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How to Request Our Services
The Submittal and Publishing Process and FAQ
There are two basic ways ways to get digital images into our
hands to begin the production process for your desired book. Either you
provide digital photos for the book or we shoot and event for you (for instance,
a wedding).
Did We Shoot the Initial Digital Photos for You? The simplest method
for book creation exists for those who have had their photography work
done by us. That is, if we have already shot your wedding,
social event, etc. In those cases, we already have access to the digital
files and can begin work soon after you have made your decision on images to be
included.
Did Another Photographer Provide the Digital Photos (or
Are You Providing Your Own Digital Photos)? For those who have done their own work or who otherwise have
access to digital photos from their own wedding, event, family function, or
travel adventure, vacation, etc., what we need from you is the collection of digital images you
wish to include in the book. Once you have made a decision on the the
photos you want included in the book, the digital photos must be submitted to us on CD or DVD,
in most cases. Direct mail
of the CD or DVD works best, unless you are in the Houston, Texas, area and wish to meet with us
in person. If meeting with us in person, all you must do is call for a
consultation/meeting time and we'll be glad to set it up.
CAUTION: Never send us
the only copy or disk that you have. Make sure you have a backup before
trusting any delivery service with your digital images. The same caution
applies to original photos for which there is no extra copy. Trust any
delivery service at your own risk since none are infallible and
every service provider (from US Postal Service to UPS to FedEx) can lose
or damage a package. Loss or damage due to delivery service error
doesn't happen that often, but it can happen. Please take that
possibility into account before sending any package out.
What Type and Quality of Digital Photos Do We Need from
You? If you submit your own digital images to us, we need as high quality images as
you can provide us. The better the quality of the images that you provide
us, the better the quality of the final published book. We can work with
jpeg (.jpg) files, tiff (.tif), and just about any other typical digital camera
generated files. If you shoot in camera raw format (as is the capability
of many Canon and Nikon cameras), you may send us those camera raw images. Again, the higher the quality of the input to us (larger
images, higher resolution, etc.) the better our ability to produce high quality
books.
Can the Client Scan Images and Provide Those for a Book?
Yes, we can accept scanned images from our clients. However, care must be
taken in scanning photos or other documents. Scans should be done in high
resolution. When in doubt, try scanning at 300 pixels per inch (ppi).
In some cases, using 300ppi might result in images larger than we need, but it's
much better to have images that are very large than images that are too small
(size and resolution-wise). And if you do your own scanning or have
someone else do that for you, please make sure that the scanner and surface of
each photo is cleaned before each photo is scanned. A good scanner will
pick up every spec and every bit of dust that is on the photo or on the surface
of the scanner, which results in the need for retouching before the images are
included in the book. The bed of a flatbed scanner should be wiped with a
clean cloth between each photo scan, because dust can easily settle on the
scanner surface while the scanner lid is up. Bad scans cause more work on
our end and can result in more expense to the client, so it's better to provide
us clean scans - and large, high-resolution scans - to whatever
extent it is possible and practical to do so.
Can We Use a Low Resolution Photo in a Book if That is All
Can Be Provided? Yes, it is always possible to use low-resolution
images, but only when absolutely necessary. Remember, book
images must be optimized for
printing, which usually means much higher resolution than typical “viewing”
resolution on a PC monitor. Images that appear fine on a PC monitor may in fact
be much too low a resolution to print well. In most cases, we can take steps to
safely increase the resolution of an image to a certain extent for book printing
use, if necessary. But, it is important that we initially receive as high
resolution images as is reasonably possible. The best advice for the
photographer is to use the best quality setting on the camera when taking the
photos. Lower quality settings can be a convenience in the camera
(usually used as a convenience to fit more images onto the digital media in the
camera, like CF cards, etc.) but the resulting low-resolution images but cause
printing problems later. Low resolution is fine for viewing on a computer
screen, but not good for book printing purposes.
