I love making photobooks, for holidays and special events, but I always seem to find things I want to improve on. Thought it would be a nice idea for people to share their tips on how they make their own photobooks.
For the record, I use Cewe Photoworld.
- Never use the leaflet front cover. I did once, and never will again - it was flimsy and it feels and looks poorly done, whereas the others don't.
- Choose a background that does not overshadow the main photos. You need your photos to be able to pop out.
- Fill the page. Doesn't matter if you have small gaps, but my earlier books have huge gaping holes and it just doesn't look very good.
- Check your book before you buy! So many of my books have pictures that appear more than once. D'oh!
What are your top tips on making photobooks and who do you use?
I have used snapfish.com for wedding photo books for myself and for 2 nieces. Was really happy with them. You can put words and pictures. The only downside for me was that there was a good selection of templates from 1 to I think 6 photos, but you had to use the templates, you couldn't randomly place photos on the page. Be really careful with typing as they don't proofread !
I have used Shutterfly. I usually end up with the maximum number of pages allowed and have found that the pages come out fairly easily. When I have informed them they have always sent me another copy of the book without question but I do wish they could fix the problem. I think my only advice would be to maybe keep the book smaller...although, I am not 100 percent sure size is the problem, it has only ever happened with the ones where I have gone to maximum size. I may try some other sites but I like that my library of books is uniform in size and style right now.
I used blurb to make a photobook of my first year of 365. I'm very pleased with it although some of the pictures came out a little darker than they look on my computer. My book was pretty plain and simple with just a white background but if I do another one I may get more creative with it. Not sure, though. I kind of liked the plain white background.
I've made probably a more than a dozen with Shutterfly (when I catch a sale.) I find them quite easy to use - Great choices of backgrounds though I tend to stick to solid black since mine are nearly all nature shots and they show up quite well on black. Their new custom path gives many more layouts per page - definitely worth a look at them. Like their quality of paper - never had trouble with the pages coming out even with their 100 page max.
used blurb for mine last year - did my 365 project as one. It was great, easy to use eventually, started my second year and book and it's now so easy to do its brill.
i keep to the white background as all my shots are different and i find a coloured one wouldn't work for a lot of them.
my front cover is a black background and i went for the hardback for stability inthe binding as there were a huge amount of pages
@onie You may like to check out Cewe - you can put up to 24 pictures on one page (though that is a bit too much IMO) and you can edit the boxes to change the sizes and put boxes in different places. May help :)
@sunnygreenwood I'll see if I can make some of mine accessible for you to see!
@edie That's not good! They really need to sort that out. Hope you find a solution :)
@mittens I still haven't got round to doing a book for my first 365! Not so good really is it? :(
@milaniet Ooo I may have to check them out. I tried Blurb and didn't get on with them very well.
@kmrtn6 I made a 56 page book for my South Africa trip and Cewe upgraded me to a hardback for free. Definately need a hardback when the pages get too many.
@superbeyotch Hope the tips help when you get to do it :) It may be easier to start the book earlier and just keep updating it regularly. I left mine to the end and I still haven't done it 5 months later :(
I always go with Shutterfly photo books. The quality is great and they always have excellent sales going on. It is such an easy process and it's a great way to make gifts with your photos for friends or just for yourself!
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i'd like to see some books that others have made. mine are all about things being balanced and it'd be fun to see some which are more random.
i keep to the white background as all my shots are different and i find a coloured one wouldn't work for a lot of them.
my front cover is a black background and i went for the hardback for stability inthe binding as there were a huge amount of pages
@sunnygreenwood I'll see if I can make some of mine accessible for you to see!
@edie That's not good! They really need to sort that out. Hope you find a solution :)
@mittens I still haven't got round to doing a book for my first 365! Not so good really is it? :(
@milaniet Ooo I may have to check them out. I tried Blurb and didn't get on with them very well.
@kmrtn6 I made a 56 page book for my South Africa trip and Cewe upgraded me to a hardback for free. Definately need a hardback when the pages get too many.
@superbeyotch Hope the tips help when you get to do it :) It may be easier to start the book earlier and just keep updating it regularly. I left mine to the end and I still haven't done it 5 months later :(