Price lists

mercphoto · July 1, 2004

One more suggestion for today, then I'll quit.

I had asked awhile back about the ability to do "coupons" or "sale prices". Such as "10% off". I think this suggestion might be a bit easier, more useful. What I'd like to do is have a collection of price lists. If I want, I can say "this gallery is priced as price list A".

I might have a price list that is at-cost, one that is my full price, another that is a sale price list. Then I can quickly change any image, gallery, or my entire portfolio to new pricing.

The trick ishow to leave the current pricing ability in place, while at the same time having this same feature. Maybe on the custom pricing page, with the long list of entry boxes, have a button to select a saved price list. Click on that and it fills in the entry boxes for you.

Thanks for the great customer support guys!

Baldy · July 2, 2004

Hi Bill,

And thanks for the good suggestions.

Thinking out loud here (always dangerous

)... A related request is to remember gallery preferences so you don't have to enter them every time you create a new gallery.

I suppose we could coneive of gallery preference A, B, C...choosing from a list and pricing could be part of the gallery preference.

Make sense?

Thanks,
Baldy

pathfinder · July 2, 2004

Baldy wrote:

Hi Bill,

And thanks for the good suggestions.

Thinking out loud here (always dangerous )... A related request is to remember gallery preferences so you don't have to enter them every time you create a new gallery.

Baldy

Baldy - I have a question - My sister in law was submitting photos to Iphoto which were then to be printed up and bound in a hardback binding like a hard back book. Does smugmug or its associated vendors offer a service like this? Not just free photos, but your photos printed as directed by me and then bound in a hardback binding with titling etc? Kind of a neat way to organize a special set of vacation pictures or a special family gathering.

THe guys shooting weddings must use a service like this I would guess also?

Baldy · July 2, 2004

pathfinder wrote:

Baldy - I have a question - My sister in law was submitting photos to Iphoto which were then to be printed up and bound in a hardback binding like a hard back book. Does smugmug or its associated vendors offer a service like this? Not just free photos, but your photos printed as directed by me and then bound in a hardback binding with titling etc? Kind of a neat way to organize a special set of vacation pictures or a special family gathering.

THe guys shooting weddings must use a service like this I would guess also?

Hey Pathfinder,

unfortunately....we don't yet. These along with Christmas cards and calendars would be great to do -- we get a lot of requests. The big issue is the usual one, it will take some programming resources to enable all the options.

Thanks,
Baldy

mercphoto · July 2, 2004

Pricing

Baldy wrote:

I suppose we could coneive of gallery preference A, B, C...choosing from a list and pricing could be part of the gallery preference.

Make sense?

Makes sense. Then when I create a gallery I could say "use template B", which would set it public, protected images, with a certain pricing structure. Makes sense.

dkapp · July 2, 2004

pathfinder wrote:

Baldy - I have a question - My sister in law was submitting photos to Iphoto which were then to be printed up and bound in a hardback binding like a hard back book. Does smugmug or its associated vendors offer a service like this? Not just free photos, but your photos printed as directed by me and then bound in a hardback binding with titling etc? Kind of a neat way to organize a special set of vacation pictures or a special family gathering.

THe guys shooting weddings must use a service like this I would guess also?

This would be a pretty nice option. I've thought about this myself lately. I like to take photos in "projects." Once I move onto another project, I'd like to print them book form.

I have ordered 2 books from iPhoto & was not impressed by the quality.

Dave

pathfinder · July 2, 2004

dkapp wrote:

This would be a pretty nice option. I've thought about this myself lately. I like to take photos in "projects." Once I move onto another project, I'd like to print them book form.

I have ordered 2 books from iPhoto & was not impressed by the quality.

Dave

Thanks for the response, Dave. I find the concept of a hard bound or even a nice academic style paperback book with nice fine art style printing very appealing for limited projects like you describe them.

I am sorry to hear that Iphoto is not as high quality as I had hoped. I guess I'll keep looking and bugging Baldy

Or maybe we could contact EZPhoto direct? We can't be the only consumers interested in this manner of receiving prints of our pictures. I'm surprised the photofinishers haven't thought of this before too......

dkapp · July 2, 2004

pathfinder wrote:

Thanks for the response, Dave. I find the concept of a hard bound or even a nice academic style paperback book with nice fine art style printing very appealing for limited projects like you describe them.

