Forums >
General Industry >
Does anyone publish Photo books any more?
Studio NSFW wrote: A publishing company would certainly have picture editors on it's staff, and so there would be a possibility of getting into a dispute with them over how the pictures should look in the book, they might insist on your deferring to their judgement even if you didn't like what they were doing. I do have fifteen years experience of editing pictures on computers and I usually know how I want my pictures to look. Apr 10 24 07:43 am Link If you have a book printed as a test, then you can see which of your images print well, and you can re-edit any that don't print too well on a comparative basis. I found that most of my images printed well the first time, there were about 8 or 9 that needed adjustment. Moving on to the overall design of the book and the arrangement of the pictures, having an physical book which you can put on a table and make a direct side-by-side comparison with other books makes it easier to evaluate your project and identify possible improvements. After a while it seemed to me that I could give the book a bit more breadth and depth by adding a few more pictures and replacing some others. With familiarity you tend to become more critical of your own work, but I think it makes sense to retain some spontaneity, a sense of immediacy. Apr 11 24 02:45 am Link Studio NSFW wrote: While there is no reason why you couldn't print 10 successive photo books, each with corrections and changes if that's the way you wanted to do it, an experienced person will probably need three or four. That gives you the opportunity to experiment a bit with the design and arrangement as well as fine-tuning the individual images. I think there does come a point where you have to finalise things if you want to retain an element of spontaneity. Apr 13 24 06:10 am Link JSouthworth wrote: Gavin Hardcastle ( [email protected] ) is currently about to release his second book. Apr 13 24 07:23 am Link Mark Salo wrote: So it seems; Apr 14 24 12:26 am Link JSouthworth wrote: So now JSouthworth attacks Gavin Hardcastle, continuing his tradition of attacking the work of other photographers. More specifically, those that are far more accomplished and successful than himself. Apr 14 24 09:43 am Link LightDreams wrote: I like Gavin Hardcastle's landscape photographs. I would say that they are two thirds of a step removed from reality, I think they show things as they might possibly look on a tab or two. Some people might interpret that as a negative, but I don't intend it as such. They remind me of paperback book covers I've seen, also of Thomas Kinkaid's painting. Apr 15 24 03:20 am Link https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/235528409914 I listed the book for sale on ebay but apparently there is some problem with the listing, hopefully this can be resolved fairly quickly, if not then alternative marketing solutions will have to be sought.. At moment I can offer the book for £85.00 including shipping within the UK, the cost of shipping to the US will be about £27.00. If you email me at [email protected] I will give you a precise quote and payment details. At the moment the printing costs me £76.00 per copy including delivery so this is slightly higher than cost. As specified earlier the book is XL size, 37 X 28 X 2cm and weighs about 1600g in it's shipping carton, so it's quite a large book. I was thinking of doing a smaller A4 size version, but I prefer it the way it is. You can have a black cloth hardcover or a black faux leather hardcover for £5.00 extra. Apr 19 24 06:07 am Link Here's a link to an online version of Girls on Film https://www.bonusprint.co.uk/view-onlin … e293931acb The latest version has some changes, improvements and re-editing of individual pictures, they have about 90% overall commonality. Apr 20 24 02:30 am Link Here's the latest version for comparison; https://www.bonusprint.co.uk/view-onlin … 22915addbf They are not really very different, but the latest one is definitely an improvement. There are some limitations to how much you can do with the text in the Bonusprint app, I have made some suggestions as to how they could improve it in this respect. It isn't too much of a problem with a photo book. Overall I think the latest version has quite a good balance, there's something for everybody. Your comments are welcome. Apr 20 24 06:14 am Link If you want people to comment on your creation you need to post the link and request it in the critique forum. Apr 20 24 06:53 am Link One could argue that this thread now belongs in the “Marketplace” section, not in “General Industry”. Apr 20 24 06:13 pm Link JSouthworth wrote: £112.00 (inc S&H) is a fantastic opportunity to view Southy's work. Apr 21 24 01:17 pm Link Moderator Warning!
