Anthony Turnham | Photographer

Five mistakes to avoid when designing a wedding album

Wedding album design can be hard to get right. But there are many ways to make a wedding album stand out, stand the test of time, and stand tall amongst your competitors. But unfortunately there are just as many ways that you can design a wedding album that really look awful.  Below I take a look at what I consider to be five of the biggest mistakes in wedding album design. This is by no means an exhaustive list…

1. Using unsightly graphical elements.
The wedding album should be about the amazing photography you captured for your clients so it can re-tell the story of their day for many years to come – not the latest flourish, swirly pattern or drop shadow that you think looks cool. The more graphical elements you add to the album, the more you take away from your photography, and the more chance you give the album to date. In terms of graphic design, something you think looks great, may not appeal to the eye of your client. Let your photography wow them.

2. Overdoing Photoshop processing techniques
I believe that the photos within an album should speak for themselves.  Too often the effects that are applied to a photo can overwhelm the image itself. Photographers tend to over process images to make up for the fact that it was a bad photo in the first place. This isn’t really a fix. If the image wasn’t good in the first place then it shouldn’t find its way into the album. Photoshop should be used as an enhancement tool to make good photos even better.

3. Using patterned backgrounds
I’m a big fan of the ‘less is more’ philosophy when it comes to wedding album design. Rookie wedding album designers, and couples that go the ‘do-it-yourself’ approach often fall into the trap of using garish and hideous backgrounds just because that option is there. Keeping your album to plain white or black backgrounds without patterns lets the photography standout without having to compete against the underlying pattern. Pure and simple wedding album designs will stand the test of time. You may think that the pattern you have chosen in this season’s latest colours looks great, but just consider how that is going to look when you pull the album out in 10, 20 or 40 years time.

4. Trying to be too contemporary
Using all the latest tricks and techniques in album design may look wonderfully modern today. But what about tomorrow?  It’s not too hard to find online examples of wedding albums that were made just a few years ago, but because of the techniques that the photographer used to give it a modern feel, it now looks hideously out of date.  When I look at albums like this the first thing I notice are these designs. Shouldn’t the first thing that I notice be the photography?

5. Not telling the story of the wedding day
The wedding album serves as the ultimate record of the wedding day. By careful consideration of the images that are included and also with respect to their chronology (the order in which they were taken) the photographer / album designer is able to tell the story of the wedding day.  The bride and groom should be able to relive their wedding day through your album. Through the sequence of the album let the couple be transported back and feel the emotion they felt on their special day.

Know of any wedding album no-no’s that bug you?  Leave a comment and let me know. Thanks for reading.

It seems there is never to long stretch of time in between when I experience bad customer service. I am a Brit working as a professional photographer in New Zealand, and they tell me that the Kiwis are renowned for excellent customer service.  I beg to differ. Unfortunately bad customer service seems to be prevalent throughout all industries, and despite what the Kiwis seem to believe, New Zealand is no exception. These bad customer experiences inevitably leave a very sour taste in the mouth and sully the relationship that business may have had with you.

In the past two days I’ve had two bad experiences with two separate companies. Both well-known and both industry leaders within their fields, and both situations could have been resolved with a simple word from their staff member. Sorry. It’s such an easy thing to do to take ownership of a problem, fess up, and say sorry. Yet so often it is overlooked. Usually if the customer or client is reasonable, they’ll be understanding and let it go, appeased by your apology.

The first experience was just a simple human error that resulted in a pretty embarrassing experience for me. I phoned my bank to set up a new interest-bearing account and to transfer the funds I had sat in another account along with the corresponding Visa debit card. The admin clerk was pleasant and actioned the changes for me in a timely manner. All good. So I believed.

It was later that evening when I met some friends and family in a bar to celebrate the recent birth of a baby girl in our family. After ordering the first round I went to pay with my Visa debit card. Declined. Hmm.. okay, no problem I’ll just try my other account. Declined. I had a Homer Simpson D’oh! moment and then realised that the amenable Kiwibank clerk was not so proficient with the execution of her duties, leaving me with a rather red face and several beers that I couldn’t pay for and potentially the rest of the evening drinking water. Not really what you want when you’ve made the effort to go out to a bar.

I phoned Kiwibank first thing this morning to rectify the situation. A simple “Sorry” and the correction of the card issue and that would have been the end of the matter. Instead, I am writing this blog post annoyed and frustrated that the lady on the phone this morning did not acknowledge the situation or say sorry. Yes, she actions what she needed to do in her system, but she did not put the situation right. She didn’t do what she needed to do with her customer. She didn’t say sorry.

Skip forward a couple of hours and yet another high profile company fell well short of the mark when it came to putting right something they messed up. After taking my boy to a live performance of The Gruffalo (which was awesome by the way) we went to McDonald’s for a treat. Unfortunately the only thing I was treated to was some first grade bad customer service. And it was this that prompted me to write this article.

Whilst playing with my two year old boy on the McPlayground (who knows if it’s really called this? But if it’s not… it probably should be) the overzealous staff member tending to the area cleaned away the best part of a $23 meal – the remainder of which I was taking home for my wife. I politely explained that she had binned my meal only to be frowned at questionably and then asked “what was in there?”.  She then abruptly turned and walked away. About five minutes later another staff member brought over the food.  “Sorry about that” she said. Well done, I thought, gold star for you. However, I was left wondering about the lady who actually threw the food away in the first place. Why did she not bring the replacement food out to me? Where was her acknowledgement of the extra five minutes I had to stand around kicking my heels waiting for it? Where was her accountability?

So how does all this relate to photography? Well, in exactly the same way it relates to every single business out there. All people make mistakes.  Businesses are made of people.  Therefore businesses make mistakes. But that’s just the way it is and most reasonable customers accept this and will usually be quite understanding of a mistake if the individual representing the business holds up their hands and says the simple words “I’m sorry”.  Of course this isn’t the end of it – the business in question there needs to put it right. Basically it’s a simple formula:

1. Acknowledge the problem.

2. Showing empathy, apologise to the customer or client.

3. Take ownership of the situation.

4. Let the customer know that you will put things right.

5. Put things right.

6. Follow up with the customer to let them know that you’ve put things right.

7. Customer goes away happy (and returns to your business when they require your product or service again).

As a side note I recommend not just appeasing the customer and putting things right, but also going the extra mile. For example, rather than just replacing the food that was thrown away, had McDonald’s dropped an extra cheeseburger into the bag I would have been delighted.

A recent wedding photography client of mine ordered 200 prints. For one reason or another they made a mistake with their ordering references, so they ended up with some of the wrong photos printed out. They wanted to pay me for the prints they had ordered in error and also purchase the correct ones.  I promptly arranged the replacements and also refused to take payment for the additional prints. The client was absolutely delighted.  And delighted clients spread good karma about your business.  Don’t just satisfy the client, delight them.