An Awesome Album Workflow

Option #1: Albums can be super duper easy and profitable with an awesome workflow.

Option #2: Albums can be insanely frustrating, take up a TON of time, and eat up your profits with an inefficient workflow.

I don’t know about you, but the first option sounds a lot better to me. So let’s do that.

You need to create an awesome album workflow for yourself. The is the step-by-step process that keeps your album creation fast and organized.

There’s a catch. Like pretty much everything in photography, workflow is personal. What works for one person won’t work for the other. The more you can consider your own unique circumstances, methods, and preferences when defining your workflow, the stronger it will be!

Don’t worry though. It’s pretty easy. Simply think about your album process, write down all of your steps, start to finish, and see if there are any spots where you could be more efficient!

I’ve designed a ton of albums, made lots of mistakes, and figured out ways to ensure I was using my time wisely. This is my workflow. Hopefully it inspires and helps you create your own! (If you want to learn a whole lot more about creating albums, check out our easy-to-follow tutorial!)

Note: I use InDesign for album design, Lightroom for photo editing, and Photoshop for retouching! Three awesome programs, with specific uses!

What Is Awesome Workflow?

First, what makes a workflow awesome? Here’s what it needs:

• It’s fast: You need to be able to create an album in a reasonable amount of time to make it profitable. If you’re using InDesign, and have created some custom templates for yourself, you should be designing a 15 spread album in well under an hour (I take about 30 min to get the thing done and ready to show to the client by using my own templates, lots of shortcuts, and focused attention)
• It’s efficient: You need to be doing things like retouching only when it makes the most sense (as in, after the design has been approved!) No time wasters allowed.
• It’s complete: Don’t leave out important parts, like sharpening or retouching! They need to happen, so make sure you have them slotted in to your workflow, and know exactly when you’ll do them
• It’s flexible: Great design comes from the ability to experiment, and make changes on the fly. Make sure your workflow allows for lots of creativity in the design process (like trying out a few different photo combinations until you find the right one!)
• It’s fun: Designing albums should be fun. You’re taking your favourite images, and putting them together to tell a story! With an efficient workflow you’ll be able to enjoy the process without taking up a ton of your time!

 So are you ready for a workflow that fills all those needs??? Are you???????

The Workflow

1. Edit Your Photos

Make sure you’ve already chosen the final set of images that you’ll be presenting to the client. You can’t design the album until that’s all done! Then edit them. Use Lightroom for maximum speed and consistency (Want to learn how? Check out our tutorial!). Get them to a finished state, except for cosmetic retouching.

2. Pre-Design The Album

This is where the magic happens. Go ahead and design the album exactly as you would like, without any client input. Don’t worry about length, just make it tell the full story. Designing this way saves time, since you can just go with the flow. It also helps you create the best album possible since you can choose the perfect images to tell the story. There’s no pressure and no constraints, so it’s crazy fun.

3. Proof

Show the album to your clients. In-person is best, so you can talk them through your choices, and show them a sample album to get them excited. Or, if it needs to be online, you can use the Lightroom Web Gallery function to show the album spreads in a handy slideshow. It’s easy to make, easy to share, and doesn’t cost anything if you already use Lightroom. However you do it, just make sure they can see it in all it’s glory!

4. Make Edits

Now that your client has had a chance to see your pre-design, they might have a few edits. Use InDesign, and this process is literally drag and drop simple. This stage shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes.

5. Get Approval

Once you’ve finished all the editing, and they’re happy with the design, get your client to confirm that the album is good to go. Double check that they’re approving the right version to avoid frustrating (and costly) reprints.

6. Retouch

Now that you know exactly which images made the final cut, go ahead and retouch them. Saving your retouching until this point ensures that you aren’t retouching photos that wind up being taken out of the album. Retouching takes a fair amount of time, so make sure you’re using that time effectively. You’ll want to use Photoshop and get yourself a tablet for fast retouching. Use the Autoloader script for Photoshop to fly through all the images.

7. Export

The album is super spiffy, so it’s time to export the files for printing. There’s a ton of debate about this stage (different versions of InDesign handle JPEG exporting differently), but right now the InDesign wizards recommend exporting as a high res PDF, and then pulling out JPEGS in Photoshop for the absolute best file quality.

8. Sharpen

All images benefit from a little touch of sharpening before print. Sharpening the final spread lets you control the consistency and amount of sharpening based on final image size.

9. Check

Go through all the finished files one last time to check them over. Make sure none of the images are pixelated, that everything is lined up properly, that your files are numbered correctly, that any dates are correct, and that everything is spelled correctly. A few minutes here will ensure you don’t make mistakes that cost you profit.

10. Submit To Printer

You’re a smarty pants, I don’t need to explain this step to you. :)

11. Check

When the album comes back from the printer, be sure to give it a thorough check for mistakes and defects. If you live in a climate with humidity issues (like the insanely dry climate of Edmonton!) you might want to give your album a few days to acclimatize before giving it to the client.

12. Package

Make that album look pretty, print out an album care sheet, and include a hand written thank you card. Any other little treats that you can add here are great for impressing your clients, and creating an awesome experience.

12. Deliver

If you can deliver the album by hand, that’s prime. Otherwise try to make sure to give it some TLCin packaging so it’s still a great experience for the client!

Does your album workflow look different? Do you have any tips for creating amazing albums efficiently? Share them below!