TOP 10 TIPS FOR MAKING A PHOTO BOOK

I observed that you make this video at 2 pm 😅

Fantastic video.

Thank you! I am new to this and your tips are so helpful. I realize I was starting to try to put every picture in—definitely I need to be more selective! Now on to your reviews of the various photo book companies.

good restart for doing books, thank you!

This video is very informative for a first timer.

I've enjoyed all your Shutterfly videos. Easy to follow. I hit my limit with a 11x14 book on pages (at 111) yet have another 10 pages I need to add. How do I split a photo book into two and have part I and part II. In other words, take 1/2 the book I made and make a second book so I'll have two for the year 2022.

What are the standard sizes of photobook?

Good information, thanks. I have one question right now. When you use a photo for the cover, do you reuse it again on the inside???

Excellent video! I have used Blurb and Artifact Uprising and I am about to dive into Mixbook to use for my granddaughter's first year photo book. Your ten tips are spot on!

Great information. Thank you for posting

I'd really like help with printerpix inserting text. theoretically and on thei utube it looks easy. But when I do it in practice it doesn't happen!

10 years is a long time mate

Thanks first Time on your site very instructive love it

such a good tip about what they're going to look like on the shelf! the OCD would be killing me too lol - another amazing video thank you! any tips for picking your best photos? I take so many and struggle to edit down to less and less

How do you transfer best from digital to Polaroid? My photos started out Polaroid but I’d like duplicates/copies so I’d love to retransfer digital to Polaroid

Thank you for your tips

There has been software around for many years that attempt to increase the size of image files. As a photographer, I used one called Genuine Fractals many years ago albeit with limited success. However, you really should take a look Topaz Gigapixel AI. This works as a standalone program or a Photoshop or Lightroom plug-in. From my own experimentation It works very well up to 2 times enlargement, anything beyond that is a bit iffy. It also includes sharpening and denoise algorithms and the end result can often be quite an improvement. Obviously the better the original the better the resultant enlargement. They also do software for sharpening, which attempts to repair out of focus and blurry shots using AI technology, so treasured shots that cannot be redone maybe redeemed. So to you comment 'you can't polish a turd', well actually you can, a little bit at least.

How do I contact you to make a content page with maps of our trip? I love that idea! Thanks.

Best for rectangular, art photos, black and white...non commercial?

Hello- Thanks for all the wonderful information! I have started scanning Scrapbooks that were made with decorative papers, stickers etc.
I am scanning the pages as one photo and then using them as a single page into a photo book. What is the best way to edit/improve the color as much as is possible with older hard copy pictures? Should I use an editing app like photoshop or just do the best I can with the editor that comes with Mixbook. I realize the end result will not be perfect as the photos are not perfect to start with. Thanks for you help.

What size is your India Trip album? Would you recommend this size for a yearly photo album collection?

The resolution of a photo can, to a limited extent, be improved with the Topaz AI programs. But nothing can ad content and meaning to a average snapshot. * I never use cloud storage. I have a four TB external hard drive.

thank u

Thanks for the video! Can you cover a bit more on release/permissions? Most street photographers do not have release forms from subjects. Can those photos be included in a self-publishing photo book?

Very helpful! Thank you!

Is want to buy a photobook printing machine for commercial use what do you recommend

G’day mate.

I’m an editor, features writer and photographer, and have been for about 35 years, so I have a leg-up in knowing how to put a good-looking book or magazine together. What I cannot find out from Burb, who is printing my first photo book as we speak, is how the system works when you choose to sell a Blurb book with Amazon.

Does Blurb supply Amazon with a number of my books for sale, or does Amazon simply advertise the book and Blurb prints a number dictated by sales? Do I pay for the printing of these books, or does Blub take a commission on each sale - which means that, in the long run, both Amazon and Blurb take a commission on the book.

Trying to get his info from Blurb is frustrating and damn-near impossible. Blurb always ends up referring me to its website, which does a lousy job of answering specific questions from those who have never self-published. Blurb needs a functioning chat line – full stop!

Some good tips - I ran into trouble when the company I used was sold and no other companies made the right size - same issue when I wanted to switch but sizes were different

Hi Stefan! Thank you for your great tips. My phone saves all my photos to Google photos only (no gallery app on my phone.) Do you think I can just use the photos that are on Google photos and send those to Chatbooks and will that provide good quality photo resolution? My phone is Pixel 3XL.

