I thought I might give a different try to the Canon book kit. It comes with 10 double sided printer papers, cover and stuff to make your own hard covered book. I have used my lab and other on line places to make books. None seem to provide the quality and look that I want. This image is one of the pages I did for a book on my gelding. I gave it a somewhat scrapbook look.

It took much longer to format than I wanted and the results are a bit lack luster for me. Have any of you done any books? They would be extremely labor intensive for me to add to a line of items in the studio. The price would be prohibitive for a look I cannot love.

David Ziser just talked about some albums on his blog here: http://digitalprotalk.blogspot.com/2009/03/technique-tuesday-parents-albums-cool.html

Granted, he's a wedding photog, but I'm considering using his binder of choice to make albums containing samples of my work. Easier to carry around that way. He recommended http://www.zookbinders.com/

PeggySue,
I use White House Custom Color (WHCC) for my books and they are outstanding. They reproduce my files exactly as they look on my screen; their turnaround is fabulous; their prices are competitive.

We use their books as our "wedding albums" because it allows us to showcase our page layout skills in addition to the photography. Plus, I've done individual books to highlight certain categories of my portfolio. My most recent publication was on Urban Art. I've also done a wildlife book, a Florida landscape book and several books of images of children. Ironically, I haven't done a dog book as yet but I'm working on a couple.

While they're not inexpensive, we think these types of books really showcase our work in the best way possible and make great presentation pieces for either weddings or other events.

I suggest you give them a try if you haven't already. If you have, and you're not satisfied with the results you received, let me know how you set up your files technically and maybe I can give you a few suggestions.

Jim

I second WHCC. I get the custom photo covers and the lay flat pages. They will have them to you in 3 days. Love 'em

You guys may want to check out the Blurb article that was done by David Levy (see our articles archive). He was very pleased with his output. He is an excellent photographer, and I would trust his judgment.

James

James,
I had the same book produced through Blurb, Pikto, MPIX and WHCC. The WHCC product was superior in all ways. Like Julie, I usually choose the hinged, UV-coated pages and a custom-printed cover. That's just my experience. Your mileage may vary.

Jim

I've made 6 books with blurb, and while they are not as good some other processes, they are great for what youre looking for. You should also consider distribution if youre planning to sell copies of the book. Blurb is set up to handle sales and marketing if your going that route.

WHCC and others like them are new to this business, not that they are not good at it, but they are new comers and dont have the same knowledge or capacity as blurb, blurb IS in the book printing business whereas the others like whcc and bay photo are in the print business now making books.

I'd give blurb a run, the software is easy to use and simple to install.

A note, if youre doing black and white you need to processes your images YOURSELF before loading them, and you may want to consult the service to see how well their printers handle black and white, in the past BW has been a challenge for these boutique style print services. . .

If youre going to go with whcc, you might also try bay photo, i've been with bay photo for years and they are great to work with!

I have only used Blurb ... the image reproductions were spot on ... and their templates were easy to use ...

As Tony says, be sure to check out B&W reproduction. Many of the press-product companies do a great job with color but their B&W work is less than wonderful. Make sure you know what type of files they work from best: RGB, sRGB, Grayscale, etc.

Tony's point about Blurb's marketing services is also something to consider. Blurb and Zazzle both offer some interesting distribution options.

The good news is that there are lots of choices and most of them produce excellent product quality.

Jim

Thanks all for your input. I will report on the results as I see them. Great to have the help in finding suppliers.