What About Using Printed Photos and Negatives? For projects involving standard printed photos that you wish
to have included in your book, please contact us with your request.
Scanning or otherwise digitizing printed photos for digital books involves more
time, effort, and cost, and overall costs vary according to degree of
difficulty. We can work with existing prints (wallet sized, 4x6, 5x7,
8x10, etc. - almost any sized existing print) or we can create new digital
images from you existing negatives, if those are available. We have many
options that we can exercise to digitize your existing printed photos or
negatives to include them in your book project or to make a new book strictly
from existing printed photos. If you have prints for which another
professional photographer owns the copyright, we cannot use those prints without the original
photographer's permission.
Can Text Be Added to the Front and Back Covers as Well as Pages
in the Books? Yes. Small snippets of text, including page titles
or photo captions, as well as larger blocks of text may be added to any book
page or series of pages. We can also provide larger-scale, in-house
editing and writing services, when needed. Any minor editing for
punctuation, grammar, and consistency in use of terms and phrases is easily
accommodated on request. And we will alert the client to anything that we
feel should be addressed in text (again, with punctuation, grammar, sentence
structure and the like). However, if writing or editing tasks change the
scope of the project to a significant degree, charges may be assessed based on
the level of effort required to perform those tasks. Addition of text and
how much the text affects the scope of the project is another item that must be
assessed on a case-by-case basis and discussed with the client. as necessary.
While our primary goal is to create "photo" coffee table books, we have full
ability to add professional editing and writing services to any project.
Can Color Photos Be Converted to Black and White?
Yes. And we can do sepia-toned images and occasional colorizations as
well.
How Many Photos Can Fit on Each Page? OK, is
this a trick question? In reality, except for aesthetic reasons and the
possibility of it being cost prohibitive, there is not an exact limit to the
number of photos that can fit on one page. But, if we place 100
postage-stamp-sized photos on a page, who is going to want to try and look at
them? Ideally, photos should be sized according to significance and
beauty. Really good photos shouldn't necessarily have to share a page with
another photo. In fact, some photos command panoramic treatment and will
actually span two pages in a book. Some photos are used as backgrounds
(backdrops) with other photos are placed on top of them. Some are used
both as backgrounds and primary images. Sometimes a larger image will be
surrounded by smaller images and sometimes several images of equal size will
share a page. Or a page might have multiple images all in different sizes.
That is something that we, as book designers, view as part of the challenge of
building each book. And it's something that the client often helps us
with, in terms of letting us know their personal favorites and which of their
photos we should "build around." The client might supply 100 images and
tell us that 10 of them are their favorites, indicating that we should place
design emphasis on those 10 photos and build around them with the other 90
images.
When it comes to the number of photos in each book, it should
be noted that the starting point for each book is one image per page. That
is how our base books are initially priced. A 40-page book has the first
40 photos included in its base price. An 80-page book has the first 80
photos included in its base price. As photos are added to each book, the
cost of designing the book grows since each photo adds to both real and
potential design complexity. It's not so much that adding one or two extra
images increases design complexity, but when the number of photos is increased
by 50 percent or doubled, etc., the possibilities in design layouts increase
exponentially. And, the possibility of the client wanting to see changes
or variations on page layouts also increases dramatically when the number of
photos in a book increases. We know this from experience, and it's a
completely understandable situation. We show clients design/layout
variations and sometimes clients develop their own ideas that they want explored
during the course of book development (things they might not have envisioned
when first contemplating putting together a coffee table photo book).
Often, the more variations we show, the more it sparks the imagination of the
client and the more they want to see other possible variations in layouts and
photo combinations. It's a natural progression. But the more images that
are included in the book, the more radical the potential variations are and the
longer we have to work on design and layout along with all the other things we
do with each and every photo included in the book (including color corrections,
cropping, and other photo enhancements that must be addressed at some point in
the process).
How Does the Client Review the Progress of the Book?
