Coffee table books and story book album options

A lot of people tend to be confused about Coffee Table Books and Story Book Albums and I often get asked to explain the difference between the two. Some wedding photographers tell clients that the two are the same thing - they're not. They are very similar, and the great thing about the two is that you get to design your layout much like you would in a magazine. Whereas in a tradtional wedding album the photographs are attached to the page, in both the Story Book Album and the Coffee Table Book, the photographs are printed directly onto the page. Which is great for design or adding persoanlised text to the page.

A Coffee Table Book (see the images above in the slideshow) is printed on a thin page (like a coffee table book you'd pick up at a book store). A Story Book Album is printed onto photographic paper and then that individual page is laminated to board. If you think of the thick pages of the story books you had as a child you'll get the idea (and that, incidentally, is where the name comes from). The pages of a Story Book Album will open flat, which is great from a design point of view because you can design across the page and not worry about the curve in the page obscuring the design.

At present you'll see that I don't have pics of Story Book Albums - for quite a while I didn't offer them because I wasn't happy with the quality of local producers. I'm happy to say that that has changed though and so as soon as I get a new order in I'll be updating the images here.

Something to bear in mind when you're deciding on your wedding photographer is that not all Coffee Table Books or Story Book Albums are equal. There are a number of different producers and the quality of their printing, binding and colour fideltiy is not the same. Always ask to see a sample and always check the actual size and number of pages that you'll be getting. This is especially true of Brag Books - a term that seems to cover a multitude of things from small plastic albums to small Story Book Albums. Always check the specifics of these things.

Something else worth looking at: the quality of the design you'll be getting. A lot of wedding photographers leave the design up to the company doing the printing which I think is sad because the printer wasn't at the wedding and so doesn't know the specific story of the couple in the images. Design isn't just about putting pics on a page in a pleasing way. It's about telling a visual story in a seamless but highly emotive way. Like a written or spoken story, there should be natural pauses, climaxes and story arcs, and the images chosen for your SBA (Story Book Album) or CTB should reflect an understanding of this and of the people shown in the photographs.

Since their initial inception in the wedding industry CTBs and SBAs have also moved into the realm of portraiture. Imagine having in one album, professional photos from your engagement, wedding, maternity, birth od your child, baby shoot, toddler shoot . . .

It's the stories that we tell about our lives that help to make them meaningful, that help to define who we are as individuals in a hugely populated world. Being able to tell a story like this is an incredibly powerful thing.

If you'd like to chat to  me about designing your Coffee Table Book or Story Book Album please feel free to get in touch via the email address above or the contact form on the site.

I offer Story Book Albums and Coffee Table Books in a range of sizes (A5 - A3, as well as square books of various sizes), with leather, linen or custom printed covers.