Photoclubalpha

As a personal comment, having bought from Adoramapix I consider their product to be visibly superior to photo-books that I have seen from other sources.

I have also been very satisfied with their other products - especially a framed 10"x30" print of a three-generation family photo that was shot last year.

As Paco says, each person should make their own assessment of the value associated with that superior quality. (I admit that I wait for a sale, but that is just my frugal nature.)

- Tom -

UrsaMajor wrote: (I admit that I wait for a sale, but that is just my frugal nature.)

- Tom -

Well, Tom, everybody do that these days, it's the way retailers in general are driving the business...

Pako, I am not ignoring you. I was off to India when you replied, but I just got back from 4 weeks in India and now back in Japan. Lots to do, but I will get back to this thread as soon as I get my sh!t wired again.

No Problem

I noticed a few weeks ago that Blurb photo book prices have dropped. Also their shipping price to Japan has dropped. In 2015 this B&W book I made in Lightroom was $70, but now the identical book is $50. The shipping to Japan was $23, but now it is $11.

About 3 weeks ago I decided that since this book was still in my Lightroom catalog that I would try again with Blurb. Before ordering I decided to make a couple of very small changes to the photos in hopes that they might look better. I added a bit more contrast to the photos and I made a virtual copy of the photo that would be the cover and gave that one less contrast. I also made a few other non-photo related changes: I changed the book title, I added 3 photos so 3 additional pages, and I made this one a hardback book. The book in 2015 was paperback and 89 pages. This new one is hardback and 92 pages.

It arrived here in Japan today. Much faster than the book in 2015 when I started this thread. I am much happier with the quality this time! Maybe they have updated their printers or made some other changes. The Premium Lustre paper now gives a slight warm tone instead of the slight cold tone with a touch of green like before. Before ordering this time I thought about giving all my photos a slight warm tone, but I didn't do it. I am glad I didn't since it turns out Blurb now gets it pretty good.

The hardback book seems very well made and the thick paper feels and looks good. Overall considering the improved quality, the much lower price, the much lower shipping cost to Japan, and the much faster arrival I am pretty satisfied. I always have read that Blurb does color books well, but the B&W books were not as good. It seems like they have been listening and trying to improve.

I think I may make a few more books over time. B&W and color.

Just read this thread. Very interesting. I have had 2 color books made by Blurb and was happy with the results. Until reading this thread I had not noticed the "dots" and nobody else had commented. I guess with color they are much less obvious than in your first B&W. Anyway, just so you know, they'll be there in your color. I also had a lie-flat book color book done by Adorama and IMHO the inkjet they use is no better or worse than Blurb's Indigo. Viewed with a loupe the Adorama gets fuzzy where the Blurb gets dotty. Your choice.

I suspect it would take a bit more money to have an 'art' quality book done.

BTW, both books were done with InDesign printed to PDF. Blurb has very nice templates that make it easy, as long as you know InDesign. I have not used LR to make book pages, but do use it to export the photos and import them to InDesign.

It is good to hear your experience with Blurb color books.

Right after I ordered the second B&W book last month I quickly put together a color book with about 50 pages using Premium Lustre paper as a test and ordered it. Even though it was shipped 4 days after the B&W book it didn't arrive until today, 14 days after the B&W book arrived. Darn, I guess their shipping method to Japan results in pretty random delivery times. I wanted to do a quick color test book to see how it looked compared to the photos viewed on my computer. If they look good and close enough to what I see then I plan to make some more books. Unfortunately, even though it was delivered today it arrived at another house and city that we are not at right now. I am not sure when I will be able to actually see it.

I made both of those books using the Book module in Lightroom Classic CC. I didn't notice until after the B&W book arrived though that there is no writing on the spine. LR does not provide a way to do that and since it doesn't it made it easy to not even think about it when I made it. So, a few days ago I downloaded the free Blurb BookWright software since it gives more control, including putting something on the spine. It gives more control and flexibility, but also is a bit more complicated.

bakubo wrote: Right after I ordered the second B&W book last month I quickly put together a color book with about 50 pages using Premium Lustre paper as a test and ordered it. Even though it was shipped 4 days after the B&W book it didn't arrive until today, 14 days after the B&W book arrived. Darn, I guess their shipping method to Japan results in pretty random delivery times. I wanted to do a quick color test book to see how it looked compared to the photos viewed on my computer. If they look good and close enough to what I see then I plan to make some more books. Unfortunately, even though it was delivered today it arrived at another house and city that we are not at right now. I am not sure when I will be able to actually see it.

