Do It Myself Wedding Albums

Hi all. Just wanted to share a couple of images of my new fine art

albums now that I've ironed out the production bugs. Prints are made

on Archers HP 140lb paper on a Epson 7600 and bound in a selection of

materials. All pages are independantly hinged and glued in the

regular book binding fashion. Makes for a very real alternative and

is another example of in house control that inkjet printing allows us

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Philip, I have been looking to do something like this myself. Do you have any extra resources about how to get started in making your own books: web sites, books, magazines?

 

I would really appreciate it.

 

Jeremy Moore

 

ps: that album looks phenomenal

Ahhhh�.it�s Art! I love it! Beauty!

 

The antagonist in me wants to know how archival your materials are? Chrome based inks on an Epson XXX�s are mediocre unless treated with UV protectants, and I�ve no knowledge of your paper type? Shooting from the hip best guess is 30 yrs before degradation? Wedding pix standard is 60 yrs? Please prove me wrong!

Beautiful album.

 

Philip, do you print more than one page on the 7200 at a time, or one at a time?

 

One reason I've not looked deeper into this technique is that the pages do not lay flat like

they do with the wedding album I currently use. I noticed that you said they were

independently hinged, but the photo looks like the pages still don't lay flat.

 

Also, do you capture the costs back for the work that is necessary for such a custom

album? What's your time investment for these if I could ask?

 

William, I thought the 7600 was just a big version of the 2200 and used pigment based

inks, which on matte paper should have a life of 60-80 years if any of the hype is to be

believed (providing the materials are properly stored). If my previous art experiences hold

up, Archers papers are usually pretty archival.

I don't know about building my own ever working as well as that looks. Great Album, shows/sells well i would bet?

Album looks terrific - more details please on construction. Has anyone here looked into the Stonehinge system for self-made albums on inkjets? If so, please comment. I really want to produce single and multiple image pages in storybook fashion, then bind them somehow. But the current book binding vendors, like White Glove Books, are just to expensive for my market.

Hi all and thankyou for your kind comments. To answer your questions: As far as resources, I took a cheap $10.00 proof album and dismantled it. Once I could see the concept I went about building my own from 100% archive materials. The covers are dry mounted (need a vaccum dry mount press, or you can use an iron if you are careful). The pages are bone knifed and back folded for extra support and glued together. The hard part is registration of the pages which I had to deliberate over 3 weeks before I could come up with the answer.

The Q. regarding page flatness is overcome because each page is independantly hinged, i.e, it is seperated from the glued portion by the tape which in the case of the example is a velour type material. Printing is a different kettle of fish and as for the workflow, to first full production model was about 3MONTHS!! After many tests with different paper types (each having a profile written) I settled on offering 2 versions, 1. Archers HP 140lb mould made paper with deckle and 2. Archers Infinity which is a brighter white but without the deckle as it is not a mould made paper. It's very similar to Somerset velvet but of course neither paper is coated. I'm printing on a full 22"x30" sheet per page and trimming later in the production. I've so far produced 13 albums, only 3 from the last 3 clients I worked for in fall of 2003 but 5 remakes for past clients who absolutely had to have one. That beats any reprint order for sure and especially as I'd already given the negs to the clients (have you ever had negs back from a client, jeeze do they let the cat sleep on them or what? The remainder have been for other photographers. I am currently working on a version which is to be 20" x 28" and will consist of 50 16" x 20" prints. I think I'll need a crane to take it out of the studio. LOL.

Scott, the Stone product is quite nice but expensive. It's fairly cheaply made but does look very good when put together. You would be best served to get a profile made for the paper to get best results but I do a fine art photog friend who prints on a 2200 and uses the color adjustment technique by altering the CMYK and Hue Sat within the printer driver. He usually nails the print by he third proof. This is also a terrific way to show your work to galleries or portrait clients etc,. Good luck with it.