Picking Pictures for your album

I am starting to pick the pictures for my album.
How many pictures did you put in of just yourself? DH?

How about candids and fun dancing/action shots..did you find yourself using a lot of those? I love so many of my candids but it seems like DH is leaning on traditional shots. Our parents both picked mostly posed shots although my mom seemed to like the candids better. She just felt like she needed certain posed shots to represent everything in the night.

Anyone do anything cool or different..that I can recommend to my photographer? I have my appointment on Wednesday!

Re: Picking Pictures for your album

This is why we have 80 in our album, and not the 50 we booked with!

I may have only 1 of just me alone, and 1 of just DH, but many pics of us together. I considered adding a few pics of our close friends dancing at the reception, but they were taken out at the studio - they told us the album is about us, not them! LOL My DH didn't care for the candids as much as I did, but I still had many thrown in. There are a few good dancing shots as well.

My mom's album is almost entirely traditional, but with only 24 pics, you really just have enough for the traditional pictures.....

Re: Picking Pictures for your album

I have 3 of me alone (2 of those are on a composite page).

We really like the dancing candids, so we have 2 of us dancing, our parents dancing and me dancing with dad. So 5 candid dancing pics. We didn't include shots of our friends dancing - there was only 1 good one I was considering, but for that to be the only one it seemed strange.

We have a pretty good combination of posed with candids, probably more posed only because we have more of those (and needed to represent the families in the group shots)

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just one of me...and one of DH alone...I don't like myself alone in pictures...

there are tons of us together...of course...like teri said...its an album about you...not your friends...you can put your proofs into an album and look at that when you want to look at your friends...

as for candids....we had quite a few...but like in the dancing pics...we put 4 to a page...

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Boy, I must love myself b/c I have 6 pics of me alone and only one of DH alone! My photographer was very into showcasing the Bride in the album. Originally, I had only chosen 1 or 2 pics of me, but when we went to the studio to finalize the album, he was like 'C'mon, these are beautiful...how can you leave them out?'

In the end, I'm glad I listened to him b/c there's some shots of me up close, so you can see the detail in my dress, headpiece, bouquet...another shot is just of my hands folded behind my back - it shows the detail of my dress, and the buttons. Then there are others that are more about the scenery/environment, and those are beautiful too.

As far as candids, I have 10 shots of guests partying on the dance floor. I definitely wanted to include some shots that conveyed what a great party it was, so I put a high importance on those. But, they are grouped onto 2-3 pages with 3-4 pics on a page.

You really have to decide what you want in your album, and not let other people sway you based upon what is in their albums. Like someone else said, they don't like the way they photograph, so that's why she didn't put more pics of herself alone. Everyone has different comfort levels in pics. If you really love certain shots, put them in if you have room!

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Thanks girls...I never really paid too close attention to books I have seen so I want to compare what I am doing to others.

I feel like I have so many pictures of me alone and to pick one may be hard...Maybe I can do one full length and one closer up.

I have a lot of candids but I think most of my favorites are with Lou and myself not really of friends..so I definitely will try to get those in there. Like someone said, I want the pictures to portray what a great, fun time we had and I think those candids do that best. I can definitely see us going over the 50 limit as well...

I like what someone said that the album is about us...my DH and I were picking out our baby pictures for the video and he kept wanting to pick ones with family and stuff. I said one or two is ok but these pictures should be about us...and growing up thru the years He didn't seem to understand that..but that is just how is family is. In his mom's album, I think she picked at least 5 of her 24 pictures of the sister with someone...I think she may have picked as many of the sister as I am in! To each their own, I guess! I just want DH to understand this album is what we like not what other people think we should put in their to make them happy!

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I haven chosen my photos yet but I know that I wont put many (if any at all) of posed photos. I just dont like them and I dont think they 'tell the story' of the day very well.

Keeping with that thought, the only photos I'll include that have just me in them will be candids.

