This was an experimental venture into photobook technology, which has been around for a long time but cost has always been an issue. When I came across a good offer from Bonusprint, it seemed an opportunity not to be missed.
It has been a lot of work, not only selecting and arranging material but also preparing a full set of captions. I was surprised at how much material I have and how much I had to leave out. One lesson learned the hard way is the value of planning. Allocate the pages to your chosen subject areas before beginning to fill them; also try out a few layouts before going headlong into it.
I adopted a basic 2x4 grid. Given more time, I may have been more adventurous, with the occasional full page image, but I wanted to include as much as possible and was mindful of the resolution of individual images. I allocated the pages between nine distinct themes.
The software - supplied free by Bonusprint - was fairly intuitive and reasonably well featured, if somewhat 'clunky' and it did prove difficult moving material about - hence the lesson about planning.
** UPDATE **
I now have the printed product and am delighted with it. In all respects, it looks and feels like a 'proper' book with a superb laminated hardback cover and title down the spine. The internal pages are printed on good quality heavy paper with a pleasing lustre finished. Overall, the photo reproduction is excellent, with just a couple of images slightly lighter than I would have wished, but not seriously so. The auto-enhance tool that I used very selectively has worked well - even though I thought I had the images right in Photoshop, they have benefitted from a little tweaking in the photo book software.
I have learned a few lessons about design and layout, which was one of my principal aims. The colour pages have worked well - I was concerned about these - and the fine white or black borders are effective. The text could beneficially be a touch smaller - I opted for 12 point Arial for the body text whereas I tend to use 10.5 for most purposes. The headings are Gill Sans which, again, could be a little smaller. With smaller - and possibly less - text, there is scope for additional pictures, although I'm a great believer in letting the content 'breathe'. Another lesson - a case of not doing what I've previously taught others - is that the inside margin needs to be slightly more generous than the outside margin.
What next? Well, I will be doing more photo books but not in the immediate future (they really do take a lot of thought, time and effort to do well). This first book is not for sale - it would need a lot more work before I would wish to put it in the public domain, but I'm not ruling out anything in the future (updated 09-Jan-16)
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