Black and White Photography Blog, Vol. I

* * * MORE VIOVIO STUFF, OCT. 2nd * * *

As far as I can figure, there’s no way to use the VioVio bookmaker without it resizing your jpgs. That is hard to believe but to the best of my knowledge true. Now remember, I’m working on the 7 x 9 inch book. During the bookmaking process, if you select “Without Titles” then a file with an 7 inch width (landscape) goes to about 8 inches. It’s based on the aspect ratio of the file and the margins. If you were doing a larger book, say 8.5 x 11, it will stretch more if there’s no Title selected.

If the Title checkbox is selected, then you get a more reasonable rendition, but still not the exact same size as the file you uploaded.

And if you choose to add descriptions, then the image shrinks more.

It is possible to get the exact size, but you need to supply a PDF file to do this, in this case with the page at 9.25 x 7.25 (the .25 for the trim) - but frankly there’s a lot I don’t know about how their RIP will treat the file, and I can’t give instructions every time the book is ordered. For example, I took a PSD monochrome file and through Acrobat Distiller I created what seems to be a monochrome file, but I couldn’t for the life of me figure what the resolution was, or whether their RIP will treat it as a monochrome - or is it grayscale. It’s also a lot more work to convert each PSD to PDF.

Again - you can upload one entire PDF file - but every time you make a change, you’ll need to reload it.

Since I’m concerned about how the printer is going to deal with PDF files with grayscale images (will there be a color cast) - I should also say that you certainly can add single page PDF files.  And this is what I’m going to do for the text portions.  The grayscale image files should be fine.  And hopefully the PDF with just typeface should be fine as well.

Some of my images were resized slightly in the first book I didn’t see any artifacts. At any rate, for this first book I’m going to do the images at about what I expect them to be rendered at, with titles, and leave it at that.

I also don’t see any method for numbering the pages.

Other discoveries: the DESCRIPTION field in their bookmaker accepts html and when the PDF preview is created, it renders fine. So the way to get a good text page up there is to create a small white grayscale image - say 1/4 x 1/4 of an inch. Upload that as your image, and then fill the description field with html code. You would need to upload a different white square file for each text page. So far it accepts tables, and most of the usual web fonts.

The TITLE field does not accept HTML.

Their is also a checkbox if you want all the left pages to be blank. But you do still pay for each of those white pages. What would be great would be if the description were automatically printed on the facing page. And of course if they wouldn’t resize your image unless it didn’t fit.

* * *

I don’t expect to be posting much here for a while. I’m already deep into producing the first book. Working title is now: MORNING, NOON & NIGHT, Images from New York.

It’s based on a phrase an old woman who used to live below me in the East Village yelled out the window whenever she heard the floorboards creak in my run-down apartment: “Morning, Noon and Night! You never stop, do you! All day and all night! Morning, Noon and Night!”

She was known in the neighborhood as the Morning, Noon and Night lady. Never seen. Always on edge. A character from a Poe story (pretty much any Poe story). But seemed like a good “voice” for a new york book. I never saw her. She never left the apartment. But her crazy voice came back to me a few nights ago.

Perfect. All I could ask for. I only did a ten-page 7 x 9 book so I didn’t get the laminated cover and it was saddle-stiched (stapled); but what I wanted to find out was: is it possible to get neutral b&w images on decent paper, and the answer - finally - is yes.

I had, as directed, uploaded 300 dpi sGray files rather than RGB, and there is not a touch of color anywhere in the book. Doing a soft preview with paper-white turned on gave me a very good idea of how the pages would look.

No this paper doesn’t have the richness of a fine art inkjet print (and VioVio tell you that ahead of time) but still, this is a nice paper (the 10% extra silk paper) and a decent weight for a perfect bound softcover book.

Other notes about VioVio.com, the actual packaging was better thought out than Blurb, i.e. it comes in a box where the corners are extended in case the box is dropped (which, having done shipping for 10 years now) is a great thing.

Turnaround time was faster than Lulu or Blurb. This is really important if you are doing proofs in the beginning and want to make changes; and also if you are actually selling the book so customers aren’t waiting forever to get it.

