One satisfied customer

[jacksonn298]

My wife, her sister & I took a trip last year to China's silkroad. It was a month long trip and I took lots of pictures. When I got back I was too tired to even look at the pictures or to print them out. Then I saw my brother in-law got this book printed with mypublisher a couple months ago I decided to do mine too. I just got the book back last week and all I have to say was WOW! You can see the book here:

http://www.mypublisher.com/bookstore/book_viewer.py?order_id=M425592&sp=x

The color was dead on and the quality of the book is like a top notch quality picture book from a book store. I especially like the paper that they use.d My only complaint is even though I'm using the Costco discount to publish this 100 page book. But I wish the price for the book is a little cheaper. I wouldn't have ordered 3 or 4 copies without the discounts. At this point I have until Nov 7 to publish my Sichuan, Tibet book. I hope I can make it. Overall I'm very happy with the service and just want to put in my 2-cents worth.

Equipment & software used:

Photoshop CS3 to touch up the pictures
Illustrator CS3 to create the cover & the map

LCD screen color calibrated.

Camera: Canon 20D with 18-125mm lens

[Cruiser]

Your book is beautiful. You did such a good job on your layout and processing. Now, I have a few questions if you don't mind.

What file size did you use for posting your pictures (resolution, dpi, mb)?

How did you accomplish the two page panoramas? Did you lose much of your panorama on the binding side of the two pages?

Were any of your pictures cut off by the binding?

Did you use sRGB or RGB?

Did you shoot in raw or jpeg?

Did any of your pictures print too light or too dark?

Your book is one of the best I have seen on line and I want to learn as much as I can. And, I want so badly to go to China. I'll make it one day.

Thank you for sharing...Cruiser

[jacksonn298]

Thanks Cruiser. To answer your answers:

File size.
I was lazy initially and threw all hi-res pictures into mypublisher software. But the program gotten so slow and I can't export the book I decided to redo it again with lower resolution pictures. Original files are around 9-12 meg a piece. Based on what I read in this forum, I've resized them to the following:

- for the 15x11.5 book full bleed page (vertical or portrait) my file size is around 2 megs each at 8 meg resolution (I don't remember the exact resolution) and at 360 dpi and quality 10.
- for the double layout each picture (vertical or portrait) is same as above. I know I can get away with smaller files but I didn't want to risk it.
- for anything lower the 4x6 or 5x7 the resolution is 1280x900 (I don't remember what dpi). Again quality 10 and files size is around 400-500k each

Panoramas
I used a program call Autopano Pro. It does a excellent job at blending the pictures correctly. I know it's not very clear from the book link but for the terra-cotta soldier on page 5 or 6, there is no way you can do this manually because the angles and the lighting. Autopano Pro took 10 seconds to figure it out and another minute or so to render it. Autopano Pro is a bit pricey at $120 but you can use any pano stitching program you are comfortable with. Again I render the image at 360dpi. This is what I did to put them on two pages:

- I used photoshop, turn on the ruler and look at the width, divided the width by 2 and use that number to crop the picture first for the left side and then again for the right side and save each picture as a separate file.
- In mypublisher, I created a full bleed page for each side and insert the appropriate picture. Sometimes that picture is so big as in my case, I have to shrink the image down on each side.
-When printed, I did lose a bit on the binding side. In hind sight, I should have moved each side 1/8" to 1/4" away from the bidding side.

Cut off by Binding
I didn't notice any

sRGB or RGB (adobe1998)
Some of my pictures are in sRGB and some are in RGB :). Pictures were taken with sRGB and subsequently processed as such in photoshop. It wasn't until I read the forum did I realize that they prefer Adobe1998 or RGB. I was too lazy to go back into each of the 220 pictures and resave them as RGB. However, the few that I went back to make further adjustments, I didn convert the color profile to Adobe 1998. I would say 98% of the pictures in this book are in sRGB :)

Raw or JPEG
95% Jpeg and the rest in RAW. I'm not very good at processing RAW and again I'm too lazy so most of my pictures are in Jpegs. However, once I processed the pics I save them as PSD files to minimize further loss of details. In the future, I'll try to incorporate more RAW into the workflow.

Picture too light or too dark?
All of my pictures turn out exactly the way I wanted and match what I saw on the on my LCD screen. My LCD screen was calibrated with MonacoOptix calibrator (I think they run around $280 and if you do enough photo work this is a must). I was worried about the color because I have sRGB files and wasn't sure I've had calibrated my screen correctly. In the end it came out wonderfully.

That's it. Anyway questions send it my way. I'm learning too :)

[nms]

Jackson,

Well Done!!!
I love your compositions!!!
Breathtaking sights and wonderful subject matter.

Nate.

[Cruiser]

Jackson,

Thank you for your very detailed answers. I learn from other forum members and you have added a lot of information that I'm sure will help me in the future.

I just purchased the new Julieanne Kost three DVD set on Photoshop CS3 and am going to work through her lessons. I have a lot to learn about Photoshop but am an eager learner.