We provide online viewing of each book as progress is made from the
initial draft stage through completion. We can also provide in-person
reviews to clients in the Houston, Texas area, or a mixture of online and
in-person reviews. If certain circumstances, disk-based reviews can be
accommodated (whereby we send a disk of higher-resolution page layouts for
high-resolution review on the client's end).
How Long Does It Take to Produce a Coffee Table Photo
Book? The overall process generally averages about 8 weeks, including the approximate
4-week publication turnaround time needed by the book publishing company.
Turnaround time can vary, though, based on many factors. Factors that can
come into play are our current in-house workload, the size and complexity of the
job you are submitting to us, whether or not you make changes to the material as
the job progresses, etc. Every book must be assessed on a case-by-case
basis and accurate production time estimates are difficult to make before we
have the actual materials in hand. We also have the ability to optionally
expedite some parts of the publisher's shipping and publication process, but the
publisher assesses extra charges for such expedited service (not high charges,
but extra charges that nevertheless must be taken into account).
Do We Provide Time and Cost Estimates to Our Clients?
Yes, we do. We can generally give a rough estimate on time and costs based
on phone and e-mail information provided to us by our clients. However,
exact estimates on time and cost can be difficult until we see the photos we are
going to be working with on any given project. Additionally, book projects
often evolve while we are working on them based on new ideas that we and the
client have as we mutually watch their book grow.
How Much Does It Cost to Produce a High-End Coffee Table
Photo Book? Base costs range from $700 to $2000 for books of 20 to 80
pages. Book costs increase as design complexity and design time increases
(with addition of extra photos as a simple but common way that costs increase).
Are There Discounts Available for Extra Copies of Books?
Yes, we have significant discounts available for those who wish to purchase
additional matching copies of any book. Clients can expect at least a
50-percent discount on additional matching books (additional books must be exact
matching copies of the original book -- same size, same page count, and same
image content).
What are Some of the Ways in Which We Prepare Photos for
Printing in a Book? Some of our frequently encountered situations and
photo enhancements include the following:
-
Color Balance/Color Correction
-
Image Saturation Correction
-
Contrast Correction
-
Exposure Correction (for underexposed and
overexposed images - often, images that appear too dark or too light can be
fixed by us)
-
Low-Resolution Images (those that must be
converted to higher resolution images for printing purposes)
-
Image Clarity (images that are blurred
from camera movement or too slow shutter speeds can often be salvaged)
-
Redeye Correction
-
Photo Cropping (to improve photo
composition and to improve book page design)
-
Conversion of Images from Color to Black
and White (and occasional selective colorization of images)
-
For Scanned Images and Older Photos -
in addition to most of the above-mentioned items, older photos often require
fixes for dust spots, specs, scratches, fading, stains, rips and tears, etc.
(Improving/fixing/restoring older photos for book use often crosses into the
realm of serious retouching and restoration. So, depending on the
desires of the client in regard to the degree of restoration wanted, this is
a process that may add significant cost to any book. Minor retouching
and restoration is generally not a large concern, but major restoration can
involve significant time and effort, so assessments are made on a
case-by-case basis and discussed with the client before work has begun on
the photos in question. In some cases, the client wishes only minimal
work to be done to older photos, while in other cases thorough cleanup and
restoration are desired. Again, we discuss the needed effort with the
client before we begin working with such photos.)
You may e-mail us or call directly for more information if
you have questions that are not answered on this page.
We're glad to help in any way we can to assist you in making the right decisions
in terms of what kind of files to send to us, how to get those files to us, and
other items you might need to take into account when considering a coffee table
photo book project.
[ Home ] [ Sample Layouts and End-to-End Books ] [ Sample Fine Art Books ] [ Sample Press Printed Books ] [ Sample Flush Mount Albums/Books ] [ Photo Book Project Ideas ] [ Publishing Process & FAQ ] [ Definitions and Terminology ] [ Gift Certificates ] [ Pricing Info ] [ Links ]
Please contact
us for details on any of our products.