I am sorry to hear that Iphoto is not as high quality as I had hoped. I guess I'll keep looking and bugging Baldy Or maybe we could contact EZPhoto direct? We can't be the only consumers interested in this manner of receiving prints of our pictures. I'm surprised the photofinishers haven't thought of this before too......

I think the problem is cost. For iPhoto to give such great prices, the print quality is crap. If someone would have true photo quality paper & prints in a book the price would increase to a point where people are not willing to pay. There has to be a balance somewhere because I'm always willing to pay more for quality.

Dave

mercphoto · July 2, 2004

iPhoto books

dkapp wrote:

I think the problem is cost. For iPhoto to give such great prices, the print quality is crap. If someone would have true photo quality paper & prints in a book the price would increase to a point where people are not willing to pay. There has to be a balance somewhere because I'm always willing to pay more for quality.

iPhoto books are $3 per page. Factor the cost of paper, printing, then add in the linen-bound front and back page, etc., it explains why the quality isn't top-notch. For me, however, the quality is good enough. I don't expect the book to be photo-quality. And I like the various options, such as scrapbook style, etc.

Other options for a book is to Photo Shop your own 8.5" x 11" pages from your photos, put in your own captions, and print your own pages. Then three-hole punch, or better yet punch them for plastic comb binding. Or go to a printer for binding.

dkapp · July 2, 2004

mercphoto wrote:

iPhoto books are $3 per page. Factor the cost of paper, printing, then add in the linen-bound front and back page, etc., it explains why the quality isn't top-notch. For me, however, the quality is good enough. I don't expect the book to be photo-quality. And I like the various options, such as scrapbook style, etc.

Your one of the few photographers out there I've ever met thats been happy with the quality. I'm glad you find it useful.

mercphoto wrote:

Other options for a book is to Photo Shop your own 8.5" x 11" pages from your photos, put in your own captions, and print your own pages. Then three-hole punch, or better yet punch them for plastic comb binding. Or go to a printer for binding.

Or if I was looking for better option than iPhoto, I could use a crayon on glossy paper & draw the picture...Thanks for the idea.

Dave

I should probably add why I feel so strongly against the iPhoto book. My sister was married two years ago. They bought a house a few weeks before the wedding & wanted to have everyone over after the honeymoon for a present opening / house warming party. I printed off 2 books of shots I had taken from the wedding & each book was over 30 pages. Her photog didn't offer any type of coffee table book, so I thought this would be the perfect gift. When I got the books, the pictures were horrible. They were blotchy and made the people look horrible (diseased). It looks as if they were printed on an old ink jet. I tried to get a refund, but there was no way they would let me return the books. So I was basically stuck w/ over $200 in these two books that nobody liked....

I was very proud of the photos I had taken. I had used my new Sony F707 & my personal prints were amazing. I had no reason to suspect the quality to be so low. They are advertised as photo quality prints on high quality photo paper. http://www.apple.com/ilife/iphoto/books.html

Baldy · July 4, 2004

Does anyone know who makes iPhoto's photo books? I know Ofoto does their prints but I dunno about photo books.

pathfinder · July 4, 2004

mercphoto wrote:

iPhoto books are $3 per page. Factor the cost of paper, printing, then add in the linen-bound front and back page, etc., it explains why the quality isn't top-notch. For me, however, the quality is good enough. I don't expect the book to be photo-quality. And I like the various options, such as scrapbook style, etc.

Other options for a book is to Photo Shop your own 8.5" x 11" pages from your photos, put in your own captions, and print your own pages. Then three-hole punch, or better yet punch them for plastic comb binding. Or go to a printer for binding.

Printing my own pictures and then having them bound is an alternative I had not thought of. Interesting - I think I may try this a little bit and see how it works out. Thank you for the suggestion. I still wish I could get them done via the printer directly on line. Seems like this would appeal to a lot of folks if the price was not too prohibitiave. You could have your own coffee table books no less!!

mercphoto · July 5, 2004

iPhoto books

dkapp wrote:

>Originally Posted by mercphoto

Other options for a book is to Photo Shop your own 8.5" x 11" pages from your photos, put in your own captions, and print your own pages. Then three-hole punch, or better yet punch them for plastic comb binding. Or go to a printer for binding.

---
Or if I was looking for better option than iPhoto, I could use a crayon on glossy paper & draw the picture...Thanks for the idea.

