# software for designing wedding albums



## Chuck Alaimo (Oct 18, 2013)

looking for some insight:

Software - been doing some trial's fundy, indesign, and fotofusion. So far fotofusion is the only one I have actually been able to open up and get right into designing. Fundy and Indesign I got lost, couldn't even get to a point where I was loading images. Fotofusion, got a basic test case layout done in a few hours.

So unless there is like a huge downside to fotofusion - or, like something so rocking about either of the other 2 that I should bite the bullet and spend a week on tutorials then fotofusion it is.


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## awinphoto (Oct 18, 2013)

Indesign is a big program to learn, especially like any adobe product like photoshop. It is the industry standard, along side with Quark when it comes to creating catalogs, flyers, brochures, books, etc... You will have create everything from scratch assuming you dont have a template to jump off of... You can create some awesome albums with indesign, but learning how to do it isn't as intuitive. Good luck with your endeavors.


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## davidson (Oct 18, 2013)

I used the book module in lightroom 4 when i did a wedding album last year, it worked very well, down side is that the templates are locked so you dont have as much control over them as you might like. I am not sure about version 5 but i assume that the book module has been approved. As you are working it keeps track of what it will cost to print the finished product. since it uses the photos which are already recorded in lightroom you wont have to worry about how to load them, and any edits you make to them will automatically be show, if i remember correctly. That's my 2 cents worth, let us know how it goes.


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## romanr74 (Oct 18, 2013)

i used lightroom 4 for a wedding album too. it is very neat from a workflow point of view. you can work directly with your raw files in an non-destructive workflow. book production at blurp allows for reasonable customization, is convenient and very good quality - no "fotopaper" though. lightroom 5 allows for improved control over the template.


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## cayenne (Oct 18, 2013)

romanr74 said:


> i used lightroom 4 for a wedding album too. it is very neat from a workflow point of view. you can work directly with your raw files in an non-destructive workflow. book production at blurp allows for reasonable customization, is convenient and very good quality - no "fotopaper" though. lightroom 5 allows for improved control over the template.



I'm learning my way around LR5 myself right now.

I'd also throw in..if you're on the mac side of the computer house, you might also consider Apeture 3..it is a great little image tool from Apple, and it has some pretty flossy book making tools too!!

Lots of templates come with it, and of course, you can make your own stuff from scratch or just even start modifying their templates.

If you're gonna be selling something high dollar like wedding albums...don't skimp out on diving in and trying to thoroughly learning a tool to make something that is as important to a couple as this thing will be...for the lifetime of their marriage!!

It isn't rocket science, but takes some time and effort. YouTube is your friend...and if Adobe...hit AdobeTV on their website for tutorial videos.

And books...Lordy, I get books with tutorials to start out learning everything I'm trying to learn.
Right now on my stack:

Adobe Photoshop Pro
Adobe Premier Pro
Adobe After Effects
Davinci Resolve

Whew...always busy with learning something new on this hobby....but while your doing good on researching the tools you want....it almost sounds like taking time for tutorials, reading and really learning the tool sounds like a drudgery type after thought. I hope I'm reading your wrong on this....easy to do on a text only forum, but you gotta learn your tools, especially if you're doing this for peoples' memories, and even *MORE *importantly if you're charging them money for the job.


cayenne


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## Halfrack (Oct 18, 2013)

Lightroom 5 has the ability to do custom layouts:

http://tv.adobe.com/watch/learn-lightroom-5/improved-book-creation/


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## Chuck Alaimo (Oct 18, 2013)

cayenne said:


> romanr74 said:
> 
> 
> > i used lightroom 4 for a wedding album too. it is very neat from a workflow point of view. you can work directly with your raw files in an non-destructive workflow. book production at blurp allows for reasonable customization, is convenient and very good quality - no "fotopaper" though. lightroom 5 allows for improved control over the template.
> ...



not on a mac...so no aperture for me...looking at the lightroom book building...it's kind of limiting.

"it almost sounds like taking time for tutorials, reading and really learning the tool sounds like a drudgery type after thought. I hope I'm reading your wrong on this." Not the case...I am down to watch and learn, but, would like to make a final pick for software so i can direct my learning time appropriately. Each of the 3 pieces of software had been recommended to me and each seem to be good (at least from comments from friends and reviews, LOL, I can't even get off the ground with Fundy or with Indesign). 

Plus, I am already looking at it fro mthe standpoint of 1.5 days wasted just trying to figure out how to install and start anything up in fundy, and indesign took a long time with the whole silly cloud thing just to install the trial. Contrast that with ---fotofusion installed quick, loads quick...and boom...I can't even get a project started in the other 2, but with ff I have a 10 page test layout ready to roll. mind you, i have clients waiting on images, clients who I know aren't buying albums! I can't be wasting days doing tutorials learning software i may not buy or use. 

