Mastering the Art of Creative Photo Bookmaking

Looking at the advantages of free, downloadable, bookmaking software, the basis for most of the lessons in this course...

Not sure where to start looking for some awesome book making software? Here are a a few suggestions...

Self-publishing getting a bit complex in the jargon department? Here's an explanation of some of the most common print terminology...

Learn how bookmaking software can start you off by choosing a pre-designed theme for your project.

Though most of us might be (slightly) price-driven, bookmaking companies now offer an even wider range of paper types, surfaces and weights (thicknesses) for the novice bookmaker.
There's something for everyone.

Trim lines are there to warn the designer where content can be placed, and more importantly, where it cannot. Make a note of this feature before you start your book!

Blurb Booksmart is one of the top bookmaking software programs in the market. It works on PC and Mac and is full of robust features. Even better, if you are not entirely happy with those features, most can be fully customised to your specific requirements...

Text design in bookmaking software is restricted. You are limited in many ways: in how big the text can go, with how close to the edges it can be placed and how close to other lines of text it can be set before warning signs prevent further movement.
The answer is to create your own text as a pixel-based image file and save it as a PNG file. This not only saves the transparent background behind the text, but it means can be placed as close to any edge, or other object, as you would a regular JPEG picture file.

Not everyone thinks of a contents page when making a book.
Adding one is not only quite easy but it can also enhance the reader experience tenfold.

Pale sky merging into the white paper background? Not sure where your photos finish and the rest of the page starts? Sounds like you need to add in some keylines or borders....

Here are some simple but highly effective tips on how to create good design...

More tips on how to achieve clean, eye-catching design...

I this lesson I demonstrate the effectiveness of using flipped images, panoramas and even out of focus shots for great effect. (Don't delete those out of focus snaps quite yet!)

In this last lesson about design, I look at using multiple versions of the same image to make patterns, designs or simple shapes to enhance the content.

Consistency of design is probable as important as editing your pictures to perfection. Without it your book will look amateurish, poorly thought out and hurried.

Many bookmaking companies include a staggering range of page embellishments to their software. Use these to create a mood or style that is pertinent to the subject: scrapbooking, weddings, portraits, cookbooks and more...

Learn how subtly different page colours can be used to create effective borders around your photographs and a different visual 'look' in your book project.

There are several things you can check in your book project to make sure you don't accidentally lose parts of your photos off the edges of the book

While the AUTO tone correction tools in most photo editing software might work reasonably well, they are never that good for every photographic shortcoming, so why not learn to do it manually using Levels? It's faster, more effective and guaranteed to work every time...

Once the contrast and brightness have been improved using the Levels tool, you can use the powerful Hue/Saturation tool to increase the colour values, create black-and-white or just tint an image in many different ways.

Any professional photographer will tell you that Raw files are far better than JPEGs. In this you'll lesson learn how to use the Camera RAW processing feature in Adobe Photoshop Elements. It is fast, powerful and most importantly, so much better than editing an 8-bit JPEG file.

In this lesson you'll learn how to become a professional retoucher.
Learn to use the Clone Stamp and the Healing Brushes to great effect.

It's one of the most misunderstood terms in photo editing - the Unsharp Mask filter is actually brilliant at adding sharpness to your work. It's not going to make a blurry shot look sharp - but it will turn a clear shot into a razor sharp shot!

One way to add a distinct WOW! effect to your book is to add a panorama - in this lesson I show you how cool it is to make a panorama using Adobe Photoshop Elements

Here are a few quick questions to see if you understand the fundamentals of photo editing

Templates are provided in all bookmaking software. Some are good, some not so good. The best software allows you to customise any of its templates for a unique and individual look.Here's how...

So many bookmakers place too many pictures on each page - with the result that the project ends up looking like a stamp collection. In this lesson I encourage you to enlarge your 'hero' shots across the entire page and beyond to create a real Wow! display.

All digital images are rectangular - but what if you want to place an irregular shaped object, logo, image onto a regular page background? This can be done using the Portable Network Graphics (PNG) file format. In a single layer, PNG files preserve the transparency of an irregular layer - something that JPEG files cannot do.

PNG files are special because of their ability to save background transparency - which makes them ideal for placing irregularly-shaped image elements onto a specific colour background

In this lesson I show you how to create irregularly-shaped tears and ripped edge effects in your images, then how to preserve their transparency by saving everything in the versatile PNG file format

Learn how to bend perspective to correct optical distortions in your shots of maps, place names and more. It's all about the layer Transform command found in most good photo editing software...

Most travellers love to snap place name pictures of the locations they visit. Problem is most come out totally the wrong shape thanks to distortion produced by wide-angle lenses or by shooting the signs from odd angles. In this lesson I show you how you can totally correct the perspective in any distorted shot.

