Father’s Day is June 17th!

We’ve been talking a lot about Mother’s Day the last couple months, but now it’s Dad’s turn!  I wrote about some photo book ideas for Mom (and those would definitely apply to Dad too!) as well as some other custom gift ideas.  Just because Dad may not show he’s a softie – doesn’t mean he wouldn’t appreciate a personalized gift!  Perhaps he has a hobby that he loves like fishing, golf or cars.  Any one of those types of hobbies could make for a great theme for a photo book.

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Check out my post on FREE photo books – No expiration dates on them!
Find out how to get a FREE PHOTO BOOK with MyPublisher!

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Tiny Prints

Deal #1

25% off sitewide!

Coupon Code: MAY25

Deal Expires: 5/29/2012

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Deal #2

Also get 10% off on Wedding Paper Divas!

Coupon Code: 10MAY

Deal Expires: 5/31/2012

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Deal #3

1 FREE CARD (use it for FATHER’S DAY!)

New customers only.

Coupon Code: FREETREAT

Deal Expires: Limited Time – not specified

Click here for the LATEST TINY PRINTS COUPONS & DEALS!

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Shutterfly

Deal #1
40% on photo books from Shutterfly!
Coupon Code: BOOK40

Deal Expires: 5/30/2012

Deal #2

Get a FREE Father’s Day Card! Coupon Code: CARD4U through 6/13/2012

Deal #3
Save 50% on Calendars through 6/13/12!

Deal #4
GET 50 FREE Prints from Shutterfly.com

For new members. Sign up here.

Photo Book Girl Tip!
Remember you can stack Shutterfly coupon codes, just keep entering all the ones you can find and the savings multiply!

See my Shutterfly Reviews here!

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Blurb

15% off Blurb books!

Coupon Code: 15OFFBOOK

Deal Expires: 5/30/2012

See my Blurb reviews here.

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Mixbook

Deal #1

20% off photo books

Coupon Code: DADSALE20

Deal Expires: not provided

Deal #2

FREE 2-day shipping on orders over $50

Coupon Code: DADSHIP12

Deal Expires: not provided

Check out Mixbook’s Father’s Day Themes

See my Mixbook Review here!

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Photobook America

40% on all books

Coupon Code: PBWW40ALL

Deal Expires: 5/30/2012 (11:59PM EST)

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MyPicTales

15% off any order or 25% off orders over $100.00!

• Save on photobooks, calendars and cards (does not include single page prints)
• Valid for US and international orders
• Cannot be combined with other offers

Coupon Codes: SAVE15 or SAVE25

Deal Expires: not provided

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MyPublisher

Deal #1

Save up to 50% off your next order!

50% off orders over $100

25% off orders over $50

Deal Expires: 30 days after code issuance

Deal #2

FREE $20 Gift Card!

(Use it for a FREE hardcover pocketbook photo book for DAD!)

See my MyPublisher reviews here!

More MyPublisher deals here!

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Snapfish

Deal #1

Volume Discounts on Snapfish Photo Books

• 30% off orders of 10 or more books
• 40% off orders of 20 or more books
• 50% off orders of 30 or more books

Coupon Code: PB30SALE, PB40SALE, PB50SALE

Deal Expires: 6/30/2012

Deal #2

Up to 60% off Memorial Day store!

Deal Expires: 5/31/2012

Deal #3

Get a FREE Card!

Coupon Code: ONFREECARD

Deal Expires: 5/31/2012

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Smilebooks

Deal #1

FREE 8 x 8 Softcover Mini Book with 26 pages, OR

Apply $26.95 credit towards a higher priced book (just pay the difference!)

To get this deal:

• Click on the tab “Special Offer”
• Subscribe to Smilebooks newsletter by entering your email to obtain the code

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Clicking on the company name will take you directly to the company’s site. The banner ads and some of the links above are affiliate links. Read full Disclosure.

How to Capture a Screenshot on a Mac

Command + Shift + 4 will give you a cursor that allows you to drag over the area that you want to capture.  Once you release the mouse or trackpad it will make a shutter noise and save the image as a .png file.  Upload the image to the photo book company of your choice.  If the software doesn’t recognize your .png file, then convert it to a jpeg using one of the free online photo editing tools I mentioned in my earlier post.  Then it’s just like any other photo.

