Blurb Photobooks...

[Amp34]

I got one I made this morning (standard landscape with around 30 pages) and tbh I'm not that impressed. All I can say is you get what you pay for.

The book itself (although very thin!) seems well made but the print quality leaves a bit more to be desired. Admittedly I went for the cheaper standard print instead of premium paper but still... The prints are quite dark and not very photo like, they also seem to have a colour tint on them too.

Having said that I could be being spoiled, I'm comparing it to a Cewe photobook (printed on premium paper) I had done a while ago. The Cewe book cost me £40 and the Blurb book £11 so I guess you get what you pay for.

Just posting this as a heads up for anyone interested in getting photobooks printed.

** As mentioned I had the print done with the standard paper, I have no idea how much better the premium paper actually is.

 

[Amp34]

Terrible quality but...

Cewe at top, Blurb at bottom

Loxley on left, Blurb on right

(The top images are an identical Jpeg sent to both places, bottom the only difference is a crop then a save to Jpeg)

Now obviously it's a bit unfair expecting them to be of photo quality but at least some where near would be nice, expecially from a company that sells "photobooks"...

Unfortunately I can't get the the "texture" of the print with any of my current lenses but it's similar to newspaper quality (the whole little round bits making up the photo). More annoyingly it's not confined to the photos themselves, the grey writing (on the left of the top image) also has the same "texture" instead of being a solid block of colour.

I guess for the price the "build quality" of the book is pretty good but it seems to have gone a bit photobox on the prints...

 

[Amp34]

In actual fact the worst of the two is actually the first. It looks completely different to both the Cewe book and a large (24x16) print by Loxley, again faded/flat and washed out, with quite a colour difference. The second shot is pretty much true to life.

 

[Amp34]

I'll have to give premium paper a go at some point then, see what the difference actually is.

As mentioned before I will probably be printing a load of the same book out so i'll check what the premium one is like first and decide whether the cost increase is acceptable.

 

[Amp34]

Sounds like its a case of always go with Premium paper; that's good to know for future reference. I have been meaning to get another book done.

Definately, it's always a bit of a pain when all you get is recommendations by people with no examples, it's always a bit hit and miss if their quality is the same as your quality.