Would you be happy with these lay flat albums?

LongLensPhotography

LongLensPhotography

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LongLensPhotography
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Edit: reprints now received and everything looks OK.

I've made another pointless print order - a couple lay flat books from PhotoBox

Am I happy? No. They popped yellow colour quite a lot (like in Canon landscape camera profile) but that is now the least of my worries.

1. The cut is about 1.5cm long. Also note low DPI printing.
edit: there are a few more smaller one on the same spread

20131119-DTR_0001.jpg


2. The dark streak across top 20% is not in the original photo and is printed on maybe 10 photos in that album section

20131119-DTR_0002.jpg


3. The pixelated low DPI printing. This is about 1:1.5 macro, but I can see that clearly from reading distance particularly on smooth darker backgrounds.

edit: it looks just like a magazine print, but slightly better - not true photo quality by any means

20131119-DTR_0003.jpg


So what would you do considering they are not just material for bookshelf or parents christmas gifts?

P.S. Can anyone recommend a decent fairly affordable supplier (as is reasonable) of Lay flat books around 15x10" to 18x12" size? I want decent quality glossy pages, hard back and all that, but maybe not a typical wedding album.
 
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I was very very pleased with my Photobox A3 lay flat a few weeks back...well, after a reprint because the first had white blotches. Colour reproduction was spot on and it holds up great to very close up viewing.

This is where you say yours is from Photobox, right?! :)
 
Bob Books - the lay flat photo paper ones, as they also do a cheaper version.

As for your examples - depends what you paid for them, and how much you expect them to be valued at… although the cut is inexcusable at any price and should just be replaced without any questions.
 
Yeah photobox. I can't say I expected miracles but having paid well over £130 I wanted something usable. I can see that paying for quite a few 18x12" and a decent hard cover.

I have emailed them about the cuts in book 1, but upon closer inspection the spine in both is not glued and the supporting cover pages are peeling off. And that dark strip is just plain wrong.

Also you wouldn't expect every page to have some dark little dots near the very top every cm, would you? They are on every page in both books. Perhaps they were cut marks?

I think I am going to tell them to replace both

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I don't think most of my photos have a thick grey line through the top, do they?

 
You should of learnt the first time...What did you expect ,You want quality you've got to pay for it.
 
wambam said:
You should of learnt the first time...What did you expect ,You want quality you've got to pay for it.
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This is my first time (ordered 2 different ones to save a few £) and I have certainly learned.

I'm not sure I need to go all the way to GraphiStudio to print a demo landscape portfolio and a low priced wedding order. Maybe I do after all
 
£130 for two so £65 each....

How big was the book, and how many pages ?
 
meonshore said:
£130 for two so £65 each....

How big was the book, and how many pages ?
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a bit more than that when they added "extras"

A3 / 25 spreads each
 
dots on top of the pages. Small but not insignificant

20131119-DTR_0002-2.jpg


20131119-DTR_0003-2.jpg


I've only flipped it 3 times flat on the surface


I only wonder if this is bad batch of one operator or their typical. I hope they will clean up their act. I think I paid a fair price for a product that wouldn't fall apart on day 1 and would come free from scuffs, cutting defects and printer faults.
 
I had Photobox do some weird stuff to a premium photo album some years ago - they duplicated some photos in black and white, I complained, sent a photo or the album, and eventually had to post them the album as they clearly didn't believe my photos. Their QC isn't always the best, but most times when they've messed up they've usually rectified quickly (apart from the album issue).
Did you use their in browser uploader? I suspect that some compression happens when you do this, as the majority of their customers are looking for smaller prints. I tend to choose to upload via FTP. Having said that their 'smiley' indicator should state if the picture is of sufficient resolution...

I've also ordered a premium book from blurb using the Lightroom plugin, and had awful low DPI result, their response was that I should have resized all the pictures manually to ensure that they were 300dpi (the print looked like 150dpi). I had to explain to the client the delay, and gave them both books.
 
i havent used photobox for books but regularly use them for prints,,, the once or twice i have had cause for complaint they have rectified straight away. ( whats a lay flat book btw and whay is it different from any other kind of book?)
I use blurb for my books and have never had an issue,,, im unsure why they would tell you to make sure your files are 300DPI, i would have thought that was an obvious thing to do.?
 
Well they are not right - especially the cut. I'd be sending them back with specific requests around the large coloured dots, cut, and the failed binding.

