Have you used a photo book printing service that you love (or hate)? Please tell us about it in the comments below!

As for Albelli, here’s what some of you thought of the service:

Dan wrote:

I wanted to wait until I received the book before I wrote a review.  The review is still in development but I’m glad I waited because the book arrived with some problems in it.  The software also has some issues that should be resolved, which I’ll mention in a comment on the blog post.

The real problem I have is that four images printed incorrectly.  Two were badly skewed/stretched, one had a handwritten press through from paper on top where I can see a handwritten “43″ (it looks like a ballpoint pen was used with only a thin piece of paper on top of the photo for some reason) — and that’s on the first photo!  Also one photo in a collage became nearly completely covered by another photo.

I already sent an e-mail to albelli’s service line with photos of the book and screenshots of the application showing the pages that are screwed up.  Here are links to the photos/screenshots I sent them.

I just received the book last night — shipping was fast since I placed the order on Thursday.

p.s. I used the code but ended up getting a L version (8.5″ x 11″) book with over 60 pages in it, so I ended up paying albelli $45.  Even if a replacement comes, I’m not sure it’s worth it vs. photobooks I’ve done with Shutterfly and Snapfish in past years.

Alissa wrote:

Well, if there’s one thing I can say for Abelli, they’re fast! I ordered my book on Tuesday evening, and it was waiting for me when I arrived home today!

The software for designing the book was simple and quick to use. There weren’t quite as many layout/design options as with Shutterfly or MPix, but the prices are lower in comparison. For some reason 3 of the photos I chose to upload would not go. I have no idea why–they were taken at the same time and with the same camera as all the others. That was annoying, because then I had to go back and choose new photos.

The book is nice. Smaller than I expected for a medium, but the printing is very nice quality and it’s bound well. The one very negative thing was that apparently there is a text limitation on the cover. I was unaware of this and chose the title of “********* Family Vacation” and the front of my book is printed with “********* Family Vac” This I do not like, and if I had paid for the book I would have asked for a reprint. However, since it was free, I’ll keep it :-)

Overall, I’d use them again for smaller sized photo books, especially if I’m in a hurry. The quality is good and they were super speedy and quite simple to use, and the prices are very reasonable—even shipping. For larger, more complicated books I’d probably stick with MPix, simply for the greater variety of design options.

Justin wrote:

I’ve been working with Albelli support since I got the coupon. So far, no luck. The app perpetually uploads my pictures, never finishing. :(

And later…

The latest software updates from Albelli seemed to fix most all of my problems. I was able to upload my photos, and I’ve gotten the book in the mail.

I agree that the book is small then expected. But it is the advertised size. I almost feel like they should warn me when I put four photos on the same page.

The book seems well bound to me, and I must say that I’m happy with it. However, the printing could be a little better. The pictures look a little grainy too me. Either my pictures are too small or the dpi is not high enough. Also, I’d like the option for glossy versus matte.

Thanks again for the coupon!

Brian wrote:

Like a few other here, the software took forever to load. My last email to them was April 24th, and I finally got a reply TODAY - 20 days later!

At least they apologized for the delay.

I’ll try it again as soon as I can, but I’m turned off already.

Ryan wrote:

Well finally got around to it, just terrible.

Bad software with very limited options. No option to put a picture on the cover. Cropping and fitting images in the software basically does not work. Integration with flickr and smugmug works good, but that about it. I would not use the site again until the design aspect is beefed up, this does not come close to the other photo book companies I have used.

Thanks for sharing your opinions. There are a few more comments and mini-reviews in the comments section of the original post we made about Albelli.

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GIMP is free photo editing software for Windows, Mac and Linux.

I published the final version of this photo at Flickr.

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Read on to learn more about the book and find out how you can get a free copy.

I must admit I didn’t know exactly what to expect when rockynook announced the second addition of this book. Before I received it, I’d completely missed the subtitle (Exhibition Quality Prints with Inkjet Printers). So my initial reaction was surprise followed by excitement as I scanned the table of contents.

