Which photo-book site do you recommend?

[jwhtewolfd]

I'm looking to put together a photo book for mother's day for my mom using pictures we took at her 50th birthday party last night.

Which sites have you used?

How was the finished product?

Was it a good value?

Thanks for your help, DISers!

 

[laurie31]

I have used Snapfish to store my photos online since 2002, so that was the site I picked to make a gift album for my inlaws of their 50th anniversary party. I was pleased with the amount of customization I was able to do, and the color choices for the hard covers.

I got a gold cover and it looked very nice, not cheap. I was also pleased with the overall quality of the book (thickness of the pages, true colors, etc) and the price I paid. I think it was about $40. I don't remember how many pages it ended up being, but it was a nice-sized album.

 

[Kirby]

We used My Publisher to make a photo book for my parent's 60th wedding anniversary reception and was very pleased with the product.

I have also used Kodak.com to make a photobook for one of our Disney trips. While I thought My Publisher was a better product, Kodaks was good also. Plus, Kodak would accept scanned pictures while I couldn't get them to download onto My Publisher.

One thing I like about Kodak is that you can actually make the album cover a picture if that makes sense. Sort of like your high school year book. Don't know if any of the other places can do that or not. They all have their own way of doing things.

One of these days I'm going to do a high school years book for both of my kids. Photo books are really cool ways to commemorate special occasions.

 

[Goofyzgurl]

I love shutterfly. It's so easy to make photobooks and they usually have some kind of coupon code. I tried mypublisher a couple of years ago and it took forever to upload pictures, then it didn't want to save my projects...ugh! Shutterfly is just so easy to me. I've done my daughter's birthday books. I'm realy happy with the results.Right now I'm trying SeeHere, it's some getting used to, not as easy as Shutterfly. I don't know how the product is going to come out yet, I'm still finishing my book.

 

[diznygirl]

I've been using Shutterfly for years - I love it. Good quality, good prices. Nice and easy to use.

 

[Ember]

I have used the following:

My Publisher: The software was easy to use and intuitive, although they didn't allow for as much customization as I like. Good quality paper and binding, but they auto correct your photos by warming the tones up. If you're like me, and you correct all your own pictures, this can lead to overly strong reds and oranges. Also, I found their printing to be slightly pixelated, which I know is them and not me because of the quality all my digital images are shot at.

Snapfish: Has a great range of sizes and styles of book, more than others. I found the paper a tad on the thin side and the layouts more limiting than with My Publisher. The printing was decent, but not exceptional and I did notice some auto correction of my images where the colors were off quite a bit.

Blurb: My favorite printing site. The books are beautiful quality with very nice printing. Because they work with a lot of professional photographers they don't auto correct anything, which I really appreciate. The latest version of the software allows for almost complete customization which I also really enjoy. I wish they had more design elements included, but this is a small pet peeve.

There a few others out there as well, but these are the ones I have experience with. I always recommend Blurb.

 

[Anne34]

My favorites are Picaboo and Snapfish. Snapfish is cheaper, but Picaboo has a lot more background options and pictures.

 

[princessbride6205]

Snapfish - I ordered a book here about 2 years ago - it's mediocre quality. I have been disappointed with the prints several times more recently, so I don't plan to order here again.

Blurb - I custom designed and ordered 2 books here in December. Perhaps it was the book style I chose, but most of the photos look "not sharp." I think saying they were grainy is a little harsh, but for the high price tag (and never finding coupons or free shipping), I was not thrilled. I like the level of customization, but there are a number of bugs in the software which did not make for the easiest user experience.

Shutterfly - I had gone away from this site a few years ago because I was unhappy with the auto-correction they were doing on all my photos (most noticeable when ordering prints). I only decided to make a photo book here in December because Blurb's holiday shipping deadline was kind of early. Customization is limited, which can be a negative but it can be good in a way, too, so that you are not overwhelmed with unlimited design options. The book is gorgeous. I could not be happier with the quality. I plan to order another book here in the next few weeks. And the price is right - especially when you can find a coupon.

 

[jwhtewolfd]

Thanks for the input. I played around with a few sites, and checked prices, and decided to go with shutterfly. I was happy with the level of customization and options. I could have used just a touch more of both, but glad I wasn't swamped down in details.

The price wasn't bad. In fact, I saved $9 in shipping by adding 2 pages and bringing my total cost a few cents above $30. That really worked out well since I felt there were too many pages with 5++ pics on them in a row. I didn't NEED the two extra pages, but I think they made the layout easier on the eyes.

Hopefully the quality comes out nice. I'm not concerned about auto-correcting b/c I'm not really a photographer, so I'll take all the help I can get. If the photos are clear and the pages are not terribly thin, I'll be happy.

 

[Sparx]

Definitely shutterfly!

 

[jwhtewolfd]

Just wanted to say thanks. I got my shutterfly book in, and it's very nice. My one complaint is that some of the pics are just a touch fuzzy, but I did a good deal of cropping, which I know doesn't help. Also, the lighting at the event itself was pretty awful for pics (strong sun, but under a shadowy overhang) in general. Considering the amateur camera and photographer, I think it turned out well. And you can't beat the price.

 

[diznygirl]

Glad you liked it - you'll have to work on the photographer!

I just got one. I uploaded the photos and then got an email from them: "We just made a book for you using the photos you just uploaded. Click here to see the book."

Totally amazing! It was a small 5x7 soft cover - but it was so cool that I bought it for DH for Father's Day!