Photobooks

[greg4bs]

I am based in the UK and looking for a recommendation as to who I should use for preparing a photobook. I have never prepared one before but am reasonable at using Photoshop CS2.

I have recently photographed two 'all day weddings' including an Indian one that went on for three days.

I am looking for a site where I can download the software and prepare the book using a template...

I thought about Kodaks new revamped site but am unsure of the quality of the finished product.

Please give me your thoughts.

Many thanks

Greg Forbes:lol:

[tim]

You don't want to use Photoshop, it's painful for creating big albums in a reasonable time. I use photojunction, I set up Asukabook in it and designed one book, it worked quite well. Alternately FotoFusion is excellent, the pro version is what you want for multi page books, but it's not cheap.

[AjP]

I use photoshop only for post processing, for books I use YSI or Yervant.. and if I don't have time, let the company do design for me, mostly Graphi Studio or one local books company

[Big WIll]

photobox do an online version, however its restricted. cost £19.99 and looks like it should of cost £50-£60 well worth a look.

[OceanRider]

Silly question but what is a "photobook" as it pertains to weddings?

Joel

[tim]

Silly question but what is a "photobook" as it pertains to weddings?

It's a book with photos in it...

[mizuno]

Use what you're most comfortable with.

I'm a graphic designer by trade, so Photoshop is my preference, as I know it back to front.

[liza]

Silly question but what is a "photobook" as it pertains to weddings?

Joel]

They're somewhat akin to coffee table books and are becoming increasingly popular.

[SonyaL]

I had asked about these one time and someone told me they were not good image quality on the pics.
I do think its a great idea though since they are about the size of a jr high year book hardbound and all that.

Sonya

[Claire]

You'd want to see a sample and also print a sample for yourself. They sell photo books in a photo chain over here. The paper is crap. Seriously , the samples I've seen are crap. Could be the photos to an extent, but nah, the paper's crap. The mentioned ones here though, I am sure they're good if they specialise in it. Don't do chain store books though.

[liza]

The Asukabooks that Tim mentioned are supposed to be of good quality.

[dsze]

You don't want to use Photoshop, it's painful for creating big albums in a reasonable time. I use photojunction, I set up Asukabook in it and designed one book, it worked quite well. Alternately FotoFusion is excellent, the pro version is what you want for multi page books, but it's not cheap.

Tim, I'm curious as to how much time photojunction saves you when doing digital album layouts? For another $500 application, I am thinking that I can afford to spend some extra time in photoshop. I'm fairly new to the coffee table books though and I'm currently designing my first one. So, I'm listening to all suggestions regarding the process and improving the workflow. So, far I'd say that I've spent about 2 hours and I'm 3/4 of the way done with a 40 slide album. Is that too much time to be spending?

[tim]

Tim, I'm curious as to how much time photojunction saves you when doing digital album layouts? For another $500 application, I am thinking that I can afford to spend some extra time in photoshop. I'm fairly new to the coffee table books though and I'm currently designing my first one. So, I'm listening to all suggestions regarding the process and improving the workflow. So, far I'd say that I've spent about 2 hours and I'm 3/4 of the way done with a 40 slide album. Is that too much time to be spending?

That's very quick. What you use depends on your skills, and what you like. Doing an album in PS is fine, but changing it's a pain. If you want to move a photo from one page to another, and make it a little bigger, you have to grab the original since otherwise you're just expanding the existing pixels to fill a larger area. Also each page being a different file is a bit of a pain, IMHO.

PJ didn't cost me anything like US$500, I got it from Queensberry with my starter pack, cost was about US$175 for a big leather swatch album and PJ. For $500 i'd get FotoFusion instead, which is great for books, but PJ is great for Queensberry albums and other manufacturers like them.

[Bodmin636]

Theres a review on these in digital photo magazine this month. The Bonus print one came highly recommended

[Big WIll]

Dont use my first opinion as when looking in the digital photo magazine it came nearly worse!!

[Kendal]

I've had a few of the photobooks or memory books as they are also called, the £19.99 for 20 pages type thing, and they are fine for kids photos, family holidays etc. but not for weddings or anything special. The paper is shiny and slippery (sorry can't think how to describe it). I think they are really just fun things for family snap shots, not for anything special.

[fidelis]

Graphistudio are quality for their books! I've seen examples of the books before & was impressed by what I saw. They are expensive though & I'm not sure if they design them as well as print them, I'm not sure whether designing them yourself is an option but you could always drop them an email & enquire. They really are beautiful though which is my personal opinion anyway.

[dsze]

I've had a few of the photobooks or memory books as they are also called, the £19.99 for 20 pages type thing, and they are fine for kids photos, family holidays etc. but not for weddings or anything special. The paper is shiny and slippery (sorry can't think how to describe it). I think they are really just fun things for family snap shots, not for anything special.

I think a lot of people would disagree. Wedding books are quite popular among young couples.

[Kendal]

That's fine, each to their own ;) (don't want to offend anyone, sorry if I did).

I think really I like the old fashioned black page albums with crisp tissue paper in between each page.

[tim]

I think really I like the old fashioned black page albums with crisp tissue paper in between each page.

I had a woman specifically ask for this recently, i've never encountered that before. They thought it was necessary to stop pages sticking together, which is a reasonable thing to think, though incorrect in a professional album. Even when I explained that they wanted the tissue. They didn't book me in the end, probably a good thing as they wanted more traditional photos than I usually do.

[dsze]

That's fine, each to their own ;) (don't want to offend anyone, sorry if I did).

I think really I like the old fashioned black page albums with crisp tissue paper in between each page.

no offense, I just think that quality wedding-books are what many, not all, young couples are looking for these days.