How to Capture a Screenshot on a PC

1) Snipping Tool available on some editions of Windows 7; or

2) Use the Print Screen key on your keyboard

I found a tutorial on how to use the Print Screen key here.  Since I’m not a regular PC user, it’s probably best for me to defer to the articles I found.

If the method you use captures more of the image than you want to use, you may need to crop it by using one the photo editing tools of your choice.  You may be able to do it within the photo book company’s software as well if they feature it as part of their editing tools.

Here’s one of my layouts that I’ve been working on which features a Facebook screenshot.  It’s from my pregnancy journal – a book I’ve been laboring on (seriously no pun intended) for twice as long as my pregnancy!  I kept a journal on my computer, writing down my thoughts about impending motherhood and chronicling my new experiences.  Of course I took lots of belly photos (though not as many as I had intended) and featured the key moments like our baby shower and of course our first photos of PhotoBookBaby.  This Facebook screenshot is of a photo I posted showing off my 37 week belly in a parking garage mirror.  Folks thought it was pretty funny.

My intention was to write up a quick post with a screenshot example but it just ballooned from there, and I ended up making several notes on why I put the page together the way I did.  I hope it will inspire and help you out with your photo book layouts!

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***CLICK ON THE IMAGE FOR A CLOSER LOOK***

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Week 18 down, 34 to go!

Week 18 folks! One-third of the 365 project has gone by, and now we’re slowly creeping up on summer! I’m sure many of you have attended some graduations and Mother’s Day brunches so far, and many are probably looking forward to Memorial Day weekend as well as Father’s Day.

This project has definitely taught me a lot about my photography as well as made me focus on what I want to accomplish this year. Because my 365 project makes me account for my days by putting something in physical form, that makes me also more accountable to myself for the other goals I set for myself for 2012.  On the photo book front, I have lots of projects in the works. My pregnancy photo book is not quite finished yet, but it’s almost there. It was held up by my discovery that I lost my underwater camera. We had taken a “babymoon” to Sanibel Island last March and that was the last time I recall seeing it. I knew I had several photos on that memory card that I would want to be in the book and it was irking me that I couldn’t find it.  Just last week I was so happy to have found that darn underwater camera! Of course I had told my husband I had gone through every box we’d packed during our move last year (and not unpacked yet b/t/w!) but one day while looking for something else (of course), I found it. Yea!!! So that project is pretty much back on track.  I’m also working on an Instagram project with Blurb and a graduation book – more on those later!

For week 18 I again focused on food. At one of the restaurants where I shot some photos, we were seated by a huge window with such beautiful light.  Good lighting and good food – what more could you ask for?  Yum!

I’m wondering how you are all doing on your 365 projects?  I’d love to hear a roll call to hear how your project is going and if you think you might do one again next year.  If you aren’t doing one this year, but are thinking of doing one next year, let me know too.  If there’s enough interest, I’m thinking of helping us all along by doing a semi-guided 365 project where I will come up with a list of suggestions.  I know that sometimes I need some inspiration so maybe we can help each other out.  Let me know what you think!

PBG

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This post is about FREE online editing tools (you know how I love free!). What’s great is that many of these free programs have so many features, you don’t have to spend any money at all to do some key tweaking to your photos. If you want to sound like a pro – the term is post-processing

I’ll do a quick rundown of what I’ve seen online. In no particular order…

Picasa

I’ve written about Picasa’s collage tools, but haven’t discussed the software’s editing tools.  To use Picasa, you download it to your computer.  So, you can use it even when you’re not connected to the Internet.  Most of what you’ll probably need for editing purposes, you’ll find in the first tab (auto contrast, auto color etc.)
and in the second tab as shown below in the screenshot.  You just use your mouse to drag the sliders to the left or right and stop when you get the desired adjustments to your photo.

The other tabs are the “fun” stuff – filters that can significantly alter your photos.

