Photobooks - Blurb - whats your workflow?

[Fordo]

I have a headache because ive been reading up on colour profiles!

Recently I've been on a month long roadtrip round europe, taken some lovely photos, and want to get a nice large photobook printed up.

After a bit of googling ive setteled on blurb as my company of choice.

However, im having a nightmare with knowing what to do about colour.

I have a reasonably decent monitor, which is roughly colour calibrated, and i want to make sure my photos have the contrast and colour that iu can see on screen.

Quite a lot of my photos are taken at night, and if the blacks look grey when printed, it would ruin them.

I've done a lot of reading up, and managed to get quite confused! Id be interested to know anyone elses workflow if youve used blurb.

So far, my worklow is thus:

Open raw image in photoshop- convert colour profile to sRGB (blurbs software outputs sRGB, so makes sense to be in the same colour profile)

If needed, i use noise ninja to get reduce any unwanted noise (especially with my night pictures)

Tweak image - clone stamp away blemishes on lens, adjust tone of image, contast etc if needed

Use photoshops soft proofing - ive downloaded the icc profile thing for the exact printer blurb use, so i can do a soft prro and check if anythings out of gamut. this is where i get lost- to i have simulate color paper on or off? on makes my images look very uncontrasty indeed.. Do i need black point compensation on or off? At the mom ive got color paper off and black comp on.

Then i tweak levels slightly to make sure blacks are black in the soft proof.

Next step, is i resize my images in photoshop to exactly the right size, so blurbs software doesnt do any resizing, and i dont get unwanted artifacts. ( i found a list of the exact sizes for each of their photo books)

Then, save as a png ready to import into blurbs photobook software (it only supports pngs or jpegs)


Am i being to fussy? Am i going about things the right way? Would be interested to hear other peoples workflow who use blurb

[GetCarter]

I just ordered one from photos I was happy with and it looked great. Never bothered with anything since (have ordered 8 times, over 250 books)

Make a 20 page soft cover - only cost you a few quid... have a look. I bet you'll find it looks fine.

Steve

Edited by GetCarter on Saturday 25th July 13:25

[rhubarb]

Fordo, what steve says, definately go and get a sample book done - and don't make the mistake I did.

I've had a couple of books done, the second was from my trip to Canada - 280 pages with around 360 photos in the largest one they do. The book has come out really well, but for me some of the shots are a little darker than I was expecting and certainly darker than I see on screen, other people say its fine (great in fact), but it's just not right for me.

After I'd had this done I went to one of Blurb's workshops in London (well worth the £30 for the evening). Speaking to one of the blurb employees there's two things to do 1) download the ICC profile, 2) print a sample book. All of the books regardless of size are printed with the same kit so she assured me what I see in a small sample book will be the same as full size book.

Working on my next book now - I have thoudsands of shots from half a dozen trips to Hong Kong over the last couple of years. I will definately be getting a sample book printed first

Giles

[Andy M]

http://www.consumptive.org/?p=544

HTH

[Fordo]

Thanks guys- signed up fir the business program.

It hadn't occured to me to get a smaller proof printed up- great to hear they use same printer for all sizes. Thanks for that tip