[tim]

I think many would rather have a magazine style album than a relatively flimsy book, but the album price is what holds them back.

[dsze]

What do you mean by magazine-style Tim? Can you link to an example?

[Kendal]

I had a woman specifically ask for this recently, i've never encountered that before. They thought it was necessary to stop pages sticking together, which is a reasonable thing to think, though incorrect in a professional album. Even when I explained that they wanted the tissue. They didn't book me in the end, probably a good thing as they wanted more traditional photos than I usually do.

I like the tissue paper but not because of anything to do with pages sticking together, but because I think it seems that little bit more special, maybe because it's a bit more unusual these days. :D

[tim]

What do you mean by magazine-style Tim? Can you link to an example?

Queensberry call them digital albums.

http://www.queensberry.com/products/pages.html

[AWPhotography]

I have done a storybook album and used Graphistudio to print and bind only, as it is about £80+ cheaper than getting them to do the artwork. From a quality point of view there products are stunning and are top of the range. Also thy are no were near as dear as you might think and the profit margin on them is well above an average album pakage. Have been able to sell more of them from viewing my sample album.


Andrew.

[suzyanneau]

There doesn't seem to be a standard name for digital wedding books. Queensberry's digital albums can also be referred to as several different names. I personally think Flush mount is a good way to refer to books with the firm cardboard leaves. For books with the thin pages, they are more of a coffee table style book, but are becoming more commonly called Photobooks now.

[Phil V]

I think a lot of people would disagree. Wedding books are quite popular among young couples.
I think you need to re-read Kendals post here.:confused:
It's not that digital/storybook/magazine/memorybook albums are 'cheap looking' and unfit for weddings. It's that the £19.99 ones from the likes of Photobox, Klick etc in the UK are cheap looking and not fit quality-wise for weddings.:oops:

To the OP, Graphi-studio are probably the biggest sellers of this kind of thing in the UK, but there's also Glorious books and a few others. The advantage of Graphi-studio is that they'll design for you if you don't have the time / skills / software.

Personally I prefer the quality of the Tony Sarlo ones (Italian leather and awesome), I've never seen Asukabooks or some of the other American ones, but I'm led to believe the Asukabook ones are paper pages, most of the quality ones here use really thick pages. However the prices we pay here are high in comparison too.

[blueaerodynamique]

I have always done my storybook designs in photoshop but as Tim says it can be a pain at times. I have been using a set of actions from http://www.stuartlittle.info/stuart_little_photography.htm
It was the Storybook Album collection and has actions for a lot of useful things if you want to keep with PS for your work.
I'm currrently looking for other software to speed things up even more and have spend some time looking at yervant, YSI and on Tim's recommendation...photojunction. Does Photojunction have many templates? I can't see many on the site. YSI and Yervant seem to have many more. It's a minefield to sort out...I think I'll just have to download a trial to see. Tim, how long on average does it take you to do an album in photojunction?

[Dixiegirl]

Theres a review on these in digital photo magazine this month. The Bonus print one came highly recommended
Hi I used bonus print last month, the software is good, but the quality was not what I expected.

Some of the photo's came out very dark, and lines were showing on the prints.

I think photo books have their place, but I would like to see a better quality print.

[coreypolis]

Here's my list of places:

http://www.thepbook.com/
http://asukabook.com/getstarted-overview.html
http://www.blurb.com/
http://www.jonesbook.com/index.php
http://www.lulu.com/
http://www.premiraalbums.com/
http://zookbinders.com/index.html
http://www.willowbook.com/products.htm
http://www.albumsunlimited.com/
http://www.pictobooks.com/html/index.php
http://www.albumart.com/
http://www.graphistudio.com/en/index.html
http://www.sharedink.com/
http://www.visionartbook.com/

[muscleflex]

has anyone in the UK used snapfish's photobooks? are they decent?

[Arnie1]

The Asukabooks that Tim mentioned are supposed to be of good quality.


My first Asuka sample was delivered yesterday. First Impressions....its bloody stunning!

[muscleflex]

is asuka worldwide? what's the website? and what's asuka?

[coreypolis]

is asuka worldwide? what's the website? and what's asuka?
http://asukabook.com/index.html ;)

hardback books fully customizable.

[tim]

is asuka worldwide? what's the website? and what's asuka?

They ship anywhere AFAIK.

[lwnphotography]

Right now I'm attempting to put together my first photobook, but the last time I looked at them up close was PMA in 2004. Does anyone know a good website where I can order a sample book or two to get some fresh design ideas??

[tim]

Most of the photobook sites above have online samples, most will proabably let you buy sample books.

I got my first asukabook EX today - earlier ones were cheaper versions. The paper's very very thick and good quality, not so I like the matte coating though - i'd probably use gloss next time. Be careful with your color management, mine came out how it looked on my monitor - as you'd expect when you're color managed.

[Arnie1]

Tim, my EX sample was gloss pages, very high gloss....very nice! and it doesn't seem to mark very easily. Colour repro compared to my files is spot on.

I'm quiet impressed with these books, although I don't think they can compare or replace something like a Graphi. They would make great parent albums, and if people order them in pairs I can offer them at a pretty good price.

[coreypolis]

any one try albums unlimited? Looking to do a book in a hurry and with zookbooks its a involved proccess. They won't take inkjet prints, and don't have their print and bind service un and running yet. The album is already dsinged for their specifications, so it has to be a flush mount, square book with panos available.

[twinsrus]

I'm looking for a processor that will take my stuff and bind it into a book. Anyone know someone that does that at a reasonable price?

[coreypolis]

I'm looking for a processor that will take my stuff and bind it into a book. Anyone know someone that does that at a reasonable price?
I supplied a large list of companies, many of whom will do this. See my first post on page 3