Best Bang for the buck Photo books?

[Jason Hermann]

We had a great portrait session yesterday at the new studio and out customers were just awesome people!! As the photos were poping up on the PC as I shot, they were just in aww and wanted them all.

They said there is know way they are going to be able to make up there mind and will definitely want a book!

I had 1 book made at Pblurb and was not very happy with the quality, but the price was reasonable. I was looking at Bay photos options, but Them seem really pricey?

Any recommendations on the best bang for the buck, and what to charge for a book?

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!!

Best,
Jay

[happusa]

I don't know what the quality is like but take a look at Qoop.com.

[Padre]

Several wedding photogs are using WHCC. I just signed up and received my test print order from them and their prints look good but I can't comment on their books, only customer reviews. You also may want to check out:
High End Albums:

Finao - http://www.finaoonline.com/
Graphi Studio - http://www.graphistudio.com/usa/index.html
Queensberry - http://www.queensberry.com/
Art Leather - http://www.artleather.com/
Picto Book - http://www.pictobooks.com/html/index.php
Leather Craftsman - http://www.leathercraftsmen.com/
Jorgensen - http://www.jorgensen.com.au/
La-Vie - http://www.la-viealbum.com/
Kiss Wedding Books - http://www.kissweddingbooks.com
Rag and Bone - http://www.ragandbonebindery.com/ * - Consumer pricing is available on the website, but everything is hand made and high end.

Mid-Range Albums:

Album Art - http://www.albumart.com/
Albums Unlimited - http://www.albumsunlimited.com/albumsFlushMount.htm
Zook Book - http://zookbinders.com/
White Wedding Album - http://www.whiteweddingalbum.com/
Premeria - http://www.premiraalbums.com/
Albums Inc - http://www.albumsinc.com/
Black River Imaging (Candid2000.com) - http://www.blackriverimaging.com
Jones Book - http://www.jonesbook.com/index.php
Vision Art - http://www.visionartbook.com/
The Together Book - http://www.thepbook.com/
Bound to Last - http://www.boundtolast.co.nz/index.html
Willow Book - http://www.willowbook.com/products.htm
Asuka - http://asukabook.com/index.html
Cypress - http://www.cypressalbums.com/html/welcome.html

Low Priced:

Snapfsh - http://www.snapfish.com/
My Publisher - http://www.mypublisher.com/
Shared Ink - http://www.sharedink.com/
Blurb - http://www.blurb.com/
Shutterfly - http://www.shutterfly.com/
Lulu - http://www.lulu.com/

Credit to Tim Miller http://tmillerphoto.comfor this resource list.

[Eero Makela]

Above hard to read with default settings


Finao - Finao Online - Home
Graphi Studio - Graphistudio - Home
Queensberry - Queensberry - Home
Art Leather - Art Leather - Home
Picto Book - PictoBooks.com :: Welcome to Pictobooks.com
Leather Craftsman - Leather Craftsmen Inc. - Custom Bookbinding
Jorgensen - Jorgensen Albums Australia - Home
La-Vie - La-Vie Album
Kiss Wedding Books - KISS Wedding Books
Rag and Bone - Rag & Bone Bindery Online Store * - Consumer pricing is available on the website, but everything is hand made and high end.

Mid-Range Albums:

Album Art - Albumart Discount Wedding Photo Albums Direct To Public,Discount Photo Albums,Discount Wedding Albums Professional,Photo Albums,WeddingAlbums,album photo wedding,Wedding Photo Albums,Baby Albums,Photo Albums for Corporate Uses
Albums Unlimited - http://www.albumsunlimited.com/albumsFlushMount.htm
Zook Book - Professional Photo Albums, Handcrafted Photo Albums, Wedding Albums by Zookbinders
White Wedding Album - :::: White Wedding Album :::: Magazine Style Full page Flush Album and Coffee Table Album
Premeria - Premira™ Award Winning Professional Photo Albums
Albums Inc - Albums Inc.
Black River Imaging (Candid2000.com) - BlackRiverImaging.com - Professional Photo Albums
Jones Book - JonesBook Inc
Vision Art - firstup
The Together Book - http://www.thepbook.com/
Bound to Last - Bound to Last | Designer Bookbinders
Willow Book - WillowBook - Products
Asuka - AsukaBook USA - Custom Coffee Table Quality Art Books
Cypress - http://www.cypressalbums.com/html/welcome.html

