AdoramaPix Hudson Flush Mount Album Review (Part I - Software)

UPDATE: PART 2 of this review with photos of my Hudson album is now available here!

The first photo book I made with AdoramaPix was back in 2010. At that time I was a newlywed busily making wedding photo books and AdoramaPix's photo book was the first lay flat book I tried. I liked the way the book came out and since then I've made several books with AdoramaPix, for myself and for gifts for friends and family. The main thing that differentiates AdoramaPix from most other photo book companies is that the books are photographically imaged on real photo paper versus digitally printed on paper. All of AdoramaPix's photo books are hardcover and lay flat. If you want to read up more on the differences between books printed on photo paper versus digital printing check out my 2-part series on photo book printing options.



More recently, AdoramaPix added a new product line to its offerings - the Hudson flush mount album. If you've been researching high end photo books, you've probably come across flush mount albums. Yes, they are more expensive than a regular photo book, but they are normally reserved for more important occasions such as weddings, anniversaries, milestone birthdays, bar mitzvahs, bat mitzvahs and the like. I often receive e-mails from brides and grooms asking about where to get those albums that have very thick hard unbendable pages. Most likely they are referring to flush mount albums. Flush mount albums used to only be available to pro photographers, but more and more companies are offering these luxe albums directly to brides and grooms. Nowadays more pros offer digital files as part of their wedding packages, and some brides and grooms are going the DIY route and making their own albums. It's no surprise with the highly customized, creative and personalized weddings we're seeing today that newlyweds want to take control over how their big day is remembered as well.





The Hudson's features include:

1) Thick unbendable pages;

2) Gilded edges in silver, gold or black;

3) Leather-Lux or Genuine Leather covers in many color options;

4) Rounded or square corners;

5) Debossing and color stamping on cover in gold, silver or no color;

6) Seamless layflat spreads;

7) Square, landscape and portrait orientations in sizes ranging from 6 x 6" to 12 x 15";

8) Pages go from 10 to 76 pages (pages may be added at 2-page increments);

7) Paper options include:

• Professional Luster (the standard paper);


• Professional HD Glossy (not available in all sizes);


• Professional Endura Supra Matte;


• Professional Endura Metallic Paper;


• Professional Luster Linen;


• Professional Luster Pebbled;


• Professional Deep Matte

Easily Convert Your Existing Photo Book into a Hudson Album

If you're familiar with AdoramaPix's software, what's great is that you can convert an existing book to a Hudson flush mount. When I signed into my account and looked under my past photo book projects, I found a single link that I could click on, "Convert into hudson album".



After choosing from a few options, my wedding photo book was automatically converted into a Hudson album. Then I just needed to title the cover page and check the preview and everything in my prior design stayed intact and was ready to order. If you want to make changes or edits to anything, you can do that, but you don't have to. What's great about this feature is you can create a single design, order a higher end album like the Hudson to keep as an heirloom and then order regular photo books for family, friends etc. Most brides and grooms are familiar with parent albums which are typically smaller or less expensive versions of their wedding photo albums which are given to family as a keepsake. This is ideal as you don't have to put the work into making two different album designs. It's a huge time-saver. With the conversion to a flush mount, I did lose the custom cover I had since it was replaced with the leather cover. I wish there were more options for font choices for the stamping on the front or an option to have an image on the cover, but it's not a huge trade off.

Here's a screen shot of my AdoramaPix wedding photo book  that I converted into a Hudson album.



The software is easy to use and intuitive. The fit and fill to page and spread are very useful, and of course the undo button is essential. Alignment is aided by highlighted guidelines that pop up to show you that you're lined up properly and there are other one-button alignment tools as well. If you prefer to a themed-layout, AdoramaPix has several to choose from.

Cost Comparisons

If you compare a Hudson flush mount album to a regular photo book, yes - the album will cost more, but there is a big difference in quality. I am currently working on my Hudson flush mount so you'll see my review of actual book construction and print quality in the second part of this post, but in general, a flush mount album is much higher quality than the average photo book and is quite different from AdoramaPix's base photo book, so you would expect to pay more. In my experience, my flush mount album (I only have one by the way) is the nicest quality book I have. But for that reason, I don't make my everyday photo books or vacation photo books as flush mounts. It's really meant to be reserved for a special occasion.

To give you an idea on cost, my 8 x 10, 50-page wedding photo book made with AdoramaPix is $90.00. The same book converted with the options I selected (pro luster paper, genuine leather, gilded edges, rounded corners, and gold stamping on the cover) increases the price to $335.00. For a flush mount, it's actually very reasonably priced. If you choose Leather-Lux (which I assume is man-made, instead of genuine leather), you can save about $50.00 off that price bringing it down to $232.00. From an informal survey of other companies offering flush mounts to consumers, the maximum page count is pretty generous. You can get up to 76 pages in a Hudson album versus the typical 20 to 30 that I've seen from other companies offering a similar product.

I have a prior post comparing lay flat photo books and you can see how the Hudson compares to other product offerings. Just keep in mind that there are only a few flush mounts in that comparison chart. Now, with more companies offering flush mount albums to consumers, I'll probably write another post just on flush mounts. Lots of work to do to keep up with all the new products and features - but it's fun!

Stay tuned for my review of the Hudson album - coming soon after the holidays! (By the way, you'll want to be sure to catch Part 2 of my post, because we'll be having a GIVEAWAY for one of these high end albums for a very lucky Photo Book Girl reader!)

Happy Photobooking!

_____________________

Disclosure: I am an affiliate of the company and AdoramaPix is an advertiser on this site. The links on these pages go to the company’s site. If you click on a link to AdoramaPix's site and make a purchase, I may receive a referral fee from the company. Additionally I received a book for purposes of review. Regardless of affiliation my opinions are always my own and I always give my honest opinion.