Anyone created a photo book ?

[proenca]

Hi want to create a photo book of my trips with someone special, that I offered so many gifts that I'm completly out of ideas : shoes, jewlery of all sort, this and that, all checked and offered in the past.

So I came up with the idea of putting together a nice book of all our trips together ( the initial plan was a few volumes on each one would be one trip but I might forget something so I prefer to do one big one ).

Anyone did that already ? I've seen a few sites :

Blurb
Lulu
Sharedink
Mypublisher

But I'm not sure about the quality, I want the best possible and flexibility on the layout design as well.

Ideas ? Please post your impressions on your own experience ! thank you !

[palker]

Yea i'm interested too .. my local Photo Shop does a simple binding of regular Ilford Paper photos .. which is good becuase it proper paper .. but there is nothing 'fancy' to make it into a book, like frames, and adding text, a fade through backdrop. I'm about to try the Apple books through Aperture .. anyone played with them? what is the paper like?

[Todd.Hanz]

Weve done a couple here using LuLu, the results weren't too bad...BW images had a slight color cast. I've used Iphoto on a Mac that had similar results but for the people who get them they are great gifts.

Todd

[iridium7777]

i've never done this, but if i was to, i'd consider what aperture has to offer.

when i had the program there was a part where you can put together a book/magazine whatever with very nice template layouts and just press "send" and you'd get a book in mail later on. have no clue what the cost is, probably more than off some website because of the convenience.

[cgf]

Something like Pikto might be worth a try.

http://www.pikto.com/books/

Downloadable software (free)... the books are a fair bit more expensive than other websites, but the quality is there if that's what you're after.

Cheers,
George.

[nikonhswebmaster]

I have only seen the Apple books. They are nice, but still look a bit like bound laser prints to me. They are beautiful for gifts however.

[palker]

I guess Apple will be more international .. no need for postage from the US :)

[IGMeanwell]

mypublisher in my experience is very inconsistent (in terms of print quality and customer service, sometimes good sometimes terrible)

haven't tried blurb yet ... but have had tremendous success with Shutterfly on everything from gift cards to even wedding albums (the 12 x 12 story book)

shutterfly is consistent and the couple times I have had a problem .... they have given me absolutely no problem with returns or reprints... great customer service

A friend of mine is making her own wedding album out of a few of my images and a few from another photographer at the wedding, going to try a blurb book .... so we will see how that turns out

[Don Parsons]

I put together a 100 page book using Microsoft Publisher on our local airport. Used Ilford Pearl for the covers and a double-sided matte paper from INKJETART for the contents. Printed the whole thing on my epson 2200. Had office depot spiral bind it for $3 each.

If you're just going to make 1 or 2 copies, I'd go this way. Total control over the project.

YMMV...

don

[RayPA]

I'm in the process of putting one together now. I'm using Blurb. I'm not sure which service is better. I was involved in the Lulu process here, and I wasn't very happy with the results. I chose Blurb, because an RFF member, onenil_v2 (Maxx) has done two books with Blurb. Here's his latest. (http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/123241). I downloaded the free software. It's pretty easy to use and the various book templates aren't bad. I'm rescanning, printing, arranging right now.

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[gumanow]

I used Blurb and was happy with the results. Some of the layouts are a bit constricting, but it was easy enough to do and I got it done and sent out. I would recommend ordering one copy to make sure you've got it the way you want before ordering bunches more.

[RayPA]

I used Blurb and was happy with the results. Some of the layouts are a bit constricting, but it was easy enough to do and I got it done and sent out. I would recommend ordering one copy to make sure you've got it the way you want before ordering bunches more.

Great! I think I made the right decision, then. You're the second of my Flickr contacts to use Blurb!!


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(quinine03)

[Gid]

I've used Photobox (UK) and the result was fine, but the prints were a little under exposed (about 2/3 to 1 stop) and this appears to be common to Photobox. Also used Yophoto which is a bit more flexible, but the images appeared a bit soft (probably down to me not sharpening for print). Both have free software downloads which are easy to use. I've also looked at Bobbooks which again has free software. Photobox is the least expensive and probably worth a try - that is it won't cost you a packet of money if its not what you want.

