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None will ever see another roll of film in my hands!
The photographer doth protest too much, methinks. Odd socks and sandals is a dead giveaway...
None will ever see another roll of film in my hands!
Those are Martin Parr's socks and sandals.The photographer doth protest too much, methinks. Odd socks and sandals is a dead giveaway...
That's what they all say! Just face it, you're doomed now! Just ask Ian and Chris! How many film cameras is it now lads?I have three other SLRs (only one of which I've used for one roll of film, the others were gifted to me), a mjuII which I used to take fishing as a back up, plus a small collection of 'vintage' cameras. None will ever see another roll of film in my hands!
We don't want to get into the realms of 'craft' and 'fine prints' I see espoused on TOP. Zines are punk - "it was easy, it was cheap – go and do it!"This is slightly off-topic I think (sorry Dave ) since it’s mainly about hand-making photo books, but it’s interesting and there a several useful links in the comments :
The Joy of Making Your Own Photo Books :
https://theonlinephotographer.typep...1/the-joy-of-making-your-own-photo-books.html
Can't wait for the video!MIXAM You Nightmare You.
OK, some pitfalls to avoid... I made a video tonight about "how to make a zine using Mixam" and it was hilariously bad. So hilarious that I'll probably up it once it's edited just because I've never seen anyone do a photography based video that fails so epically. That UI is s***e.
Tips.
Know How Many Pages You Need Before You Start: Mixam likes to do everything in multiples of 4, so the page count of your book needs to be divisible by 4. If it isn't, you'll need to create some blank pages as stuffers. I have tried to add/remove pages in the UI and it just doesn't work. Maybe a simple delete works ok, but if you delete then add, your deleted pages mysteriously/magically come back. It's incredibly frustrating. Work on the basis you can't add/remove pages.
---> Best Tip: Name Your Pages Correctly: Save your files as page-1.pdf, page-2.pdf etc. Page 1 is the front cover. Page 2 is the inside of the front cover (normally blank), and page 3 is the first facing page you see. Pages 4 and 5 are the first "proper" pages of your book. If you (like I did) remove page 25 and 26 to make it fit nicely into a 28 page book, the software can't cope with it and throws a wobbly. Needs a restart.
Don't Fart About: If you lose your browser session, or hit the back button, you lose all the uploaded images and have to start again. Awesome.
Don't Save PDFs with Layers: If you save your PDFs using photoshop and saved them with layers in place, because it gave you flexibility, don't. The upload time is slow. My "flattened" pdfs were around 5Mb per page and took maybe 20 seconds per page to upload. My accidental "unflattened" pdfs were 120Mb and I gave up waiting.
Wait: When you see everything upload in the wrong place - wait until all the files have uploaded. Once they've all uploaded the order should be correct.
Reordering: If you need to re-order pages or move them about, you can't do it until you have uploaded all the pages. For some incredibly annoying reason you can't move pages around until you've done that. Best to get everything right in the first place, and rename the files to the correct page number. If you do this, the software is a breeze!
Don't Delete Pages: When you guess at the page count, and don't have an order in mind and want to use the software to re-organise things and add/remove pages, just DON'T. It doesn't work (or it doesn't work intuitively (Firefox, Jan 2020). If you're thinking of getting rid of Lightroom, this website will make you go crawling back to it like an obsequious cultist.
I have no doubt the print quality will be brill, but the interface is effing awful.
Mixam - if you're reading this...
1. Make adding/removing pages actually work.
2. Have the option to add a blank page. If everything has to be divisible by 4, that's fine for people who know what they're doing but idiot photogtraphers who "figure it out as they go along" like to have flexibility. We have Lightroom dammit!
3. Allow reshuffling of pages on a part-complete book
4. Allow "orders" to be part saved
5. Be consistent with "Next" buttons and tabs to move to the next part of the process....
they are very much aimed at people who know their way around graphic design and print methodology
I prefer to make my zines as a single PDF to avoid hassle with ordering multiple files on-line. Although I'm currently wondering if I saved my latest in RGB or the CMYK Mixam specify...
Some thoughts on the three publishing/printing services I've used - Blurb, Doxdirect, and Mixam. Firstly the print quality seems pretty consistent across all three so nothing much to say on that score. The comparisons are more on usability and value for money.
Blurb - www.blurb.co.uk
I find Blurb's BookSmart software easy to use both to design a book and to publish with. The newer BookWright took some adapting to but is also straightforward.
Prices are a bit steep when you go for hardback books. Softbacks are cheaper and there are often large (35% or more) discounts available on all printing which are worth hanging on for if you can.
Formats and sizes are well suited to photobooks. Provided there are plenty of pages both softback and hardback books look good and can have lettering on the spine. Both are basically the same perfect bound construction, except the hardback has a 'proper' cover.
I did one magazine with Blurb and can't recommend it. For some reason this was printed in the US IIRC and took ages to arrive. Also it's not a stapled product so won't lay flat. I'd designed a centre page spread which was ruined.
Blurb print jobs take about ten days to arrive.
That's a brief summary of my experiences. For 'keepsake' books I'll stick with Blurb's image wrap hardbacks because I know how to make them and can stand the cost for this purpose. For zines I'm going to get to grips with Mixam because I'd like to be able to give some away without it costing me a fortune. And maybe I might try to flog a few!
I haven't done a zine (didn't know the word existed)
Reproduction is good but is not at the same detail as a printed photo. What level of detail does the Blurb books reproduce?
Edit to add it won't render. 'Aint doing this again! Going to revisit tomrrow after sleep.
I give up. The project is made. Audio synced. Everything looks grand. But when I try and render it, it crashes out. Every time. Using Davinci Resolve (because free) and after going through the pain of learning it I'm quite dissappointed. Subsequent online research shows a ton of people with the same problem and a million different solutions. I tried all the ones I understood, but for now, I've had enough. The world will have to live without it. And that's probably a blessing.
"Soft touch laminate" was the cover option I went for and it was really quite nice.
What weight paper did you opt for?
170gsm. Too thick and it makes the pages hard to turn (1st world problems I know!). Too thin and the image bleeds through. I haven't tried any other weights though, I opted for 170 on my practise zine and found it to be perfect.
I'm really glad I came across this thread. I'm one of those who just lets photos sit in folders forever.
I tend to think of it more as a "philosophy" - i.e. produce what you want, in your own way, answerable only to yourself.
People just tend to look at me blankly in generalWhen I mention I make zines of my pics they tend to look at me blankly.
I know that feeling!People just tend to look at me blankly in general
Ta.excellent work, why saddle stitched? good size for the perfect binding (says the expert )