the finished article

My book arrived from Photobox this week and I am very pleased with it!  The idea was to get as small a book as possible and measuring 7cm by 9.5cm it is pretty small.  The print quality looks good, which was a relief after having a disappointing result with a different publisher previously.

I have included here some images of the finished book, the focus is a little off in a couple but holding the book didn't leave me free to focus the camera!

In the end I decided not to make my own book too.  I have the bound printed book by Photobox and the individually mounted pictures in the green presentation box, plus the attempt I made at making my own was (to my mind at least) shockingly bad.  I thought it best to quit while I was ahead!

just a couple more pictures......

I took a couple more pictures today, and this evening I will be putting together my book order.  I have decided to split the book into three sections, firstly will be the tilt-shift images, and this section will be entitled 'Little People'.  Next will be the model people, and this section will be named 'Big World'.  The third section will be the dictionary images and, as yet, it has no name.  I have toyed with the idea of calling it something dictionary related eg. Lexicon, but I'm not quite sure.

Anyhow, while I ponder that one, here are the last few images for the book....

more pictures and how to present the finished article

More Pictures

Today I played around with more of the dictionary pictures, but this time I used a full sized book as the tiny one was much to tricky and kept closing on my models, the poor things were being squashed!

 

How to present the finished article

I have two plans for my final product and I'm stepping away from the 'boring' book.  One will remain a secret until hand in and the other I will share with you now.

I plan to print my pictures on two-and-a-half inch squares and present them in a box.  The lid of the box contains a magnifying viewer, and has also been decorated in keeping with my theme.  See what you think:

making my own book

I intend to get a book professionally printed, but I also want to try making my own as I intend to see just how small I can go.
Limitations I have are several, including how small the pictures can be and still be viewable, but part of this I intend to overcome in a novel manner... more later!

I had a quick attempt at making my own book this week, just a mock-up to see how it might look.  I used binding screws as (to me) they appear more sturdy than rivets.


Below are some pictures of my creation.  It is really quite shoddy but the rough idea is there!

I did say it was basic!!  I will fiddle with the design some more, and with the size too as I want it smaller if I can!

Back to my mention earlier about the size of the pictures and still being viewable.......  I intend to present the book with an attached mini magnifying glass, both for novelty and practical purposes.  I got hold of a couple of pocket ones from ebay, one is shown below.  I also got a couple of rectangular, wallet-sized magnifying cards, but they're not as good.

Book styles and printing options

As the finished product from this assignment has to be presented in book form I have spent some time looking at different companies offering the 'photo book' product.  Having had a bad experience with Blurb I am keen to try someone else, and as I had a very nice book made last year by Cewe (via Jessops) I included them in my research.  I also looked at the likes of Bob Books, Lulu, Pixum, and Photobox.

As the project is all about scale I want to produce a small book, the smaller the better, so that was my first criteria.  Obviously price has to be considered, the number of minimum pages (as I am planning on having no more than 15-20 final images), as well as total production and dispatch times.

For each company I noted each of the aforementioned criteria and the basic list I have compiled reads :

Jessops  smallest book is 14x13cm, soft cover photo booklet.  Minimum of 26 pages, from £6.  Smallest hardcover is 15x19cm, from 26 pages again, from £19.  Free delivery is available to your local store and the advised total time from the start of production to delivery is 5-7 working days.

http://photo.jessops.com/cewe-photobooks-small-photobook.html

Bob books smallest book is 19x15cm, hardback is £21.99 and paperback £14.99, minimum of 26 pages again.  Delivery is £4.50 and takes 7-10 working days.

http://www.bobbooks.co.uk/photobooks/prices/hardback.html

Lulu's smallest book is a whopping 23x18cm, hardback costs £13.81, paperback £7.25 with 20 pages.  There is no easy answer for shipping cost or delivery times etc..

http://www.lulu.com/publish/photo_books/9x7_landscape_photo_book/?motif=photo_books&cid=gb_phb_photo_books_lnd

Pixum offers a 19x15cm option also, with hardback costing £17.99, paperback £15.99, and booklet £9.99.  Once more a minimum of 26 pages, with postage costing £3.99 and production taking approx. 5 working days.

http://www.pixum.co.uk/photobook/easybook_small_landscape

Photobox's smallest book is just 9x7cm, with a soft cover at £5.99.  It does have a minimum of 31 pages though.  They also have a small softcover book at 18x14cm, again minimum of 26 pages and costing £14.99.  Delivery is £1.99 and production to delivery takes approx. 4-7 working days.

http://www.photobox.co.uk/shop/photo-books

Of the options I have looked at I will be choosing Photobox as the finished product looks perfect for the project.  I will keep you posted on how it goes!