Most fonts belong to a family: Italic, Bold, Semibold, Extra Bold, and more. The best designs don't use multiple fonts in the same documents, they keep the text in the same family...

Unfortunately the text tools in bookmaking software are not too hot.
Here's a simple introduction to how it works, and how to get optimum results...

All you need to set up this handy feature is to choose a specific font, font style, and point size for your captions, body copy and headers, save the results (as a preset) then, next time you need to format a caption, for example, simply choose 'Caption' from the Text Styles box and the formatting is done for you. Text styles can be used to significantly speed up the page layout process.

In this lesson learn how to download and use custom fonts - these are created by graphic designers and posted online for free (providing it's for personal use only).
You can add a distinctive design to your front cover by choosing a custom font with a character that reflects the content of the book.

Think you know all there is to know about type, fonts and formatting? Think again...

Often photographers totally forget to consider black-and-white images in their bookmaking project. Its not only easy to do but can add a seriously creative edge to the look and style of your book project...

A flipped image can make an impressive visual statement - here's what it looks like.
In the following lesson I demonstrate how it's done...

Some photos are just made to be flipped to give an eye-popping, mirrored look. It's easy to do and can make a spectacular lift to your visual content

Learn how to create a different look to a single or double page spread by adding a colour gradient, a solid colour that fades to accommodate an image or text across the pages. Good for contents pages, section headers, and chapter headers...

This lesson describes how you actually make a graduated page using Photoshop - the technique can be used in most other photo editing programs...

Sometimes I prefer to just place one image on each page - but the format of the picture is never the same proportion as the sensor in your camera. You always seem to have to crop the image at some stage.
In this lesson I show you how to set the photo editor Crop Tool to crop to the photo book page dimensions - so you decide first what might have to be lost, NOT the page layout template.

In this lesson I show you how effective a custom background to your pages might be to the design. See how to create a faded or ghosted background, add special effects, and flip and save backgrounds for a mirrored effect.

Bookmaking software is, in general, quite good. But when you need total control over the creative process it's better to design the pages entirely in some good photo editing software first, save everything as 'page01.jpg', 'page02.jpg' etc, and drag them into the book as a final step.
In this lesson I show you how to make incredible edge masks to make your page designs pop off the page.

Carrying the layer mask exercise further, this lesson demonstrates how you can create a complex, multi-layered masking effect for each page to produce jaw-dropping page design.

If you are good at photo editing you can quite easily design everything before it goes into the bookmaking software...

Once the application have been downloaded it comes with a good selection of design templates to help you arrange images on on a page. If you need additional inspiration Blurb also supply free themes to give your designs an even more consistent look.
Easy to download and easy to use (have a look at the downloads screen page selection in the Resources page here)

Here's how to import your photos into this application

One of the best new features in this application is the inclusion of clear rulers and ruler guides - these are fully adjustable and once set, appear on all your pages, making consistent design and layout significantly easier.

If your images slide off the page edges, or if text is too close to the book edge, you might lose it completely once the book is printed, trimmed and bound. To avoid disappointment, always check the Warnings from the View Menu, and use the Trim Guidelines to make sure you don't get any nasty surprises when the book is finally delivered.

Often it is faster and more efficient to create your text in a third party text editor (like MS Word or Apple Pages) than it is using the text editor inside the book software (because it is a bit clunky). Learn here how easy it is to get text from a word processing file and paste it into your book.

Here's how to change the paper colour on a single page, or in the entire book.

Learn here how to customise any page template or layout to make it your own.

Here's a quick demonstration on how to add a wide screen panorama across two pages for an instant WOW effect.

Use BookWright's Trim Guidelines to keep valuable assets from being lost once the book is trimmed in the print factory.

Although not a full design tool (like Adobe InDesign), BookWright has a few neat features that permit you to adjust the text in a text box to give you greater control over how precisely it is positioned.

Use BookWright's PDF feature to view your book in a two-page format before paying for the printing. Although the PDF is low resolution, it still gives you a good idea of what the final print job will look like.

If your software warns that the resolution for a picture isn't suitable for enlargement, use this resampling technique to add pixels to the file. Sounds like magic? Works beautifully on all but the smallest of image files

Often overlooked, colour calibration is a way to ensure what you see on your computer screen is very close to what you get once the book is printed.

In this lesson I show you how to add page numbers using Blurb Booksmart - and show how a customised page number can be added to your book project

Once the book is 100% finished it is time to check all the features (colour, design, layout, spelling and grammar, page numbers, content, front cover, fonts, brightness and contrast) before uploading to the company website for inclusion in the online book store and printing. This video is designed around Blurb's Booksmart software - but the checking process is identical for all other bookmaking software...