Photo book questions

[Jenn98]

I'm about to embark on creating my first photobook, but I'm wondering how everyone else does it.

Do you do them chronologically? With the whole year in one book? Or 6 months at a time in a book? I'm looking at doing photo books for both DD's births and then a book for each year, but the yearly books will be big so I'm wondering if it's better to do 6 months at a time?

What size do you normally do? I was thinking the 8x11 size would be nice - or should I go bigger with the huge 12x12 size?

I'm thinking of starting with Snapfish, but I'm curious what everyone else loves (I did a search, but I'm still curious!)

Do you give them as gifts? How do you cut the cost of giving to each grandparent and relative who wants one?

If you were behind in doing them, (let's say you needed to do a 2005, 2006, 2007 and a birth book for each girl) where would you start?

any tips/tricks? TIA!

[jess]

I love photobooks--I just can't stop making them !:)...

The first one I did I used Picaboo--I liked the selection of backgrounds, but they limited the amount of photos I could use per book, which I didn't find out until I had already started. Since, I've used Shutterfly and have been happy.

I did the year 2006 as a full-year one and found it really overwhelming--I needed to finish it before my coupon expired-;)- and it was really stressful. This year I am doing two volumes. I already have Jan-June done and am slowly working on July-Dec. It's been a lot more peaceful to have it broken up. I've also done smaller books: one for my daughter's birthday, one of her 4-year-old art, and 'A Day in the Life' book for each of my kids.

I've found the 8x11 size to be fine.

I've given them as gifts, and everyone loves them. I try to look for bargains to help cut the cost. Shutterfly often has free book offers or percentage discounts. My Publisher is currently having a buy one/get one special when you sign up. Both of these specials are discussed in the Bargain Alert section of these boards. Sometimes if you google 'free photobook' or 'photobook coupon code' you can find a deal.

As far as being behind: I would just take it slow. It's fun to go through old photos, and you want to enjoy it. I would start with the most recent year, which you are likely to remember better, and then work backwards.

Good Luck--it really is so nice to have all the photos together and so nicely presented!

Shannon

[LD92599]

I, too, love making photobooks. I've found that it can be overwhelming if you try to do it at all in one shot.

ETA: I've done a year at a time and prefer to do them quarterly. When i have free books from Shutterfly I've done smaller books that are event specific.

DH & I have a system for our pics - we take a TON (too many!) of pictures constantly. He goes through them and chooses the ones that we'd normally print and they go into a "Costco" folder since, if we're going to print them, that is where we'd do. He drops the folder onto my computer regularly and when I'm ready to sit down and work on a book, it's there. I prefer MyPublisher.com because they USED To be the provider for iPhoto/Apple and always had a code for 40% or 50% off. I also liked it because i could work on the book offline, in waiting rooms, etc. Now MyPub has bookmaker software and i haven't had a chance to really play w/ it.

Recently i've started using Shutterfly - i liked it alot and will use them when I have good codes. Always search for codes. You can create the book and then just wait for a good code. Also when you order multiples there's usually a better deal. Oh and ebates.com is 8% back for Shutterfly!

Hope this helps! Oh and definitely give them as gifts - the response has been fantastic! My DS loves to sit and flip through the books and will narrate them as he flips and says stuff like, "Remember when we....or Oh i went there.."


Laura
Mom to Will

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[lmintzer]

I'm a Shutterfly Photobook user too. I do them in 1/2 year increments. I have done 3 books o far--one as a gift and one for the first and second halves of last year. Yes, that means I'm well over a half-year behind. They are a huge project--it literally takes weeks. But it's so worth it. I just plug away, an hour at a time.

Two complaints: one, the pages are not protected at all, so I can't really let the kids flip through the way I would a traditinal photo album. Second, I think the pictures run a little on the red side. Otherwise, I love these books. MIne ar pretty long--roughly 65-70 pages each. I also look for coupons and go through ebates. I order the 8 1/2 x 11 size. Seems plenty big.

I LOVE the idea of making a book of artwork. We have just so much artwork floating around, and we can't possibly keep all of it. How did you do it? Did you scan the pictures or photograph them? Was the color true enough to life?

[LD92599]

I also did an art work book but I did it differently. We scanned in the artwork then printed color copies - took them all to Staples and had them bound. It came out great and Grandma LOVED it! There's always coupons around for Staples so it's practically free.