I do think the overall printing is probably the quality you'll get - 4-colour indigo press style printing. What you have to realise is that you are paying a low price for a "consumer" photo book. Photobox are not a pro-lab they are a volume consumer lab who sell on price. It would be like someone booking a wedding photographer for £150 for the day, all files included and expecting award winning creative wedding photography. You can't expect the highest quality from the cheapest price.

If you want good quality, especially wedding books, then you need to be looking at the main pro manufacturers like Sim2000 where an A3 book with 25 spreads is going to cost you significantly more than you pay at Photobox. I know that isn't going to be a cheap wedding book but then no experienced wedding photographer offers an A3 book with 25 spreads as their "cheap" book.
 
Fionab said:
i havent used photobox for books but regularly use them for prints,,, the once or twice i have had cause for complaint they have rectified straight away. ( whats a lay flat book btw and whay is it different from any other kind of book?)
I use blurb for my books and have never had an issue,,, im unsure why they would tell you to make sure your files are 300DPI, i would have thought that was an obvious thing to do.?
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Have you used the Lightroom plugin? It basically allows you to pull in your photos from your library directly into their template, it then generates a PDF, which is subsequently sent to blurb to generate their files. So you are dealing with RAW files, but all the photos would be high res, you don't have direct control over DPI at that point. Anyway the PDF generated looked spot on, and showed no low res issue when zoomed at 300% (I realise this might be missing the point - looking at an image instead of a print). Basically I think they made a mistake in printing (I chose their nicest paper), and then tried to hide it by insisting that I export the photos then resize all in Photoshop to the correct dimensions and dpi, a real pain in the backside, which put me off using them ever again beyond the free reprint credit they gave me.
 
I spoke to them on the phone referring to these images. They were happy to reprint and promised someone will look at the end result. I hope that is a happy ending

Meonshore - you're right. They only know about the size and presume printing will all look just the same (even I couldn't imagine 4 colour press print may be used). A4 book is probably a much better place to start and then offer a Loxley or GraphiStudio as the next big step up. Still it is nice to be able to offer something more affordable for parents and friends.
 
I used Vista print when i did my brother in laws wedding, pleasantly suprised at the quality, think i did about 56 pages hardback for about £32
 
Matholwch said:
Have you used the Lightroom plugin? It basically allows you to pull in your photos from your library directly into their template, it then generates a PDF, which is subsequently sent to blurb to generate their files. So you are dealing with RAW files, but all the photos would be high res, you don't have direct control over DPI at that point. Anyway the PDF generated looked spot on, and showed no low res issue when zoomed at 300% (I realise this might be missing the point - looking at an image instead of a print). Basically I think they made a mistake in printing (I chose their nicest paper), and then tried to hide it by insisting that I export the photos then resize all in Photoshop to the correct dimensions and dpi, a real pain in the backside, which put me off using them ever again beyond the free reprint credit they gave me.
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no i dont use the light room thing i do it from blurb i dont like relying on other things to do what i want
 
I just had another A3 lay flat from Photobox today from my New York trip, 70 pages so at the size limit of what they can do. No dots, binding was spot on, the double page panos look incredible.

They do seem very inconsistent, but have rectified any errors for me very quickly without argument on a few occasions.
 
I had a look at Jessops (CEWE) top of the line photographic paper book - I'm well impressed. The paper with just slightly thinner, but still very firm, and the print quality was top notch. I know where to go next time for a reasonable price order.
 
I wouldn't have been satisfied with that quality or lack of and pleased you have had a potentially satisfactory result

Seems to be a recurring theme in general that it has become something of a rarity to actually get something you are satisfied with first time

Lost count of the times that something is wrong, quality control maybe or the ever incresing pressure to provide cheaper prices.

Just this week bought a new bathroom extractor fan from Screwfix, not a cheapie either, Vent Axia at a penny under 100 quid. Neon power indicator light doesn't work, not a disaster I know, but still sub-standard and now need to return it which will entail more work and wasted time/petrol

Glad to see you won't accept second rate goods and hopefully these firms will realise that it just isn't good enough
 
I received the reprints today - everything looks so much better now compared to the first batch.

P.S. Be sure to keep the colour correction off if you edit pics properly. They still however edited one pic - they decided it had far too much magenta, but it was the whole point... that's the colour lightning gives.
 
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