Along with offering Photo Books, photographers are also able to offer Custom Photo Album Design Services through their site.
The Custom Photo Album Design Service gives you the easiest way to purchase professional, high-end photo albums with the minimum amount of effort.
Unlike the Photo Books, the Photo Album Design service handles the entire album design process, from selecting images, cropping the images and selecting page layouts. This way you don't have to design each page of the book yourself.
How it works
- As the client, you would go to your gallery, then click on the Create a Photo Album button.
Then choose from available Album design options, submit the order and pay the nonrefundable fee for album design.
- Our professional designers select the best photos from the gallery. They will then send you selection for your review. The designers then design the album, and send it directly to you for you to review and approve.
- You'll then pick the album sizes and quantities and place your order. The albums are then hand-crafted in the U.S. and shipped directly to you.
Please note that any coupons or gift certificates cannot be applied to the initial album design order or the final physical album order.
How to start an order for the Custom Photo Album Design Service
In your photographer's site, go to the gallery that contains your photos. Click on the Make an Album button.
On the next page, scroll down to Pricing and review the prices of the albums. Please keep in mind that there is a separate $50 album design fee.
Click Get Started to proceed with starting the album order.
Select the cover type for the album that you would like to order. Scroll down to see the Value Album option.
The available options based on the select album cover will be displayed. Make the desired selection. Also enter the text that you would like to print on the cover (if applicable).
Choose the style that you would like applied to the pages inside the album. A preview of the selected style will be displayed. Review the style then click Choose to proceed.
Choose to have the album designer choose the best photos based on the selected album design or choose to use all of the photos from the gallery in the album.
- If you choose to have the designer pick the images, you will still be able to review the selection and select different images if desired.
- If you choose to use all of the images, please note that this can cause duplicate images to be printed in the album and may force the designer to use layouts with smaller images to fit all of the images into the album.
Click OK to acknowledge that it is understood that there is a separate $50 for the album design from the cost of the album.
The album design fee will be added to the cart. Click on Proceed to Checkout to pay for the album design fee.
Within 3-5 business days, you will receive an email with a link to review the photo selection (if that option was selected).
Reviewing and Approving the Photo Album Order
Once the Album Design Fee is paid through the cart, an email will be sent (within 3-5 business days) to you with a link to a page to review the image selections for the book. Your photographer will also receive a copy of this email.
In the image selection page, the images can be selected by checking or unchecking the boxes displayed over the images. Once the selections have been made, the choices can be approved.
Within three business days after confirming the selection, an email will be sent to you with a link to review and approve the album design.
Changes can be requested for up to four spreads (additional revisions are available for only $5).
Please note that a revision is defined as anytime a spread needs to be edited so if three spreads need revisions, it counts as three revisions.
Once you're satisfied with the design, you can approve the album design and order the desired albums. Please allow for up to 15 business days for the production of the custom hand made album
Photo Album Service FAQ
How long does the process take?
The photo selection process takes 2-3 business days. Once you've confirmed and approved the photo selection, the album design takes 3 business days. Once the album is order is placed, please allow for up to 15 business days for the production.
Pricing & Payments
How much do the albums cost?
The albums are given competitive prices even with the additional services and attention given to the albums. The prices of the albums are displayed at the beginning of the design portion of the order when the Make an Album button is clicked. Just go to the gallery and click on the above button.
The order can be safely abandoned at that point if the only goal is to view the prices of the albums. See this portion of the guide for the steps on how to start an order and view the album prices.
Note: Coupons and gift certificates cannot be utilized for the Album Design Service. They are not applicable to either the initial design order or the final physical album order.
Products Offered
What type of albums do you offer?
The Photo Album is a professional quality flush mount album printed on Kodak photographic paper. It’s available in 8x8, 10x10, and 12x12, and smaller sizes for additional copies. The standard pages thickness is similar to a dime but we offer a Thick page upgrade that doubles the thickness. There is also the Value Cover album version with thinner pages. You can choose from 5 different cover styles (plus the Value Album cover) and 20 different leather colors to compliment the cover (does not apply to the Value Cover albums). Each album is handcrafted in the US and will make for a wonderful heirloom.
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What kind of covers can I choose?
We offer 5 different cover types (plus the Value Album cover). The base (non Value) album will come with a photo wrap cover but you can upgrade to have a Leather Spine, Cameo, Full Leather or an Acrylic cover.
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What paper is used?
We only use high quality professional Kodak Endura paper with a Lustre Photographic finish.
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Is the leather real leather or imitation?
All 20 colors offered in our leather collection are genuine top grain cowhide leather with a smooth glove like finish. There is an option for a “vegan” cover material in black only.
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Do the albums have a warranty?
Yes. We stand behind the quality of our products! Should you have an issue with a manufacturing defect, we will repair or replace their album at no charge.
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How is this different from the other Photo Books offerings?
While we offer many products through our Zenfolio partners, only the Custom Photo Album Design Service offers a one-stop-shop solution for you to easily purchase quality albums from your photographer's site. The Photo Album is unique by offering a service to help you select your images and help in designing the album.
This is unlike the Photo Books offerings wherein you are required to manually choose the images, cropping, layout and design for each page in the book.
Lastly the quality of the Photo Albums truly are stunning as each album is hand crafted and is made only of the finest materials such as real leather.
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What options come with the parent albums?
The parent albums are smaller versions of the main album. They feature the same design with a digital replica cover that looks like the main album's cover but is a photo wrap cover instead of leather.
Choosing the Photos
If I let you select the photos, can I change the selection before it’s designed?
Absolutely! They will be able to change the images we selected and add images we didn’t. We won’t start the album design until they finalize the photos they want.
What if I've already picked favorites images by creating Favorites lists?
You will have the option to start an album order using the images you have already selected in your favorites folder.
Designing the Album
Are there different options for design layouts?
We offer 3 different styles for design. The Modern design features faded background images, gradients and borders around the images. The White Classic and Black Classic designs feature spreads without any borders or backgrounds, full bleed images and clean layouts.
What if I do not like the design?
We will work with you to make sure you love their design. Revisions are only $5 after the first 4 spread revisions but in an extreme case we can included some additional revisions at no charge. Please note that a revision is defined as anytime we have to work on a spread so if 3 spreads need revisions, it counts as 3 revisions.
Will my files be color corrected or retouched?
We are not offering color correction or retouching of the images at the moment. We may add it in the future.
Can I design my own album?
This service is designed to help you more easily purchase albums with the minimum amount of effort.
If you would like to design the book yourself, please see if your photographer offers our other Photo Book products.
What is the cost of revisions?
A revision is defined as anytime we have to work on a spread. The first four are free, and they are $5 after that.
Help with the Product
If I need help, who can I call?
There is a direct phone number and email address that you can use reach us for help. This will be displayed during the album design process. Look for the 'Need Help' link.
I'm in a hurry, can the album be rushed?
There are upgraded shipping options to help shorten the transit time. But at this time, it is not possible to apply a special a rush on the album production. This may be added in the future.