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Archive 2013 · photo books

  
 
larryt
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · photo books


I am looking into making a photo book. Any one have a favorite or advice on who to contact?


Jul 08, 2013 at 08:30 PM
shmn
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · photo books


Are you talking about making a photo album like using Shutterfly or Mpix for yourself? Or are you talking about publishing a book of photos for sale to the public?


Jul 08, 2013 at 09:14 PM
larryt
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · photo books


Shmn, A single book for myself.


Jul 09, 2013 at 09:00 PM
shmn
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · photo books


I've used Shutterfly, Kodak (which was absorbed by Shutterfly), My Publisher, Mpix and Adorama. They all put out pretty nice products. They all work fairly well...Shutterfly is pretty cheap when you use their frequent coupon codes but their online system can be a bit frustrating. I would try all of them to see which suits your needs/desires best and which is easiest to use. You don't have to actually publish or buy the book...just use their online programs to build the book and see which has the features that best suits you and which is the easiest to use and then use that company. The quality is pretty close...unless you are real anal. There are some articles on line which compare the results from all the companies (there are more than ones I've listed).


Jul 09, 2013 at 09:06 PM
shmn
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · photo books


My Publisher has a sale right now for 75% off photo books...pretty good deal: USE CODE: SUMMER75 | OFFER ENDS JULY 15TH.


Jul 10, 2013 at 09:28 AM
cwebster
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · photo books


I just made a book with Blurb. I expect it to arrive today or tomorrow. I'll report on the quality.

Their layout software called Booksmart is pretty easy to use and seems to be pretty good. I picked a very simple layout for my first try. I'm concerned about a hardbound book that has only 10 or 12 leaves (20-24 pages) seeming awfully thin, like a kids book.

We'll see.

<Chas>



Jul 10, 2013 at 11:31 AM
cwebster
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · photo books


My Blurb book arrived yesterday. In general I'm pleased; the cover, paper, and binding are excellent. I am not quite as pleased with the color accuracy. All the photos seem to be overly warm, i.e., reds and oranges are stronger, greens and blues are weaker and whites have a warm yellow cast.

I have a calibrated monitor and get prints from labs and other printers that match my screen properly. I did not soft-proof, so did not make Blurb-specific adjustments before sending the files. I probably would not have another book made by Blurb without soft-proofing using their profiles first.

<Chas>



Jul 11, 2013 at 12:31 PM
amacal1
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · photo books


I just ordered a book from Blurb. I chose them because it was the easiest and cheapest way to produce a large book with all of my photos from an event.

Specifically, I had around 300 photos from my wedding. I purchased a 7"x7" book for $58 including shipping.

I couldn't find a better deal than that, and the software made it easy to populate all of the pages automatically. I wanted to avoid having to manually place or orient each photo. Surprisingly, it was difficult to find a book printing site/software that could simply place my pictures on a page, NOT crop them, and orient them (portrait/landscape) correctly. Blurb's software did that. In this way my 7"x7" book should be filled with approximately 4x6 prints with black backgrounds. Perfect!

I should receive the book tomorrow, and I will follow up with the results. The adobe Lightroom plugin was a nice extra, but it has an arbitrary 250 page limit, so I was unable to use it for this book.



Jul 16, 2013 at 02:40 PM
amacal1
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · photo books


My blurb book came in. The short story is... I like it.

I'm not really impressed with the quality of the images. But, it is adequate for my needs, which involve printing 800+ pictures cheaply and with minimal manipulation required. The colors aren't very vivid (possibly the fault of the image files, not the printing) and the images aren't very sharp. They appear to have what I can only compare to "noise" that you would see on a digital image, but it is present on pictures that I'm absolutely sure had none present. The paper is smooth, feeling like that of a magazine, but not glossy and this is perfectly fine.

Overall, I'm happy that I have a solution to print this many images cheaply and quickly, but I would not use Blurb for books that I desire to be higher "quality." Note, however, that I have used the cheapest options available. They may have premium paper upgrades and I could pay closer attention to color proofing. I still don't think that would change the noisy artifacting that I see in the prints.



Jul 17, 2013 at 04:40 PM





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