Today's post is an excerpt from the book Creative Wedding Album Design with Adobe Photoshop, by Mark Chen. It is available from Amazon.com and other fine retailers.
Designing a wedding album is a form of art, but you must also take the audience into account. After all, it is the newlyweds who will spend hours admiring your work. This actually creates a favorable situation: if we get to know the couple, we will know better what they are looking for. So let’s try to get into the psychology of the clients.
Make sure you showcase the full range of your creativity in your demos, then have your clients go through them. By observing their reactions, you will get a good sense of their taste. Ask them to voice their opinions.
Within limits, you can also have them involved in the creative process. For example, you may want to let the couple choose a certain number of the images that will be used.
Watch closely what they spent time and money on. The bride and groom are the lead characters in the album, but there will also be many supporting roles. If there was a fancy cake, show it off on a page. If the ceremony took place in the most grandiose church in town, make it a centerpiece on another page.
On top of the wedding photographer’s role as an artist, entrepreneur, and Photoshop master, he or she is also in the business of making people happy. You might find this a daunting task. It is. But once you get to know the psychology of your clients, you will have a much better chance of accomplishing the mission.
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