Topic: Blurb Bookmaking for Photographers: Live stream March 15

[gothamtomato]

For anyone who's wanted to self publish a book and been a bit intimidated, or has already published but would like to improve for the next time, I've organized a class with Dan Milnor of Blurb at the B&H Event Space on March 15, 1pm NYC time. Here are the details:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/find/eventDetails.jsp/id/2466

It is FREE to attend, but if you can't be here in NYC in person, you can live stream it.

[Francois]

Cool...
Their process is probably way different than my usual repurposing of a photocopy machine 

[02Pilot]

There's no way I can get down there for the event, but my limited experience with Blurb several years ago was not terribly positive. Two things stood out: the layout software was very fussy and had a steep learning curve, and the B&W printing was not truly B&W, and a result the images all had a cast to them. I would love to know if things have changed, especially regarding the second point. I'm willing to invest time to learn new software if I know I can get a book with quality B&W printing.

[Late Developer]

I'm on t'other side of the pond, or I'd be there like a shot.  The only saving grace is that I have the Adobe CC package and LR has a module which, I'm led to believe, links directly with the Blurb software and enables the likes of me to drag and drop the photo I want into the appropriate space.

Having just come back from Bologna with 6 rolls of film to process and scan, I'm aiming to produce my inaugural Blurb book (or similar) in the next month or so.

[gothamtomato]

I have seen some really good results from it. But I think there are tricks of the trade to get those results, which is I've gotten Dan Milnor to come in and talk about it - also about using the templates.

I've never used them to build a book by myself before. I've only used them with a designer who did it in InDesign (so he did all the dirty work). But I really want to learn it so I'm trying to do what I'm suggesting everyone else do who hasn't tried it yet, to try to tackle building a book before the class, to have the most informed questions for him (if that makes sense).

If you can't make it watch it on the Live Stream and you can send if you have a question you can send it in via twitter (or post it here and I'll pass it along).

[gothamtomato]

I'm on t'other side of the pond, or I'd be there like a shot.  The only saving grace is that I have the Adobe CC package and LR has a module which, I'm led to believe, links directly with the Blurb software and enables the likes of me to drag and drop the photo I want into the appropriate space.

Having just come back from Bologna with 6 rolls of film to process and scan, I'm aiming to produce my inaugural Blurb book (or similar) in the next month or so.

Yes, you can do a book using Lightroom. We had Tim Grey give a how-to talk about it. If you need help, you can watch it here:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ho4aZbdu3I

[Late Developer]

I'm on t'other side of the pond, or I'd be there like a shot.  The only saving grace is that I have the Adobe CC package and LR has a module which, I'm led to believe, links directly with the Blurb software and enables the likes of me to drag and drop the photo I want into the appropriate space.

Having just come back from Bologna with 6 rolls of film to process and scan, I'm aiming to produce my inaugural Blurb book (or similar) in the next month or so.

Thanks Debbie, I'll be mugging up on this as I'm hoping I'll have some decent shots.  If I don't, I might as well pack up and try something else.  Bologna is just full of Renaissance and Gothic architecture and the light mid-morning and late afternoon was still low to the horizon and just gorgeous.


Yes, you can do a book using Lightroom. We had Tim Grey give a how-to talk about it. If you need help, you can watch it here:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ho4aZbdu3I

[gothamtomato]

Thanks Debbie, I'll be mugging up on this as I'm hoping I'll have some decent shots.  If I don't, I might as well pack up and try something else.  Bologna is just full of Renaissance and Gothic architecture and the light mid-morning and late afternoon was still low to the horizon and just gorgeous.

I think I need a Brit to American translation on 'mugging up on' 

[Late Developer]

Thanks Debbie, I'll be mugging up on this as I'm hoping I'll have some decent shots.  If I don't, I might as well pack up and try something else.  Bologna is just full of Renaissance and Gothic architecture and the light mid-morning and late afternoon was still low to the horizon and just gorgeous.

I think I need a Brit to American translation on 'mugging up on' 

"Considering intently"......

[kentish cob]

There's no way I can get down there for the event, but my limited experience with Blurb several years ago was not terribly positive. Two things stood out: the layout software was very fussy and had a steep learning curve, and the B&W printing was not truly B&W, and a result the images all had a cast to them. I would love to know if things have changed, especially regarding the second point. I'm willing to invest time to learn new software if I know I can get a book with quality B&W printing.

I've completed 4 or 5 Blurb book projects, all using the older "booksmart" software, which I found fairly simple. Since upgrading my PC I've downloaded "bookwrite", but not yet used it, so can't say if it's an improvement or not.
I had some early problems with print quality, but I must say Blurb were very keen to sort it out and reprinted without fuss.
I found getting the images correctly sized was the key to maintaining acceptable quality (let's face it, it's digital print on demand, not offset litho...).

Anyhow... thanks for the heads-up GT, I've often dropped into Dan Milnor's "Shifter" site, which I find entertaining, informative and easy-going, so I'll try to join the live stream, but if I happen to miss it, will it be made available to watch on the event space web page?

[gothamtomato]

Anyhow... thanks for the heads-up GT, I've often dropped into Dan Milnor's "Shifter" site, which I find entertaining, informative and easy-going, so I'll try to join the live stream, but if I happen to miss it, will it be made available to watch on the event space web page?

You're welcome! And yes, all our live streams stay live on the front page of the Event Space website for about 24 hours. After that they go to editing and eventually show up on our YouTube channel. Often the Q&A part of the program is edited out for YouTube, so if you don't want to miss that part, it's best to watch the live stream if you can.