Lessons
Lesson Info
Live Album Critique
so I thought it would be fun for us to look at an actual album. So my good buddy Ben Hartley, uh, was a glutton for punishment. So he donated album designed for us to critique Live on air. So let's thank him for that isa brave soul. So I have open just part of the album. Let's go ahead and open up the full album here. So as you can see, we have a view with a lot of pages, and that helps us view the transitions. And then we have a view with just the spreads so we can make changes. So what I'd like you to do is just open this up. Just raise your hand if you have something you'd like to change, like Let's So we're all looking at making the album better. It's an awesome album. We are gonna hurt Ben's feelings been. Hartley won't start crying if we make some changes to his album because he knows that. So let's just look of ways we would like to improve the album. Um, the first thing I noticed was that, uh, he's taking detailed photos of what looks like mostly the bride's details and then th...
e next page is the groom. Um and so if I were flipping through the album, I think that would be a little jarring. Um, so I'd probably put So let's how about if we take this and put it up here? Yeah, that's a great observation. I love that we have more visual continuity here, right? And then I I this the pages three and four. Um, I kind of would maybe like something more like this with where we had a mane and supporting image. Something like that. Anybody else have seen anything they would like to change? William, What your feelings on spread one and two mixing color in black and white on this spread. I personally am not a fan of mixing color and black and white. I I think it's very, very difficult to do well. And there's very, very few people that I know that I have ever done it Well, so I would probably come in here and maybe turn this one to black and white in the album there. So you can see we have the guides on here. I'll go ahead and turn the guides off. But basically, if you haven't designed many albums. The red line is when and you go to, uh, you know, one of thes album manufacturers. They put the book blocks together, and then they have this giant knife that slices off the edges so that you get that nice, smooth surface, and so that red represents where it's gonna be cut. So you either want to keep your images away from the edge, like we have here on the right or go all the way off to the edge, so the image is slightly sliced off. What you don't want to do is try to ride that red line that will make you very unhappy when you get your albums back. All right, Anyone else question just on your reasoning with switching up the detail page. Um, with if you're doing a full page of details, is it less attractive to the eye? If you do more of a collection of equals type of spread, would you recommend when do details you may? That's a great question. So would this be better? Is a collection of equals or remain and supporting? I think it works well with both. Let's take a look at what it would look like with a connect collection of equals. So one of things I might do, um, is here We have a collection of equals, but these two are verticals and then the rest of horizontal that have been stretched out a little bit. So I might do is go under the style here and do a 1 to style and see what happens there. So you get something like that or force it into a square. And so just like you said, this might be, ah, better representation of those. And then I would probably take the ring and put it up up front there. Yeah, I think both are valid and hear what we're getting into is just personal preference, right? And that's that's when you become the storyteller is just the way you want to tell your story. And just like each and every client is unique, each in every photographer's unique. And so it's that relationship between the client and the photographer that enables you to tell a unique story for them. My daughter just whispered, Yes, 11 11. No. 17 should go next, like 11 and 12 because they both have like the horses and the looks back. So I going from the horse to the group of people that I think it just breaks it up a little nicer. Yeah. Yeah. And I might even go like this to be so we're getting an intro to the story. And then let's pop this open and get Let's make that horse bigger there in that. And then we can transition into their Yes, Kristie, the opening image seems a little disconnected from the story. I was going to see what you thought about how to start and how Teoh go right into the story from the opening image. Yeah. So one of things that I might do, um, one of things that I feel like we're missing in this story is, uh, the location. We don't really know where we're at. Like I know we're kind of in the desert, right, cause I don't see any mountains, but I don't know what building our way in the city. Are we in the country? Um and so I really feel like you can start with the bride and groom. But just like any story in any movie, that 1st 25% we have to know where we're at. So if we are opening with a landscape, which is fine, I think it needs to tell us more of the story. I think we need to know. Yes, were in the desert. But what are we in the city? Are we in the country like where we at right? And as photographers? Um, my good friends Dean Tracy, at 37 frames used to shoot landscape photography professionally, so they're really great at landscapes. And so they're really grated. Opening an album with the landscape, right? So they really play to their strengths, both of the opening and then throughout the album. But that's a great question. We really need to if we are going to set the scene, we need to set the scene. And I think that this image opener is lacks a few things to really tell us where we're at and what's going on 16 because it's a group shot. Seems like it belongs more towards the end, or maybe at the end. So this, uh so this group seen this is leading up to the ceremony like so in this in this wedding there, they're marching the horse through the streets, going somewhere. And so I think it's a great shot in a great double page spread. But maybe what we can do is kind of show where we're going. Maybe take some or images and put in there in between thes spreads to show why this shot came about. Yes, one of the questions from the Internet isn't what your best practices towards choosing a cover image? Yeah. Oh, that's a great question. Choosing the cover image, right? So I kind of feel like the cover image really is. It has to be the image that encapsulated the whole wedding. Usually I feel like it's a it's a portrait of the bride and the groom. Um, that gives a little hint at the location, but maybe not all of the location on what you can do is if if the cover image is a portrait and it ends up being a close up portrait, I really like putting those into a cut out. All right, so we have a cut out. So it's a smaller opening, so we're really zooming in on the clients if it's more of a pullback epic landscape shot that I really like putting those on a metal or wood cover. Kind of like the album that I brought up with Steve that we can see later. Does that help? All right, so what we really what I really wanted to show here is that critiquing albums really helps us shoot. Right? So we did a live album critique on, and, uh, lesson seven is going to be all about albums of profit centre. Right? So I would like to say thank Ben Hartley. Let's give him a hand for volunteering. That was great. But here is the homework, right? And this is this is what we all hate to dio, right? Go back and critique ourselves. So pull up some old albums collapsible old album designs and really critique them and find out ways that we can improve. We do it with our images all the time, right? As we're as we're calling our wedding images. And as we're processing our wedding images were always thinking to ourselves All I can make this better next time, right? I can make this better next time fight. Do my off camera flash this way. Or if I'm used this lens instead of this lens I can really improve that shot. We have to do the same thing with our albums. I go back, and as we do our album designs, go back and review them at the end of the year and say, Oh, how can I make my designs my albums better next year suggest sort of getting together with your buddies and critiquing it? Sure, you have your brave soul exactly getting grab your albums designs and get together and and maybe some to Keelan loosen it up. Eso Everybody's a little freer to share, shall we say?
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with RSVP
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
Linda Allen
I loved this class! I love Andrew's philosophy of storytelling through print and I see the importance of conveying this message to our photography clients. Thanks Andrew and Creative Live for a wonderful class!
a Creativelive Student
In the digital age, selling albums to clients have changed dramatically. I want to change that viewpoint back to where it was before. Andrew Funderburg teaches how much a tangible print is valued more than any other form. This class is great for anyone who is looking to build albums to share your clients' story because it puts an entirely new perspective on the entire process from the day you meet your client to the delivery. There are so many tips that you can use to create the perfect album for your client, efficiently, and effectively. There are so many tips and tricks that Fundy teaches and I'm so ecstatic to put these tips to use. Thank you Fundy!
Tricia
I loved this. I loved hearing his philosophy about what he does, and he's quietly passionate about his work. This was a great class, and I'll be able to have those ideas in mind when I shoot, and (hopefully) have a better/quicker/smoother outcome in the end.