Photo Books

[photo_chick]

If you go by scrapbooking archival methods then whatever you put them in needs to be acid free, lignin free and certified photo safe (photos will not degrade in these unless exposed to UV regularly). Some of the older plastic sleeved albums (you know the ones with the clear pages that you slip your photos into) were not "photo safe", but most of the newer ones are.

If you have thousands I would start by grouping them by date, subject, whatever.. to put into easy to handle albums. No one wants to wade through 400 images. Keep albums down to like 100 or less images. Then decide if you want to go with photo only or would like to mount them into a scrapbook so you can jot down info there about the image. You don't have to go into the whole papercrafting thing to do the scrapping angle, just mount a few related photos on one page and write who, what, when, where....

 

[Lanshark]

Thanks. I love my digital but do struggle as to how to display the pictures. My whole family loves to look through photographs from previous vacations. Printing them is cheap enough

 

[mabas9395]

One of the benefits of digital photos is the many digital methods of displaying your photos. My vote would be creating DVD photo slide shows. My kids love looking at old photos like you mentioned. They would often sit in front of the computer and wait for the screen saver to come up because I had it set to display photos. So I started making the photo slide shows after my sister made one for my parents anniversary and the kids spent hours watching it over and over.

You can find cheap software (both microsoft and apple computer come with the software alrady installed on most computers) or you can spend up to $100 to get extra features.

I like DVD's over photo books because you can add a music background to really enhance the mood.

But in our family we have both. The wife does the traditional scrapbooks (she used to teach classes at the local shop) and I do the DVD's.

 

[jann1033]

I have a lot of digital pictires that I want to have printed.

I can print at Target for about 15 cents a copy. I've used them before and was happy. The problem is how to display/store them once printed. We're probably talking about a couple of thousand pictures. I hate to stick them in a box but am not sure what type of album to use where the pictures won't degrade too badly.

Photo books are cool but the most I can find in one is 400 pictures at about $100. I'd love to hear if anyone has done this.

Any ideas would be appreciated. It's a summer project.

i'm assuming you mean one where you upload the photos to say shutter fly and they bind a book for you..if so i got one made at shutterfly and one at tabblo. imo shutterfly's was much nicer. ( they were both free due to promotions so i don't know how the prices would compare) tabblos is just bound in black clothe with a sleeve that has a photo on it and no place for text( it was 4x4 so maybe larger ones you can add text) shutterfly was 8x8( what i chose since it was free) and had your choice of frames around the photos, you had more layout choices, printed background paper( i had it made of zoo trip for granddaughter so hers had turtles etc on some of the pages) and room for text. it also was bound as a book with a photo and text on the front and back covers, cover page etc. and had a glossy cover like a regular children's type book.also the binding is tighter as a page in the tabblo one came loose one of the first times we looked at it. aspect tabblo with the cloth cover is more "adult" since it's more understated.
I love them though and probably will get them done again. i may get some for husband's work samples as well as they are professional looking and won't get as sloppy as a photo album does

 

[Lanshark]

I guess I'm thinking ahead a bit. I know how much my children enjoy looking at old photo albums. I want to make sure I have prints of some of these pictures to pass down.

 

[jann1033]

meant to put this on earlier but had to turn off pc due to storm
this is the shutterfly one

just ignore the fact i spelled "papa" ( what she calls her grandpa) "poppa" and neither my husband or i caught it till we got the book

 

[PrincessMinnie28]

I am by no means a photography pro, but I just made a Shutterfly photo book for my DBF for Fathers' Day of him and his son and it came out absolutely beautiful! It was the same style as jann1033, but I did the 12x12 one. The prices for the books of that style include 20 pages, but you can put a lot of pictures on one page. After the 20 pages they charge you per page, but I think it might be worth it... it's a nice way to scrapbook without having to do a lot of the extra work!

 

[Lanshark]

I'm going to check shutterfly out. I love jann's photobook.

 

[RBennett]

OK, so a while back I had several people all suggest the same photo book to help get started understanding exposures, etc with a DSLR camera but I can not remember what that book was. Could someone help me out again and refresh my memory? I greatly appreciate it!!!

 

[majimikate]

Usually the most widely recommended is Bryan Petersen's "Understanding Exposure". It sits on my desk every day, it's a great book. Good luck getting started!

Chris

 

[RBennett]

THANKS!! I think that was the one everyone was talking about because I remember the author's name once you mentioned it. I was looking at other books that he's written in case there was another one that was equally or more helpful, and has anyone read/looked into "Understanding Digital Photography: Techniques for Getting Great Pictures"? I didn't know if one was better than the other. Thanks for the help everyone!!!!

 

[mikamah]

I picked up that book a few weeks ago and it is very helpful and I found it easy to understand. I saw the digital book too, but I have never had a slr camera and thought the understanding exposure was what I needed to start with. It all makes sense, and now I'm playing with the manual modes on my camera, and taking shots with the auto modes too to compare. I find the auto mode outside in the sun seems to take a sharper image, so I know I still have a lot to learn. A friend of mine suggested a course put on by Nikon photography school and said they have all day saturday seminars that were real helpful. I googled it and they said to check back in the fall.
Have fun.

 

[MedCruise07]

I am thinking of odering a photo book from Kodakgallery.com (where you upload your photos and then they print them in a book). Has anyone ever ordered one of these? Are they pretty good quality?

Thanks!

 

[jann1033]

never ordered on from kodak but got one from shutterfly that was very nice and mpix also has them just so you can compare prices

 

[DazedandConfused]

I have ordered from Kodak and I love them! I have used them for trip pictures for gifts. I have been really happy with the quality. Just be very careful in proof - reading your type. I had 2 typos in the first book which really didn't look awful just really annoying that I missed them! Good luck.

 

[SmithFamily2003]

I have ordered photo books from Kodak gallery for the past two years and I love them. I have also ordered the collages and they turned out great. The books didn't take long to receive either once they were ordered.

 

[pbnjrockette]

Does anyone know of a good deal on making photo books online? Most I've seen are $30+ for only 20 pages.

 

[11290]

My daughter used "my publisher" to print family books of her wedding pictures and it was VERY good, not real cheap but pretty reasonable. Free software to download and a lot of options for layouts, editing of photos and types of materials to make the book out of.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

How about this?

 

[singjenn]

There are TONS of photobook companies out there...


picaboo
dotphoto
shutterfly
photoworks
mypublisher
lulu
blurb
kodak
myhubbub


there are tons more..

I have used dotphoto, shutterfly, mypublisher, and blurb. Shutterfly is the best quality and it's the one I have used the most. You can find online coupons and it really does take alot off the cost.
You basically get what you pay for.
You can use blurb and get a 440 page book for under 100 with an online coupon. The only thing I didn't like about blurb is that is has a dust jacket. It slips off easily and it gets aggravating.

I hope this helps!!