Mpix assembled albums?

[diamondgirl4382]

As part of our photography package, we got the copyright to and digital copies of all of our pro wedding photos. I have been thinking about my album--although I would love to get one of those beautiful flushmount albums from the photographer, they are just so expensive. So I have been looking online for alternatives, and I came across this.

Has anyone ordered one of these before, and what did you think? From what I can tell, each page has one photo, which is a print that is somehow adhered to the page. So I''m guessing that it would be a lot of work to edit the pro photos into the "one" image that goes on each page (I would want to make some of them collages, etc.) Anyway, I would love to hear if anyone has ordered anything like this, or what others did for their albums if you didn''t order directly from the photographer.

Thanks!

 

[audball]

Hey DG. I have no personal experience with mpix.com myself, but I remember seeing mia1181''s wedding album through them and it looked wonderful. Thread seen here.

Hope she doesn''t mind, maybe she''ll see this and pop in to make some further comments. I thinks she goes into a fair bit of detail regarding her experience in the thread though.

Good luck!

 

[diamondgirl4382]

Thanks for that link! She got a different type of album than what I was looking at, but now that I see hers, I might want one like that--it looked beautiful! Love the two-page spreads, which is something I don''t think you can do with the assembled albums. Hmmm...

I would still love to hear what others have done for their albums...even if not from Mpix, let me know your experiences with whatever company you used...I''d love to find out as much info as I can before I make a final decision!

 

[diamondgirl4382]

After searching around a little more, I see that Picaboo offers flushmount books. Anyone have any experience with Picaboo and their print quality, etc.?

 

[audball]

Glad to help! I really think mia''s turned out beautifully. Hopefully this *bump* will help the BIWs and Newlyweds chime in...I''m still a LIW who lurks too frequently in BWW

 

[mia1181]

Date: 8/4/2009 7:57:47 PM
Author: audball
Glad to help! I really think mia's turned out beautifully. Hopefully this *bump* will help the BIWs and Newlyweds chime in...I'm still a LIW who lurks too frequently in BWW

Aw thanks audball!

Well, as you saw diamondgirl, mine wasn't the assembled Album. But I can tell you that I was happy with quality of mpix and I can't stress enough that professional photographers order their products from them, unlike other companies that market to regular people. The assembled album was more expensive than mine and I think it has a really classic look to it. You just can't do the two page spread, which was what I really wanted. We also actually ordered our photo wedding announcements through Picaboo so while I haven't bought a book from them I can say that I did love the picture quality on the announcements. One drawback for me was that you had to have the Picaboo logo on the cards. Mpix doesn't put a logo anywhere on their products. I think it makes the book look higher quality and less DIY. I'm not sure whether there is a logo on the Picaboo books though, I am just guessing they do...

Here is another thread where I talk about my Mpix book:
https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/calling-mia1181.114400/

Hope that helps!

 

[diamondgirl4382]

Thank you Mia! It is good to hear your experiences with both companies, your photobook turned out great. So you used photoshop for your layouts--were you able to skip using Mpix''s software altogether? Someone was saying in another thread that it froze on their computer.

Also, if I were to use photoshop, would I be able to make multiple pics into one "image" so I could fit three or four pics on a page of the assembled album? (They only allow one "image" per page...but of course I want more than one picture per page!) Of course after seeing yours I am considering going with the coffee table style book like you got--it is cool to have a two-page spread, too.

I''m definitely leaning towards Mpix just because it seems like their pictures are going to be more professional-quality than other sites (plus the flushmount books from picaboo get verrrry pricey once you start adding pages). I''m going to order some prints from there to see the quality, and then decide from there about the album.

 

[mia1181]

Yes, I used photoshop for some layouts and for other, more basic layouts, I just used their software. I think you need to use the software to upload the files either way. You will want to make the layouts on photoshop though (especially the two page) because you can do much more than the Mpix software.

Their software is pretty heavy, so if you don't have a decent computer I could see how it would freeze up. That said, I used it on 3 different computers (one was my older laptop without a lot of memory that freezes all the time) and I never had a problem. I did have a problem when I uploaded it that it took a long time and then the next day someone from Mpix contacted me and said it didn't send.

I just resent it and it wasn't a problem. As long as you send it by a certain time they usually try to ship the same day too. I would recommend downloading the software and playing around with it though.

But the software is only if you want to do one like mine. I think you just upload the images for "assembled albums" the same way you would prints. In which case, you definitely need to make your pages in photoshop. And yes you can do the multiple images per page with photoshop.

Mpix also has a helpful forum too. I found a photoshop template for the two page spread there that I could just drag images into and it was already set to account for "bleed." You shouldn't have to worry about that with the assembled album, just make the canvas the size of the print.

Are you on Facebook? If you become a fan of Picaboo on facebook you can see their discounts. I just checked my FB and today they had an offer for 50% extra pages. Not sure if that is for flushmount albums though....
"SUMMER SAVINGS! Get 50% off extra pages for a limited time. The price for Picaboo books includes 20 pages. However, you can add up to 160 pages to a book! So now is the perfect time to scan those old photos, or put your thousands of pictures from your "My Pictures" folder into a beautiful photo book. Use code XPAGES at checkout. ENJOY!"

 

[diamondgirl4382]

Thank you so much! I can''t wait to get this project started...it''s going to be a lot of work, but fun...