The Japan book,

[Andrea Taurisano]

Dear all
I thought of inviting you to click here and browse through my new Blurb book "The Japan book", featuring about 120 b/w street photos from a recent trip to Japan. For those who need to know, this work is made by using a Leica M6 and a Ricoh GR1, both loaded with Tri-X 400.

I chose to print using the format and paper of a trade book, which suites the style of the images and keeps the price low. I'd love to hear your opinion on photography books printed as trade book, if you have any experience with it yourself or have got a paper copy of my book. PS: I enabled full preview of the book, so those who should buy it know what they'll get. Thanks

 

[tunalegs]

It looks good from the preview. 6x9" is plenty large I think, but then again I like small prints relative to large ones.

 

[Frontman]

Excellent stuff! I actually saw a couple of faces I know (the dog with the sunglasses, and the halry, homeless guy in front of Shibuya Station). Keep up the good work,

 

[Roma]

Some nice images in there. Nicely portrayed urban street life. Congratulations!

 

[Bingley]

Enjoyed the preview. Great work and congrats on the book!

 

[spkennedy3000]

Great stuff. Did you sell many?

 

[kbg32]

Some very nice images. My only criticism is that it seems you used very low res images to make the book. You still could have retained the "feel" of grittiness by using images of a higher resolution. Some of the images get too blocked up and a little too "crunchy".

 

[Andrea Taurisano]

Great stuff. Did you sell many?

Oh, not really, it's been out for a week now and about a dozen paper copies have been bought by people I don't know, plus a few by friends. But to be honest, until I made the book and ordered 20 copies for myself I didn't even know it was possible to sell it through Blurb, so all I get is unexpected income 😉

 

[Andrea Taurisano]

Some very nice images. My only criticism is that it seems you used very low res images to make the book. You still could have retained the "feel" of grittiness by using images of a higher resolution. Some of the images get too blocked up and a little too "crunchy".

You know, I got a "low res warning" for only a couple of images while I was making the book, and those two images were scans at about 6 Mpx. All others were uploaded at 3600 x 2400 or larger, which I thought would be enough for the intended print size. And in fact, on paper they look all very nice (even the two I had got a warning for). Am still learning, in other words..

 

[jsrockit]

Some very nice images. My only criticism is that it seems you used very low res images to make the book. You still could have retained the "feel" of grittiness by using images of a higher resolution. Some of the images get too blocked up and a little too "crunchy".

Blurb's preview reader does that to the images... they will not look like that in the book.

 

[bonatto]

cool stuff! Thanks for sharing

 

[squareshooter]

I just bought your book. You stole an idea of mine, to take photos of Japan with a Leica. That makes you a smart guy in my book. I'm old fashioned, I guess. I can't look at a book on the Internet I have to have it in my hot, grubby little paws. I look forward to seeing it. Domo arigato.

 

[kbg32]

Blurb's preview reader does that to the images... they will not look like that in the book.

John,

I have put together a few Blurb books and my previews, in all fairness and respect, did not look like that.

 

[jsrockit]

John,

I have put together a few Blurb books and my previews, in all fairness and respect, did not look like that.

Ok, I've put together about 35 or so and the previews have looked like that at times... but never in book form. I use full res jpegs when I send them to blurb too.

I guess there is more to it, but... it is not necessarily the book makers fault.

 

[kbg32]

On a second look, you might be right! I certainly don't remember them looking this way. I used 300 dpi images.

 

[Andrea Taurisano]

I just bought your book. You stole an idea of mine, to take photos of Japan with a Leica. That makes you a smart guy in my book. I'm old fashioned, I guess. I can't look at a book on the Internet I have to have it in my hot, grubby little paws. I look forward to seeing it. Domo arigato.

Haha, thanks, but I'm afraid neither you or I are the first ones with the idea of shooting Japan with a Leica. My next trip will be to Siberia (by train), but unfortunately many others, including a clever guy named Jacob Sobol, have stolen my idea and went there with their Leica before 😉

 

[squareshooter]

Great minds think alike.

 

[Expatinprogress]

Really liked it. Long life to grain...

 

[sevres_babylone]

Very impressive. I like the sequencing and design. Quick question: did you lay it out with just the Blurb software, or was InDesign used too?

 

[Andrea Taurisano]

Only Blurb software, quick and dirty (the whole thing took me less than two hours).