Steinmuller and Gulbins make the case that today’s inkjet printers can deliver exhibition quality fine art prints and explain all of the details necessary to achieve that goal.

The authors devote entire chapters to the topics of printing techniques, paper and ink, color management, workflow, practical tips, printing packages and RIPs, black and white, and presentation. And they thoroughly cover each subject with a tremendous amount of detail.

For instance, the first paragraph of the first chapter (happily) explains a topic many people find confusing: the differences between DPI, PPI, LPI, and image resolution; and they explain how those measurements are related and why they are important for fine art printing. They go into similarly detailed discussions of print permanence, the effects of paper thickness and coating, color models and profiles, tonality and color tuning, black and white conversion, and dozens of other important issues. The level of detail combined with the breadth of topics is very impressive.

A great deal of attention is also placed on software workflow (primarily using Photoshop CS3) with a focus on preparing digital images specifically for paper. Topics covered include highlight recovery, contrast enhancement, sharpening, color management, black and white conversion, and more.

The authors don’t actually recommend a particular printer, as everyone’s needs and budgets are unique, but they do go into detail about things you should look for in a fine art inkjet, paper, and inks. In addition, the appendix gives a summary of many different fine art printers and papers.

Digital fine art printing is highly technical, a fact that is acknowledged and reinforced by this book. It requires a special knowledge of printing techniques, inks, papers, software and image processing. But the authors argue that the “technical nature of fine art printing should not overshadow its ability to awaken the senses.” And that “when performed optimally, your printing can achieve a richer color gamut and finer tonal gradations that with traditional book- and magazine-printing techniques.”

I learned a lot about fine art printing from this book and I recommend it to anyone serious about getting into fine art printing or improving their prints.

Want a copy of the book? Leave a comment with a valid email address. Two readers will be chosen at random on Wednesday, July 9, to receive a free copy.

Buy Fine Art Printing for Photographers at Amazon.com

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Portraits

The number one rule when shooting portraits of people or animals is this: focus on the eyes. (There are always exceptions—like all rules. But really, focus on the eyes.) By virtue of millions of years of evolution, human beings are hard-wired to very quickly recognize and respond to faces. (It’s definitely an important survival trait in my family to recognize when someone is angry at you, for example.)

Sure, you could focus on the tip of the nose or the ears if you like (which might work really well in some dog photos…) but nothing draws in a viewer to a portrait like sharply focused eyes and a blurred background.

How do you do it? Use a large aperture (f/2.8 or lower if possible), longish focal length (50mm and up), and get as close as you can.

Landscapes/architectural

Landscapes, photographs of nature or the environment around you, usually aim to capture as much of the view as sharply focused as possible. The idea is to give the viewer a sense of size, of scale. A buffet of sights, a feast for the eyes. Landscape photographers often avail themselves of a little knowledge of hyperfocal distances to keep everything in the scene in perfect focus, from the closest flower to the furthest cloud.

When everything in a photograph is in focus, the viewer’s eye is drawn first to important bold elements in the composition such as a strong line, large blocks of color, and rule of thirds intersection points. From there, the viewer wanders through the photograph like a virtual traveler, exploring every nook and cranny and taking everything in.

In the photo above, for instance, my eye goes first to the bottom of the trail and follows it up to the cloud and then over the rolling curve of the ridge to the blue sky above.

How do you do it? Use as small an aperture as you can (f/11 or higher), focus on something in the middle distance (or use the hyperfocal distance), and, if possible, use a tripod. Very tiny apertures (f/11, f/16, f/22) lead to longer shutter speed so tripods are often necessary for maximum sharpness.

Macros

Macros are the ultimate close-ups. Often focusing on a single, tiny subject, macros require special techniques and a lot of patience to get right. I don’t have any numbers to back this up, but I’d bet money that the rate of mental illness is higher among macro photographers than the rest of the photography population.

Macros are well-known for their ability to isolate and enlarge a single subject that often goes unnoticed to the naked eye. They’re also characterized by extremely shallow depths of field (sometimes just millimeters).

