Advise on On-line Photo Books Please!

Another vote for Shutterfly! They have a new software program where you can select all the photos you want in the book and they will create a suggested layout for each page. You can easily change it. I like their suggestions because it might have been something I wouldn't have considered. They also have nice backgrounds.

I use Kodak (www.kodakgallery.com) and have never had any trouble. The quality is good and the prices are reasonable (especially when you compare).

I've made many of these books with Kodak Gallery and have been very happy with the final product. We give them as gifts to grandparents a lot. They have sales a lot also. Good luck!

I feel your pain! I have backed up pictures to cd or dvd. I can always go back and pop one in the computer or dvd player to look at a slide show, or download a specific picture etc...
For printing, I have always used Walmart.com. You can have the pictures sent to your home, or email them to the store of your choice and pick them up in 1 hour, or load them on a disk or thumb drive, and take them to the store. The print quality has always been great, (we have 2 different brand new stores with new equipment) On the rare occasion that they accidentally crop someone's head too close or something, they reprint it for me right on the spot. I have never ordered the books by going online, but in the store, there is someone there to help you. I have gotten the little black hardcover 4X6 books as gifts for the grandparents, father's day etc, and they always turn out great and are less than $5. At the Walmart photo center, they also have a wide array of other photo gifts. I don't usually go for that kind of stuff, but I took a chance on one particularly adorable picture of my daughter in a fairy outfit, sitting in flowers @ Cypress Gardens, resting on her elbows with her chin in her hands. I was tempted to get the hand painted oil version on canvas, but I chickened out because it was more expensive, and I figured that if there was more than one person who painted these interpretations, your finished product was only going to be as good as that person, and maybe one would be better at eyes than the other, or hands etc......Sooooooo - I went for the "digitally reproduced - hand painted look alike" (can't remember what they actually called it) on canvas. I didn't go for their frame, not my style, but when the canvas came back - WOW - it looks pretty darn good. Michael's & Joann's both have custom framing, and coupons for 50 or 60% off all of the time. I just waited for a coupon and then got a frame that suites our personality better. The finished result is just soo darn cute, cute, cute. No,.....make that adorable, beautiful! (if I do say so myself)
Good luck!

I also like Shutterfly.com, made an album of photos of my son and was pleased with it.

I use Snapfish, and when my computer crashed last year I was so glad I do because I would have lost all the digital photo's of my second child that I had on the computer, but luckily I had them all uploaded to snapfish!!! Anyway, I have two daughters and I make them a book quarterly so that at Christmas I "give them back the year" each year I do 4 books for each of them, I change the color from year to year so they know which set of 4 goes together. What I do is make my books and save them and radomly, snapfish will send out 40% off coupons, when I get one I just purchase the books I have made. I just love it.

I have been extremely happy with the print quality at www.Adoramapix.com. they color correct the photos for you and the printing level is professional. It is a little bit more expensive than Blurb but the quality is great. I highly recommend them for all printing!

Hi!
I have just started getting into on-line photobooks as well. I use Shutterfly I really like it my 1st book was free a $30 value they are always emailing me discounts and offers like free shipping. I have not used other services so I can not tell you who's best, try it and see what you think. The photobook I did was great, just don't put un any dim litted pics they didn't lighten them maybe there is an app I should have used??? You can crop and take out red eye before putting them in the book, it's time consuming the 1st book took several hours. However, I learned alot and the next ones are easier, do the hardbound one and make sure you proof it several times before you send off.
Goodluck!

S.,
I'm a professional photographer and I have had client who couldn't afford high end books and I have substituted shutterfly for them and they were happy. The prints (to me) were a little underexposed, but just for scrapbooking and such, it's perfect and you can get a good size book with ALOT or prints for $50 no problem. I mean like 100 prints, so it's a good deal. Good Luck!

D.

I have used shutterfly multiple times over the past few years and have always been very pleased with the results. I have ordered prints, photo books, christmas cards, baby announcements, calendars, notecards, mugs, and a mouse pad - all turned out very high quality and the colors were correct. You can save your projects and then order them when they are on sale. I usually wait until photobooks are 20-30% off to order - that cuts down on the cost. Good luck and have fun :)

I've always used Kodak for that.

shutterfly by far! I put all my pictures in photo books and get one made every few months. You can make them and save them forever, so you always have them backed up! You can also have them made and wait to order until they have a great deal, which they do every other month or so. I usually wait until I get 20% off and free shipping. They are wonderful!

Hi, S.. Well, I can well understand your fear of losing all your photos. However, you CAN put them into an online service and keep backups at the same time. Just get a 4gb or 8gb flash drive (also called thumb drives or travel drives), and you can store another bazillion on any of those. You can even have special drives for special purposes. I have one drive that is universal for documents I work on at home and on the job, and others that contain my family and wedding photos. They are very safe and usually compatible with any usb-compatible computer.

Enjoy your photos more!!! I like CVS for keeping my photos where I can order them spontaneously, but there are many, many more.

