Photo display albums...

[rpcrowe]

I would like to have my images displayed in an album so that it would be easy for guests to peruse those images. I would also like to have my shots placed in the album so that the album doesn't need to be turned to view vertical and horizontal images.

I like my images with a black border around them.

It seems like printing images of approximately 20x25cm (or about 8X10" for us Yanks) with a 2.5cm (1") black border in square 12x12" (30x30 cm) paper might be a way to go. I could center either vertical or horizontal formats on the page.

This would give me a decent size image which could be viewed without turning the album. These could be inserted in an album that has plastic pages.

On the other hand, there are "photo books" available. I could get a book like this printed and bound with images on each side of a page for a lot less money than printing individual images. A plus would be the ability to insert captions. This would be great for collections like my images of China. Additionally, I could have a second album printed for use as a gift.

Has anyone had a "photo book" printed? I am wondering about the quality of the imagery.

Does anyone have a different suggestion...

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Richard,

I haven't done anything like this myself, but I knew I had read on this topic here before, have a look at;
My (Landscape) Photobook
there are at least a couple of options there.

Cheers,

[Shadowman]

Go with two albums. One for your landscape format and one for portrait. I think every photographer who displays their work for commercial reasons has at least two sets of portfolios. Knowing your audience means knowing what they are familiar with and that would include ease of handling photo albums.

[rpcrowe]

I agree that an album might serve me better if there is a theme; such as landscapes, portraits, macros, etc. I plan to collect a hundred or so images of my China trip and incorporate them into an album.

[Colin Southern]

Hi Richard,

Almost sounds as though something to what's used for wedding albums might do the trick. Failing that, buy an iPad!

[revi]

For the photo books, there are usually several options.
I know of at least a few where you can get 30x30 cm books, and you can pick several colours for the background, or frame the photos. Also, there's a difference in the way you prepare the book: totally web based where you have to upload the photo's first, or you download a program which then uploads the finished book. I prefer the latter, as it gives me the possibility to rework a photo w/o uploading it again. Also I keep the book data, and can reorder as long as the service exists, the web based ones retain data only for a few months (afaik).

Then there is the choice of technique: either rasterized print (offset-like) or photo paper. The latter should give higher resolution, but I've never used it. For the rasterized type the effect should be like a good published book. You might go and see if a local photo shop has examples of those books, they are getting proposed for weddings as well.

Remco

P.S. no links to on-line services, as the ones I use might not be available in the states.

[rpcrowe]

Thanks all... I am going to do some research regarding photo books to find the least automated (the one in which I retain the most control) system of producing the book. I just wish that I could get "proof" pages from various producers of these books to see which ones would produce the very best imagery from "MY" photos.

I saw some examples of photo books at my local Costco discount store and while I was fairly impressed with one example, the two other examples left me quite unimpressed. I don't know what quality the original images for these books were. Since I want my China Book to showcase my talents, I certainly don't want my images to be degraded by poor reproduction. I'd much rather not have a book than have a poorly produced book. However, since this will be a one time effort, I don't mind paying a higher price.

I would like to find a book producer who works with professionals rather than a scrapbook producer who is used to assembling photo books from images produced by point and shoot cameras.

There are quite a few book producers listed here:
http://www.all-things-photography.co...oto-books.html

If anyone has information, or even better... experience with a book producer (good or bad); I would appreciate learning about that experience.