The shallow depth of field is usually a consequence of the very short working distances between the camera and the subject often required of macros (just inches). Counter-intuitively, with macro photography it is a constant struggle to increase the depth of field as much as possible so that the right amount of the subject is in focus.

How do you do it? Attach your favorite macro lens or use the macro mode on your camera, get as close as you can focus, and use the smallest aperture you can (f/8, f/11 or higher). Small apertures and close working distances sometimes mean low light as well so you may need to bring extra light, a tripod, and/or use a higher ISO setting.

Environmental portraits

These types of photographs are a blend of standard portraiture and landscape photography. The idea is that a portrait subject is shown in surroundings that tell the viewer something about that person. There are many different approaches to this type of photography but in general, since the person is primary subject, the person should always be in focus. Whether you keep the background in focus (and how much) depends a lot on the composition of the photo, whether the background is cluttered or clean, and how much emphasis you want to place on each (the subject vs. the environment).

Since these usually aren’t close-up portraits (head shots), focusing strictly on the eyes isn’t as important.

How do you do it? Use a medium aperture (f/4, f/5.6, f/8), a medium to wide focal length to include some background, and a fast enough shutter speed to freeze the portrait subject.

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Photos posted in this category are selected from the contributions of members of the Photodoto discussion group at Flickr.com.

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1. 365 Days Project - we’ve all heard of this one. You take one photo each day and you have a pretty cool way to look back on a year of your life. You may also get some insight into the things that are important to you, and you’ll be photographing the ordinary, everyday aspects of your life not just the exceptional. I have wanted to try this project before but a whole year is just too daunting to me (I am not a forward planner, I barely know what I’m supposed to be doing next week, let alone next year) so if I pick this type of project I would probably scale it down to 30 days (a la Morgan Spurlock) and if I can manage that continue on from there.

2. Home Project - I move house usually once a year and have lived in some pretty cool buildings over the last 5 years but I have little photographic evidence of this fact. Before I move again (in exactly 30 days time!) I’d like to document the place that’s been my home for the last year. Not just the outside of the building but all it’s little nooks and crannies, the decor, the different angles and views. I think this would be a good project not just for someone who’s moving but for anyone with a home they love. Homes are important to us but for some reason we rarely photograph them.

3. People Project - Again this appeals to me partly because I will soon be moving but I like the idea of photographing all the people that are important to me in a place that is important to them. Then I’d make either a scrapbook or a collage of the finished photos. I think this one would be especially interesting because you would get to find out which places were most important to the people in your life.

4. 30 Viewpoints - One photo a day for 30 days of the same object/person/place but with a different viewpoint for each photo. I think this might reveal some interesting new angles to shoot from. Plus I think it would make a very cool collage once all 30 shots were finished.

5. Charity Project - I’ve actually done this one a few times before and always have great fun and get to meet lots of wonderful new people. Simply find a local charity and offer them your photography skills for free. Many charities, especially smaller local ones, need someone who can take some good quality shots of the  work they do which they can use to promote themselves. Pictures often speak louder than words and this can be especially true for charities trying to get support from a community. Make sure you are willing to let them use your work for free if you decide to do this and if you want to be able to use the photos in your own portfolio remember to get model releases for any people in your shots. Really though this is just a great way to give a little something back to your community and meet some new people.

Do you have some photography project ideas to get me motivated this summer? If so, please let me know in the comments. I am always looking for inspiration!

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The growth and birth of a chicken in pictures. Despite this, I will continue to enjoy eating eggs.

60 photo links you can’t live without over at CameraPorn. No, it’s perfectly work safe, trust me. Get your mind out of the gutter.

Olympus has a really neat new super zoom with the “soul of a DSLR.” You can’t change lenses, but why would you? The SP-570 UZ covers 26-520mm (f/2.8-4.5) with built in sensor-shift and digital image stabilization.

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Just about every consumer digital still camera I can think of has the ability to capture videos. And videos from the Mino aren’t going to wow you with their quality. What sets the Mino apart (I think it’s pronounced “minnow”) are it’s ease of use, size, and that it can capture up to 60 minutes of television quality video (640×480 @ 30 frames/second) onto a 2GB internal memory. It is a device laser-focused on doing one thing and doing it well: creating video for viewing on the internet. Think YouTube and mailing videos to grandma.