[vdonovan]

I do a lot of photobooks. People absolutely love them.

I've done about 10 photobooks with MyPublisher and have been happy with the results.

I did one with Lulu (which I use regularly for text-based books) and was disappointed: the colors looked washed-out.

A friend showed me one of his that he did with Shutterfly and it looked fantastic, with more vivid colors and better blacks than I've been getting with MyPublisher. My next photo book will probably be with Shutterfly.

[RF-Addict]

I tried MyPublisher last year and after three iterations of trying to get the colors right, I gave up on them. I tried Lulu, but that was a disappointment as well. I ended up printing my own books, using my Epson 2400 and Spiral bind the pages, using a mat-lie cover with a window to show the title of the book and a picture. Everybody loved them PLUS they get kind of an original instead of a lousy printed mass producable book.

This year I've made a calendar - pretty much using the same approach. I got Powerpoint templates from the web, printed my picture on top of each calendar page with the calendar month underneath and prented everything on 11x14 paper. Plus a black cover and back page with a window in the cover. They look great and I had total control over the process.

[vickersdc]

I've used photobox http://www.photobox.co.uk and was pleased with the results.

[vrgard]

Great! I think I made the right decision, then. You're the second of my Flickr contacts to use Blurb!!


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(quinine03)

Hey, Ray, I would be interested to hear about your experiences once you've completed the process.

Thanks,
Randy

[lZr]

Take a look here
http://www.asukabook.com/

[Haigh]

I've used SharedInk for my b&w NYC book and was very happy with their work. I asked lots of questions since it wa my first book and they were swift and helpful with replies. For complete flexibilty you'd need to pay their one off fee. Check out their website.

Best wishes,

Gary Haigh
South Australia

[fdigital]

www.asukabook.com

The best, but very selective with who gets to use their services.

[Todd.Hanz]

I just put together a book using " My Publisher", http://www.mypublisher.com/index.php

You download their program and insert your pics, choose size, cover material and style. I went with leather with the picture window, I ordered six for X-mas gifts, they come in this week so I'll keep you informed on the print quality.

Todd

[Todd.Hanz]

also,
if anyone would like to see an online sample of the one I created just PM me with your email and I'll send a link. It's a family album of sorts, the same kinda stuff I've been posting lately in the gallery.

Todd

[rbiemer]

I just recently finished making a small book using Blurb. Not too horrible but these are for gifts for my family, not anything I'd seriously try to sell(though I did put it into the Blurb bookstore).
For my needs the book is fine with one exception; the images are consistently dark. I will need to adjust the files I use for this if I make another one.
The software is OK but had some minor annoyances(to be fair, this may well be my inexperience): I didn't like the default type face so I wanted to change it. Had to change each page individually, the "apply to all pages" button didn't seem to work for me. I also would have liked some other choices for photo layouts--most of them are too "busy" for my taste so something very basic would please me better. And it would be nice to be able to choose the size and location of the "container"(what Blurb calls the area where the photo will be) by dragging a corner.
Will I do another one? Probably. But I am looking at some of the other choices mentioned above and may try those.
Rob

[RayPA]

Hey, Ray, I would be interested to hear about your experiences once you've completed the process.

Thanks,
Randy

Sure Randy! I'm not shooting for a Xmas deadline. I finally got frustrated and bought some additional memory for my computer. I like PS'ing, listening to iTunes and surfing while I print, and my computer was dogging it under the load. It's swift now!


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[Steve Meltzer]

Take a look at www.mpix.com. Did a book with them earlier this year and the quality was great and the software very easy to use and flexible.

[ampguy]

Our family made one last year using mypublisher with the Costco discounts, easy to use software, book quality is great, photo quality is medium.

A co-worker has done two books using blurb and a dslr, very good, but smaller sizes than the mypublisher one we did.

For fine art purposes, I'd ask about printing techniques and how much they compress images.