Picking the right lab to make a photo album for you can make or break a sale. If you skimp on quality, it might save you a few bucks, but it could turn off your clients. On the other hand, some high-end labs charge a premium for services that could be easily found elsewhere for half the price. To help you balance quality with affordability, we’ve picked our seven favorite labs for making gorgeous photo albums. Best of all, these labs offer so much customization, you can create truly unique albums that will be cherished for a lifetime.
WHCC
WHCC photo albums are assembled by hand and feature curated, high-quality materials. Sizes range from 6×6 inches to 11×14 inches and include square horizontal, and vertical album options. Four cover types are available including cameo, combo, full photo, or material covers. Cover material options abound and include over 40 premium leather, linen, leather-like and fabric materials. There are also four paper options including photographic and inkjet papers. Spreads have inserts for thin or thick pages and you have the option for square or round spread corners. You can choose between a blind or a foil debossing option paired with available fonts or create a custom die. WHCC’s albums have flush mount bindings to create seamless, lay-flat spreads. Best of all for album novices, you can create layout spreads in minutes with WHCC’s online designer for select sizes. More info: https://www.whcc.com/products/albums/
Bay Photo
Bay Photo’s attractive flush mount albums come in three styles: Pacific Albums, Sunrise Albums, and Softbound Albums. For the highest quality, we recommend the Pacific Albums, which are Bay Photo’s top-of-the-line products and come in 13 sizes from 4×9 inches to 18×18 inches. Photo covers are available in full wrap, metal, acrylic, or wood options. There are 58 choices for fabric/materiel covers including genuine leather, linen, or leatherette. You can imprint up to three lines on the front outside or back inside cover in three font choices and five colors. There are also a variety of paper options including lustre, glossy, metallic, deep matte velvet photo paper or fine art watercolor paper. Spreads can be seamless or micro gutter and gilding can be done in silver, gold, matte black, marbled silver, or marbled gold. Corner options are 1/8-inch round or 1/2-inch round or square. Packaging is available in linen or a leather box with a felt bag. More info: https://bayphoto.com/albums/
Miller’s Professional Imaging
Miller’s Signature Albums feature a one-piece wraparound cover design, up to 50 spreads, photographic and press papers, thick or thin page options and multiple cover choices. Sizes range from as small as 5×5 inches to as large as 15×10 inches. You can choose between a five spread minimum to a 50 spread maximum for thin pages, 5 spread minimum to 25 spread maximum for thick pages; and 5 spread minimum to 15 spread maximum for double thick pages. Corners can be square or rounded but rounded is only available on photographic paper. End leaf options include flat black and white art paper. Cover and paper options are almost too numerous to list. Highlights include leather, linen, velvet, cameo and etched choices for covers in a variety of colors. For papers, you can choose e-surface, classic felt, metallic with linen texture, silk, or deep matte with pebble, fine linen, and linen textures as finishing options. More info: https://www.millerslab.com/albums-books/millerssignaturealbums/overview
Zno
Zno, which bills itself as a “one-stop-shop lab and all-In-one platform,” offers a variety of printing options with standout products being its Flush Mount Albums and Fine Art Albums. There are loads of customization options for the Flush Mount Albums including “heavy covers, thicker pages, more papers and bigger sizes.” Cover choices include genuine leather, crystal, acrylic, metal, wood, and silk, just to name a few. Meanwhile, papers include glossy, lustre, matte velvet, silk, and metallic. Sizes range from 6×6 inches all the way to 16 x 12 inches and foil and debossing options include gold, matte gold, rose gold, copper, silver, white, black, and clear. Zno’s Fine Art Albums offer much of the same customization, but the albums are printed with museum grade art paper that can last 100 years. The art paper comes from the German state of Saxony where it’s passed the museum collection level testing standard and received the International Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification. More info: https://www.zno.com/products.html
Finao
Finao’s albums are “handmade with pride in New York,” according to the company, and they come in eight varieties. Our favorite is the One luxury flush mount album, which is Finao’s flagship lay-flat offering. Finao says it has the largest selection of album sizes in the photo industry and it’s hard to dispute that. You can choose from a variety of sizes and orientations including everything from a small square 3×3-inch album to a 10×13-inch vertical album, a 16×12-inch horizontal album, and even up to a 20×8-inch flipbook. Cover materials include classic leather, textured leather, vegan leather, linen, velvet, fabric, handmade paper, and wood. Cover colors, patterns, and textures abound as well. There are also a variety of ways to display a cover image including ICE acrylic, Armour metal, Image Stripe, Canvas Wrap and others. The options don’t end there. There several page choices and printing styles including photographic and fine art papers, options for multiple spreads, selections on different page thickness, and a choice of creased or cut page center styling. There are also eight terrific packaging choices. More info: http://www.finao.com/products/one
Graphistudio
Graphistudio’s “The Original Wedding Book” is a beautiful album style handmade in Italy for professional photographers. There are 14 sizes from 8×12 inches to 18×14 inches, seven paper options from photo lustre to HD glossy, 22 cover options from organic linen to full grain leather. We particularly liked the cover photo selections including Crystal Glance, where the image is UV printed directly to the underside of a large, 1/4-inch polycarbonate sheet, Metal, and Metal Paint. The Original Wedding Book features flush mount pages that allow photographers to create striking, panoramic spreads. There are a myriad of paper and printing options including HD Print on glossy, lustre, or deep matte touch papers. Also available are HD Print fine art paper, photographic print lustre and metallic papers, and offset printing on a variety of papers. You can choose between rigid, thick, or thin pages. You can also select fun, smaller size albums including pocket books, which should please your clients. More info: https://www.graphistudio.com/en/products/album/the-original-wedding-book/
Renaissance Albums
Renaissance Albums offers seven custom album options, but we’d go with the Soho Album, which is their flagship product. The Soho Album is a contemporary, flush-mount album designed for showcasing full panoramic prints. There are horizontal, vertical, and square album sizing options including everything from 7×5 inches to 20 x 8 inches for horizontal; 5×7 inches to 10 x 15 inches for vertical; and 6×6 inches to 15 x 15 inches for square. Each page in a Soho Album is a full spread that’s scored down the middle, allowing for seamless panoramas and layouts to flow across the center of the page. There are also thick, cloth-infused page options and square corners. Other customizations include cover materials – linens, silks, leathers, non-leathers, fabric and more – and cover options such as openings, two-tone, and raised lettering. You can choose between three image covers: acrylic, metal, and a highline half or full-size photo cover. Packaging choices are also premium, including a black stitched box or deluxe presentation box option. More info: https://www.renaissancealbums.com/albums/soho/