Chill, dude, I was just giving a suggestion and my take on the iPhoto books.

I'm sorry about your experience with the iPhoto books. All I can say is that I have seen many, and overall the results are pretty good. Better than a good inkjet, not as good as a true print. Overall, it is a bit better than I expected. Why you had suck poor luck I do not know. I just know its far from typical.

darryl · July 6, 2004

If you wanted to decide for yourself about the quality of iPhoto books, you could find your way to the nearest Apple Store. They usually have one or two on display.

I found the quality ok. The pages weren't as thick as I would like, but the image quality seemed acceptable. (This was on both the store copy as well as a book that a friend of mine had printed of his daughters.)

By the way: I really dread the thought of ordering such a product via a web interface.

I know that everything is moving towards the web, and the days of "fat clients" are supposedly numbered. But good god, this isn't webmail. I think that Baldy and Co. have done an amazing job of making gallery management (reordering photos, rotating, captioning, etc.) workable on the web, especially cross-platform.

But to manage the different page layouts, previews, text options, etc. that iPhoto does now with its Books seems like it would be a *huge* effort to replicate for the web, involving strain not only on personnel, but CPU resources as well. I don't doubt that the books themselves might be very profitable, but enough to pay for new servers and employees? Hrm.

Honestly, this is one of those cases where having a nice fat local client really does work better.

DavidTO · July 6, 2004

Dave,

It stinks when customer support is so lacking, and there's no excuse for it. That's how I ended up over here when Club Photo would not answer any of my questions, or even acknowledge them.

But about the iPhoto books, I have to say that I have made two and I love them. Granted, you're not getting a photographic (continuous tone) print, it's offset printing, like a book or magazine, so you can see the liittle printing dots if you get up close, but that's how books are printed. I found the quality to be great, and my photos came out looking like champs. The first one I did was of my wedding, and then I did one for my parent's 45th wedding anniversary. Came out great and was a huge hit. My mom cried.

dkapp wrote:

I should probably add why I feel so strongly against the iPhoto book. My sister was married two years ago. They bought a house a few weeks before the wedding & wanted to have everyone over after the honeymoon for a present opening / house warming party. I printed off 2 books of shots I had taken from the wedding & each book was over 30 pages. Her photog didn't offer any type of coffee table book, so I thought this would be the perfect gift. When I got the books, the pictures were horrible. They were blotchy and made the people look horrible (diseased). It looks as if they were printed on an old ink jet. I tried to get a refund, but there was no way they would let me return the books. So I was basically stuck w/ over $200 in these two books that nobody liked....

I was very proud of the photos I had taken. I had used my new Sony F707 & my personal prints were amazing. I had no reason to suspect the quality to be so low. They are advertised as photo quality prints on high quality photo paper. http://www.apple.com/ilife/iphoto/books.html

dkapp · July 6, 2004

To be fair, I went to the San Francisco Apple store this weekend just to look at the iPhoto books. The quality was very good, much better than what I had received. Judging from the responses here, I can see that mine was an isolated case.

I've got a few photo projects winding down. Once I get to a good stopping point in a few weeks, I'll try another book.

Thanks for all the replies.

Dave

dkapp · July 6, 2004

Baldy wrote:

Does anyone know who makes iPhoto's photo books? I know Ofoto does their prints but I dunno about photo books.

I can't say for sure, but this looks close and pricing is the same. Not mac compatible? Who knows.
http://www.mypublisher.com/hardcoverBooks.html

I think this is the same as the other, but has more options.
http://www.mypublisherpro.com/

This is a good option for those who want to print themselves. I may try this if I can find any pricing.
http://www.albumsinc.com/products/ztra.php

This last site is pretty impressive. It seems that their books are only available through pro photographers. I'm going to do some more digging on this one & try to contact people in my area.
http://www.wgbooks.com/home.html

This is all I had time to look through tonight. I'll let you know if I get any more info.

Dave

mercphoto · July 6, 2004

Photo books

dkapp wrote:

I can't say for sure, but this looks close and pricing is the same. Not mac compatible? Who knows.
http://www.mypublisher.com/hardcoverBooks.html
/QUOTE]

This looks nearly identical to iPhoto books. Pages are slightly larger, prices are pennies cheaper. More options on page layouts and on cover colors. Might be worth a try.

dkapp · July 6, 2004

mercphoto wrote:

dkapp wrote:

I can't say for sure, but this looks close and pricing is the same. Not mac compatible? Who knows.
http://www.mypublisher.com/hardcoverBooks.html

This looks nearly identical to iPhoto books. Pages are slightly larger, prices are pennies cheaper. More options on page layouts and on cover colors. Might be worth a try.

