[micromacro]

I saw the promotion on flickr, $10 for 20 pages of photobook, and decided to try my very first book for low cost.
Today I finally received the book with mixed feelings. First, omg, it's MY BOOK of my pictures! It's an amazing feeling!

However, the quality is terrible. I would think that I might have done something wrong, but others have similar complain as I do. The book is waaaaay too dark. Colors are all messed up, especially yellow luminance is all gone, so lovely shiny kid's faces are not so shiny.
It is a huge difference between the original and printed. Printer seems is not really good either.

If I would pay more than $18 (including shipping) and not for the test book, I would be furious right now. It still hurts a bit of course.

[ma-ledezma]

Thanks for the warning, I was considering ordering one; But know I don't think I will.

[micromacro]

When I read someone's feedback about how dark the book came out, I did not expect to get mine brighter, but hoped of course.
Now I need to find the way how to compose the book in LR better than on flickr and where to find reliable printing company. I'd also like to send the test sample image first before sending the whole book.

[paulh]

Thanks for the heads up - I too was considering this offer. *was*

[eddaytona]

Don't know about the current offer but I have had two books done. Very happy with both books. Large size hardcover with photo dust jacket. Really great quality. Very fair price and very quick turnaround time.I was especially happy that each photo prints on a single page so I don't have a lot of little photos on a page and have to endlessly screw around picking lay outs and moving photos. Others may want that but it was right for me. Just came back from another big trip and will definitely do another book for it in the next month or so.

[fgaudet]

It probably depends on where the books was printed. I never used Flickr but tried a few options over the years but for the sake of simplicity when it is only a gift to a friend or for my eyes only, I now mostly order straight from Aperture through Apple... And I'd say that every 1 book out of 10 turns out a bit weak. I once ordered a whole whack of them (30ish of the same) and not all of them where the same (colours/exposure). My guess is they've been printed on different equipment or at a different time and the calibration of the equipment varied.

For more "professional" books I usually use snapfish and even them will vary a bit in colour/exposure.

[micromacro]

I placed order on September 11. The book has been shipped from WA according to tracking number, but the address printed on the package is for flickr in CA.
Flickr shipped with UPS Innovations, which means UPS drops the package to USPS for delivery. The package arrived today instead of Wednesday according to the tracking.

---------- Post added 09-20-14 at 01:19 PM ----------

It probably depends on where the books was printed. I never used Flickr but tried a few options over the years but for the sake of simplicity when it is only a gift to a friend or for my eyes only, I now mostly order straight from Aperture through Apple... And I'd say that every 1 book out of 10 turns out a bit weak. I once ordered a whole whack of them (30ish of the same) and not all of them where the same (colours/exposure). My guess is they've been printed on different equipment or at a different time and the calibration of the equipment varied.

For more "professional" books I usually use snapfish and even them will vary a bit in colour/exposure.

I don't mind a bit variations, but not too dark and dull. I checked snapfish now, and they have book printing offer. Too bad it's expiring tomorrow.

[micromacro]

I wonder if anybody has tried Costco photo book printing. How did it come?

[DeadJohn]

@micromacro, Apologies if you already know about monitor calibration, but have you checked your monitor? If your monitor is too bright photos printed on a normally adjusted printer will look too dark in comparison.

[micromacro]

@micromacro, Apologies if you already know about monitor calibration, but have you checked your monitor? If your monitor is too bright photos printed on a normally adjusted printer will look too dark in comparison.

I thought about monitor calibration already, need finally do it tomorrow, spyder2pro in on the shelf waiting. However, I don't think my monitor is too terrible really for that outcome. Washed out colors-why?
I converted to jpeg, 3032pixels, 300dpi, color sRGB, sharpen for glossy paper (better matte?), sharpness amount standard.

Here is the photo from the book, is it dark on your monitor?
The white poll on background is light cream in the book, like someone applied washed out color preset.

[boriscleto]

I ordered a book from Walgreens last month when they had a 50% sale going. I was left unimpressed by the quality of the printer they use at my local store. Most of the photos were slightly darker than I would have liked even though I applied brightening to them as I do to prints that I have made there. The only time I've had really satisfactory prints made there are when I use the computer at the store to edit the photos and order the prints.

