Tech Blog

[#1]

Maybe you already guessed it, this post is about books. Or more specifically how you can make your own 'bestseller' using photos from your vacation, wedding, birthdays, Christmases and other happy occasions. By the way, the headline is the word "book" in English, French, Danish, German, Farsi, Finish, and Spanish.

↑ Books, books, books. 

So where do you start? Well thanks to digital cameras, the internet, intuitive software and affordable prices making a book today is sooooo much easier than what Guttenberg was faced with.

First, let's pick an online book printing service. This is definitely an area the internet entrepreneurs have discovered, resulting in an abundance of sites offering to print your book. My suggestion is to google "photo books" and visit some of the sites offered in the search results. My favorite site rhymes with "burb" (more can I not say), but instead of recommending one site let's suffice to say that all of them basically offer the same services.

You download their book-making software or for some publishers use it online, then you pick and import the images for your book and drop them into page templates building the book page by page. Lastly, you hit "publish" and upload the book for printing. The book is then printed, bound and shipped to you. 

A choice of different sizes, and covers are offered. Some will let you insert your own logo instead of theirs (at an additional cost) and choose a heavy grade paper (again at an additional cost).

Story

So how do you make the book? Well, you gotta tell a story. Either with images alone or with images and text blended together. Images dragged in random order with no thought is just that: a series of photos printed in a book-format. To make a book you must tell a story. So before I even open up my book-making software I like to spend some time making a 'story board'. Not the elaborate kind used for feature films, but a sheet of paper outlining the story the book will tell from a high level vantage point.

↓ Organizing the story

An example is a book I put together after a trip to Tofino, BC. I wanted the book to focus on the beach, the forrest, the surfing and the rain/mist. So I arranged the photos in those buckets in the book, and not just in chronological order as they were snapped. Most of the time I use very little text and let the images tell the story. 

↑ Telling the story.

Prepare the ingredients

Like a recipe, you have to get the ingredients ready first. No ingredients, no cooking. No pictures, no book (well, at least no photo book). Make sure your images are edited and saved in the highest JPG-resolution possible.

↓ Follow the recipe.

Put your ingredients together

Then import all the photos to the book-making software. Personally, I like to have a bit more raw material than I actually use. Say, for a 140 page book, I will use 3-400 images but I import 500 just to have more choices when putting the book together. Don't include multiple shots from the same scene, as you will have a hard time picking the best from the series within the book-software, and leave this for the editing process.

Let's say you visited 10 different cities during your vacation, but really just want to include 7 of them in the book, import photos from 8 or 9 cities and then choose when making the book which ones to include. Let it be an 'organic', non-rigid experience guided by the loose story board you created and the general 'feel' of the book as you progress page by page. Sorta like a sculptor who uncovers the statue in a block of marble, your job is to 'uncover' the book in your images. A bit of a stretch, I know... 

Let it sit overnight

A good book-making recipe calls for the book to sit overnight. So before even coming near the "upload/publish" button you have to go through the book a couple of times over the duration of a couple of days. Even better if you can get a fresh set of eyes to go through the book for you providing input and suggestions. Perhaps someone who was with you on the vacation your are making the book on. It is guaranteed you will move some photos around, delete others and add a couple that (now) makes more sense.

Slide it in the oven

Now you're ready to hit "upload"/"publish". This can take a while (not to mention the printing and shipping of the book), so expect to walk around anxiously the next week or two waiting for your masterpiece to arrive in the mail.

Enjoy with friends and family

The result is best enjoyed with family and friends and has a shelf life of many, many years.

↑ Books are fantastic gifts, and your own books are even better gifts. 

For the technically interested: The images taken here are with the Nikon D700 mostly coupled with Nikkor 50mm f1.4 G lens. Some photos have additional light added from the Nikon SB-900 flash with diffuser pointed up towards a white ceiling. My books are all made in one place (which again rhymes with 'burb'). So far it is the best book-making company I have come across. If photography is not your thing, they will even let you upload a text file for that novel or collection of poetry you have always wanted to publish. 

Message Edited by klausboedker on 07-28-2009 12:53 PM

Message Edited by Julez on 07-29-2009 06:33 PM

[#2]

Wow - Amazing Post! Thanks for this.

[#3]

@JS: glad you liked it. The post is really just scratching the surface, but hopefully it will get more people making books out of their photos.