Photo Books

[Rob26]

Lightroom Version Number

Lightroom Classic 11.2

Operating System

1. macOS 12 Monterey

My last photo book created using Blurb in Lightroom was a disappointment. So I am looking around for another book creating app.
Ideally completely Apple M1 compatible and able to use the printer/paper profiles available. so far seems Saal and Cewe use Rossetta.
Have tried Saal but found getting going difficult. With lots of fancy stuff I do not require.
Or am I being too picky and should persevere with Blurb.
My plan is to produce a book for each year plus holidays


Regards. Rob

 

[Rob_Cullen]

produce a book for each year plus holidays

Exactly as I do, and I now have about 15 Blurb Photo Books. Never disappointed except for one image that was my fault!
I am curious about your "disappointment"- can you be more specific?
I think it is most important to have a good quality monitor that is calibrated (with a device like Spyder, etc).
There is no need for you to worry, or consider, 'paper profiles' - leave that to Blurb. Just have your images looking great on your calibrated monitor.
I do recommend you ask Blurb for their sample pack of papers. It helps to choose a paper (surface) type (eg. Proline Pearl). I did a book of monochromes on 'Premium Lustre' that looked great IMO.
I like the way Blurb interfaces with Lightroom-Classic. It makes it easy to produce a photo book for non-professional use- on the home coffee table

 

[Rob26]

My disappointment with Blurb was in the finished book. The product lacked vibrance the pictures looking dull.
Maybe the choice of paper. I have a M1 Apple iMac set to P3 colour space I doubt that it is far off. Even so I could put up with the actual
colour being out as long as the photos had some contrast to them. I agree that it integrates well with Lightroom. But having obtained profiles for various
papers and my printer from Fotospeed I can see what a difference it makes to have the paper/printer combo matched. Therefore I would have assumed it would make a difference.
Perhaps I do indeed need to think of monitor calibration.

thanks for you thoughts.

Rob

 

[Gnits]

I am open to correction, but I believe it is possible to download the Blurb paper profiles, which makes it possible to softproof what the finished output should look like, if using a colour managed workflow.

The biggest issue I have come across is dealing with out of gamut colours, where the printing system has to substitute a printable colour for the colour of a particular range of pixels in an image. I remember printing certain flower images were particularly challenging. This was using my own printer, but the same principle applies.

A quick Google search revealed the following article.

https://www.blurb.com/blog/color-management-printing/

I welcome comments or corrections on this matter.

 

[johnbeardy]

There is a Blurb profile which one must apply in PS (because it's CMYK), but it stretches credibility that a single profile accurately represents the output on multiple papers and multiple printers at multiple locations. Better than nothing, but not a high end colour managed workflow.

I use Blurb by default for similar reasons to Rob, and I would recommend ordering a small book containing "riskier" photos. In my view the risk is mainly in the blacks and shadows, and when preparing a book I tend to review these very careful, often lifting the shadows and adding some local clarity if I want to reveal detail in those areas.

 

[Rob26]

I am open to correction, but I believe it is possible to download the Blurb paper profiles, which makes it possible to softproof what the finished output should look like, if using a colour managed workflow.

The biggest issue I have come across is dealing with out of gamut colours, where the printing system has to substitute a printable colour for the colour of a particular range of pixels in an image. I remember printing certain flower images were particularly challenging. This was using my own printer, but the same principle applies.

A quick Google search revealed the following article.

https://www.blurb.com/blog/color-management-printing/

I welcome comments or corrections on this matter.

Interesting article thanks. However not sure it helps I downloaded the one & only Blurb profile but is does not show in Lightroom cc. I think it is a CMYC
type and I would need to use Photoshop to use.
This to me is one of the issues with Blurb. why only one profile and its dated 2007.
If you use some of the other Book creation sites some have a lot of profiles available. Saal,Cewe, whitewall all provide lots of paper choices and ICC profile to match.
So I think I might just have to accept that they will need Rosetta to ensure compatibility with M1 chip. Unlike experimenting with a print a book could prove costly Hence my seeking info.

Rob

I am open to correction, but I believe it is possible to download the Blurb paper profiles, which makes it possible to softproof what the finished output should look like, if using a colour managed workflow.

The biggest issue I have come across is dealing with out of gamut colours, where the printing system has to substitute a printable colour for the colour of a particular range of pixels in an image. I remember printing certain flower images were particularly challenging. This was using my own printer, but the same principle applies.

A quick Google search revealed the following article.

https://www.blurb.com/blog/color-management-printing/

I welcome comments or corrections on this matter.