[RGlasel]

is it dark on your monitor?

It looks quite good on both of my monitors, even on the Asus consumer grade one that I deliberately turned the brightness down on. If anything, it's too light on my HP ProDisplay. Maybe the publisher is using software to "autotune" images and is overcompensating. That's the problem with photo books, you have no good way to gauge how your carefully adjusted images are going to be manipulated before they get sent to the printer. I gave up printing on my own, and I take my memory stick to a local photographic equipment dealer where I can see a preview on their monitor before it gets sent to their printer. There is always a big difference between viewing a paper print and a backlit display (just like there used to be a difference in viewing slides and film prints), but at least this way, I know what to expect once the print is finished.

I have seen decent photo books from Apple and from Black's, but most of the pictures were taken with point and shoot cameras, and if you looked closely you could see the limitations of the camera and photographer before you saw the printing flaws. It's a lot more expensive, but if you want professional looking results, I think you have to work closer with the printer.

[micromacro]

I ordered a book from Walgreens last month when they had a 50% sale going.

Good to know, thank you. I was less than impressed with their film developing a while ago.

---------- Post added 09-21-14 at 05:44 AM ----------

It looks quite good on both of my monitors, even on the Asus consumer grade one that I deliberately turned the brightness down on. If anything, it's too light on my HP ProDisplay. Maybe the publisher is using software to "autotune" images and is overcompensating. That's the problem with photo books, you have no good way to gauge how your carefully adjusted images are going to be manipulated before they get sent to the printer. I gave up printing on my own, and I take my memory stick to a local photographic equipment dealer where I can see a preview on their monitor before it gets sent to their printer. There is always a big difference between viewing a paper print and a backlit display (just like there used to be a difference in viewing slides and film prints), but at least this way, I know what to expect once the print is finished.

Thank you. I edited one picture making it brighter, thinking it may be my fault. Looks terrible on HP 2011xi monitor.
It would be an ideal to compose the book in LR, transfer it in jpeg or PDF, and go to print it somewhere locally to see the preview. If it cost an extra $10 or $20, it's still cheaper than getting poor result.

[emalvick]

Indirectly related, the first time I used Blurb, the photobook turned out too dark. The monitor was calibrated, but at the time brightness was not standard for calibration equipment. I went out and purchased an X1 calibrator because it was about the only consumer level device that also accommodated brightness. I think that now most calibrators probably do that.

The big thing was that getting the brightness correct for the calibrator required moving the brightness setting from 100 to about 25 (% I presume) and that was after manually adjusting the RGB settings down uniformly to something like 65% for each channel. By default, the monitor was set for 100% on everything. The resulting prints since I've been calibrating my monitor (I calibrate a probably 4 or 5 times a year) are nearly perfect in brightness and color no matter who I print with.

The lesson learned for me is that brightness maybe the most important setting on a monitor. Being slightly off on colors isn't always as detrimental as being off on bright is. Color calibration is important, but I've noticed less problems with not being color calibrated than I have with brightness issues.

I've also noticed that consumer outlet type places like Target, CVS, Costco, etc do make their own automatic corrections because they know that most standard consumers do not recognize the types of problems and importance of calibration. Calibration seems to be something done by professional or more advanced hobbyists and amateurs rather than those making prints from point and shoot or smartphone cameras.

[micromacro]

Indirectly related, the first time I used Blurb, the photobook turned out too dark. The monitor was calibrated, but at the time brightness was not standard for calibration equipment. I went out and purchased an X1 calibrator because it was about the only consumer level device that also accommodated brightness. I think that now most calibrators probably do that.

Most likey it's directly related. Need to learn that too...
Honestly, for years of being a comp user I've never bothered to learn anything about monitor.
There are too many parties involved into final image: camera adjustment, printer, monitor calibration, and you have no idea who will print the book.
Crap! Why it has to be so complicated?

I'm re-doing the book with snapfish. Too bad they have templates, I ended up with kind of crapbooking thing, which I don't understand and don't like.
What the heck I've been thinking... Oh, it's for kids, right.