Self-Publishing: Photo Books.

Photo books are great for use as both an advertising tool and as a product, and there are many websites out there which allow you to easily create your own with a range of options to suit any project that you might be working on. They can even be used as a way to show your portfolio. 

Photo books come in a range of sizes and formats, with different types of paper and cover options. They are great as part of wedding packages - bigger copies for the newly-weds and smaller copies for their families - and families will love them as a part of their family portrait sessions. 

Today our aim is to look at some different sites, see what options they have available, compare prices and the like. 

Momento

Momento are a well-known site for creating photo books. They offer books in three different sizes (small, regular and grand) and three different formats (landscape, square and portrait). They offer three different paper types (Satin 170g, Art 140g and Kodak Digital 220g) and also offer a range of professionally finished boxes as housing for your new book. 

Their prices start as low as $50 (small classic book with the first ten pages included). For photo books, their standard delivery time is fourteen working days. Priority shipping (seven working days) is available, but it doubles the cost of your order. 

Blurb

Blurb are another well-known company. They offer five different sized books: small square, standard portrait, standard landscape, large landscape, and large square. They offer four different paper types: standard paper, premium paper (lustre or matte), proline uncoated, and proline pearl photo. 

Their prices start as low as $15 (softcover book with twenty pages). Their delivery, including printing time, is seven to eleven working days, but they can also ship faster if required. 

AsukaBook

AsukaBook are a company that I had never heard of before today. They offer the widest range of sizes that I have seen so far and also appear to be a company solely dedicated to photo books, which is making them look more professional than the already researched Momento and Blurb. They offer many different ways of binding your book, and even offer "DVD Presentation Books". 

To get their price list, you first have to register to their site. When clicking on their prices page, this is the first thing that comes up: "AsukaBook products are available to professional photographers and designers creating books for resale or promotions. Please register as a professional user and you will be able to review our price list and place your AsukaBook order." 

I find this a turn-off. I would rather see prices before I register for anything, knowing that websites could take my email address and continuously send me emails to try and gain me as a customer. A sad fact, because this looks like a great site. 

Mixbook

I did a Google search of "compare photo book websites" and came up with a list of twelve compares sites (of which Blurb came last!) and Mixbook came as the best rated. They offer seven different sizes (mini 6x4, pocket landscape, classic square, classic portrait, classic landscape, deluxe square, and coffee table landscape). The only thing I can find on their paper is this: "Mixbook uses only the highest quality, heavy-weight papers that are ethically sourced from sustainable forests and certified by the Forest Stewardship Council and the Rainforest Alliance." 

Their prices supposedly start at $7 (mini softcover book with twenty pages), but when I click to start making a book the lowest price I can get is $20. They print their books in four days, and standard delivery takes twelve to sixteen days for international shipping. 

In Conclusion... 

Having researched these four websites, for my own business I would likely go with Momento. Whatever the price of the book ordered, I would then charge an extra 50% (including the shipping cost to myself). So if the entire order came to $50 for me, I would charge the client $75. 

Self-Publishing: Slideshows and Multimedia.

For the next three weeks, we will be looking at self-publishing in the photography industry. Today, we took a look at slideshows and multimedia. 

Slideshows and Multimedia

Slideshows are used as a sales technique, especially by wedding photographers. The aim is to have our potential clients see the slideshows and like them enough that they want one of their own, so they will therefore hire you. They are often coupled with suitable music, to make the experience greater. 

Some things to take into account when looking at creating a slideshow are the formatting and sizes, and publishing platforms. 

An early type of image projector was the Magic Lantern, developed in the late 17th century and used to project images from small, rectangular sheets of glass that contained the painted photographic image to be projected. These devices were not replaced until the 1860's. After that came slide projectors, such as the Kodak Carousel. 

Slideshows allowed stories to be told, ideas to be expressed. They are used for a range of reasons, including but not limited to entertainment, advertising, promotion, art and education. They can be seen in homes, galleries, online publications, events, and promotions in shops. 

Types of Slideshow

There are many types of slideshows. They can include: 

• static images, displayed in a sequential order; 
• images with transitions, eg. a dissolving effect; 
• multimedia slideshows - these can include images, video, sound/music, text, etc. 

Things to Consider

Some things to consider when creating your slideshow are: 

• Audience: who are you making the slideshow for? What is suitable content for this audience? 
• Format and Ratio: what format do you plan on projecting? What is the appropriate ratio? 
• Resolution: are your images capable of being projected at such a size? 
• Platform: what platform do you intend on using? 

It is worth mentioning that projecting panoramas require a different technology to your ordinary projection equipment. 

Platforms

There are many platforms you can use to display your slideshow. These include but are not limited to: 

• traditional platforms - transparency film onto a light coloured background; 
• computer/web slideshows; 
• TV/DVD displayed; 
• technological platforms - slideshowpro.net, Adobe Lightroom, Apple Aperture, etc. 

Tools for Multimedia Slideshows

Tools used for multimedia slideshows may include: 

• DSLRs capable of recording images, sound and video - as sound and video might also be a part of your slideshow; 
• dedicated sound recorders, for adding authentic sound as a backdrop to your images. 

My Attempt

 

For the purpose of a website, I personally prefer to have a slideshow without music - unless the sound actually adds something to the images. Other than that, I find it highly distracting.  

I also found this article rather interesting.