Indesign, while it's adobe and it's a industry standard, is there enough bang wow to it to justify putting the time into it?


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## Chuck Alaimo (Oct 18, 2013)

awinphoto said:


> Indesign is a big program to learn, especially like any adobe product like photoshop. It is the industry standard, along side with Quark when it comes to creating catalogs, flyers, brochures, books, etc... You will have create everything from scratch assuming you dont have a template to jump off of... You can create some awesome albums with indesign, but learning how to do it isn't as intuitive. Good luck with your endeavors.



the other issue with indesign ---I am still on the fence with this whole Creative Cloud thing. So if I were to take a few weeks to learn indesign - then comes the hard question...do i pay $29 a month to use it? Or do i go wit the full suite (I don't need it, but it would get me the updated PS). I really wish I could find more people who have tried both fotofusion and indesign - cause right now, other than lots of grey hair, not seeing what makes indesign so much better (unless overly complicated = better...lol)


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## davidson (Oct 19, 2013)

booksmart by Blurb is another option you can try, i believe it is a more full featured, less limiting version of the book module in lightroom, but i may be wrong about that. i didnt use it extensively but it is definitely more simple than indesign


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## Chuck Alaimo (Oct 19, 2013)

Chuck Alaimo said:


> awinphoto said:
> 
> 
> > Indesign is a big program to learn, especially like any adobe product like photoshop. It is the industry standard, along side with Quark when it comes to creating catalogs, flyers, brochures, books, etc... You will have create everything from scratch assuming you dont have a template to jump off of... You can create some awesome albums with indesign, but learning how to do it isn't as intuitive. Good luck with your endeavors.
> ...



gotta love it...your words there, I went through that whole I don't get indesign rant and reading your words kind of made me say...i'm not letting that software get the better of me...so now I guess it's less of a is it worth and more of a do i want to go forward into the cloud...


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## jonathan7007 (Oct 20, 2013)

Do you *know* what your customers "need" or "want"? How much extra income rides on climbing this hill? How much will customers in your area pay for this form of output? Do you find that lack of a book option will lose the entire client $$? I can't answer the questions I pose but you may have figured this out already. InDesign will alow more flexibility so if your competitors are making simple books now then 1. some of them will graduate to InDesign, and 2. you have to have a better product to compete right out of the box. 

When I made some books I found the easier tools had limitations but that they would accept big PDFs or JPEGs (depended on the software) created from Photoshop to incorporate, say, type on an image, a feature not in the service provider's interface (at that time). So there are "in-between" solutions that might avoid a full InDesign training regimen. 

I have decided that I have to learn InDesign for a few reasons. I admit I have not tried Blurb's interface inside LR. I am not shoooting weddings right now. There are other clients that will want books, though, including commercial (still photo) companies. I'd better carve out some time. I hate that feeling of helplessness at the beginning: like running in quicksand.


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## docholliday (Oct 20, 2013)

Lumapix Fotofusion - it's what is the quickest, easiest way to build albums. And, it has templates if you send off to places like KISS to have the books printed. Otherwise, export to PDF or JPGs and print on a big HP, then bind.


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## Chuck Alaimo (Oct 21, 2013)

jonathan7007 said:


> Do you *know* what your customers "need" or "want"? How much extra income rides on climbing this hill? How much will customers in your area pay for this form of output? Do you find that lack of a book option will lose the entire client $$? I can't answer the questions I pose but you may have figured this out already. InDesign will alow more flexibility so if your competitors are making simple books now then 1. some of them will graduate to InDesign, and 2. you have to have a better product to compete right out of the box.
> 
> When I made some books I found the easier tools had limitations but that they would accept big PDFs or JPEGs (depended on the software) created from Photoshop to incorporate, say, type on an image, a feature not in the service provider's interface (at that time). So there are "in-between" solutions that might avoid a full InDesign training regimen.
> 
> I have decided that I have to learn InDesign for a few reasons. I admit I have not tried Blurb's interface inside LR. I am not shoooting weddings right now. There are other clients that will want books, though, including commercial (still photo) companies. I'd better carve out some time. I hate that feeling of helplessness at the beginning: like running in quicksand.



good q's!!!!

_"Do you *know* what your customers "need" or "want"?"_ ----I am second year into the game here, so I am in that weird place of - there's what my current clients want...then there's what my future clients want. My current ones would probably go with a $100-300 album. But, next season I foresee that changing, (my guess is they'll be wanting something in the $400-800 range, year after that, the $600-1300 range. As another wedding photographer in the area told me (he does sell $1300 albums) --- if you wantt o sell them in the future you have to have them now ---that means I kind of have to put the cart before the horse now because I don't want to be in a position where I'm in last minute mode learning software for a large album purchase ---I wanted the learning done now (and yes, sample albums too!!!).

