Publishing My Book

Firstly, I would just like to apologise for my absence from the blogging world for the past few days. The truth is that I was obliged to concentrate on putting the finishing touches to my second book, so that it would be published in time for Christmas. Move over Wife In The North!

My first book was published in September of this year. I worked on it, in my spare time and it took me about a fortnight to put together. It was published within 3 days and I was very pleased with it. My second book took 4 solid days of work and I submitted it yesterday for publication.

Do you know what I'm talking about yet? In case you haven't guessed, I'm referring to 'photo books'. I'm sure that you must have heard of them, but I hadn't until middle son's girlfriend brought one, which she had put together, to show to me a few months ago.

In case you don't know what a photo book is, it is a book, which you can create on your computer, using downloaded software and your own digital photos. On completion, you submit it to the appropriate website for publication. Most of the companies involved in photo processing seem to offer photo books, such as Bonusprint, Colorama and Photobox. Usually, the idea is, that you download the necessary software from your preferred site onto your computer, but, in my case, this proved an impossible task, even though I tried several different companies. Eventually, I settled on the Truprint site, because I could create the whole book on their site, without downloading anything.

My first photo book was made up from digital photos, mostly taken on our 'staycation', this summer. It included the enhanced photos, which appeared in my post dated 31st October 2008, with my poppy photo (right) displayed in a cut out area, in a black linen, hardback cover. It had 10 pages, which amounted to 20 sides filled up with photos, photos and captions, or text.

My second book is a photographic record of the lives of our 3 sons, from birth through to the present day. I have added some funny captions, here and there, plus a foreword, which brings a tear to my eye every time I read it! I've ordered 6 copies, this time, one for each of our 3 sons, one for my mother and mother-in-law and one for my husband and myself.

The photo books on the Truprint site range from £2.99 to £39.99. There is a good choice of backgrounds and photo layouts for each page. If I had wanted to, I could have displayed up to 9 photos per page. If I had needed them, I could have added an extra 65 pages (130 sides), although this would, naturally, have added to the price of the book.

I put the first book together using digital photos from my camera, but, for the second, I mostly had to scan in the photos and save them as JPEGs, because they had been taken with a film camera. I suspect that the quality will not be as good, using the scanned photos, but I will have to wait and see.

I think that the possibilities for creating photo books might be endless. They represent a wonderful opportunity for passing on memories and thoughts to future generations, are much easier to store than photos and less likely to be lost. I have been unable to find anything on the Truprint site to state that photos must be included as part of your book, so it appears that it would be possible to have a book made up of text only.

Would you like to see your short story in print? Perhaps you could.

Would you like to publish a personal cookery book, using your own recipes and photos? You could give a copy to a friend, as a gift.

Would you like to tell your life story, in your own words, using your own photos? Now, you have the opportunity.

I made up a short story, for my 3 lads, when they were young. They were my 3 main characters, in a fictional adventure, based upon a visit to the Bekonscott Model Village, in Beaconsfield, where we all spent many a happy hour, when they were youngsters. Putting my short story into print could well be my next project.

Now, how about you? Had you already heard of photo books? Have you created any? What did yours commemorate?

I would just like to add a note to suggest that you 'shop around' and do your own research online, if you decide that you would like to create a photo book, as a result of this post. I only have personal experience of the Truprint site, as it was the only company I could find, at the time, which would allow me to put my book together on their site.

PS Do you think I deserve some commission from Truprint? ;0)

Abracadabra!

Do you take good photos? You do, don't you? I've seen them on your blogs, so I know that it's true. Well, I'll let you into another of my little secrets. I take crap photos, but the sad truth is, that I didn't realise it until my husband bought me a digital photo frame for my birthday, back in June.

I was quite excited when I opened my birthday present. It was the best toy I'd received in ages. My delight soon turned to disappointment, however, as I began searching through my memory cards for some decent photos. There were a few good ones, mostly from when my husband had borrowed the camera, but, there was no doubt about it, most of mine were crap.

I resigned myself to the situation, sorted out the best ones and put them on a memory card, which I then inserted into my digital frame. Within a few days, I was bored with looking at the same mediocre photos.

Eventually, my husband decided to have a few days off work. We couldn't afford to go away on holiday, but we went out for day trips, here and there. Wherever we travelled, I took my digital camera, ignoring my husband's snorts of laughter, whilst I attempted to take some average photos to display in my frame. I constantly struggled with my fashionably large handbag, camera case, specs and, very occasionally, with my sunglasses. Sometimes, I forgot to put on my specs, or take off the lens cap. On one occasion, I left my specs at home. At other times, I dithered over framing a good shot, but then found out that I didn't have a memory card in the camera. I balanced precariously on stiles to get a good view of the countryside, or waited endlessly, for a gap in the crowds, so that I could capture a scene in the middle of the city. By the time my husband returned to work, I felt that I had some better photos to display in my photo frame. Once I had them on show, however, I was disappointed once more, as I suddenly realised that most of the skies were overcast and some of them were spoiled by unwanted objects.

It wasn't possible to wait for some good weather and return to all of these places, to have another attempt, so I decided to take a better look at the photo application, which had accompanied my digital camera. I had only ever used it, previously, for a few basic tasks. It wasn't Adobe Photoshop, unfortunately, but with the help of the magic wand select tool and the cloning tool, I was able to improve some of the photos to display in my digital frame. They wouldn't stand close examination, of course, but it's not as if I'm entering them into any competitions, so I don't see that it matters.

Here are a few before and after photos, which I am quite pleased with. Some were taken last year and others quite recently.

The photo below left was taken last year in a village not far from where we live. I have enhanced the colours, so that they show up better on my photo frame and cloned the sky from another photo.

The photo below left was taken just outside the village of Fotheringay, Northamptonshire. Again, I enhanced the colours slightly and cloned the sky from another photo.

The photo below left was taken from the University Parks in Oxford and it is of Keble College Chapel. It was difficult to change the sky in this one and I had about 4 attempts. I had to completely remove the tree on the left and clone it back in again. To get rid of the over exposed spot, on the right, to the side of the tree, I cloned in a few extra leaves, as you can see.

The photos above and below are of Hertford College bridge, in Oxford. I had wanted to see this particular bridge for quite a long time, so we decided to have a day trip into Oxford. The bridge is very popular with sightseers and I waited for 20 minutes, or more, so that I could take a shot of it without people. Unfortunately, it wasn't a brilliant day and the buildings behind needed transporting to a more suitable site! The cloning out of the bicycle, leaning against the railings, in the photo below left, was particularly tricky.

I've been a dreadful cheat, and, obviously the Bridge of Sighs photo isn't a true depiction of the scene, but I am quite pleased, now, with a lot of the photos on display in my digital frame. I only found out recently that I didn't have the quality on my digital camera set to 'fine', so I am hoping that the next lot of photos I take will be an improvement on the last.

Now, how about you? Do you ever enhance your photos, or do you find it unnecessary? Come on, you know you want to tell me!

magic wand select tool - allows you to select an area of your photo based on colour similarity. It is then possible to apply various effects to change that particular selection, only.

cloning tool - duplicates one part of your photo to another part of a photo.