I would appreciate your expert advice about a question. I LOVE the button on Snapfish editor called "Shuffle Gallery" where it will take my photos on a page, arrange them, all while keeping the aspect ratio size, and orientation of the original photos. The problem is I really don't like their print quality of the finished book. Do you know if there are any other companies that have a similar button feature as the "Shuffle Gallery"?

Great advice.....I'm looking forward to making photo books

There is some GREAT advice here! You brought up ideas I had not considered. Thank you so much!

i have adobe photoshop cc. would you recommend thid format for a photobook?

I am a simple person. I just want the photo book pages to be clear on the back so I can see what I wrote on each picture on the back when I turn the page.

Very helpful. Thank you!

How can we tell when too much is too much ? I’m doing a shutterfly 8x11, right now im at almost 60 pages and missing more. Should i stop there and make another or is it ok size? Thanks !

Greetings,
I need help in accomplishing the following:

I have numerous, physical, photo albums, going back decades (generations of family photos).
I would like to scan every photo, resulting in having a digital photo album. The digital album would work as follows (this is where I need your help, to know if this is possible):

-- Tag every photo with numerous fields (First Name, Last Name, Date (broken down by "day", "month", and "year"), occasion (birthday, wedding, etc). Add any number of custom tag fields that I will populate via data entry. So all photos with "wedding" can be found, or only "birthday" photos that contain both "Bob" and "Mary", etc.

For the "First Name" and "Last Name", it would need to scale for multiple names, as many photos have multiple people in the photo. For example, once it is all set up, if I want to search for "Seymour Krelborn", the digital application should populate the page with every photo containing his name, whether he is alone or with others that are also tagged with their names.

-- The completed album is easily copied, so that I can give exact copies to all family members (like sharing an Excel spreadsheet with others).
The family members to whom I share the digital photos will exact copies of all of the scanned photos and will also have the database that I set up with all of the tags that I populated.

-- Free and open source code.
This is not a must. But I cannot expect every family member to purchase software to view the digital photo database.

Basically, every person to whom I give a copy of the completed digital album will have the same master database that references the same digital photos (everyone will have all of the digital photos that I will scan, and everyone will have the database that I set up to conveniently search the digital photo album).

I do not want to rely on, or share with, any cloud services. Anyone that I give a copy of the above to should not need internet access to peruse the digital database.
This is a lot of work for me to do. But it is important that I be able to share my family's history of photos in the manner described above. But I do not know what software can do all of this.

Note that printing the photos is not a factor, as all of the photos are already printed from film based cameras. But if someone wants to print any photos, they will have the digital versions from my scans and can print them as desired.

If I have to purchase software, that is okay, as long as others will be able to have easy access to my finished work and will not have to also make purchases.

Any help is appreciated.

Thank you.

Great tips! Thank you.. want to get started

Thanks.❤️simple and useful.

I love your photo book tips! Thank you so much!! I'm getting ready to do my first 80-page book, and I want to do contents pages much like you have done. How did you do the graphics for those pages you did on New York and Chicago?

Great video! Thank you. What do you think of laying the book out in power point, printing to pdf and then uploading to a book printing site? I like having a digital copy of my book. Do you know of any photobook printers that have an easy to use layout function that also let you create an electronic version as well as the printed book?

Thanks for sharing wonderful ideas and tips. Tell some updates photo book industry, where it is going.

Fabulous presentation, very helpful. I started creating mine on Blurb then, unfortunately, they had cut off time to order the book and lost all my beautiful photos.. ..Here we go again. Thanks

What photo specs do I need to print an 8x8 or maybe 8.5x11 size book. The photos will be from my mobile phone. Thanks!

I just want to ask if is it okay to include scanned photos in making photobook

Very helpful - thank you very much!

Thank you, that was very informative. Hopefully I will get it right now.

I started scrap booking 40 years ago with the birth of my first child. I did really cool things and could have made a fortune if I had turned it into a business. But that is not my passion to have a business. So I have not scraped booked in many years and am going for this digital way. My daughter and I make 1 for each of her 2 sons from our Alaska cruise and now I am making a large one of mine and my husband's Alaska land tour and cruise with family. I really appreciate your advice and details on making albums. Thanks for you videos.