PUBLICATION CENTER

“I want to differentiate myself as much as possible. When a bride narrows their choice down to four or five photographers and there’s nothing to differentiate your work, it often comes down to price, and I don’t want to be the photographer who comes in at the lowest price,” says Grant Oakes, owner of Images by Grant Oakes and Tafota, an online Web design and hosting service for photographers, in Aurora, Colo.

In order to maintain his edge and boost his perceived and actual value, Oakes created a custom photo book with unique designs on each page and a ghost image that overlays each page in the book. The main photo pages – each with their own unique design based on the context of each photo – were printed on LexJet’s Sunset Hot Press Rag on an Epson 7800.

Each page in the book is 8 in. x 8 in., and Oakes printed 12 pages at a time in two 24 in. x 32 in. increments on a roll of Hot Press Rag (four rows of three pages). Those 24 in. x 32 in. files were then copied and renamed Vellum 1 and Vellum 2.

He made a copy of the background layer, then wiped out the bottom layer of the file so it was white, lowered the opacity of the layer above it to 16 percent, and printed the images on HP Vellum Paper to create the ghost images that would overlay the main pages.

Originally, Oakes lowered the opacity to 40 percent, but found that the image was too strong as an overlay. He wanted just a hint of the image, and found the perfect effect at 40 percent of the original 40 percent opacity he tried (thus the final 16 percent opacity from the original image).

Oakes built a faint line bordering each page so the local book binder he worked with on the project could easily line the Vellum up with the Hot Press Rag. Oakes also supplied the hand-crafted paper for the cover and silk for the spine he got from a craft supplies store to the binder, who put all the pieces together for him.

“I wanted a stunning sample book that would appeal to brides, so I came up with a book design that’s a little frillier, unlike a museum-style book,” says Oakes. “I have to do things that make me stand out, and be unique and different. It’s not something you can buy commercially and it makes people’s jaws drop when they see it.”

The 24-page book (48, if you include the Vellum overlays) took about two days to design, print, and trim. Oakes figures the time and materials it cost to create the sample book was well worth it since it provides him with another valuable sales and marketing tool to further develop his high-end wedding clientele base.