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I started doing my album on Saturday and here is what I learned. You need to consider how the album flows, not just the photos you like. (Again, I didn't really do that before my meeting with the photographer).
My advise is to go to your photographer with a 'must include' and 'I like these' photos. Then work with him/her to put the entire album together. Mark Kauffman saw things that I didn't see, since he has the experience. He would say, 'You are missing something here Michele' and he was right, I was. Also, I am grouping the reception dance shots together (like Claud) to show the 'action' of the reception.
Sometimes photos that you don't think you really like, look great when grouped properly.

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michele31 is absolutely right when it comes to the photographer really helping put together the album's 'flow'...mine was the same way. It's one thing to do chronological, but it's a whole other to group certain shots together.

that said, I wanted to also mention that you should put aside your 'must have' pics for the album, and then your 'maybe' pics, but you should also bring ALL of your proofs to the design meeting. your photographer may have other ideas that you hadn't considered, and it's good to have all the photos on hand. just an idea...

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I think everything has been said, but I will say the photographer does help, Lia is unbiased and she sees things that we did not. We loved her creativity and the way she let our album flow. We have a few of me, a few of hubby the must have parent/family shots, the cake, then followed by the partying, then a couple more of us. It will all fall into place

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Thanks guys. DH and I managed to pick all our pictures last night. We didn't think we could do it in one night and did! We were so happy. All we have to do is kind of put them in an order.

I did exactly the way michele31 suggested (and I didn't even read this to this morning but thanks!). I made 2 piles Must have and maybe. My must haves is a little over the 50 pictures - so I think I am on target!

We didn't go crazy ordering them because I have a feeling when I meet with them, they will change a lot. My brother had his appointment 2 weeks ago (same photographer) and said it took over 4 hours and they were very detailed. They changed so much around and like michele said they caught things my brother and his wife didn't realize. I would expect my experience would be the same!

Thanks for your help and I will let you know how it goes.

Re: Picking Pictures for your album

good luck niecey!

Re: Picking Pictures for your album

We wound up with 73 pics in our album. I prefer candid and photojournalistic style. DH liked both. MIL preferred traditional poses and complained about all the pics that the photog did not take and how she could not see 'poeple's faces'. You cannot please everyone!!! As for unusual pictures, we had a montage of some beautiful photojournalistic shots in our album. Pictures of our rings, my flowers and jewlery, even my hair. The other unusual thing we did was to include a picture that was not taken by the photographer. It was a panoramic shot of the reactions of my bridal party's faces as we saw each other for the first time right before the ceremony. Since it was scanned on a disk, they were able to include it. Our photographer also made some of our color photos into B&W at no extra charge.

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Oh, Claud I brought ALL the photos with me and I also used a few shots that I never thought of using before.
I agree the album is about 'us' but I also am including a photos of family and friends. Those people are part of 'us' too. ANd the detail shots! I included some important detail photos- that helped to make our day special.

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So thank you guys for all your help. I had my appointment last night. I went in with 58 defintes after spending so much time cutting it down to 58. I am allowed 50 in my album. Well, after meeting with the lady, next thing you know she is adding pictures she thinks we should but in and I now am over 70 and now she has me convinced I can't leave certain pictures out! So we cut it to 68 including one composite page of 4 'artistic' shots...that I originally did not include. It was so funny..thank goodness my DH rec'd his bonus yesterday and was in a generous mood.

But then we picked out 5x7's and 8x10's and stuff and that was fun because she threw in a lot of extras so we were happy. I can't wait to see the proof!

PS I wound up with only 2 of me by myself..a closeup and full length shot. She had added at least 2 more but I cut myself! I also put in a bunch of tradional posed shots but at least 10 candids (she kept trying to add the more traditional shots and I kept leaning to the candids.) She told me she had a bride once who had over 100 pictures in her album. She had volume one and volume 2. That same bride picked about 30 pictures of just herself! Can you imagine?

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I have seen sample albums that are 2 vols. I think if you have a very large wedding you have more reception shots that you 'just-have' to include.
Right now my album is about 80 pages (some pages have more than 1 photo on some pages) but I have another appt. on 1/31 to make some more decisions.

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If I had money to burn i would love to have 2 albums (maybe one color, one b*w or one traditional, one digital layout). Unfortunetely, Im not spending another fortune so one will have to do.