Up until now i have printed 99% of my photos via a Fuji Crystal Archive machine (walmart, winkflash, RitzCamera and others). Through testing an experimenting i know what i am getting, and what NOT to do to avoid the pitfalls.
Since i am getting into wedding photography I am looking for a 'digital' album - and for my first attempt i tried MyPublisher. I ordered a medium (11.25 x 8.25 landscape) hard covered (linen) book. I used their software and put in 132 images over 40 pages. The software is free, you download and it works very well. I used their templated for most things, but did a few colages in PS that i then inserted as full page full bleed imaged. A whole book does this way would be most impressive i think.
Ordered Oct 27, arrives in Pennsylvania Nov 2. So that was faster than expected.
Quality of the item, as in physical materials (linen hardcover) is very good.
However, i am less a fan of the photo reproduction than I thought i would be. I see 3 issues, some of which I am responsible for, some are I think the nature of the product. A lot depends on your standards and viewing distance. I am examining them closely, 6 inches. Some are small...you have to look close. A distance of 2 foot makes them look pretty good.
Pics are soft, as in not crisp as in a fuji crystal archive print (my usual method of printing photos). In other words, your L glass will not show it's virtues here, and this is NOT the way to do a book on macro subjects!
Noise. This is partly me, as i shot teh wedding at ISO 400 and 800. This has not been an issue with the Fuji prints in the past. The book does not do black tuxes very well - the noise is evident as random color blotches. Faces are not as nice as they should be, but then since eyes and such are not sharp does it matter?
Contrast - very contrasty reproduction. The wedding dress is blown out in a lot more pics than in the originals. The tuxes are darker too. Lots of subtle details are not showing up.
DPI and quality: DO NOT go below 300DPI. Those pics turned out rather well. Other pics range from 150 to 400 (due to cropping or making fit in the space in their template) are of lesser quality. I was testing their capabilities as much as anything else. I can get good 4x6 fuji prints at 100 dpi, and good 8x10s at 200dpi. So this is a bit of a disappointment.
Out of 40 pages, $69, 132 photos, only 2 are 'wrong' and i'm sure it's me screing up the template. I double checked...not good enough.
On the positive side - full bleed works well. Cost is fair - to print 7 8.5x11, 11 6.5x8 and 116 mixed of 4x5.5 and 4x3 (they seem larger than that when you see them in the book) woudl run roughly $58 and you need an album too...is not too bad.
So...
I'd like to see crisper pics and less of the halftoning/screening effect that accentuates teh noise and softens the images.
The pages are normal paper, and even with 40 pages (80 sides) it is a bit thin compared to many of the other (aka more expensive) wedding albums out there, but I knew that going in. A softcover version is cheaper and this might be a very good way to do proofs. I just wanted to test things, and go a bit beyond a book of static 3x5 or 4x6 proofs.
I'll pose back after the b&g see it with their feedback. |