There is a very small VioVio.com logo on the back cover (I almost couldn’t find it and was looking for it) but this can be replaced if you sign up for a pro membership account - which also gives you tons of space on their servers. If you’re a professional and plan on doing a bunch of books - their fee is quite reasonable ($150 a year).

I’m encouraged enough to go on now and do another softcover with a more professional layout, and give it some creative energy.

Phew.

* * * XEROX iGEN PROFILE * * *

One more thing: here is a link to a zip file for the iGen Profile. I find that if you use it with “paper white” turned on it is very close to what you’ll get in the book, assuming that your monitor is somewhat calibrated.

As I work on the book (started today) I’ll continue to expand this post; so if if you’re interested you might want to bookmark this post. I’m not going to do separate posts each time I figure something out.

* * * OCT. 1, * * *

First potential issue arises with the VioVio book process. Not a showstopper, but worth writing about. I was printing a low-res proof of the 9×7 book on my inkjet and was surprised to find that the images which were uploaded as 5 x 7’s were actually stretched to fit the page. Not as full bleeds, but so that there was a margin on left on right side in the case. This confused me because in their book creation interface I had always clicked don’t resize.

I went back to look at the first book I got and realized that the same scaling had taken place and I hadn’t noticed it. So back into their interface I go and find a few interesting things:

- If there is no text in their description field, this scaling will happen. And as the first book didn’t contain descriptions, the images were scaled up to fit the 9 x 7 format. However, there are ways around this, such as adding “spaces” to the description. I thought from the start that I’d probably have descriptions though I was thinking I’d do them on a separate page. Now I’m not so sure about that. The other related issue is that as far as I can figure, there is no way, if you are using their bookmaker interface to control the font that’s used for this description. (I have an email in to them about this). Which brings us back to another issue.

- The suggested way to do an all text page is to upload a small white jpg, and then use their description box for the text. I haven’t tried this yet. The good part is that you skip any raster process that might happen with a PDF file, i.e. converting your vector-based typefaces; but how much control you get with the placement of that text etc. still remains open.

- For total control you need to go the PDF route (which they support) but the question I have in to them is whether the PDF can be done grayscale.

So still some unknowns in the process, but I continue on my merry way uploading and tweaking my files; and in the worse case scenerio I’ll simply go with their interface with captions / descriptions on the side of the portrait oriented images, and captions, descriptions below the landscape oriented images.

* * * TIP / TEXT SOLUTION * * * 

Okay, I figured out how to control the text.  The description field will take most HTML code.  So, you upload a square small white grayscale file as the image, and then you write your description in HTML and paste that into the description box in viovio bookmaker.  So things like italics, and even some fonts are rendered then into your PDF file properly.  I can only say that the basic HTML formatting code seems to work.

Congrats to the Yanks. And please check me into Bellevue where they have a special wing set up for Mets fans. It’s called the, “OMG Not Again Wing.”

This is the season when no lead is large enough; no opposing team bad enough; and no amount of explanation lucid enough. This is the year when the collapse cannot be forgotten. When it cannot be fathomed. When failure is the only option available.

There are all sorts of Mets fans in this wing at Bellevue. Some are muttering, it was almost the greatest comeback in Mets history but we fell one short. This is the season where El Duque shows us for one inning what it takes. But we can’t follow. This is the season when we must submit offerings to the baseball dieties to have mercy on us Mets fans and put us out of our misery.

Throw in the towel. Just stop playing. Forfeit the the last 4 games. Too much psychic pain is being inflicted on us mere mortals.

And place a warning like they have for drug ads, watching this game may cause heart palpitations, headaches, fainting, and overall malaise.  If you are taking heart medication, stomach medication… Please see our ad in AARP magazine.

Let the Yanks represent New York in the great games. They deserve it. There just ain’t enough padded cells around for us right now but maybe they’ll supply some in the new Citifield stadium.

Images have been used for various book covers, poetry reviews, etc. I’m beginning to get them together and scan them. This cover, ‘The Secret Garden’ came out very well.  Nice to see it without little magenta spots.

And - the VioVio book should arrive tomorrow. That’s at least twice as fast as blurb, and their communications are better, which is to say that you get a note when the book arrives at the manufacturer, and of course when shipped which is ahead of their estimated date by 5 days. Also, interesting, shipped from Rochester.