_"How much extra income rides on climbing this hill? How much will customers in your area pay for this form of output?"_ ---I know there is a market for $1000+ albums here. It may not be every client, most will opt for smaller - but - if 5 wedding clients per year go for a $1000 album and the cost to me is $300-400 to print ---that's a good $600 profit per album, x 5 - that's $3000...then there's the other side...most weddings come from referrals...what are those referrals gonna think? Gee, I saw his work on your computer, or that one wall print...vs...wow, i just saw so and so's album...not only do i want that person, but I want an album like that!

As to indesign, I been playing with it and learning --I like it! And, it does have more uses...just did these real quick for the website (a blog post). I did this type of thing in PS before, and PS while it's an amazing tool is really too much for this kind of thing. Kind of a pain, in indesign, making collages went so much smoother











So with all that in mind, thinking I should ride out this trial period, see if I can learn enough of it in the next 3 weeks or so to order a sample album, then, I get married have a honeymoon - then I jump into that freaking cloud.


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## cayenne (Oct 21, 2013)

Chuck Alaimo said:


> awinphoto said:
> 
> 
> > Indesign is a big program to learn, especially like any adobe product like photoshop. It is the industry standard, along side with Quark when it comes to creating catalogs, flyers, brochures, books, etc... You will have create everything from scratch assuming you dont have a template to jump off of... You can create some awesome albums with indesign, but learning how to do it isn't as intuitive. Good luck with your endeavors.
> ...



I'm with you on the Adobe CC. I *refuse *to *rent *my software.

I purchased Adobe Production Premium Suite....CS6.

I got mine from amazon.com where you can still get CDs....but if you want CS6 and can't find it on amazon, you can still get it from Adobe for download purchase. CS6 is good for me and I'm not RENTING my software, I'll not succumb to that either for quite awhile if I can help it.

Link for buying CS6 from Adobe:

http://www.adobe.com/products/catalog/cs6._sl_id-contentfilter_sl_catalog_sl_software_sl_creativesuite6.html?promoid=KFPHN

I personally applied to a local community college...only had to do application fee of about $20, and send in some transcripts. I got an .edu email address and photo student ID, and never had to sign up for a class, *but *I could and did use this to qualify for the Adobe Educational discount.
And yes, according to Adobe FAQs...you can use the educational versions for commercial usage for profit.


HTH,

cayenne


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## Chuck Alaimo (Oct 21, 2013)

cayenne said:


> Chuck Alaimo said:
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> > awinphoto said:
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As sucky as it is, I am thinking go ahead and go cloud. I looked on ebay for the previous version, and it would run around $600!!!! (more if i wanted the fully updated version). So to put that in rental terms --- I could spend $600 now on the older version which means I would never upgrade it - or - I could spend that same $600 over the course of 20 months (close to 2 years). Eventually lightroom will be cloud only, and eventually I will want to upgrade my PS....so...dang it adobe...you got your claws in me!!!!!


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## cayenne (Oct 21, 2013)

Chuck Alaimo said:


> cayenne said:
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> 
> > Chuck Alaimo said:
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LOL..hey, go for what works for ya....

I looked at CS6 and previous versions...and what currently was in CC.

I don't see THAT many updates that they've doing between CS6 and CC so far that would be deal killers for me.
And frankly, I'm not that conviced that once Adobe gets everyone locked into the rental mode with CC, that they'll be terribly motivated to keep innovating and coming up with new things and upgrades.

It actually just doesn't make that much fiscal sense to put too much time and effort into R&A once they have everyone paying monthly fees.

But even if they do..the upgrades in the past usually didn't warrant most people upgrading on every new version put out by Adobe, so, I'm hesitant to thing they will need that now either.

If you go that route (inDesign and CC)...do make sure and update this thread to let us know your progress with the software and your business doing albums!!!

C


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## Chuck Alaimo (Oct 22, 2013)

cayenne said:


> Chuck Alaimo said:
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> 
> > cayenne said:
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I hear ya man, it's not an easy call to make, especially because now that i am getting used to it, I rather like the indesign interface (while fotofusion is easy to use, it definitely feels like a downgrade now).

If the cost of indesign cs6 wasn't so high, i would for sure consider that as an option...but as of now - $600 - out of pocket vs $29 monthly, or going with the full suite for $50...or worse, spending $300 on fotofusion now then getting frustrated...LOL... I think for sure fotofusion is off my radar now.b It's really a matter of spend a big chunk now, or spend a big chunk, but over time...the over time idea sounds better...

As sucky as it is, I am thinking go ahead and go cloud. I looked on ebay for the previous version, and it would run around $600!!!! (more if i wanted the fully updated version). So to put that in rental terms --- I could spend $600 now on the older version which means I would never upgrade it - or - I could spend that same $600 over the course of 20 months (close to 2 years). Eventually lightroom will be cloud only, and eventually I will want to upgrade my PS....so...dang it adobe...you got your claws in me!!!!!


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