BB FANS

This is a service they both do where you upload your photos and then you can have them made in to a book. They have different types and sizes.

The hardback version that Tesco does looks better value than Jessops version. They are both £20 ,but the Tesco one has 40 30x30cm Pages Vs Jessops one having 20 Pages.

Has anybody used this service ? And what did you think of the results ?

I'm putting together a book on the Tesco server though it keeps claiming the pictures are too low res for full page and then even on quarter page though I'm sure the images print ok at A4 ,but I'm going to have to check before I grumble too much just in case they are wrong. Saying that I think some of the images might the reduced ones I've used on here so they might be right. But it's just a case of creating full-sized versions.

The way I process pictures is that the original RAW files are loaded onto a separate hard-drive before any processing than any that I change are saved on another drive so I always have the originals untouched.
Ones that have been uploaded to Photobucket and used on here are normally reduced down to around 20 - 25% of original size and then saved in JPG on the main drive. So I land up with 3 versions of the same image. So I should have the uncompressed PSPImage Versions of all the ones I need a more detailed image for full page printing.

But back to the original question has anybody used either the Tesco or Jessops Photo-Gift services to create books etc ?

I've bitten the bullet and after many hours over two days I've assembled a book with 50 - 60 photos which Tesco and the group the work with are making into a Hardbacked book.

Should be quite good and it might even be used as a present ,I haven't decided yet.

Another thought I had was calenders but I don't have enough to cover all monthes / seasons. These I could easily do with 12 sheets of Photopaper and stapling along the top. In there simpliest form like the schools do you use a single picture and buy a stick-on calender that is normally placed at the bottom under the image but a multi-image one would be better as a gift and Christmas is coming.

Two family members make their own cards and with a Colemans warehouse a few miles down the road if they can imagine a card then they don't have to go far for the materials.

The book arrived today and as most of the pictures have worked it looks rather good even if I say so myself.

Next is to get my Callendar(s) bound. I'm told that Colemans offer the service but I've got to findout the costs.

I bet the book is fantastic larry. I end up taking about 380 photos and about three turn out ok.

I still have quite a lot that don't turn out the way I'd hoped. But I do take a lot of pictures with the current camera (Nikon D50) in the 14 monthes I've had it I've taken around 3700 pictures so while there are a lot of nice ones there are hundreds I wouldn't upload any where.

What I've got to findout is the picture limits for these books as it won't accept a fullsize 6.2MP image ,and I'd suspect there is a DPI limit like the newspapers. The local paper requests images to be 200DPI and because the camera is 300DPI I have to change any that they get sent.

There are a couple of images which are lower resolution than I'd expected when printed full page but again if I can findout the sizes etc then I can improve things next time. The book software does warn when the image will be too low resolution but the software doesn't always tell the truth. With Firefox it gets very confused and labels most images too low when you go back to it. Plus the multiple image loader doesn't work in Firefox so for best results you have to use IE.