Best way to create a Photo Book?

[Conor D]

Looking for some advice here. I have been putting off making a Photo Book for a Christmas present the past few years - normally I will leave it too late to actually get one made.

I've went through my phone and I have around 2000 photos on there I want to use (Holidays etc - some sort of timeline), along with some stored on my computer. Is there any good way to sort through these photos and build up some structure to a Photo Book? Even doing it all in a design suite etc so it can just be sent off for print.

I don't know how far I am going to go with this, as I also have a load of printed photos that I may scan in.. This could easily turn 2000 into 3000+.

Looking for the best workflow, and also a good quality (Hard Backed?) Photo Book... I don't want to have to sit and upload each photo individually before manipulating them.

[mike80]

I make through Photobox - you can customize the design online and upload all of your pictures in one go, then slot them into the design. It takes a bit of time though!

[Conor D]

mike80 said:

I make through Photobox - you can customize the design online and upload all of your pictures in one go, then slot them into the design. It takes a bit of time though!

I will take a look, is this something that you can save and return to?

[GetCarter]

Conor D said:

I will take a look, is this something that you can save and return to?

Yep. I should point out that blurb.co.uk are cheaper and better (I use both).

[mike80]

Yes it is.

Some of the other providers might have some software that you can download, Photobox didn't last time I made a book (last Christmas). But it is easy enough to save online and come back to it whenever you want. I've been using them for years.

[Mutley]

Would recommend Blurb as well, easy interface to upload images and text.

[arch stant0n]

I did one in Boots in a hurry last year from pics saved on a card, print quality/price wasn't great - but I got it back the same day.

[GetCarter]

Blurb are doing 50% off until 17th Nov. Never seen that much off before.

Code GEM50

[ali_kat]

I bought 4 of these from Woucher and created albums of our Wedding Photos

Was very pleased with the quality (& price!)

Deal is done now, but it comes up regularly

http://www.wowcher.co.uk/deals/national-deal/deal-...

[Granville]

I did one using Tesco. Very good quick service and the quality was excellent. Their online making tools is very easy with lots of options to personalize it.

[Craikeybaby]

GetCarter said:

Blurb are doing 50% off until 17th Nov. Never seen that much off before.

Code GEM50

Thanks for posting that! I have a few to do, so this is going to give me a big kick to do them tonight!

[andy-xr]

I've never managed to make Blurbs desktop software work, instead I used their Lightroom plugin and that came out great. All built within Lightroom, 20'odd pages, fair few layout options and a decent price.

What I would say though is consider how many pages you think you're really going to have, or how many books would be realistic because 2-3000 images takes up a fair amount of paper and there's a cost with that.

[GetCarter]

andy-xr said:

I've never managed to make Blurbs desktop software work, instead I used their Lightroom plugin and that came out great. All built within Lightroom, 20'odd pages, fair few layout options and a decent price.

What I would say though is consider how many pages you think you're really going to have, or how many books would be realistic because 2-3000 images takes up a fair amount of paper and there's a cost with that.

The other problem with blurb is 10 day delivery (generally), and stupidly expensive postal costs (printed abroad). I spoke to them a couple of years ago and they were saying they would get a UK printer... not sure if that has happened. Still - decent quality and much cheaper than the (much faster) photobox.

If anyone is considering cards or calendars - check out solopress.co.uk - Seriously cheap for small orders (£33 for 100 A5 cads with envelopes, inc VAT and next day delivery). I'm selling these for between £1.20 and £2.00 to retailers and online... costing me 33p each. If you order some, push the exposure a little - they tend to come in a tad dark, but quality of card/print/colour is damned good for the price. Also, A4 calendars ending up at £2.02 inc everything for 50. Selling at £6.50 (ish) retail. I've used them half a dozen times now and haven't had a problem. They will e mail pdf proofs on request.