PicMonkey

I found PicMonkey after it was mentioned by the folks at Picnik a few weeks back (since that time, the suggestion to try PicMonkey is no longer there when visiting the Picnik site). Picnik was a free online photo editor that I had mentioned in an earlier post.  PicMonkey works online.  You start by dragging and dropping the photo you want to edit onto the main page.  It then opens your photo and gives you a menu of options.  The most likely tool you’ll use here are the ones that control brightness and contrast.  As I’ve mentioned before, most of my photos only need a little brightening and contrast adjustment.  Takes just a few seconds.

Of course I would be remiss if I didn’t point out the fun stuff.  PicMonkey has lots of interesting filters which seem to be very popular now, most likely due to Instagram.  So, for those of you who can’t use Instagram, this is a good alternative.  I found these filters more unique than the ones Picasa offers.

Other features worth mentioning are the Advanced features.  Including the curves and dodge and burn tools.  The latter two I remember from photo class, way back when folks developed film and used an enlarger and chemicals to print on real photo paper.  Dodging and burning allows you to make very specific edits to your photo, lightening some areas and darkening others.  It’s helpful when you don’t need to lighten the whole photo, but just a part of it that’s too dark or lost its detail.  I don’t know how long PicMonkey’s advanced tools and any tool that is marked “Royale” will be free but for now, there’s no charge so take advantage of these tools while you can!

The last feature of PicMonkey I want to highlight is the “teeth whitening” tool.  Yes, you heard me – teeth whitening!  I took one of my photos and tried out some of the makeup tools and I was very surprised how subtle the tools were.  The teeth whitening actually did the job pretty well!  (Sorry but I’m not going to show you my personal before and after – you can check that out with one of your own photos.)

According to the site, a collage function is coming soon for all you collage fans like me.  After you apply your edits, you can save your completed version to your computer.

Pixlr

For the Adobe Photoshop fans out there, Pixlr is the most similar to Photoshop.  It allows you to work on your photos in layers that you can turn on and off to view the adjustments you’ve made as well as easily discard any unwanted edits.  Because it has the most features, it probably is harder to learn how to use.  But if you need to make more complex edits, Pixlr may be for you.

For those of you who want the quick fix however, Pixlr has another version called Pixlr Express that is much easier to navigate.  The icons below give you easy access to the most common editing tools.  If you’re just trying to adjust brightness and other basic tweaks, I’d definitely recommend you choose the Express version.

Pixlr has also joined in on the filter craze.  If you like Instagram, color shifting and other effects, you may want to check out Pixlr-o-matic.  In terms of significantly transforming photos, I’d say this tool had the most altering effects.

This is my original fireworks photo taken on the 4th of July on Lake Union in Seattle.  I like how the silhouette of the boat is visible.

Here’s what it looks like after applying one of Pixlr-o-matic’s effects.  The interface is fun – an old school developer tray complete with simulation of the chemicals moving in the pan.

You can add a border and other overlays to create the desired effect.  Here’s my finished product hanging to dry.  I’d have to say, these effects were the most fun out of the programs I tried and you can see there’s a significant difference from the original to the final version.  It could be fun to put the before and after versions in a photo book side-by-side.  This tool could also make you an interesting cover photo for your photo book don’t you think?

FotoFlexer

FotoFlexer is another online tool you can play with.  The interface isn’t as flashy as PicMonkey or Pixlr, but it does the job.  The various tabs at the top show you the main categories of tools available.  Again, most folks will just need to check out the “Basic” tab for lightening tools.

Sumopaint

This online program has a very similar interface to Adobe Photoshop as well in terms of the way the tools are displayed on the left in a grid.  You can also do layers with Sumopaint as well.  You’ll find the brightness and contrast tools under the “Adjustments” pull down menu.

Aviary – Phoenix

Phoenix is a layer-based photo editing tool.  You’ll find the brightness and contrast tools under the “Image” menu.

As you can see, you have a number of excellent free options that will get the job done.  No need to spend any money at all!  Out of the ones I reviewed for this post, I’d say my favorites are PicMonkey and Pixlr.  Mostly for the interface and the “fun factor” – the interesting filters and effects.

