right?

I keep samples from Shutterfly, Blurb etc at my location to show brides what each offering looks like. These are great for shots of the kids, vacation, or even an inexpensive guestbook. If you cannot afford a heavy duty wedding album, don't rush it! Tell your photographer you cannot purchase it now, but may consider it in the futur

But why these prices???

Because the price that you are paying is mostly for density corrections, white balance corrections, digital conversions, digital effects, airbrushing, professional consultation time to receive years of expertise in designing albums, file handling, colour management ( which does not occur when a non photographer prints an album ) , liasing with a professional album manufacturer to name a few steps in the process of creating a professional wedding album.

So if you consider 30 to 40 hours of work ( including album planning consultation ) from a highly trained professional ( digital artistry, colour management, fine art printing ) plus professional quality albums which can easily cost the photographer between $500 and $1500 ( archive quality professional prints, genuine leathers, custom made factory flushmounted albums, acrylic or custom cover materials ) Most professional wedding albums have a real value of between $1000 and $10,000.

I was at my friends wedding a few years ago and he spent $6000 on his photography and album. He is constantly amused at people who complain about their wedding photographs because they were taken by part timers at a great price. You can tell the difference in pricing between a part timer ( or rooky ) and a pro because the part timers and rookys are charging unsustainable prices. Every time I visit him he tells me how much the album means to them. Alot of their satisfaction is derived from the experience, professional training and extensive post production workflow of the photographer. Paper value has nothing to do with the cost of a professional wedding album.

Instead, your album could be artwork. why be like eveyone else? www.artistmadealbums.com

hand bound and guaranteed for life

Just got married last year and I'm still working on my photobooks...I was asking the same questions you are now asking and I did a lot of research on the topic because I've always loved photos and there's no more important photos that from a girl's wedding day! I've done a number of wedding photo books, wedding guest book, engagement photo books DIY. I'm currently putting together a higher end flush mount album myself. I've seen flush mount options available from the following companies: Picaboo, AdoramaPix, Lifephoto, Somerset Albums, and Black River Imaging to name a few. I've also done a number of low to mid range books with companies like Blurb, Snapfish & MyPublisher, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to splurge a bit (now that I've had some time to save up!) and go for a high end album with Black River Imaging. (the one I like will run about $350.00). I read they will work with brides directly. Here's some pics of my own books if you want to take a peek: http://www.photobookgirl.com/blog/make-your-own-wedding-photo-book/

As a full-time, professional photographer I agree with most everything that y'all have said here.

A professional quality, custom-designed album is definitely going to cost you, and as someone mentioned above, they cost us a lot too. They are not cheap, but rather heirloom-quality albums that you will have for the rest of your life. Not to mention the fact that it does take hours to edit all of the photos and design the album, so time does cost money.

As James B points out above, having an album that means something to you is priceless. It's a treasure that you will look at for years and share with your children and your children's children.

I know that as a bride the pricing probably seems outrageous, but once you factor in all the costs, time and taxes involved, it makes sense.

Bound wedding albums can be costly for sure, but mostly that's because they are built to last for the next 30 years. I don't know what your photographer is offering, but mine are leather or silk covers and are very high quality. Also, each album is custom-designed which takes a lot of time, software and talent. I know it's hard to pay that much for an album right around all the other costs for a wedding, but it's definitely something you will look at again and again for years to come!

Having worked with many pro labs, $500 can not buy you a high-end flush mount album, guaranteed. A high-end one can easily cost more than 1k, 2k or more than 10k. Just choose the ones that can fit your requirements and budgets.

Albums can definitely be costly, but I think they are one of the most important things you'll take away from your day. Mine still sits on my coffee table, getting flipped through whenever I'm in the mood to relive my big day.

That being said, they are also really, really expensive. You have to take design costs and printing costs into account. If going through a photographer, you have to remember they are using their photos as well.

If you don't want to pay the high built-in design fees for an album designed by your photographer, but don't want a template based, non-custom album you do yourself online, there are other options. (cough, cough...check out our website ).

In the end, my advice is to do your research, decide what type of album you want, what quality you want, what you're comfortable spending.. and then just go with it and ENJOY! I really believe you'll never regret the money you spend on a quality album.

A well made photo album will hold up way better over time than prints. And I also agree that you will really get what you pay for.

And oh by the way, I can recommend a unique and professional photo albums. Really really high quality. Just go visit www.zookbinders.com

It depends on the design, materials and options, I designed a simple generic album on Smartalbums and printed it at Walmart.com nothing fancy for about $60, but if you use WHCC which professional photographers use, there a nothing fancy generic album goes for about $140, quality, materials and options are factors, also the time it takes to design the album... so learn to use Shutterfly and you can save big bucks