New friends

The best thing of being a long time photographer is that the technical possibilities are growing and growing.
There has been the digital revolution that has dramatically changed the profession.
And now we have the option of publishing a photo book on line.

This option has come thanks to the fact images can be made digital and procedures for book publishing automated by computers.

Two companies offering printing and publishing photo books have been tested.
Blurb and Lulu.




Blurb works with a system that the user downloads their software that is able to assist designing the photo book.
After composing and designing the photo book, the result is uploaded to the website of Blurb.

Lulu has a system that the composing and designing happens on line.

Both companies have friendly and intuitive software developed and it is very easy to work with.

Differences, as far as the research has come, are that with Blurb a larger photo book can be produced.
13 x 11 inch (33 x 28 cm) for Blurb versus 9 x 7 inch (22,8 x 17,7 cm) for Lulu.

Another difference is that Blurb does not accept images in Grayscale and Adobe 1998 RGB.
People who have black and white pictures scanned in Grayscale need to transform all those images in sRGB color.

These days photo books are produced using Lulu about the Gonzales family.
Lulu is used because the size of the book they offer of 9 x 7 inch (22,8 x 17,7 cm) is big enough and because they accept images in Grayscale.
During the weeks in Poland recently, where the archive is containing images of the Gonzales as of 1990, a selection was scanned on an Epson V 500 scanner.
Each image is perfected in Photoshop before it is used in the Lulu book.

It is an easy procedure to upload the images to Lulu and use their design software to compose the book.
They offer templates and it is all a matter of dragging and dropping.

Once the photo book is designed and composed, the procedure to order a copy is most simple.
A matter of minutes.
In this way seven books will be made about the different members of the Gonzales family and these photo books will be presented to them as a gift.
If they want more copies of a particular book, it is very simple to order them from Lulu.
They claim that in 10 days the photo books arrive.

As soon as the Gonzales photo books are finished, the project starts to make this photo book about El Triple.
El Triple is the location in Mexico where over 28 years conceptual photography has been made.
The photo book will show a selection of the sequences, the Vista series and the PS-series.
To show what happens when an artist-photographer decides to return to the same beach over and over again to discover what is inside to visualize this in images.
This photo book will be made using Blurb because of the larger size.
It is a big job to transform all black and white images from Grayscale to sRGB color, but the larger size of Blurb’s photo book is too important to neglect.

Another most interesting aspect of this new way of producing a photo book is that it is cheap.
A 20 page photo book of 9x7 inch (22,8 x 17,7 cm) with a hardcover costs 24,95 $ (16,10 €).
And it costs 1,98 $ (1,27 €) to have it send to Mexico.

While making the own photo books now it is remembered with a big smile how in the past the 13 photo books were made.
A very complex procedure that would start by trying to convince a publisher to take on a project.
Becoming completely dependent of the publisher.
And of the financial resources.
And of the designer.
And of the printer.
Because it is another beautiful sunny day in Mexico, the procedures of making a photo book in the past are better not remembered.
And quickly Lulu is joined again.

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To learn more about Lulu and Blurb, click on:

www.lulu.com

www.blurb.com







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