Bless the Internet for making it easier than ever to share photos with friends and family and license photos to clients. But even with all the technology, there is still something magical about a printed image. It’s tangible, and there is a sense of permanence that doesn’t exist with an image that appears on a webpage. Heresy from a guy who runs an Internet company? No, just a realization that we still covet things we can hold in our hands.

This summer I’ve had the opportunity to get out of the city on two occasions: a weekend in the Hamptons with a bunch of fellow Hawaiians, and a wedding in upstate Connecticut. As a photographer, I wanted to capture moments from those weekends with no other intention but to share them through my website, but when I reviewed the images, I decided to try to do something a little more permanent.

Blurb is well-known as a digital book-making company. Their CEO, Eileen Gittins, and I have had a chance to sit down last year when we were comparing notes about putting together a national seminar series, and more recently, we’re both partners to the Magnum Expression Photography Award. PhotoShelter has used Blurb before to develop marketing pieces, and while the end result was good, I always had the desire to have more control over the output than their software allowed (I worked as a graphic designer in college).

So I was very pleased to find that they now support “PDF to Book” capabilities, which means I could design my own book using a product like Adobe InDesign. This new process gives a few distinct advantages:

• All design elements are controlled by me
• I can color profile the images to the HP Indigo Printers for more accurate color (their normal “BookSmart” software uses sRGB)
• I can size specifically and sharpen to my specification (BookSmart sizes for you, and uses generalized sharpening algorithm)

This is the process I followed:

Download Templates
I downloaded the InDesign templates for their largest-sized book which is 13″x11″. The templates support a full bleed (i.e. no borders around the page edges), which was a huge plus from a design perspective.

Image Selection
I used Photo Mechanic to pick my selects because quite simply, it is the fastest and best software for doing an edit. I didn’t have a fixed number of images in mind. Instead, I was just trying to tell a story through the pictures, so I did a rough edit of about 100 images, and figured that the layout would help dictate the final edit. Seeing the images in a book form put a lot more pressure on the editing process, and reinforced my appreciation for a good photo editor. Images on the page have to look good next to one another. The overall sequence has to be cohesive and comprehensive.

Initial Layout
In InDesign, I started to import the images using a variety of layouts. Full-bleeds, verticals, horizontals, 2-up, crops, etc. Whatever I though would work the best. I selected Adobe Garamond, and used the “Expert” set for the numerals to add an air of distinctiveness to the design. I laid out the images serially, and decided against captions. The images were good enough and the crowds were intimate enough, in my opinion, that I thought captions would be distracting.

Color Profile
I knew that I didn’t want to take a chance with the color given that the book would cost $56 plus tax and shipping to produce. So I downloaded the HP Indigo Press 5500 that Blurb provides, and installed it into Photoshop CS2.

Image Preparation
Once I had completed the initial layout of the images, I knew what the target dimensions were, which allowed me to do a final image preparation at the exact output size. I didn’t want to have InDesign perform image scaling because it could lead to less than optimal results, so I looked at each images dimensions, then went back into Photoshop and increased or decreased the size accordingly. Then I converted the AdobeRGB images into CMYK, then “Convert to Profile” with the Indigo profile. Since my monitor is profiled with an X-Rite EyeOne calibrator, I was relatively confident in the color fidelity, and I made curve changes in Photoshop accordingly. It goes without saying that well-exposed photos showed very little shift in the conversion process. But images taken with flash where I was dragging the shutter looked like they were going to print really dark, and that the black would be overwhelming. For these images, I went to the RAW file and boosted the exposure up to one stop to open up some of the highlights.

Image sharpening is device and size dependent. Because I knew the size and the target device, I used Nik Sharpener Pro 3.0 to apply a really nice sharpening to the image. Of course, you have to take it on faith that the sharpening would work because sharpening in print looks very different than it does on your monitor.

Re-linking and PDF Output
Back in InDesign, I relinked the final images then I used the Adobe PDF Presets command to output an X-3:2002 version, which is the only version Blurb will allow for upload. I initially got  burned because I forgot to include the bleed area in the PDF (it’s a slight margin beyond the printed page), and had to re-upload a 130MB PDF again to correct the problem.

Designing the Cover
I chose the “image wrap” option for the cover because I didn’t want a book jacket, which I felt would be prone to tearing. The image wrap dimensions are a little larger than 13″x19″ and includes an area for the spine of the book where I could include a byline.

I placed the order for the book online, and waited about a week for delivery. The book arrived in a sturdy cardboard box, and inside the book was shrink-wrapped to a flat piece of oversized cardboard to ensure that the corners of the book weren’t damaged.

I was grinning like a child at the results because there was something awfully satisfying about creating an entire book from scratch to memorialize a weekend. There is no doubt in my mind that a photographer could market this type of service (and many probably already do), but the possibilities of teaming up with a designer seem endless, and provides a way to market an innovative product. A wedding album isn’t new, but a limited run book with stellar design is. And offering it as a product on your website can breathe new life into stale photo sales.

A few weeks later, I designed another book after attending a wedding. Sure, I could get the couple a few bowls from Williams Sonoma, but why not design a book instead?

Blurb outsources their bookmaking, so in that sense, their printing and bookbinding isn’t unique. They are the first that I’ve seen that allow PDF upload and color profiling, which was the attracting factor to me (plus they’re cool peeps). But I have no doubt that other vendors like AdoramaPIX and Apple (book making is available through iPhoto and Aperture) will follow suit. As we lament the major changes going on in the industry, we should also cheer the technological innovations that allow for highly customized products. Customers are still in search of the unique, and customized photo books are certainly one way to sell your images at higher margins.

 

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