Do you have any favorites that I haven’t listed here?  Please comment below!
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I hoped to get this post out earlier, but with all the family events this past weekend, I got a bit behind.  Anyways, on to the winners!

The winners were drawn at random, but just wanted to share the winning entrants’ plans for their photo books if they were to win:

• I love customizations, too! I look forward to checking out the new software. I’ve always got a few books in the half-planned stage. Right now, one thing I want to do is make a very specific book of each of my kids. My husband restored an old commercial apple press, and the book for that was so cool I thought it would be fun to do a single-subject book for each of the kids. Nate’s into rocketry and I have tons of pictures of him with the rockets he builds and launches…
• If I win a Snap MyLife Creations Prize, I will use it to create a very special Wedding Album – one which has been waiting a very, very long time to be made: last month, I finally married my high school sweetheart and the love of my life – 29 years to the day from when we had originally planned to be wed. After high school, while he was in Navy training and I was in college, something very traumatic happened, and I (18 and completely unequipped) made the horrible mistake of breaking up with him. Yet, in the decades between, we never lost touch and always remained the best of friends – through marriages, children, heartbreak, and happiness. However, it wasn’t until last year that I learned his true feelings, when he looked across a table and into my eyes, and told me that he had always loved me and always would.  My wedding ring now holds the original diamond that was in my engagement ring so long ago; and his is made, in part, from the gold from that same ring. It is a fairytale that I never imagined would really happen, and one he never gave up hope in. I cannot wait to tell our story in book form, and share it with our family and friends.
• If I won it would be hard to choose what project to do. I have so many! I really need to do one of my 4 year-old grandson for my daughter. I have watched him part-time since he was born and I know that I have photos she hasn’t seen.
• I have taken a lot of pictures on my trips to various places throughout the years. I always wanted to put them together and print them into a coffee table book. If I win, this is what I will do – a portfolio of all my favorite photos in all my travels.

Lots of great books in the works!

Here are the winners!

Top Prize – $125.00 credit

Cynthia Y

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$75.00 credit

Joyce W

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$50 credit (2 prizes)

Renee B

Janna M. H.

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I will be sending each winner an email later today so, if you’re on the list, make sure you check your spam folder just in case!

No worries if your entry wasn’t drawn – more giveaways in store and be sure to check the deals page or Groupon page for new promos that pop up every day!

A big thanks to Snap MyLife Creations for sponsoring this giveaway!

PhotoBookGirl

Week 17 down, 35 to go!

Hey folks, hope you’ve entered my Snap MyLife Creations giveaway.  You have just about 24 hours left to enter.  You know how I love to find free photo book deals.  Like I’ve said before, I can’t find you a better deal than free, so be sure to enter for a chance to win the top prize of $125 to spend at Snap MyLife Creations!

Week 17 has come and gone.  As you can see last week I took a lot of photos of PhotoBookBaby (big surprise!), did some window shopping at a favorite antique store (look at those vintage cameras!) and I got a two-for-one deal on egg yolks for my omelet.  Doesn’t get better than that!

What were some of your favorite shots you took this week?

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Your current Inkubook user name and password will still work with the new site. I found that my old projects and photos previously uploaded were still in my account. Book sizes and styles remain the same. You’ll find the new customization tools along the left side of the workspace.

As a part of the new relaunch which was just unveiled last week, Snap MyLife Creations is sponsoring a big GIVEAWAY for Photobookgirl.com readers.

We have $300 worth of great prizes for four lucky Photobookgirl readers!

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HOW TO ENTER THE SNAP MYLIFE CREATIONS GIVEAWAY

Snap MyLife Creations is giving four (4) lucky winners a chance to win one of the following prizes:

First Prize: $125 credit (1 winner)

Second Prize: $75 credit (1 winner)

Third Prize: $50 credit (2 winners)

You have 6 possible ways to enter, but you must do the REQUIRED ENTRY for the others to count. For EACH entry, you have to COMMENT ON THIS POST below with a separate comment for EACH entry, telling me what type of entry you did. (One comment is one entry, so please don’t put all your entries in one comment or they will only count as one entry.)

