Well I have designed my first album and I need some honest CC. I know it's not that good, but hopefully, with your help and suggestions, I can make it better and improve. This also goes out to Kevin, man that training rocks. Just a little on the training. If you haven't gotten it, you need this. Just so you get an idea of how good this is, I listened to the whole training once from start to finish without Indesign. The next time I played the video, I stopped at 16:30 mins from start and that is all I needed to make this album. So thanx Kevin, this is a fantastic training. Oh, and by the way, I am using InDesign CS3.

Here are the spreads for my 1st album....let me have it.

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I think it's fairly good but there is way too much going on in #8 (plus the mixture of colour and bw is a bit odd), and some of the backgrounds seem a bit too dark esp #4.

+1

I think it is just a darn shame to hide the photo on page 10 with her opening her viel with the vivid blue background among the other, less expressive images. I love that photo!

As for the album layout... I just did my first and am waiting on critiques within the forum still so I can't tell you much about that. the only thing I can share is that my eye doesn't know where to rest within your pages. You have some really good photos that are kind of hidden while the ones that are weaker appear more emphasized. Maybe just a little rearranging? I think it is nice, just doesn't have the awww... factor because they maybe too busy???

ok... now go critique mine! LOL

Thanx for the replies, but please keep them coming. This is one area that I definitely need to grow in.

Stop using borders. Look at high fashion magazines for page layout ideas and keep your grids consistent.

Hey there. I think ts a good start. 3,4,and 5 I think need to be placed different. The middle of the album is going to go right threw the middle of some great pics which might cause a problem. I am going to be designing my first album here very soon. Great start thought. And I do agree with the others, Number 8 is a little too busy.

Stewart C.

I think you've got way too much crammed into these pages; spread them out to tell the story in a simpler fashion. #8 has got dollar dance, toasts, cake cutting, bouquet, reception details... whoa. Image overload. It's not a story, it's just a collection of pictures. Look at each spread and ask yourself what you want the viewer to see and what part of the day you want to convey with the images.

I would also vary your images to include more wide and close up shots. Right now you've chosen mostly medium-length shots, and it doesn't draw your viewer in very well.

Thank you all, these is the kind of input I need to get better. The reasons I put so many pictures on the album spreads are 1) because the client wanted a lot of pictures and 2) they only bought a 20 page album. In the case of the reception, I was looking to sort of "cover" the whole reception in one spread. But I will take all your inputs here and make some adjustments and repost. Thanx again everyone for your inputs.