Wedding Album Templates or Software

[jerrybsmith]

I am looking for templates or software to build high end albums with. I want to be able to layer images, produce panoramas and more. I know I can build pages in Photoshop but I'd rather buy something than build it. The pages will typically be sent to Asuka or Graphistudio. Any suggestions?

[AJW390]

My favorite program is YSI (You Select It). The cost is $495 but the time I would have had in making all the templates they have available would have costed me A LOT more than that. Plus you can also buy more templates down the road if you need more.

[Unkl Buck]

Yervant makes a good one.

[Mark McCall]

YSI is my favorite too. All drag and drop.
Has one outstanding feature. It creates PSD layered documents from your composites, then renames the layer the image is on to match the image number. Waaay cool.

Very fast. Pricey, but time is money. Paid for itself VERY quickly.

Also does senior composites, birth announcements, ect.

[clarebear]

i use candid 2000 for my lab, they have a design software that you can download when you make an account. i think it is pretty snazzy, but im not an expert by any means.

clare

[Unkl Buck]

I've found FotoFusion and Photoshop to be a good team.

[KellyL]

I just purchased YSI after I played with the trial version last night. I can not even begin to describe how great it is. I was afraid that my creativity would be limited due to the templates. So far I have only built albums by tedious manipulation in PS. I am thrilled that I will still be able to maintain my creativity, building on the thousands of templates available. EASY to learn. EASY to use. AND Mark is so correct. Exporting a layered file to photshop is nothing but a dream. VERY HAPPY with this software.

[Mark McCall]

Kelly,
I used to worry about the creative process being taken out of the design too...but with YSI, every template is editable.
Every opening can be expanded, contracted, moved or deleted once the PSD has been exported.

I travel quite extensively, talk to a lot of photographers on the road. I hear the same thing over and over.....
"Every client is different, so I want every album to be different, so I design each one in PS individually".

This makes absolutely no business sense...unless your paying a college student $10 an hour or less to design that book in PS for you.
Nothing wrong with wanting to create an artisan look in your books, but I know very few affluent artists, but I know a quite a few affluent photographers who happen to be good business people.

Album design software does one thing...speed up the process, which makes you more money in the long run....AND it does it without every album looking the same.

That being said, my designer (using YSI), will use the same template for the first dance series of shots. She'll use the same template for the cake cutting.
Client A does not know what client B's album looks like....only YOU know that.

[KellyL]

Mark...

You are SO right. I am blown away by the versatility of this software. The possiblities seem quite endless...and I have only been using it for four hours.

[KellyL]

I just finished designing my first album using YSI. Not only did I find the program so versatile and user friendly, but even though a template says it is laid out for a vertical book, the dimensions can be changed and the vertical pages can be used for a square book as well. This creates endless possibilities for album design.

You can view my first YSI album here: Anthony and Kristine Brent

I know it still looks a bit amateurish, but I am learning.

[gordonell]

I don't know about amateurish, I think it's very nice job well done.

[KellyL]

Thanks Gordon! I put a lot of hours into that book, and I want my bride to be happy with it. They were a delightful couple with whom to work.

[adf]

Hi,

We have just set up a new forum and have 1400 Photoshop Templates available free when you join. We have also created tutorials to teach you how to use the templates to create albums. Album Design Forum

Thanks.

Max

[hotrod4x5]

Originally Posted by KellyL

I just finished designing my first album using YSI. Not only did I find the program so versatile and user friendly, but even though a template says it is laid out for a vertical book, the dimensions can be changed and the vertical pages can be used for a square book as well. This creates endless possibilities for album design.

You can view my first YSI album here: Anthony and Kristine Brent

I know it still looks a bit amateurish, but I am learning.

Very nice first effort! 76 pages?!? Who are you having print it? did the package include that large an album, or did they go over? I offer 30 page albums, anything over is extra $$.

[hotrod4x5]

[QUOTE=adf;490621]Hi,

We have just set up a new forum and have 1400 Photoshop Templates available free when you join. We have also created tutorials to teach you how to use the templates to create albums. Album Design Forum

Thanks.

Max[//QUOTE]
1400? what's the catch?

[adf]

Hi,

There is no catch. I just know how hard it can be to create your first digital albums. And I remember how hard it was trying to find templates or advice when I first started doing them. This is basically the product that I was looking for when I started. These are the templates we created and used when designing our own wedding albums.

Then when we decided to sell our templates we did a survey of all the popular album companies and worked out the most popular sizes. We had an average of around 165 layout designs in all and we released them in 10 different sizes. Overall theres just over 1400 templates.

Half of the layouts are mix 'n match so you can take a design at one side of the spread, add a photo background or mix in another layout. The other half are full spread layouts. We also have a video series to teach how its done.

And we just released a new series of videos that teach how to do layouts from scratch and how to create your own templates.

We have the templates available on our Album Design Forum and there's a DVD for sale on Ebay. This is a genuinely honest product and if it's not what we say it is then we do have a full money back guarantee.

Thanks

Max

[KellyL]

Rodney,

I offer a forty page album but I overdesign. The BG decide what they want to take out and get it down to 40. If they don't want to take anything out, then the price of the album goes up.

[adf]

Hi,
Thats getting to be a common way of doing things these days. Gary Fong suggests it in his Getting Rich DVD. He suggests that instead of giving proofs why not give a full album with all the images and then get the couple to design it down to what they can afford. Possibly a controversial technique but as Gary Fong says, its a technique for getting rich!

Personally I am a fan of limiting the number of weddings I shoot so that I can spend as much time as needed on album. I give my couples unlimited revisions... and yes sometimes it does end up taking over a year to come up with a finished product.

By the way, as this thread is about album design software Gary Fong does have some album design actions on his site too. They are demonstrated on his DVD.

Cheers

Max

[hotrod4x5]

Originally Posted by KellyL

Rodney,

I offer a forty page album but I overdesign. The BG decide what they want to take out and get it down to 40. If they don't want to take anything out, then the price of the album goes up.

Who do you use for printing and binding? I like tuscany, I don't think they will go as large as 76 pages.

[KellyL]

Currently I offer Asuka...awesome look...and am branching out to Graphistudio.