During lockdown I guess some ImageZ members have chosen to explore their gardens or the route of their local walk for inspiration and images.
I decided to use lockdown to fulfil a longstanding ambition to get some of my digital images off the hard drive and into more permanent form in photobooks. This was partly stimulated by the big discount offered by the photobook companies.
Rather than make a book or books of just a selection of all my best images I decided it would be easier to start with images from specific projects.
So at the start of lockdown I chose reflections as the first project. I found it really useful to make small prints of the images I thought I would use to check on quality and get a feel for the whole set when laid out (see image). It really helps with arranging the pairing too. Putting together an ARPS panel was useful preparation for this. Making the selection is the hard part.
I used Allstar Photo (which I had used last year to do a book of the blurry images of my granddaughter). This software has many templates but I used a blank one in the Portfolio section.
Having made a selection and decided on layout and pairings you just upload the images from your computer to the software program. There is a short video explaining how to use the program. A ruler function allows you to draw lines on the first page demarcating the space for the image. This can be duplicated on every page. Then you drag and drop images into the spaces. As my images were different sizes I chose to centre the centre of every image on the centre of the page which was simple to do. A border can be dropped onto every image too plus text (page number, description) can be added.
Before discount (currently 45%) a 21 cm square softbound photobook with 30 pages is £21. Extra pages are £1 for 2.
So far I have made 5 during lockdown and have been pleased with the quality.