My Nikon D70 has no video capability at all and our Canon Elph, while respectable in the video arena, doesn’t have the juice to record a lot of video on a single charge. Plus, since video shares space with stills on the same memory card, total capacity is limited. The Flip solves that problem by providing a separate device dedicated to video.

The Mino is extremely compact and lightweight and easily slips into a shirt pocket. It can be operated one-handed but felt slightly awkward—although, that could easily be because I have large hands and/or because I’m not accustomed to the device. My wife didn’t think it was awkward at all.

It has seven buttons on the back arranged in a logical pattern beneath a smallish but workable screen. Play/Pause, Delete, Record, Back, Forward, Up, and Down. The up/down buttons are for changing playback volume or zooming. Left/right are for scrolling through videos you’ve already captured. The buttons are very sensitive and require no pressure at all to activate which took some getting used to. The record button is large with a good feel. I had no trouble finding it by touch and a red LED on the front lights up when recording—perfect for those YouTube confession-style videos.

I took the Flip out to the park with my kids to test it. The video quality was decent although nowhere as good as my Panasonic DV camera (which cost 3x as much). Color was accurate enough in good lighting conditions but not vibrant. Because the Mino uses MPEG4 compression (at about a 4Mbps bitrate), artifacts are visible in the video during quick motion. But on a standard television set you wouldn’t notice and YouTube will do much worse things to the video quality.

The fixed-focus lens covers a focal length approximately equivalent to a 50mm lens on a 35mm camera. The Mino does have a 2x digital zoom but I’d avoid it. Zoomed video looks terrible and anyway 2x doesn’t really get you a lot closer. Don’t plan on zooming into the on-field or on-stage action with one of these.

The audio (44.1kHz mono) was surprisingly good. Sounds were crisp and clear and covered a good range from normal speech to high-pitched whistles. I was able to record 60 minutes of video, as advertised, with enough charge left over to review videos on the device or play them back on a television with the included RCA audio/video cable.

The device appears like a removable hard drive to your computer. Plug it into a USB port (also used for charging) and you can drag videos onto your desktop—no software required.

A couple of minor gripes: the Mino’s lens is protected by a clear glass/plastic membrane but I’d have still liked to see an automatic lens cover to prevent scratches. The namesake flip-out USB port works well but feels flimsy—if anything breaks on your Mino it will be this.

I think the Mino is a solid device. It does one thing and does it well. For the price ($179.99 MSRP) it provides a good value. I can see many people using a Flip Mino to augment the capabilities of their still camera. DSLR owners might find the Mino especially handy since most DSLRs lack video capability altogether (imagine documenting a photo shoot or a lighting setup).

Buy the Flip Mino in black or white from Amazon.com →

Full quality demo video (151MB AVI) (blip.tv)

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Before you even take it out of the box the Nikon Coolpix S550 looks cool (mine looks especially cool being “cool blue” coloured). But while looking good is nice the important thing is how it performs. Nikon give very simple instructions for getting started with your camera, step one in the quick start guide is, no joke, “remove the camera from the box”! This might give you the impression that this camera is only for first time photographers and people who frequently try to use electronic devices without removing the packaging. Whilst the S550 would be a good camera for both of those consumer groups I’ve been testing it out as someone with a reasonable amount of digital photography experience and so far, to borrow a phrase from McDonalds, I’m lovin’ it.

Using the S550 on the Brooklyn Bridge in NYC.

It is fantastic to have a camera that fits in my pocket! Nikon markets the S550 as having the “smallest body among competing compact cameras” and it certainly is small for a camera with so many awesome features. First off it’s easy to put it in a fully automatic “scene” mode and just point and shoot. There’s every imaginable type of scene mode available from portrait to fireworks and beach to panorama. Face recognition allows the camera to recognize up to 12 faces which means getting clear group shots is easy. I played around in the automatic scene modes for a few shots but then switched to “shooting” mode which gives a surprising amount of control over the camera’s settings. Exposure, aperture, and the point of focus can all be easily changed. ISO sensitivity can be set from 64 all the way up to 2000 (I haven’t really found any reason to test the highest settings yet) and the white balance can set to any of seven different options.