REQUIRED ENTRY:

• Comment below – IF YOU WON, WHAT KIND OF PHOTO BOOK (vacation, baby, wedding etc.) WOULD YOU MAKE WITH YOUR SNAP MYLIFE CREATIONS PRIZE?

OPTIONAL ENTRIES:

• Subscribe to my newsletter (look for light blue box at top right) AND tell me in the comment below that you subscribed and the name you subscribed under (first name is fine). If you already subscribe to my newsletter, tell me in your comment and give me your name. (Please remember for it to count, you must confirm the subscription. Sorry RSS or Google Reader doesn’t count);

• “Like” me on Facebook (if you are already a fan, or become a new fan, tell me your Facebook name in the comment form);

• “Like” Snap MyLife Creations on Facebook (if you are already a fan, or become a new fan, tell me your Facebook name in the comment form);

• Give your review of any photo book company you’ve tried on the company’s main reviews page. Click on the link and then click on the logo of the company you want to review. You’ll see a place to add your review at the bottom of each company’s page. Let me know which company you commented on by telling me in a comment in this post below. (Limit to two (2) entries using this method.);

• Blog about this giveaway on your blog. Be sure to comment on this post with a link to your blog post (Counts as 3 entries!)

Make sure to do the REQUIRED ENTRY! (or the other entries won’t count.)

This giveaway is open to anyone 18 years of age or older (this means it’s an international giveaway)! Void where prohibited. Entries must be received by Tuesday, May 8, 2012, 11:59pm CST. Any entries not in accordance with the rules will be disqualified at our sole discretion and at the discretion of the sponsor. Winning entries will be chosen using Random.org. After compiling the results, I will announce the winners thereafter and will email the winners. The winners will have 48 hours to respond or I will redraw another entry. Winners will be issued a unique coupon code by Snap MyLife Creations. Winner pays for taxes & shipping as applicable.  Prize may also be put towards shipping costs as well.  Shipping may vary by location – see site for shipping details. Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Snap MyLife Creations. If you click on a link to the company’s site and make a purchase, I receive a referral fee from the company. Regardless of compensation my opinions are always my own.

Here’s some shots of my book that I printed with Inkubook before.

Thank you to Snap MyLife Creations for its generous sponsorship of this giveaway!

Check out all the latest “one day deals” on my Groupon/Living Social Tracker!

NEW SNAP MYLIFE CREATIONS PROMOS!

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Hi Folks!

Recently on Facebook I conducted an informal survey about photo editing.

Q: FAN SURVEY: Do you usually do any type of photo editing to your photos? (if yes what program do you use?)

THE RESULTS

• Out of 32 respondents, 30 said “yes” and 2 said “no”;
• Of the folks that commented on which program they use, the top vote getter was Adobe Photoshop Elements (PSE) (5 votes);
• Second place went to Adobe Lightroom;
• Third place went to another Adobe product – Photoshop CS

I guess I have to say way to go Adobe!

(If you’re interested in seeing all the responses click on the question above.)

WHY EDIT YOUR PHOTOS?

I’ve written about how I prep to make my photo books as well as my post-processing workflow, and it all boils down to this:

***Photo-editing software is your friend.***

• Use photo-editing software to enhance your photos.  I used to not do any post-processing on my photos, but after seeing the difference and how much better my photos (and photo books) came out, it’s become part of my photo book workflow to do some enhancing to the majority of my photos to either brighten, bring out details, boost contrast, or increase color saturation.
• Beginner photographers should note that pros do some type of post-processing or enhancing of their photos. They don’t always come out perfect out of the camera (though that would be a worthy goal to work towards). When I used to make prints in the darkroom, I remember using filters to enhance contrast and changing the exposure of certain areas of a photo (dodging and burning) by blocking the light source on the enlarger. Photographers still do that, but now with a computer instead (thank goodness cause photo paper wasn’t cheap!) That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t pay attention to important factors such as lighting and aperture settings when taking photos, as there’s only so much you can do with photo editing software, but many a photo that I thought was a goner, was brought back from the brink of the trash bin;
• It doesn’t really take that long to edit your photos – check out my step-by-step tutorials on how to edit with iPhoto and Photoshop below;
• Some limited tweaking can be done within some photo book making software, but for maximum control, it’s better to use an external program.

