Just a few years ago, a recently married couple would expect their wedding album to be a collection of single images, one 10x10 on a page, followed by another 10x10. The leather-bound book would be a very serious depiction of the affair.
What a difference a few years make.
What led to the change? First, there was the advent of 35mm photography, which increased the number of shots on a roll of film from only 12 to 36. Recently digital photography has increased the number of photos further. Then there came the new trend in photography we know today as the "photojournalistic style." With more emphasis on candid and spontaneous moments and a de-emphasis on static portraiture, there has been an explosion of images.
With these new elements in the wedding photography mix, the whole way of styling wedding albums has undergone an enormous transformation. Taking their cues from the world of magazine and graphic design, photographers began creating books that express the same level of creativity as the photography itself. Photographer-designers now use multiple images on a page and include pictures that are floating over other pictures, turned to sepia or blue, blown-up into giant panoramas, half-panoramas, or even mock-panoramas.
Things can get a little complicated, and it's good for a newly married couple to have some familiarity with the different types of wedding albums before they begin the daunting but extremely pleasurable task of working with their photographer to create their own unique document. Here is a brief description of some of the options:
The Slip-in album contains photographs that are taped behind a thin paper matte, and this combination of photo and matte is then slipped into a page. The page itself may be slipped into an album or permanently bound into an album.
Bound Albums: There are two types of bound albums. A Flush album contains photographs that fill the entire page. It has one picture permanently pressure-glued per page. A Matted or Reversible album has photographs permanently pressure-glued on a page and surrounded by a matte. With the surface of the picture slightly below the surface of the matte, the pictures on facing pages never touch each other. A page can have one matted opening or four openings. In addition, a matted opening can be carefully laid out to hold more than one image, allowing the creative photographer to put as many as a dozen pictures into one opening. It is called "reversible" because the same page can handle either a vertical or horizontal picture.
Digital or Coffee Table Albums: The latest designs bring together elements from the flush and reversible books, combined with graphic design techniques from the publishing world. The result has been books with many more pictures per page and details that were previously unavailable to the wedding public. A single image can seem cast a shadow over another picture. Now a series of photographs of dancing guests can be placed against a background made from a picture of the bride's bouquet. A page can be carefully laid out with scores of small pictures that look as if they were thrown onto the page. The photographs may sit in a matte or be flush to the edge of the traditional thick wedding album page. Some albums are printed on thin book-type paper.
These many new design elements can add dramatically to an album's ability to tell a story. The best albums contain surprises . . . the right amount of surprises. Here is an important rule: A wedding album should not be overly designed. It is tempting to throw every technique into it. But instead of being a beautiful storybook with carefully planned out surprises at just the right moments, an overly done album crammed with one dramatic effect after another dilutes the visual impact of each effect. This is where good taste and artfulness come into play. The sequence of pictures in a book must have the right tempo. Balance is essential. A series of simple, dignified pages sets up a more elaborate "surprise" page. An album with a surprise on every page lacks subtlety and has no sense of timing; it is like a musical piece in which every note is played super loud. Working with the couple, the photographer lets the photographs inspire him or her to create a book that presents all the moods, the rituals, the action, and the faces in an exciting, artistic representation of the wedding.
The goal in designing a great wedding album is to create a document--a family heirloom really--that artfully tells the story of an amazing day in the life of a couple.