Studio NSFW wrote: We are going to allow it for now as long as gets back on topic. Apr 21 24 05:40 pm Link JSouthworth wrote: If Bonusprint UK make any changes to their app which allow further improvements, particularly with regard to the arrangement of the text I will probably take advantage of that, otherwise I will leave it as it is for the time being. Eventually there may be a second edition or even a completely new book. Apr 22 24 02:04 am Link Dbl Post Apr 22 24 04:36 am Link JSouthworth wrote: If you're serious about wanting comments on your personal pet project you need to post that link and request it in the Critique Forum. Apr 22 24 04:50 am Link LOL!!!!!! Yes, to publish a book is very costly these days. But I can't get over my wonderful introduction to top notch enticing and colorful works of David Hamilton. I bought three of his hardcover 'coffee table' sized books back in the early 70's, when they were about 30 bucks each and that was a whole days pay. Thus I do still enjoy a good model book with a theme. Most I see these days run at least 75 bucks,,hardcover only. In summer and up to Labor Day of 2022, a certain photographer here at MM was taking tons and tons of photos for what he said would be probably a few books, but one called 'alpha women' was his biggie. A model I knew did hundreds of photos for him. And when I asked him about when it might come out. how much a copy...well he disappeared. But turned out he just blocked me here and from his webpage (still says 'under construction' 188 months later). I wonder if he just made it up, enticed models into the shoots but never intended to print a book. Never ever found a clue on it under his real name. Not even Amazon books has any knowledge of he man. So I call out a true fake or cheat for sure. Probably just sold pics of girls off to Bentbox or some other online seller. Such a shame, and a disgrace to true professional photographers who dont tell lies or block you when you ask something simple. Apr 22 24 06:36 pm Link JQuest wrote: Maybe you need to lighten up a bit. Apr 23 24 03:11 am Link Adventure Photos wrote: It shouldn't be. Publishers should pay people like me for the right to publish our work, then they could make money and retain some credibility instead of having to repeatedly recycle stuff from the 1970s. Apr 23 24 03:15 am Link Adventure Photos wrote: David Hamilton was certainly well known at one time for his romanticised, soft focus glamour work, I have books that include some of his work. He was accused by French presenter Flavie Flament of raping her in 1987 when she was 13, other former models made similar accusations against him and he ended up committing suicide in Paris in 2016; Apr 23 24 03:22 am Link Adventure Photos wrote: 188 months, so that's 15 years and eight months and we're still waiting? I recently approached Amazon to ask them whether they might be interested in selling my book, but apparently they don't sell books themselves unless they're books that have been created using their own book creation app which isn't suitable for photo books, only for text based books. Apr 23 24 03:35 am Link I've just made some changes to the positioning of pictures on pages 24, 25, 30 and 37. It's funny how you don't always notice potential improvements immediately, only after a time. Apr 24 24 08:38 am Link JSouthworth wrote: JQuest wrote: JSouthworth wrote: Did you or did not ask for for comments on your project in a forum that by the rules of this site does not allow for that to happen? Perhaps you should lighten up when people are actually trying to assist you on your stated goal of welcoming comments on your vanity project? Apr 25 24 04:54 am Link Designing a book using an app on a computer is a skill that has to be learned, I think this is the reason I'm still making changes to the layout of the book, with experience I'm now seeing opportunities for improvement that I didn't notice earlier, and I now know from experience what looks good in print and what doesn't. One good way to do it is to produce an initial book design using the app, and then save it again under a different file name. You can then experiment with different layouts in the first file, and apply the changes that work to the second. Printing a copy of the book will then serve to validate or invalidate your ideas. I have now finalised the selection of pictures in the book and the order in which they appear, any further changes will only involve their positioning on the page and minor re-editing of individual pictures. So for example I've now adopted a borderless layout for the pictures on pages 34-35 which I thinks looks neater and enables the pictures to be about 8% larger on the page. Anyone who orders a copy of the book from now on will get the latest version with