WHAT I USE

Personally since I’m a Mac user, I primarily use iPhoto for post processing my shots. It’s a photo management tool that comes already installed on the Mac that organizes my photos.  Since I’ve already uploaded them into the program, it’s pretty easy to use the sliders to make quick adjustments to my photos.  A plus is that it’s nondestructive (it keeps an unedited original in the database).  Mac users can also get a souped up version called Aperture.  Want to know more about iPhoto?  My prior post on editing your photos using iPhoto is here.

For PC users, I would say the most likely equivalent to iPhoto would be Google’s Picasa 3.  What’s great is that Picasa is free.  I wrote about some features of the software in a recent post on Picasa’s collage tools, but the program also has a number of basic editing tools that are easy to use as well.

When I need to bring out the big guns however, I go for Adobe Photoshop.  Some of you may be wondering what the big deal is about Photoshop in comparison to other editing tools?  Photoshop can do a lot more than photo editing.  It can completely alter your photograph, not just edit it.  The best example I can think of is when a tabloid takes one celebrity’s head and pastes it onto someone else’s body.  You know what I mean.  Some of those manipulated photos look so ridiculous, but in the right artistic hands, you would be hard pressed to tell the photo had ever been changed.  Photoshop also allows you to focus your edits to a specific area in your photo, whereas typical photo editing software will change the entire photo, not just a part of it like Photoshop can.

Mostly I use Photoshop to make finer adjustments to a photo that needs more than the typical tweaks of brightening and adjusting contrast.  The key to Photoshop is understanding “layers”.  By creating a new layer for each type of adjustment, you can easily turn on or off each adjustment in case you change your mind.  Tutorials on using Photoshop abound and I don’t pretend to be an expert on it, but I’ve come to appreciate it more over the years after taking time to learn how to use it.  I’ve found this great article via Pinterest on 12 beginner tutorials on Photoshop.  Also check out my earlier post on editing your photos with Photoshop.

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PHOTOSHOP AND PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS?

You may have noted that the most mentioned program in the survey is Photoshop Elements not Photoshop.  What’s the biggest difference?  Price.  The newest version of Adobe Photoshop (the yet to be released CS6) is available for pre-order for $699.00.  Compare that to Photoshop Elements 10 at $69.00.  Yes, that’s a BIG difference.  If you want the short answer, PSE for most folks is going to do the job very well and they’ll never miss its more expensive cousin Photoshop.  Take that extra $600.00 and spend it on photo books instead!  I don’t have PSE so my opinion comes from my personal experience with the pricier Photoshop program.  For purposes of making photo books, I hardly tap into its full potential so for that reason I believe PSE will have the key editing features that most folks will be looking for.  The more economical Photoshop Elements also has some tools that Photoshop doesn’t have including an “Organizer” which acts as a database for your photos.  Conversely Photoshop has no photo management tools – you open a photo singly within the program to do editing on it.  My best advice is to compare the programs for yourself – you can download free trials of each on Adobe’s official website. The programs are available to both PC and Mac users.

ADOBE LIGHTROOM

So to add to more confusion, what is Lightroom?  Lightroom would be more comparable to iPhoto (and Aperture) in terms of its intended function.  It is a photo management and photo editing tool.  Lightroom “finds” all the images you have on your drives no matter where they are located so it doesn’t require you to upload the photos to it, you can leave them where they are.  Some folks would get Lightroom to help catalog their photos and use either Photoshop or PSE to do more specific edits (as opposed to global edits).  Guess what, you can get a free trial of Lightroom as well.

SUMMARY

It may be hard to believe, but this post was not intended to be an essay on Adobe products – that’s just how the survey results turned out!  My main point is to encourage you to do some post-processing on your photos.  My original post was going to highlight free online photo editing tools, but because of the Facebook survey I wanted to share and discuss the results. I’ll talk about the free tools in an upcoming post.  Meanwhile, if you’re new to photo books, check out my series of “how to” posts – especially the ones regarding photo editing with iPhoto and Photoshop – you’ll definitely see the difference that a few simple edits can make!