Low Priced:

Snapfsh - Digital Photo Printing, Free Online Photo Albums & Digital Photo Sharing - Snapfish:
My Publisher - MyPublisher | Create your own Photo Book with MyPublisher and receive a published hardcover book!
Shared Ink - SharedInk - Turn your free online photo albums into books (great gift ideas!)
Blurb - Make your own book with Blurb
Shutterfly - Photo Books, Cards, and Photo Share Sites | Shutterfly
Lulu - Self Publishing - Lulu.com

[Eero Makela]

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[Jason Hermann]

Thank you Very Much Brian and Padre!!!! lots to research.

Best,
Jay

[Jason Hermann]

Eero Makela,

Than you!!

[tekdiver500ft]

White House Custom Color also does press-printed books and magazines. Very high quality at a reasonable price.

[Jason Hermann]

Thanks Tec

I'm looking at all the lower end places trying to decide which to try first I've read several reviews so far and it seems that Blurb is the best Print quality for photobooks for cheap, and Lulu is the best for text based books for the money. Blurb uses a better printer than Lulu and the colors are apperently much better with Blurb.

I'll let you know what I decide and how the book comes out

Thanks again,
Jay

[Wolfdagon]

So which company did you choose and how did the book turn out?

[southswede]

I'm interested to know too....

[Jason Hermann]

I used Blurb so far and it was pretty good, but not the best.

Pros: Easy to create, fairly cheap for the book, decent quality.

Cons: takes a while to process/ ship, Quality is inconsistent, Shipping charges are ridiculous and on a Per book basis? SO the book itself is cheap, but then it's like 8 bucks per book for shipping?


Currently I'm looking at Album Crafters and there Deco Art book. It's about $100 dollars, but they use state of the art 6 color printing so the quality should be really good.

Best,
Jay

[waple]

I've printed one from WHCC (White House Custom Color) and was happy with it. It was on hinged paper and 5x7 for approx $45. I just placed an order yesterday for a 20 page 12x12 on standard paper for a total of $85 after shipping. Should be here Tuesday so it's pretty quick.

[cman78]

We printed a couple of 5x7 books with WHCC and were not impressed. They use 4 color press and the dots from the press are very apparent. Enough it lowered the quality significantly on the pictures. Some to looking pixelated because of the press.

[Ellbee99]

Mpix...Mpix.com - Home

[Jason Hermann]

Ok, UPDATE I just ordered up a few of these, and the quality and price is absolutely amazing!!!!!!!!!!!

AdoramaPix

I very very highly recommend this book, and the turn around time was extremely quick as well. Doesn't even compare to the Blurb books that I've tried in the past. These books are printed on actual photo paper and binded with the cool hinge method so you can get a pano across the pages. Also the software is all internet based which is good and bad. It stores the info online and some on the PC if you let it. It's cool though, because you can edit from multiple computers. All I can say is check it out and I'm really impressed and planning on using them from now on. Unless of course something better comes alone. I'll takes some high res photos later today so you can see the quality for yourself

Best,
Jay

[KellyL]

Jay, I want to see this Adorama book. Plese upload the pics.

[Jason Hermann]

ok, here are the snapshots





same shot with the lighting more flat:










Best,
Jay

[KellyL]

Thanks so much.

[Wolfdagon]

Very nice Jay. What size is this? Is the two page pano spread actually one long page folded in half where the two pages meet? This is what it looks like in your closups of the binding. I wonder how durable that will be over time. I have seen other books where they have individual pages which are hinged to lay flat. I wonder which is better.