I do calibrate my monitor using Spyder 2 but what looks good to me on my monitor doesn't always print ok. Sometimes the pictures are too dark or too light. I guess I'll eventually get it right. I think my file sizes are ok. The largest I use is around 5 mb and the smallest 1.5 mb. I have a 10 megapixel Nikon D200 so have to make sure I'm not exceeding what works in MyPublisher.

Right now, I am working on a real challenge book. Pictures that were taken with a 2.5 megapixel camera and one that is 6 megapixel. The 6 megapixel pictures are raw and the 2.5 megapixel pictures are jpeg. I have no problem adjusting the raw files but many of the jpeg files are too light, too dark or just unusable. I'm trying to salvage as many as I can because we will never take another Amazon River trip or go to Machu Picchu. Photoshop is doing a great job even on the jpegs but some are just not worth taking time with.

I'm looking forward to seeing your next book...Cruiser

[jacksonn298]

Thanks nms & Cruiser. One of the programs that I discovered and use extensively for putting together the book is Adobe Element 6. It has a photo organizer and of course photoshop light. So far I was able to do 95% of what I need in Adobe Element 6's photoshop and it recognizes all my CS3 plugins. The only thing that it doesn't do is Masking (I think or at least I have not discovered it yet. I only have this program for 2 weeks). In fact, it got a couple user friendly features such as autofix (I know the pro don't like that feature but for day to day stuff it does some amazing job in adjusting the picture). The organizer is another great feature about the product. You can tag your photos with keywords. When you edit the photos in photoshop it willl save versions of the pictures for you automatically. One of the nice functions I used for the book is the export function. I select the pictures that I want to export, then select the resolution & quality I want and it does it automatically. I don't have to go into each photoshop file, resize and save it. Again that's how I got 90% of my pictures into mypublisher. Best thing about this program is that it cost only $99.

Anyway I just finished uploaded my Sichuan book this morning. I'll post link as soon as I get them printed. Again thanks for the feedback and comments.

[nms]

Jackson,
I've sent you an email through your hotmail account.

Best Regards,
N.

[Cruiser]

I bit the bullet and last night ordered the Spyder 3 Elite monitor calibration system. It is just out and from what I read is very good. I do a lot of photo post-processing so need my monitor calibrated correctly. I have a generation 1 Sypder 2 version which did a reasonably good job but the new Elite is so much better.

I recommend Elements to anyone who wants to process their pictures and not spend the money for the full Photoshop CS3 version. I never paid the full amount. On CS a few years back, Microsoft made a mistake and published a very low cost for the full version. It was intended to be an updated version but everyone who ordered it found out that it was a stand alone version and word got out very fast on the forums. I've been updating since then. I think I'll stick with CS3 for quite awhile and not upgrade again unless the program has some really good features which justifies the cost.

I am looking forward to seeing your Sichuan book.

[enbs]

What amazing photos! Your book is just beautiful!

E

[mbreshea]

Your book is beautiful! My brother and I traveled throughout China a few years ago and your picture's reminded me of how amazing it was there.

[Markangela]

Fantastic pictures. Thanks for sharing. We just got started with mypublisher and would like to know how did you place a panorama picture, or just a picture, across two pages?

MarkAngela

[Markangela]

Jackson,

I got the answer from a prior response you gave in another email. Thanks for sharing all the infor. Again, great job!

[YFC]

Great pictures, design, and processing.

Just to give my two cents on the photostitching software. I've witnessed my friend stitching together pictures to produce excellent panoramas using PanoStitcher, which is a much less expensive, and more user friendly version of Autopano. I'd really recommend it to anyone who work alot with panoramas.

I'll search for such a picture to share shortly.

YFC

[LKJcreative]

Inspired by your photography. Thanks for sharing. Have enjoyed looking at your other albums too.

[Bethane200]

Your photography is so beautiful. Love your panoramic shots and your two page spreads. The photos of the dunes and the wide angled shots of the desert are my favorite.

[bookie]

Your book is beautiful.

I suggest that MyPublisher create a Books Of Distinction Bookshelf and I nominate yours as the first book to be placed on the shelf!

Very good!

[marysch]

I'm brand new to this site. I had a beautiful book published as a protfolio
of my pictures. I sold one!!(Europe and wildlife, mostly) Now I have
someone who saw it, that wants me to make one for her with her
pictures. How much would you charge someone? Any ideas? I'd have
to pay obviously retail and then my time. She has about 40 pics that I
had her put on a usb drive, but that's as far as I've gotten.

Any suggestions?:)

[LindaL]

The book is absolutely wonderful.

Thanks also for the tips on calibrating my monitor. I really need to look into the program Cruiser was talking about.

[fossilbay]

I have just found this forum and your book had such a positive review.

However I cannot find the book.

Has the book been deleted?

[Jess&Greg]

fossibay, I agree, I tried the link on page 1 of this thread but it doesn't seem to work anymore and there is no book ID / password listed in order to access it that way either