Premium Wedding Photobooks!

Preserve Those Memories

I added this feature to the plethora more than a year ago on much demand. It's high time I told you about it - Printed Wedding Albums! I didn't realize that in today's modern digital world of photography, people still value prints.

I am getting them done at Canvera - the only place I trust to get the results I wish to achieve.

The day a representative from the Canvera head-office, here, in Bangalore, visited me to show me the various products they print for wedding photographers across the country, I decided to add albums to the services I offer my clients. Sanjay Srinivas praised Canvera services and product quality like any sales representative would brag about his company but when he showed me the product samples he had brought along, I was bowled over.

The Premium Flush-Mount Canvera Albums are my personal favorite and I usually recommend those with a hard cover in eco-friendly leather to my clients if they are ready to shell out that extra bit for a wedding album that is classy, sturdier and more durable with the Fujifilm Archive Lustre paper that the images are printed on. The photo album is well fabricated, well printed; well bound and very well stitched. Neat; absolutely elegant!

 

In case you don't have any clue about paper types or printing, I would add here that Archive paper helps preserve photo prints for longer (much much longer than regular prints). And, Canvera prints their Flush-Mount Albums only on this type of paper, which explains the price they come for. What's more? All Canvera albums come with a quality certificate.

Here are some pictures of what I am talking about

I have a thing for squares, be it a canvas I am painting or the album I am designing. I like the 10"x10" and 12"x12" sizes the best. I could design a rectangular album in A4 or other sizes that Canvera has to offer, like most wedding albums you would have seen. But, I feel, somehow, squares are more convenient to handle and don't open into long sheets that don't even fit your lap. They don't tire your arm while you are trying to hold the left side tilted up to balance it or to make sure it doesn't hit the person sitting beside you in the couch. The best way to enjoy the flush-mount albums is to lay them flat on a table, but, usually they always end up in our laps!

That said, some clients don't like squares as much as I do; I always check with them before I proceed with the order and start designing their album. My clients usually trust me with photo selection and layout design. I, personally, am not a very big fan of all the extra graffiti and/or animated (or even realistic snow, rain, sunshine) backgrounds that conventional studio guys end up adding to all those 'Karishma' Albums they make these days.  I wouldn't place the couple on a swing or a snow background that didn't exist at the venue. Any unrealistic manipulation with the original wedding set is a complete no with me.

I design albums depending upon the clients' preferences. If the client is looking at a clean, uncluttered album and does not mind an album with full page spreads of portraits and close-ups and nothing else, I use large (or full-page) size images in an album. However, if the client is looking at a complete album that showcases all ceremonies with the smallest of details recorded so the viewer is content that he has witnessed the wedding (more so if he had missed the actual event), I use a mix of images- large and small. My albums never look monotonous. Each page has its own charm with a different layout.

Canvera also offers other styles including Luxury albums with custom half-acrylic (front), half-eco-leather (back) cover and textured paper/ cloth covers and jackets.

The only request I have is Canvera adds some stylized fonts to their directory for hot foil stamping on eco-leather covers. I always check in case they have added more fonts before placing an order for an eco-leather hard cover album. Sigh! No luck yet! I add the bride's and groom's names on the first page instead in a fancy wedding font.

As far as the costs go - they start at 4500 and can go up to 50000, depending upon the paper type, binding technique etc.

Here are a few pictures of an album Canvera printed for me last month. I love the brown leatherette cover they provide; of course, they have got more to pick from - a vibrant red, green, black, orange and a light brown which is closer to fawn (i have a shot of this one too here to give you an idea of the colour).

I don't even remember the number of albums I have seen that portray weddings in an unnatural, exaggerated style that I find hilarious; and these at some of the top studios and wedding exhibitions in Bangalore & New Delhi. I have tried getting simple prints at some leading studio chains in Bangalore - rotten colours!

Canvera comes closest to the international standard, classy albums I see being offered by photographers in the US, UK or Europe. I am soon going to place another order for my own sample album to show to my clients (Seriously, dg? You don't have a hard copy of your work yet? Well, it's never too late!) Thanks to Canvera for building my confidence in printing my photos; I want to have this done.

I have found the perfect service. Finally!

Here is the link to my photography profile on the Canvera website:

http://photographers.canvera.com/south/karnataka/bangalore/divya-gupta-photography