[Mummy2907]

Posting here 'cause you guys know about this sort of stuff!

I'm by no means a photographer, just your average 'like to take photos of my kids and stuff' person. But I'd like to make my parents a photo book of their grandkids for Christmas. So, does anyone have any tips/suggestions before I start? I don't want to start doing it only to find halfway through that I've forgotten something or that there could be a better way. I'm thinking of using one of those on-line places (ie. Kmart, Harvey norman, etc.) and do the loading up of photos at home, then just go in an pick them up.

Anyone have any comments about: hardcover vs. softcover, number of photos to include, layout, photo choices, shop to use, etc....?

TIA!

[antsy]

I have been making photobooks recently so I can offer some advice. Momento has a sale until 26 Nov for 25% off. I just got an email from snapfish and they have 40% off until 22 Nov. Snapfish is from kmart so you can pick it up from one of their stores if you like. I know that doesnt give you much time though. I also bought a groupon deal from photobooks australia recently, so it might be worth signing up to groupon as another special may come up.

I love the software from momento because it was easy to customise and had lots of layouts to choose from. The snapfish software was a bit limiting but I saw they have a new program so it might be better now. I actually preferred the print quality from snapfish, really bright and clear pictures in the book, whereas the momento ones were a bit grainy looking. Snapfish is the cheaper option too, especially at 40% off.

I got hardcovers and they look beautiful. As for layouts, I put my best photos as a full page spread and on other pages I put collages of 2-5 photos. There are heaps of layouts to choose from in the momento software, so download the program (free) and have a look just to get some ideas.

[nakedrhubarb]

Snapfish have an autofill option with various page layouts and all you have to do is put in some captions and rearrange the photo order if you like. I like the square books with hard covers, but they are around $40 unless there is a sale on (if you get on their mailing list they have a few 2 for 1 offers during the year)

[rbat]

I've recently had two printed for an 80th and 60th birthday party. For one I used Albumworks and the 2nd, Snapfish as they had a discount code. The Snapfish one is lovely, good quality printing, the writing was clear and the background options were nice but there wasn't much choice of font or background. The Albumworks photobook was amazing. As soon as I opened it, I went wow! There were many options with their software and you can work offline and upload when you are finished. It is also a lot more expensive than Snapfish. However for a special event, I would definitely use them again regardless of the extra cost.

[antsy]

rbat - did you get the HD one from albumworks? I was looking at their website and the HD ones look good.

[blackcat20]

I think there is one called Shutterfly, the books ive seen look ok, but Ive never used them myself.

[Cloria]

I've gotten one from the photobookclub.com.au on a Groupon voucher. They are probably middle of the range as far as pricing goes normally, but I'm pretty sure the voucher was $25 or something for a medium sized hardcover? They do free standard postage Aust wide too. I just checked their site and on the "gift vouchers" section of the page they have cheap deals - I wonder if you could purchase and use before Christmas?

I found the software really easy to use. They had template layouts/backgrounds etc but I mostly just did it from scratch because I wanted to. I was impressed with the quality when I received it.

Full page images of the best photos in the book are great!

[Mummy2907]

OK, so I'm playing around with Snapfish, but I can't seem to work out how to move a photo from one page to another. I can do it I've I'm in 2-page view with the pages side by side and I want to move a photo from one side to the other (just drag and drop). But how do I, for example, move a photo from page 5 to page 28? If I drag and drop it just gets lost somewhere, and there doesn't seem to be a 'cut and paste' type option.

Can anyone help please?

[antsy]

Mummy2097 - You can drag the same photo from the left side of the screen to the new page. Then just delete the photo from the first page, you do this by clicking on the photo then clicking the x under it. Hope that makes sense!

[antsy]

Oh and if you cant see all your pics on the left, make sure you scroll down and click on the 'photos' heading.

This post has been edited by TooManyToys: 20/11/2012, 08:18 PM