How do see your images? Is this on a smartphone? A tablet? A laptop? Or do you even get prints made somewhere?
The reason for the question is – if your images are only stored electronically, are you sure that you will be able to access them and view them in ten years’ time?
With this in mind, I have asked another one of my friends to be a guest contributor and share their experience with Photobooks for myself and others to hopefully be inspired by. Thank you J
- WHAT MADE YOU THINK OF MAKING A PHOTOBOOK?
I had seen some photobooks that friends and family had made and liked what I saw. I had also, around the same time, read an article suggesting that the way we store documents and photos, etc, now (e.g. USB sticks, Memory Cards) will be outdated in time to come. Hence we will not be able to access what we store. As I had stopped printing out my photos and thought storing them on USB sticks was good enough, I had to rethink my process. The article’s author suggested that the only way to store photos was to do it ‘old style’ – i.e. print them out and make up an album. That’s when I decided to look at doing photobooks. I also find it’s much easier bringing out a book when I want to show people my photos rather than pulling out the computer or phone where the photos are stored.
- WHAT COMPANY DID YOU USE?
Photobox (www.photobox.co.uk)
- WAS THIS BECAUSE OF SOME RESEARCH YOU DID?
Not really. The friend I mentioned had used Photobox and I liked what I saw. So I looked into them.
- HAVING CHOSEN THIS COMPANY, HOW EASY WAS IT TO CHOOSE THE COVER, SIZE OF BOOK, PAGES, IMAGES, FORMAT OF IMAGES?
Once you go onto their website it’s easy to choose the size of the book, e.g. A4, A3, Portrait, etc. You upload your photos from your computer or phone onto their site and then start creating your book. They have templates for covers and inside pages that you can choose to make it easy to drop your photos on. Or you can design your own layout on each page. There are many options and designs and background colours to choose from. I find the site fairly self-explanatory.
The book I normally choose is A4 Personalised book. It comes with a minimum of 26 pages at a base cost. You can add extra pages at a cost per page. The maximum book size is 160 pages.
Once you are happy with your book (having checked it carefully especially if you’ve added wording to the book) and you go to order, you then get an option to ‘upgrade’ certain aspects of the book (again, at extra cost).
- DID THE BOOK LOOK AND WORK FOR YOU AS YOU THOUGHT IT WOULD?
Yes.
- HAVE YOU MADE ANOTHER BOOK SINCE THIS BOOK?
I have made several books now. I personally prefer doing a book dedicated to a holiday or ‘theme’. For example we were in Luxembourg for a weekend break. On our return I was able to make a photobook specifically showing that holiday.
- HAS THIS HELPED YOUR CREATIVITY IN DISPLAYING THE PHOTOS?
Yes it has. I don’t think I’m a particularly creative person, but playing around with the design and which photos I want on the pages of the book has definitely challenged me into thinking and looking at things with a more creative eye.
- WOULD YOU RECOMMEND OTHERS TRYING THIS FOR THEMSELVES?
Absolutely. It takes time to prepare the photos that you want to have in your book, and also to design the book, but once you make your book it’s worth it.
- WOULD YOU SAY YOU GOT GOOD VALUE FOR YOUR MONEY?
Yes.
So I think that we will try this out. Maybe a book of this year’s holiday photographs taken by my wife and myself.
M