Fishermen at sunset on Cape Cod.

I took the camera on a camping trip and a weekend away in New York City. For the camping trip it was great to have a camera that could both fit in my pocket when I was biking/hiking and easily attach to my tripod for some sunset shots. The only problem I had was with some blurred images when I was biking. My hands were a little shaky from biking fast in hot weather and even with the camera’s image stabilization I got some blurry shots of a group of geese when I tried using full zoom to capture them. For me part of the problem was the lack of a view finder which meant holding the camera with arms tucked close to my body for some extra stability didn’t work very well as then I couldn’t see what I was taking a photo of! However I did find the ability to record a quick voice note reminding myself what I had just photographed was helpful, especially on the camping trip where I would otherwise have quickly forgotten which harbour that sun was setting over. In NYC I had fun experimenting with the “smile” mode, which allows you to add a list of recognized faces (by taking a quick portrait of the person you want to be recognized). Then when you’re photographing one of those faces the camera detects when they are smiling and the shutter is automatically released. It’s a nice feature, especially photographing kids whose smiles can be fleeting and the camera also alerts you if the subject blinked so you can try again.

P-town harbour on a Saturday afternoon.

Another feature I would like to try, but have yet to find a suitable subject for, is the time lapse photography feature. This allows you to take photographs at intervals of between 30 seconds and 1 hour until either 1,800 shots have been taken or the memory card fills up (whichever comes first). And of course there’s also a movie mode, which allows you to shoot movies with sound, the length of the movie depends on the size of the memory card.

Overall I would certainly recommend this camera to a friend, it’s a good all round camera with plenty of features for those who want to experiment or the option to just point and shoot for those who like to keep it simple. The battery charged quickly and has yet to require a re-charge, the LCD screen is a good size (2.5 inches diagonally) to see what you’re photographing, and the lack of sliders, knobs, or other twiddly bits means it’s a reasonably easy camera for someone like me with reduced fine motor skills to use. I do wish Nikon had provided at least a basic case though, to provide some protection for the LCD screen. So far I’ve been keeping mine in an old binoculars case until I get around to shelling out for a real camera one! You can buy the Nikon Coolpix S550 from Amazon.com.

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Travel Photographer of the Year - Always has exceptionally high standards of work entered, this one is open to amateurs and professionals and features a special category for under 17s. This year they’ve created the “first shot” category to give less experienced amateurs a chance to compete against each other while the more experienced compete in the other categories. The entry fee for adults are from £10 to £15 per category and the Young TPOTY category is free. There are some awesome travel and photography equipment prizes up for grabs.

Environmental Photographer of the Year - Features four categories for any age (both amateur and pro photographers) and one specifically for under 21s. This one is free to enter and has the aim of raising awareness of our environment. There are no physical prizes but winning work will be published on the website and displayed in a roving exhibition.

National Wildlife Photo Contest - In it’s 38th year this competition from the National Wildlife Federation has pro, amateur, and youth division. The entry fee is $15 (for up to 20 photos) and includes a one-year subscription to National Wildlife magazine.

Wildlife in North Carolina 2008 Photo Competition - If you’ve photographer wildlife in NC anytime since September 2003 you’re eligible to enter the eight adult categories and two youth categories (one for 13-17 year olds and one for 12 and under). Some smaller cash prizes up for grabs and the chance to have your winning photo on a magazine cover. This one’s free to enter.

Rachel Carson Sense of Wonder Contest - This one’s a chance to work together as a family, entries into this competition (which includes poetry and essay categories too) have to be a team effort submitted by a team made of multiple generations (not necessarily related to each other). The theme is to submit a photo, poem, or essay (or combination thereof) “that best expresses the Sense of Wonder that you feel for the sea, the night sky, forests, birds, wildlife, and all that is beautiful to your eyes.” The deadline for this one is coming up fast though, entries must be received by June 16th 2008.

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