The Making of a Photo Book

The Making of a Photography Book

I didn't start out intending to print a book. I was working on a project to create my own personal archive. The material that I decided to use for the archive was my photographs. Instead of doing an online gallery or a cd, I decided a book made a better record of the project.

There are a few ways you can go about making a photo book. You can sign up with one of the online photo printing services (photoworks, shutterfly etc.) and use their photo book printing options. You can also use a traditional printing company to print copies of your book. I looked at several sites and the products they had, didn't fit what I was trying to do. I didn't want a coffee table type book, with one picture per page and a caption. I wanted to be able to have several pictures and words on the page or have a page of text, followed by pictures etc.

A traditional coffee table type photography book, wouldn't work for documenting my project. I had to be able to show the metadata attached to each photograph that I categorized in my archive. I chose to use Lulu.com to self-publish a photo book because it allows me to design the entire book. They offer a very reasonable DIY solution without costing thousands of dollars.

If you are interested in a coffe table type format book or you don't want to be responsible for the complete design then you can check out one of the following companies. You are usually able to upload your photos to the site then use their software online to place the photos in order and enter a photo caption if you so desire.

Companies:
Asukabooks.com
ImageStation.com
iPhoto (Apple.com/ilife/iphoto/)
Momento.com.au
MyPublisher.com
Photoworks.com **
SharedInk.com
Shutterfly.com
Snapfish.com
Treasureyourpics.com
Viovio.com/wiki/Photo+Books

• I use photoworks to print photographs and I've also used it to print a calendar. I've generally been satisfied with the quality.