I was able to get someone to get my Blurb color book that arrived at an address in another city and mail it to us where we are staying for awhile now. I got it last night. I am pretty happy with it! I spent some time this morning comparing each photo in the book to the same photo as displayed on my computer in Lightroom. Pretty good match of colors, contrast, etc. with no unpleasant surprises.

bakubo wrote:I noticed a few weeks ago that Blurb photo book prices have dropped. Also their shipping price to Japan has dropped. In 2015 this B&W book I made in Lightroom was $70, but now the identical book is $50. The shipping to Japan was $23, but now it is $11.
...
It arrived here in Japan today. Much faster than the book in 2015 when I started this thread. I am much happier with the quality this time! Maybe they have updated their printers or made some other changes. The Premium Lustre paper now gives a slight warm tone instead of the slight cold tone with a touch of green like before. Before ordering this time I thought about giving all my photos a slight warm tone, but I didn't do it. I am glad I didn't since it turns out Blurb now gets it pretty good.

Blurb is not really a "printing company" but a "self publisher" company. They offer the software and the commercial "thing" and deal with printing companies around the world for the production and fulfilling. Of course, the quality standards are quite high and consistent.
If you get your book faster and cheaper is most probably because they got a good deal in your area...

Argonaut wrote:Just read this thread. Very interesting. I have had 2 color books made by Blurb and was happy with the results. Until reading this thread I had not noticed the "dots" and nobody else had commented. I guess with color they are much less obvious than in your first B&W. Anyway, just so you know, they'll be there in your color. I also had a lie-flat book color book done by Adorama and IMHO the inkjet they use is no better or worse than Blurb's Indigo. Viewed with a loupe the Adorama gets fuzzy where the Blurb gets dotty. Your choice.

AdoramaPix photo books are not inkjet (alas, because inkjet will allow for more and different finish and qualities) but Silver halide: "good-old" photo paper. Printing is digital, so whatever you see "fuzzy" is on your files What I really mean is that there is no grian, like what you expect with film, unless you add noise/grain in software.

Argonaut wrote: I suspect it would take a bit more money to have an 'art' quality book done.

Well, you usually gets what you paid for. IMHO AdoramaPix book are under-priced, I don't think the company is charging enough for the quality they deliver. Blurb quality is quite good, but Shutterfly or Snapfish by example, is a cheap alternative, and you can see it.
AdoramaPix is now offering a "soft cover" book (8*8 only) that is printed in nice matte-velvet substrate on the Indigo. The binding is the same as for the hard cover books.

You can find higher quality Albums from photo labs that are on the wedding Album business. Hey, a nice leather cover can look spectacular

bakubo wrote: I made both of those books using the Book module in Lightroom Classic CC. I didn't notice until after the B&W book arrived though that there is no writing on the spine. LR does not provide a way to do that and since it doesn't it made it easy to not even think about it when I made it. So, a few days ago I downloaded the free Blurb BookWright software since it gives more control, including putting something on the spine. It gives more control and flexibility, but also is a bit more complicated.

Well, I was wrong. You can put text on the spine in the LR book module. Darn, I wish I had known that before. I haven't thought about this for a very long time, but this morning I started to think about making another book. Then I remembered the spine problem. This time though I did a quick search on the internet and immediately found some info. Turns out I could do it all along. I am a bit annoyed with myself that I didn't do a bit more checking before.

I wish the LR Book module would provide some simple warnings. For example, warn if you forget to put the title on the spine, warn if you have blank pages, etc. Simple stuff. Of course, if these things are intentional then you can ignore the warnings.

Just an fyi. Here is something from someone who has been using Blurb for photos books for quite awhile:

The Blurb Experience

http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.co ... ience.html

This was written in 2015. If anything, I think Blurb has gotten a bit better.