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Perri was the author’s go-to person in writing this book. He owes her big time.
PART III SHARING YOUR WORK
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BINDING RELATIONSHIPS:
PICTURE BOOKS GOOD ENOUGH FOR THE COFFEE TABLE
REQUIREMENTS
A beautiful self-published photo album can be a profound way to celebrate the most meaningful relationships in our lives. This project uses surprisingly low-priced printing and binding services to create a high-quality book.
to compile, lay out, and print the book because I was familiar with the program and because it already housed some of my images in the iPhoto library. I chose to design a large 8.5 x 11–inch navy blue linen hardcover book with a sticker image on the cover. It includes over 150 images. Adam mentioned the other day that sometimes he randomly pulls out the album from our bookshelf to look at it. He said that to him it was better than our regular photo albums because it told a story about that specific time in our relationship. —PC
Step 4: Select photos. Give your book a discernable unity by organizing an intellectual and emotional structure. What journey will this picture storybook take viewers on? Each time your reader turns a page, there is an opportunity for a mo- ment of surprise, delight, and insight.
Paper photo albums will always have a place, even as our culture becomes more digital. A photo album is a product that’s touchable and accessible to everyone, great to have and great to give. Unlike digital photographs that are stored on your computer and rarely sifted through, books offer easy, just-for-fun access. And
Step 5: Layout and upload. Some programs have a Drag and Drop option
(you pull images with the mouse from your photo library and put them directly into the photo-album program) and others ask you to Browse and Choose, just as you would when attaching a document to an e-mail. Once you bring all the images into the program, you can begin to lay them out on the page. Notice the dominant colors in the photos and use this to your advantage when making layouts. Vary the types of photographs you select and the number of images on each page. Be your own art director!
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CHAPTER 7: PROJECT IDEAS
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the process of making them is satisfying: choosing your photos, editing them, defining their importance, and creat- ing layouts for them.
budget: You can spend anywhere from $20 to $150 depending on how the book is bound and how many pages you include. Perri’s iPhoto book (8.5 x 11–inch hardcover, fifty- two double- sided pages) cost $75.
CASE STUDY: perri
Step 1: Choose a publishing service. Research which service or software you would like to use to print and assemble your book. You may already have experi- ence uploading and sharing images through Web sites like KodakGallery, Shutterfly, or Flickr (all of which will print books), but there are a number of other sites dedi- cated to printing albums.
Perri Chinalai has always loved taking pictures and cre- ating scrapbooks. She even studied photography as an undergraduate. Although she knows how to work in a darkroom making prints from traditional film negatives in both color and black and white, she has, since moving to New York in 2005, worked exclusively in digital formats. This case study represents her first attempt at making an album on the computer.
Step 2: Decide what you want the book to be. Who is the book for? Is it a gift, a family album, a portfolio of artwork? This will guide your layout choices and image selection.
I struggle every year with trying to find a nice gift for my hus- band, Adam. This year, inspired by some collections of digital “homemade” books that I’ve seen lately, I decided to create
a book for Adam that both celebrates our past few years together and that pushes my artistic sensibilities to the realm of book layout, aesthetics, and scrapbooking. I used iPhoto
Step 3: Select a book type. Decide the size of the book and whether you want a spiral-bound book, paperback, or hardcover. If a hardcover, you can select paper, linen, or leather binding materials in a variety of colors.
time: Five to six hours.
gear: Internet access or a photo program that provides book-printing services. Although
not required, it’s helpful to have a photo-editing program like Photoshop or Adobe Elements.
WORKFLOW