these improvements. https://www.bonusprint.co.uk/view-onlin … 22915addbf Apr 26 24 02:59 am Link The fourth print copy of the book arrived yesterday, having gone through this a few times I have made a couple of changes, I have swapped the positions of a few pictures and substituted one picture for a different image of the same model. I was slightly concerned over how the picture of Katrina Oceana on page 10 would turn out but this has actually printed really well, you can see detail in all areas including the texture in the black cloth backdrop. This image is now one of the highlights of the book. Apr 28 24 03:24 am Link Studio NSFW wrote: The term Prepress applies to the stage of publishing which immediately precedes printing; Apr 28 24 06:57 am Link JSouthworth wrote: Holy Shit. You seriously don't know what you are talking about. You are clearly incapable of seeing the glaring error in your logic. What is funny is how sure you are of your flawed workflow but too scared to put the results out for critique. What do they call that? Paper Tiger? Seems pretty fitting here. Apr 28 24 10:39 am Link Dan Howell wrote: When I have the latest version of the book printed I may well post a link to the e-book version in the critique section. In the meantime you have this one to check out; Apr 29 24 06:15 am Link "Employing a person to adjust image files to paper stock might seem like a good idea, but it introduces another "vote", another person whose judgement will affect the appearance of the final image, increasing the risk of the end result becoming a compromise "committee product" that ultimately fails to meet anybody's requirements. " This, for anyone who is unsure, is bullshit. I think you suffer from an acute case of You-Don't-Know-What-You-Don't-Know to an almost hilarious degree. Anyone who has ever worked in/with publishing (not just novelty, amateur print on demand, non-curated keepsakes to massage their own ego) should be quite amused at your fundamental lack of understanding of what pre-press involves. Apr 29 24 10:00 am Link Dan Howell wrote: No, it's simple logic. The more people are involved in designing or editing something, the more it becomes a compromise, that's obvious as is the fact that collaborate efforts tend to restrict individual creativity in this context. There are some things that can only be done on a collaborative basis, but designing and editing a book is something I can do myself. Apr 30 24 03:52 am Link This argument will be very easily settled. The number of books sold to the general public will tell the story. The commercial publishers either know what they're doing, or they don't. Apr 30 24 09:51 am Link LightDreams wrote: Their emphasis is on short term profits, and their basic problem is that complete predictability in terms of income from sales can only be achieved at the expense of absolute tedium. Because when they plan their books four or five years ahead they have no flexibility, no ability to respond to rapid cultural changes. Apr 30 24 10:03 am Link JSouthworth claims that the commercial publishers don't know what they are doing and he does. The bottom line sales numbers of his book will be definitive on that. Think of it as a very simple case of "put up or shut up". No excuses allowed. Apr 30 24 10:06 am Link LightDreams wrote: So put up or shut up. Apr 30 24 10:06 am Link Yes. And no excuses allowed. It's VERY simple. Apr 30 24 10:08 am Link The best way to compare one photo book with another is simply to put them on a table next to each other and compare them. Here's a classic photo book. Maybe even THE classic photo book; https://archive.org/details/robertfrank … 5/mode/2up Robert Frank couldn't find a publisher in the US to begin with because his book was too ground-breaking, too unconventional. So the first edition was published by Robert Delpire in Paris. Early editions are now expensive. Apr 30 24 10:12 am Link JSouthworth wrote: Serious question: Apr 30 24 11:05 am Link JSouthworth. You're honestly going to use Robert Frank as an example? His "poor" sales of 600 books in France during his first year, before it was picked up by other publishers? With more than 16 Editions published around the world, leading to exhibitions at the Guggenheim, the National Gallery of Arts, etc. You've set yourself a rather interesting marker to "prove" that you know better than the commercial publishers, and can back up that claim. We look forward to seeing the bottom-line results. As you've backed up with your Robert Franks example, "Bullsh*t Walks" but sales WILL tell the story. Either way. Apr 30 24 12:31 pm Link LightDreams wrote: The funny thing is that he is trying to compare a high-end offset to the relatively low-end digital printing and doesn't even know it. Apr 30 24 04:20 pm Link |