Photobooks... What I have learned!

I have purchased 3 Inkubook photobooks in the last couple of weeks, and thought I would share with you some of my experiences. The first book I bought was the guestbook. I used our professional engagement pics and some casual, fun, personal pictures, to create what I think is a pretty great guestbook. I also recently purchased two books documenting the surprise trip my mom and sister planned for me to New Orleans. These two book are identical except for the dedication page at the front. In creating this book, I used the easy photo-editing program Picassa to get vivid colors in my pictures, and I think my ladies are going to love them!! So, here is a breakdown of what I love about them, what I have learned about them, and the changes I will make in the future...

FRONT COVER: below I am showing you the front covers from the two books. In the guest book I used a pretty bold graphic that wrapped around from front to back, and was part of the "Modern Guest Book" background options in Inkubook. This is totally customizable, but I really like the boldness of it. Compare that to the front of the N.O. book, which I used a soft pattern as the background. I really like the soft pattern with the Comic Sans font... it creates a casual feel, and I think the background works well to pop the photo I took at the N.O. airport! The other main difference between the two books is that the guest book cover is matte, while the N.O. cover is glossy. What I learned: I definitely prefer the glossy cover; I like the bigger text I used on the N.O. book; have fun with the background... I thought they both worked really well.

BACK COVER: Again, two totally different covers. For the guest book the same background graphic wrapped around from the front cover... but I love love love the picture I used here, along with the whimsical font. I think that is my favorite part from the book! For the N.O. book, I used a full bleed picture, with a small caption of thanks. I really like the impact of this picture, and the quality is great... I am just not in love with how the background pattern from the front wraps around the spine... that's just being picky though! What I learned: Well, again, I love the finish of the glossy cover in the N.O. book, but I think I prefer the smaller picture of the guest book.

LAYOUT: There are so many layout options available at Inkubook, that it really is only imagination that limits you. While it is definitely possible to create your own layouts in Photoshop or other programs, I really liked how easy it was using the pre-set layouts. If you have great high-res pictures (ie. from your professionals) definitely do the full bleed layouts... they are dramatic, and look fantastic (check out the one below from our e-pics). The layout on the left page of the spread shown below, though, could use some work. I really love the picture-on-picture that I used, especially since the inset pictures contrast the full-bleed picture, but it would have been better if I put the inset pics on the right, so they wouldn't get lost in the gutter. Another thing I found that I loved, was using a background picture behind detail pictures. In the shot below from the N.O. book, my sis took a great black and white shot of one of the cemeteries we visited, and I think it worked really well as a background for a couple detail pics from us touring the grounds. What I learned: keep pictures out of the gutter so as not to lose any details; when using background pictures, make sure there is enough contrast between them and the detail pics sitting on top; have fun with your layouts, and mix up how you combine the left and right pages... keep it interesting!

COLOR: There are many background color and pattern options available to you in Inkubook, and for the most part, I am loving the freedom to choose. I tend to gravitate towards white and black backgrounds, as I find the pictures really stand out against them, but I have definitely used some of the color and pattern options available. You can see in the picture below that I used the yellow background... out of all of the ones I have used, I found this one to be the most bright (read: distracting!). It's not horrible or anything, but I would just be careful of how bright you want to go... the softer colors seemed to add enough visual interest without overpowering the images. What I learned: definitely play around with color and pattern... just be careful not to draw attention AWAY from your images!

So, that's my experience so far... I am definitely learning as I go, but can say for sure that Inkubook is my go-to-spot for photobooks. I looked at a bunch of other options, but it was the ease of use of Inkubook that really worked for me. You can get creative and create your own layouts, or you can simply drag-and-drop to their many preset layouts! The quality of the books has been great (but I don't have anything to compare it to), the colors and quality of the pictures have all met my expectations (but be careful... if a picture looks grainy on your computer screen, it definitely will in print too!), and the customer service is really useful. Hopefully they will find a printer in Canada too so we can enjoy lower shipping rates, but since their book prices are so affordable, they are definitely the most economical option I have found... shipping to the north included!!

I hope this has been helpful! I also hope to hear back from you all if/when you take advantage of the coupon code we are offering here!! I always love seeing the creativity of the brides out there with their photobooks!!

inked and booked...

I just couldn't wait to share our guest book with you... so, I took some snapshots off inkubook to show you some of the spreads... I just love them!!

A bit of background... I have been working on a few books with inkubook for the last couple of months, including a book for my man to give him the morning of the wedding, telling the story of our journey so far, books for my bridesmaids, chronicling our 29+ years together, and this one, our photo guestbook. Well, when my girl Jess (Mrs. Budget Savvy Bride) hooked us loyal readers up with a 40% discount code for inkubook, I jumped all over it! The only kicker... I hadn't purchased our e-pic files yet. Well, this was a good reason to do it, since the main purpose of us doing the photo guestbook was showcasing our engagement pictures. So, I frantically called up our boys at 6:8, hoping they could send me the files asap (it was Friday, and the coupon expired on Sunday!!), and they made it happen (thanks again guys!!).

