During this weekend’s retreat, I took some time to download Lightroom 4 Beta. I was most interested in the new book module, so that’s where I focused my attention.
Thinking back, I participated in 2 of the 4 SOFOBOMOs and I enjoyed my participation; however, I most say that sometimes, making a book was quite annoying. I had to deal with Scribus, the open source book making software, learn of its idiosyncrasies, of which it had many. Further, there was the choosing of the files, exporting them to the right sizes, making adjusts, etc. If I wanted to change photo layout, or perhaps make adjustments to the photos, that was an ordeal, for me. After I finished the book, if I ever wanted to reproduce it again, or change it, I’d have to make sure to put it somewhere, the Scribus files as well as the photos, that I could find them again. Sometimes, I’m not the most organized fellow. I wished, during those times, that there was a way to do all of that together.
When I opened LR4 and clicked over to the book module, it was pretty intuitive. I played with it for a bit, then when I thought I understood it, I began to make a book. I decided to make my 2004 photos book. Adobe has partnered with Blurb and you can make your Blurb book right there in LR4 and it will price it for you as you add or remove photos. A very nice feature. Or, if you want to make a PDF, you can export your book as PDF and print it yourself.
Click image to view book
Everything is integrated now. You simply make a collection, click on the Book module, choose your collection, and your photos appear at the bottom in the filmstrip. Simple. You choose the type of book that you want:
Small Square
Standard Landscape
Standard Portait
Large Landscape
Large Square
Then, you can click Auto Flow and LR4 will distribute your pictures throughout the book, based on the particular style book that you have picked, or you can add pages manually, drag and drop your photos wherever you want. You can mix and match from the different page styles as well. There seems to be quite a few choices. Easy. There are predefined templates like: Clean, Wedding, Portfolio, etc, each having multiple layouts such as single photo, double, triple, with or without text, etc.
The best part, for me at least, is that now that your photos are in place, you can go back to your collection at any time and make adjustments to the photos and those adjustments will appear in the book. Further, when you have the book, it saves it in the collection, right next to the photos! Yes!
There are also built in warnings that let you know if a photo doesn’t have enough pixels to print well. I got one such warning: This photo will not print well. At the current size, it will print at 188 PPI, minimum suggested is 200 PPI.
I was able to assemble my book in about 30 minutes. Though it is not finished yet, it was an easy task.
One complaint that I’ve seen online was that you cannot export the book as a collection of JPEG files. This would allow you to send them to any printer; however, from what the folks were saying, most printers will not accept PDFs; therefore, you are stuck with Blurb is you want to make a book or find someone to print your PDF, or print it yourself.
It’s not a perfect solution, but it is certainly a fantastic step forward in making your own book a lot easier. No, it doesn’t have all of the bells and whistles that Scribus or InDesign has; however, it has enough to make a nice book.
For the PDF export, I would love if it would allow me to select the default opening mode, two up continuous, for the book, but I’ve not found a place. Also, the cover gets saved to a separate file.
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Paul, I just completed my first 30-page book and I wasn’t smart enough to find it difficult.
MyPublisher.com made it easy enough that I felt creative and proud of the end product. I titled it “Support Live Music” and all of the pictures were taken with my Canon S90 or another earlier Canon P/S small digital camera. No SLR. No lenses to change during a concert.
The secret was using manual settings and sitting as close to the performers as possible. ZZ Top was shot from the first row and, for Paul McCartney, I was in the 5th row. Other music venues included bars and clubs and you just worked your way forward as best you could.
A few weeks ago I blogged about it and included some pages.
Thanks, Chuck. I went back and read your blog entry, downloaded the software, and gave it a go. It is quite easy and offers so many different formats, making it very easy to do a book. I still have the same ‘issue’, if you will about the photos and the books being separated. However, I guess that his the nature of the beast, thus far. Perhaps in the future, Adobe will add different book maker plugins, perhaps not.
I wonder how close to the finished product the beta version is in respect to the book feature. From past experience, it’s probably pretty close. It’s an interesting feature and I haven’t thought too much about making a book but it looks like a fun thing to do. Do you feel it’s worth the upgrade?
Ken, if this were the only thing in the upgrade, I’d have to say no. It only integrates with Blurb, or other than that, you’re stuck. I do like the integration, but would like to see more options as to who you can get your book from. There are other upgrades, such a Map module, which I’m not sure what’s the point in that, but it’s interesting. It will show you were your photos were taken on a world map. *shrugs shoulders*, and there’s a soft-proof feature that people who print a lot really like.
There are other features, such as separating the Tone sliders into Highlights, Shadows, Whites, and Blacks, giving more control over individual tonal ranges. Depending on how much is the cost of the upgrade, I might go for it, but I could certainly skip this one and wait for LR5.
I’ve used the photo book feature in Apple’s Aperture (similar to Lightroom) application…it was almost enough to keep me from switching to Lightroom in the early days. I’ve not had a chance to look at the LR4 Beta yet, but there’s probably enough changes to warrant an upgrade for me.
I’m surprised that you’ve not given it a full test, Earl. Whenever you do, I look forward to your opinion and how it suits you.
Thanks for the information Paul. I’m beginning to see enough in LR4 to make the upgrade, providing they keep the price reasonable (reasonable will be whatever I feel at the time of the announcement!) I checked out your photobook – very nice indeed!
Thanks, John. I enjoyed putting it together. I opted to go with MyPublisher.com, so ended up having to export the photos anyway and use their custom software. It was a bit cheaper than Blurb and they have more template choices. I’ll post about it when I get them back. I’m deep in the throws of doing my 2006 book right now, but will hold off sending it until I get this one back and see how I like it. I’ve had books made before, as well as calendars, and find that I have to increase the exposure by almost a full stop to get things looking right in print.
As for the upgrade, mine decision will depend on how much they want for it. I can most certainly do without it, though.
This is probably one of the most exciting aspects of LR4 for me. I haven’t tried the beta yet. The changes in the develop module also look to be quite nice.