Peace,
Syl

I used Shutterfly for the first time this month and was really impressed with how it turned out. The quality is really good. They also give you free shipping for your first order. I researched a few sites before picking this one and the prices all seem to be around the same. Its a pretty friendly website too, uploading the photos is pretty fast and you can crop and edit the photos to make them fit better.

Hope this helps.

My husband is a photographer and he only uses blurb. It's very involved and not like the others were you just pick a layout. You're in charge of EVERYTHING. If you want something like that, it's the best. When he gets prints, all sizes, and picture gifts he uses Wal-Mart.com. We've never used their photobooks because he likes to lay it out himself, but I'm sure they are just as good as all their other products. We've NEVEr had a problem with them and it's the cheapest!
we have had problems at CVS...DON'T use them!

I used to use Shutterfly, but was frustrated with the templates. I couldn't add pictures, or type in more text, or put the text boxes where I wanted. I found Heritage Makers in January, and absolutely love it!!
My website is: www.MyPhotobookStory.com.

The templates are 100% customizable, everything is online, and the quality of the products is the best I've seen. Once you order the product, they arrive at your house in about 5-7 business days.

Watch this 5min video to give you an idea of what we are about! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Irdqtq7mF6Y

For more information, please contact me at ____@____.com.

I am not one to use online photo albums but I do have an idea for you that is not expense. Put your pictures on CD's and be able to view them on you TV as a slide show, if you have a DVD player. The Cd's are not expensive and they keep forever and you can also play them back on your computer. They are small in size and many can be kept in one spot. I have started a collection of my grandson. It is very easy to do. Just a thought for you.... Good Luck
C.

I've made books w/ snapfish, photoworks, shutterfly:
go to www.google.com and type in photobook coupon

see what you find.

I will *only* use a coupon, lol.

If you want to make the photo books I have been very happy with CVS for taking your pictures into the store and getting it back quickly. Not all there machines have the same layouts though. If you want to work from home though. I love Snapfish. If you sign up today and make one, they will regularly send you coupons for free shipping or 40% off and stuff. If you are ordering just 4x6 prints though.... Sam's Club is the best, and the most affordable. You have to be a member of Sam's though.

I have never used a photo book, I just download my pictures to cd's. I usually either print the pictures that I want or send them off to walmart.com if I want a more professional looking pictures. And the cd's aren't expensive, so just an idea.
:)

I just viewed a finished product from a coworker yesterday that used shutterfly. It was quite impressive. She paid about $50 for hers. I use CVS, upload my pics and get the $12.99 photo book. You can also upload and put them on CD

If you have a Publix in your neighborhood, you can get pictures at www.snapfish.com that are fairly priced and great quality.

I use shutterfly.com and have always been happy with them.

M.

Kodak is great www.kodakgallery.com). Also some of your local drug store or even Walmart binds the photo albums.

Hi S.
Alot of people have said shutterfly-and they are good. Each company has it's pros and cons. I usually look for coupons, 1/2 off sales (like at walgreens, cvs, creative memories etc) or where I can use a coupon because your pictures are what is going to stand out the most.
I have also found a new company inkubook.com
you can sign up online and they periodically have great deals-free shipping, BOGO, 1/2 off sales etc. I have been very pleased with them.
I was an avid traditional scrapbooker but after two boys (3 and 1 now) and another on the way in 5 weeks or so, I just don't have the time-so I too have started digital scrapbooking.
Good luck!
C. K.

i use snapfish but wait for free shipping codes and promotionals for photo albums. i love snapfish. in fact i do my photo albums about once a year, and love it. very reliable

By far, I always recommend Shutterfly (www.shutterfly.com). I have tried many different books from many sites and I love shutterfly's books and ease of creating and vast options for backgrounds and such.

They have a new process of creating the books called 'storyboard' which makes it so simple and quick to make the books.

If you're not already a member, definitely join - once you're a member they periodically send you email offers, often even for free stuff - the last two photo books I created I got for free - well, I did pay shipping, but the whole thing cost me like $6 or $7 dollars!

I decided last year that instead of paying high prices for nice photo albums and printing out hundreds of pictures at a time, I would start making photo books instead so I've been doing a book for every 6 months.

Another huge benefit of doing this is that these books take up so much less room on the bookshelf than photo albums, and they make great coffee table 'decor'.

Hope that helps!
T.
http://shopping-from-home-with-T..blogspot.com
http://myjourneythroughbreastcancertreatment.com

www.photoworks.com
I've done several photobooks from them. They are guaranteed to last 100 years. They use archival quality paper and you can choose the style of book, page layouts, font, font color. I'm very happy with them and I use photoworks.com for printing my digital images. You will be happy too, I'm sure. They usually have promotional codes available for free shipping. Check them out. They also have "piknic" which is a "photo editing" program within their site to do all kinds of photo editing, from red eyes, to cropping, to changing the color of your image (black and white, sepia, etc.). It's all FREE, too!