Laura
Mom to Will

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[LarsMal]

We did a photobook through Snapfish for DS's first year and just got his 2nd year album- we did that one through Shutterfly. I definitely like the Shutterfly better. It seems to be a better quality album and they had more options for page layouts.

DH and I do them together. Each kiddo has a file on the computer. Until DS turned 2 they were under monthly folders. After 2 we just switched it to the month name. Once DD turns 1 we'll add hers to the monthly folder and just have them in one place.

Anyhoo...we went through each folder and picked the "best of the best" from each month. After we uploaded all of the pics we wanted onto Shutterfly we started building the album. DS's first year album took us a total of 6 hours. I think this one took about the same, although I finally gave up and just let DH finish it b/c I was having a hard time cutting back from the "best of the best" photos!

His books are definitely in chronological order, and tell a story (we don't use the captions, though). For both albums we added to the pages- I think an additional 20 pages. The books were both around $50 I think. Well worth it, IMO! I tried to put together a scrapbook for DS. Um, yeah, it's only got the first 6 months done! Oh well!

My friend puts an album together each year and gives it to the grandparent as gifts. They eat them up!

Good luck and have fun!!!

[kristenk]

I make a photobook each year to give as a Christmas present to the grandparents. I've made 3 books and used 3 different companies b/c they either go out of business or stop producing photobooks. hmph. Last year I used Shutterfly and will again this year.

I try to arrange things chronologically for the most part. I usually work by event and get all of the birthday/Easter/vacation/summer/Halloween/etc. pics together. I end up with quite a few pictures that are not event specific, but that I still like and would like to use. I'll group some of those together even though they don't necessarily belong together chronologically. (Hope that made sense.)

I use the 8x11 size and it works well. I also try to pick a different color cover each year. I was going to try to have them all match, but, with that whole company-going-out-of-business situation I mentioned above, I couldn't find any matching covers for the second year, so I switched to using a new color for each year.

We only give books to the grandparents and we keep a copy. I don't think that my BIL/SIL or Sister/BIL feel left out by not getting the big book of events. Definitely look for coupons. Definitely work on them throughout the year (or starting now!) so you're not staying up until the wee hours of the morning trying to make the ordering deadline.

One other thing to think about is captions. Decide up front whether you want to do them or not. We did them for the first book and they drove me crazy. I kept feeling like I had to come up with clever things to say and it was way too stressful! LOL We dropped the photo captions starting with book 2 and used one of the first pages to include some text about what we did during the year and what DD was like. I really like that approach. Oh, and I'll still use page titles every once in a while to label a trip or whatever, but that's about it.

Good luck!

[jess]

The book we did of my daughter's art has to be my favorite (and hers!). We scanned the art in and then I just uploaded it to Shutterfly like I would photos. The color was very true-to-life. When I was making it I was orignally a bit bothered by the fact that I could see folds/wrinkles that were in the paper she drew on--their shadows had scanned. By the time I was done, however, I thought that this almost added to the art: it was where my daughter had foled her art and where she had grasped the paper and made it wrinkle. It made it all the more real, if you know what I mean?

Where we could remember, we wrote captions/dates to explain the art. It is so nice to look through, and you can really see the growth. I swore to myself that I am doing this every year for both kids...even my son, who is now only scribbling. They really are priceless!

[squimp]

Shutterfly is great. They keep improving their options, colors, backgrounds all the time. I love that I can tweak a book slightly for a different audience. I make them every year for Mother's Day.

The 8x11-ish size is just great. It is fragile, but DD loves sharing her book with her friends, so I figure if they tear it, I'll eventually get another. I just showed it to a pile of friends at a party and they loved it. They were really impressed with the quality of the full page pics, too.

I'd start with the current year and work backward. That's what I did, and once I saw how easy it was, I was eager to do more.

I'm also working on a Blurb book for the first year. It's a lot more open-ended than Shutterfly, and you keep it on your own computer, so it never will disappear.

[LD92599]

Last Christmas I was able to get my hands on a ton (400+) of slides from the 1960's and 1970's. I took them to Costco to be scanned (29¢ each) and then did a MyPublisher Book w/ them. It's slides from my parents dating, marriage, my sister and I growing up until I was about 5 yo. It was a hit at a recent family picnic and it was nice to get the pics into a compact space. The books were 100 pages each and I ordered 3 copies - myself, mom and sis. Definitely use a code - i had the book started and was just waiting for a 50% off code before I ordered.

We are about to start a renovation and after moving only about 5 years of traditional photo albums, I am DONE w/ albums!

Laura
Mom to Will

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