If you didn’t get a chance to respond to the survey, feel free to comment below!

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Please note some of the links above and banners are affiliate links.  Please see disclosure for details.

Week 16 down, 36 to go!

Can’t believe April is almost over.  I can’t believe my little guy is almost 9 months old!  I’ve been meaning to take more shots of PhotoBookBaby’s nursery, so this past week I was playing around with my iPhone and took these shots.  It’s too hard to pick just one for my 365, but I’ll make my final choice later.  I used the “Earlybird” Instagram filter on these photos as I like its soft vintage look.

While the iPhone or any camera phone is great for keeping up with this 365 project, I’ve been trying to learn as much as possible about my DSLR (Nikon D90 – read about my photo gear here.)  Nothing else I have beats the quality of the photos I get from that camera and I love the bokeh (background blur) I can achieve from it.  Although I may take another photography class this summer (one specifically for moms and dads trying to capture the best photos of their kids), I’ve been finding lots of great resources online that use simple words I can understand and not technical jargon that makes my eyes glaze over.  I’m working on a post on how to get the most out of your DSLR as well as a post on free online photo editing tools.  Lots of fun coming up!  The trick is to get these posts written when PhotoBookBaby is napping!

How’s your 365 project going so far?

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Actually PhotoBookBaby’s “Facebook” is just a catchy name for the offline photo book I made him – full of the faces he sees everyday or from time to time.  I didn’t want him to forget our relatives that we may see less often or his uncle who lives out of state, so I decided to make a face book of photos of us and our relatives.  Lots of big kind smiling faces and titles and names in big type are perfect for baby to get to know his family.  For now he’ll just look at the faces and photos, later he’ll learn to read their names.

Here’s the stats:

Want to make your own “Facebook”?  Here’s some tips:

1) Remember me telling you about how much fun I was having using Google’s free photo management tool Picasa?  Well I used the Picasa collage function to do the layouts for this book.  It’s not meant for doing complex layouts, and there are limitations, but for the purposes of this type of book, it did the trick.  Of course you can use any photo book company’s software to create your book, and you can also use Photoshop, Photoshop Elements or any of the external photo book software programs. Why not try this type of project out using a FREE photo book? MyPublisher is offering a free 9×7 hardcover for new users that would also make for a nice size for this book if you’d prefer a landscape book.

2) For most of the spreads I used one large photo of the person and labeled it with their name.  The other side of the spread typically featured a few photos of baby with the person (6 max per page in my layout design for a 6 x 6 book).  You don’t want to have too many photos on a page because at that size, the individual photos may come out too small – keep it simple and clean;

3) Make sure you think about your audience.  Use large, clear contrasting type that stands out from the background.  Just like text in a children’s book – you want it readable.

4) Size and durability – Photo Book Baby has tiny hands (though very chubby and cute), so I picked a 6 x 6 hardcover deluxe book from Artscow.  The maximum page count for these books is 32 pages.  The pages are very thick and lays flat similar to a board book, but unlike the typical children’s board book, the corners are not rounded.  So, as a caveat, I don’t think I’d feel comfortable letting him play with the book without supervision (since the pages are hard and the edges are pointed).  I thought about rounding out the edges using a pair of scissors or a rounded corner punch tool, but I’m not sure if that would damage the book so I haven’t tried that yet.  I’ll be less concerned when he has better hand control and isn’t putting everything in his mouth!

Photo Credit: Above left and above right photos of mama and baby taken by Moonhouse Productions.

This book was reasonably priced with the promo Artscow was running (it’s still running through 4/23/12 5/7/12 – coupon code: BESTBOOKS. Note the company has extended the promo several times), otherwise, it’s a bit pricey given its size and page count, but the quality is very good – bright, crisp photos and well constructed.  I didn’t use Artscow’s software to make the book as I find it a little clunky to use, hence I used Picasa.  If you want a more in-depth review of Artscow’s deluxe photo books, be sure to check out my prior post.

It’s such a fun book to read to PhotoBookBaby and I love that it’s custom (I’m all about custom!)

Check out my other Baby photo book projects!
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