Photobook / Body of Work

In a previous post I introduced the concept of a "body of work". A small collection of photographs - 10 to 20 perhaps - that could be organised into a slide-show and emailed to interested parties.

For a larger body of work - say 30 to 100 photographs - a photobook is a good option. A photobook is a real paper-and-ink book, with a bound cover and glossy white pages printed on both sides with your words and images.

You'll need to find a specialist company to print your photobook. You'll find them on the 'net.

The basic idea is to take your individual digital photos, upload them to the printer's web-site then you lay them out in a book template (digitally speaking). Each print company has their own interface / book template. You can add text and background elements to each page if you wish (depending on the template you choose for a particular page). Alternately you can create a "ready to go" image for each page, containing photos, text and background elements. You do this on your PC using an image editor / page layout editor of your choice. You upload these "page images" and drop them one by one into the book template.

I've recently completed one photobook - 50 pages long containing around 65 photographs. There are a handful of pages containing only text, but more pages contain one, two or maybe three photos. I've given some of the photographs a caption. To me, a photobook is more about my photographs than my words (at least for this first effort anyway).

And the result? When flipping through my photographs in physical book form, I'm pleased to report I was impressed with my handiwork and that of the print company (HP Snapfish, Australia). I've shown my photobook to a number of friends and some of them have been inspired to organise a few photos into a photobook! I look forward to seeing their results.

As a photobook costs real money (unlike a slide-show), I'll present a few pointers here to help you get a good result the first-time around. I scoured the 'net for tips before starting on my book project.

1. If not evident on the printer's web-site, make sure you have the exact page dimensions (cover and body pages).

2. Make sure the book template allows you to fill a page with a single image. This enables you to create a "page image" (see above) rather than be limited by the layouts in the template.

3. Ensure pages are printed using your colours and contrast settings. Some companies provide a colour "enhancement" feature; make sure you can turn it off.

4. Most companies accept .jpg files, sRGB (the colourspace) up to 300 dpi. For best quality, create your page images (or photographs) at 300dpi with minimal compression (Photoshop Level 10 or better, or the eqivalent for your image editor).

5. Unless you are skilled in graphic design, keep your page layouts simple.

6. Check if / where the print company puts their logo. Is it on every page or discreetly near the back of the book. I'm happy to have the print company acknowledged in my book - in one spot.

7. Look at what other people have done with their photobooks.

8. Before committing to print, create a PDF version of your book and view it as digital book. Do the images / text flow as a book, does the layout add to the "narrative" or is it distraction, do colours / tones work between adjacent images, two-page spreads, blank pages for spacing etc.

9. Be prepared to re-edit some photographs so they work in your photobook. For example, re-crop from a horizontal to a vertical orientation or warming the tone of one image to work in with an adjacent image.

And finally point 10:

10. Assuming that you can create a "page image" (the template allows a page to be filled with a single image), the extension of this feature is a full-bleed page. This is where the edge of an image can extend to the edge of the physical page on one, two, three or all edges. Note that the quoted page size has to include around 1/8" that is trimmed after printing (to get a clean edge). If full-bleed is not supported then ensure you leave a margin of 1/2" top and bottom and 3/4" left and right, so every page has a natural frame of white paper.