I just can't figure out why it isn't mac compatible...lol

Dave

PerezDesignGroup · July 6, 2004

dkapp wrote:

I just can't figure out why it isn't mac compatible...lol

Dave

In order to create the book, you need to download a 1.2mb EXE file and install it on your computer. It's a shame really. Had they coded in Java it would have been cross platform. Definitely a nice find though! Thanks...

PerezDesignGroup · July 6, 2004

DavidTO wrote:

Dave,
Granted, you're not getting a photographic (continuous tone) print, it's offset printing, like a book or magazine, so you can see the liittle printing dots if you get up close, but that's how books are printed.

Interesting indeed. Maybe it would it be a good idea to convert to CMYK before uploading? I should drop them an email to find out...

dkapp · July 7, 2004

PerezDesignGroup wrote:

In order to create the book, you need to download a 1.2mb EXE file and install it on your computer. It's a shame really. Had they coded in Java it would have been cross platform. Definitely a nice find though! Thanks...

I've been doing a lot of research on this lately, more than I should considering my work load.

I just found a thread in the Apple Support forums where someone has compared the two services. They said you can usually get the books much cheaper through the other services vs. iPhoto. I think the leather cover for an extra $10 is a great option. I know I would go for leather every time for that price.

Link to the book comparison.
http://discussions.info.apple.com/webx?13@123.cYMDabaKqGO.1@.6892f0ad/1

Time to get back to work.

Dave

mercphoto · July 12, 2004

iPhoto books

pathfinder wrote:

Printing my own pictures and then having them bound is an alternative I had not thought of. Interesting - I think I may try this a little bit and see how it works out. Thank you for the suggestion.

I actually tried this over the weekend at Office Max. I used iPhoto to compose the book, then instead of purchasing the book, I printed it -- splat-P. Sends it to the printer. I then took those pages to the copy center and had them spiral wound bound with a hard plastic back and a clear plastic front. Cost $3.69 to bind, plus whatever paper and ink cost me. I'm guessing roughly half the price of the linen-bound book.

Its not as nice as a real hard-cover book, but you know what, I think my home printer on photo paper does better than Apple's book service in terms of image quality. I used to think the books were pretty good in image quality, now I'm starting to agree with those who don't think so.

I did like the convenince of creating the book in iPhoto, as opposed to using Photo Shop to create each page. iPhoto will also let you print to PDF. Haven't tried yet, not sure how big the files are, or what image quality the embedded images are.

dkapp · July 18, 2004

dkapp wrote:

I can't say for sure, but this looks close and pricing is the same. Not mac compatible? Who knows.
http://www.mypublisher.com/hardcoverBooks.html

I think this is the same as the other, but has more options.
http://www.mypublisherpro.com/

This is a good option for those who want to print themselves. I may try this if I can find any pricing.
http://www.albumsinc.com/products/ztra.php

This last site is pretty impressive. It seems that their books are only available through pro photographers. I'm going to do some more digging on this one & try to contact people in my area.
http://www.wgbooks.com/home.html

This is all I had time to look through tonight. I'll let you know if I get any more info.

Dave

I just got the catalog from Albums Inc. They have a huge selection of products for wedding photographers. I was only interested in the Zetra line that lets you print on photo paper, front & back. Small clip from the catalog:

"...the album is finely crafted in a handsome black leather with a crisp debossed square on the cover. The white ink jet printable pages are a fine archival quality paper and can be printed on both sides with any digital printer."

Their prices are not even close to iPhoto, but if I can control the print quality, I don't have a problem paying extra. I will probably order a small 7x7 Digital Album Kit next week for testing. I have a Canon S900 photo printer that can print to standard letter size paper. To print the bigger albums, 10x10 & 14x11 you would need a wide format printer.

The album comes with a couple extra sheets of paper for practice. I would interested to meet up with someone in the area that has an Epson photo printer for testing. I'm in San Francisco.

I will post a full review once I've finished.

Thanks,
Dave

Price lists

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