Has anyone ever made a...

Steve B said:
Haven't made a book but would love to. Found this page after reading the blog above mentioned. Glowing accolades, etc. Thought others might be interested.
http://www.naturephotographers.net/articles0405/mh0405-1.html
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I've had a bit of a sniff around myself in the half hour or so I've been away from this and there are snippets from people all over the web about SharedInk being very good. I''ll read your find tomorrow - it's gone 2am and I have to be up in under four hours - and try and post a few other comments.

FrankS said:
Please report back, Simon. We have a RFF book #2 that we're looking for a printing company for. The effort through LULU did not work out well, because of a magenta cast on the B+W photos.
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I'll certainly post my impressions on the subject when I receive my comparison sample booklets...though I need to finish scanning the images first! A top quality RFF book would be excellent - though I can only imagine the trouble around organising and selecting the images for that, I'm struggling with just mine!
 
I would like to find a good on line publisher. But, this topic has to be addressed in terms of color reproduction and black and white reproduction. Comments about both are necessary.
 
rich815 said:
Interesting theory. Maybe it works. I usually ignore subject lines that give no clue what they're about. Too many posts other posts to bother. I looked at this one as I found his user name interesting...
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me too... I know Simon's photography and that's the only reason I'm here now.
 
OurManInTangier said:
I've had a bit of a sniff around myself in the half hour or so I've been away from this and there are snippets from people all over the web about SharedInk being very good. I''ll read your find tomorrow - it's gone 2am and I have to be up in under four hours - and try and post a few other comments.



I'll certainly post my impressions on the subject when I receive my comparison sample booklets...though I need to finish scanning the images first! A top quality RFF book would be excellent - though I can only imagine the trouble around organising and selecting the images for that, I'm struggling with just mine!
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It's already done and ready to send to publishing! I believe JoeFriday (Brett) has the files.
 
At the start of this thread, Maddoc talks about having ordered one of Tommy Oshima's books from Blurb. I was actually with Tommy during a recent exhibition and he had all his books there. My comments are that on the surface the books are probably passable for many people. However, in comparison to the custom prints that were at his exhibition there was a big and noticeable difference in the reproduction.
 
FrankS said:
It's already done and ready to send to publishing! I believe JoeFriday (Brett) has the files.
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That's the hard bit done then! Congratulations to Brett as I imagine it was a mammoth task. I assume these books are for sale on RFF when produced? Is there a link to some kind of list of work from the various contributors...it would be interesting to know what differing forms of photography and people have submitted their work. I look forward to seeing such an interesting project completed.
 
craygc said:
At the start of this thread, Maddoc talks about having ordered one of Tommy Oshima's books from Blurb. I was actually with Tommy during a recent exhibition and he had all his books there. My comments are that on the surface the books are probably passable for many people. However, in comparison to the custom prints that were at his exhibition there was a big and noticeable difference in the reproduction.
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I wouldn't like to do an injustice to Blurb, I imagine many people are happy to have a nice book to show family and friends whilst others wish to sell or use them as portfolios, if the latter is the case I for one would rather invest in undeniable quality otherwise you're in danger of being seen to be doing only half a job.

I'm unaware of Tommy Oshima's work but I'm sure he's either happy with the production values for his target audience or he will find a firm that can produce to his desired specifications.
 
OurManInTangier said:
I wouldn't like to do an injustice to Blurb, I imagine many people are happy to have a nice book to show family and friends whilst others wish to sell or use them as portfolios, if the latter is the case I for one would rather invest in undeniable quality otherwise you're in danger of being seen to be doing only half a job.

I'm unaware of Tommy Oshima's work but I'm sure he's either happy with the production values for his target audience or he will find a firm that can produce to his desired specifications.
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The thing is, Simon, it only costs you about $49 to have a copy of proof done. That plus the time you took to put them together (you'd have to spend it anyway).

My daughter's book has a lot of black and white pictures in it and I do not detect any color cast. It's good. Slightly dark, but good.

If you are not happy, then you resume your search for a better one, but I think it's at least worth the experience in layout, content, and you have a proof to compare with.

TIP: I find out that with any printing, I have to increase the brightness of my pictures, otherwise it'll be darker. Some of them just right, others are too dark.
 
shadowfox said:
The thing is, Simon, it only costs you about $49 to have a copy of proof done. That plus the time you took to put them together (you'd have to spend it anyway).

My daughter's book has a lot of black and white pictures in it and I do not detect any color cast. It's good. Slightly dark, but good.

If you are not happy, then you resume your search for a better one, but I think it's at least worth the experience in layout, content, and you have a proof to compare with.

TIP: I find out that with any printing, I have to increase the brightness of my pictures, otherwise it'll be darker. Some of them just right, others are too dark.
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I'm planning to get a proof done with blurb...and one done with SharedInk. As you say its worth the money to find out, experience is good for the soul be it good or bad and I'll have something that family and friends would think is wonderful. It would also give me a base on which to compare others.

I know what you mean about having to lighten images for printing too - it costs a bomb in paper and ink to get my black & whites right on paper....colour seems fine though!
 
I looked at the various links above and decided to give Blurb a try.
The book should be shipped Friday next (7 December) so I don't have it yet to give any specific impressions but I will once I see the thing.
I didn't choose any of the more expensive printers--Blurb seemed to be a good compromise between price and production values.
My standards are admittedly faqirly low, I'm not going to use these as promotional books and I don't expect to sell very many but if the one I have coming looks at least as good as my copy of the 2nd RFF book does, then I'll have my xmas shopping done!
I did find the software a bit limiting with the premade layouts but did find one that I can live with. And since I don't have the $ or time to invest in "serious" desktop publishing software, this was for me the better choice.
Rob
 
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