The guestbook is a combination of casual fun photos of the two of us beside our actual guest book entry pages (I used half/half of traditional name/notes entry page, and a blank page for writing, entitled "words of wisdom" where I hope a lot of our guests will get creative with their entries!), and spreads of our professional photos (courtesy of 6:8 Photography). There are also a couple of spreads with pics courtesy of my sis/MOH, when we did a practice e-shoot in Costa Rica... she got a couple of really cute ones. I will let the screen shots speak for themselves: first up, some of the spreads from our pro shots...

A couple of the casual pics with the two types of guest entries (first shown is the name/notes page, and the second is the words of wisdom page)...

This one is courtesy my sis... love the soft colors in the sunset pics (don't you love us being dorks trying out our angles?!?! I really like the pic on the right... lines, angles, colors... I think she got a great shot!)

The back cover of the book is probably my fav... I was breezing through my sis' pictures and saw this one! We didn't know she was taking it, but I love it, and think it is perfect for the back cover!!

I am super nervous/excited to see how the book turns out. I really hope the quality is good, as it will hold precious memories!! It was a blast putting it together, and for the most part, a pretty easy program to use. There are always quirks, and while I know a lot of people don't love that there are limits to the layout options/designs, I appreciated how easy it was use!!

So, what do you think?!?! I will let you know when I get it so I can comment on the quality of the printing/binding, etc.! Fingers crossed it is beautiful!!

e-pic-reality

So, the inspiration was abound, now the reality had to be laid... yup, it was time for this engineer to bring out a little ANTM (yes, I love that show more than a fresh bride-to-be loves 'say yes to the dress'). I had worked on my poses... you know, got a friend to take some pics and tried to see what works and what doesn't. While I didn't have Tyra scrutinizing my fierce-ness, I thought I had an idea of when to smile with my eyes, when to think about something sexy, and when to be bold and downright gorgeous. Did this work in the actual e-session... uh, well, let's just say that I probably wouldn't continue on "in my hopes of becoming blogger-brides next top e-session model", but overall, I am pretty happy with how the pics turned out. (OH, and I did learn that profile shots are NOT on the "must-shoot" list... let's try to minimize the nose people!!)

I will share with you the photos that our artistic visionaries posted on their blog, and when I actually get around to purchasing the whole set of files from them (that is, if I can manage to massage our post-thanksgiving-dinner-TIGHT wedding budget to find room for the expense), I will post more. But, for now, feast your eyes dear friends...

This next one makes me laugh every time, because we were having so much trouble kissing this way. Our photogs told us that Ian's nose had to be behind mine in the kissing shots, and we never kiss this way (we always tilt to the right, and here we had to tilt to the left)... felt so weird, and we could barely keep straight faces!!

I really like this next one...

OK, this one might be my favorite... city, red shoes, and heh, I'm not gonna lie... I think the legs look good... what do you think??

So, there you have it... the whole session was pretty fun, and although a bit awkward at the beginning (especially the whole, 'pretend we're not here and kiss... but do it really slowly so it adds drama to the picture!'), it was great experience for the actual wedding pics. We really have a fun comfort level with Kevan and Duane at 6:8 Photography, who made things really simple, not too pose-annoying, and kept things light. I definitely recommend this practice round to get the jitters out, and preferably with your wedding photographers to learn about each other!

e-pic-spiration...

So if you read my post about wedding stress, marriage, and love, you had a glimpse into the day that was our engagement pictures!! Although the lead up to the shoot was shaky at best, I did eventually find something to wear that I was pretty happy with, I did remember to enjoy the moment, and yes, I (we) did end up having a blast! Our photographers, Kevan and Duane from 6:8 Photography have been the objects of my affection since I first saw their work back in September. Actually, it was these pictures, of Zoe and Quinn, who got married at our wedding venue, that really hit me... (PS... check out our venue... gorgeous right??)

all pictures from 6:8 Photography

Kevan and Duane have shot some really amazing engagement sessions too, ranging from nature-inspired to edgy urban shoots. Here are some of my favorites from their e-sessions...

the nature pics:
and the urban beauties:

Of course, all pictures borrowed from 6:8 Photography

So, with our wedding being in the mountains, the urban pics really sent me a droolin... please please please can we have graffiti and parkades in our e-pics?!?!

Stay tuned today (I swear I promise I will be back!!) for OUR session... I think you will likey :)