Didn’t want to write a separate post just for this info, so we’ll see what the pros and cons are.

Sure, I should have gone to the U.N. and shot the machine guns pointed at the crowd of protesters. Or the black draped coffins; or the anit-Bush demonstrators; or the anti-Iranian President protesters; or the other clash of civilizations; or the buzzing helicopters; or the signs of the times; and a few years ago I would have jumped on it.

Instead, I went to Bethesda Fountain for the third day in a row. And every day has been a surprise. The sun was beaming. And today a wedding scene for SVU New York. I had seen them yesterday photographing a corpse on the steps of the met. But today it was an extravaganza. A cast of thousands, or at least hundreds. It took me almost two hours to worm my way over to the overlook spot where I usually shoot from - there were that many spectators.

Fake conflict by the fountain was choreographed beautifully. They did the wide shot with three cameras, one on a dolly, one steadycam, and one static; and a fight breaks out; wedding cake scrunched in the grooms face; two pretty girls fighting and one rips the other’s top off; (guy next to me says, I’ll watch that episode); a string quartet playing on the steps. PA’s everywhere telling you to move. And even a sequence that looked like a bar room brawl. All in that sacred plaza.

Sometimes I think I could do a short book just on the Bethesda Fountain area. There was even an HMI light for backlighting on the stairs which I tried to incorporate into my own shots.

I’ve never seen the show or even heard of it. Shows how out of it I am. I don’t know if I would watch it because it was easy to see how it would be cut together. A slow dolly beauty shot from the lake towards the fountain; and then something happening in the distance on the plaza… You can imagine it pretty well.

They did the wide establishing shot of the fighting three times. It’s simply amazing how many people and how much equipment was involved. The lens for the panavision camera could barely be carried by one person. Maybe this is the result of shooting in HD. They never used to be that size.

The one thing that hasn’t changed since I was in the business - at the end of each shot - there’s a guy that swings the lens back and looks to see if there’s any dust in the gate of the camera. He radios someone on the other side of the scene - “gates clean.”

The assistant director yells to everyone: 8 minutes ’til next setup. The extras look for shade or something to drink. Some put suntan lotion on.

Eventually the A.D. yells - background people - take your places. Position ONE!!!!

They mingle around using all their acting skills although they’ll be out of focus. But who knows - maybe this is the day they’ll be discovered.

Boring and exciting at the same time. The assistant camera man looks up at us onlookers peering down and says, “Hey! Who wouldn’t want to go to a wedding like this!”

As each scene finishes, the spectators clap their approval. Theater with 10 minute intervals between each scene. No one famous since this is the opening and the guys and gals with the white plastic gloves haven’t arrived yet. But they will… Maybe tomorrow!  Then we’ll know who done it and flip to something else.

One thing is - I don’t give up easy. After more googling until I was nearly blind, I came across the VioVio site which at least was nice enough to put disclaimers up about color issues, as well as saying up front that you’ll do better with b&w if you upload a grayscale image. Thank you. In fact, although their site is not as spiffy in terms of cosmetics - they’ve actually integrated context sensitive information. They tell you what paper will be used. They tell you that they’re using the iGen and [gasp] even give you the model number!

And they tell you that the quality is not going to be as good as an offset printer.

There are warning about expecting color issues between runs (although that shouldn’t be an issue if all the images are grayscale).

You get a PDF rendition, generated on the fly, and they accept PDF files if you just want to do the whole layout yourself in inDesign or something.

I did a ten page paperback, 7 x 9 with extremely badly designed cover and back. But enough to tell me about quality. So ever the optimist - I await the book once more.

* * *

Received email from VioVio saying that the book had gone to manufacturing. Estimated ship date is Oct. 2.

[About the image above - mixture of tungsten and flash; print on left is an inkjet; then the book. And just to hold stuff against the wall an aperture book. The overall is on the yellow side - I haven’t picked up the digicam in a while - but the rendition of the print vs. book is very close to how it looks to the eye.]

Also, please note that what I’m writing about is mostly about how black and white photographs are rendered with the process. Color shifts are really not that noticable with color printing.

Just the facts:

- What I ordered: 8 x 10 hardcover. 20 pages.

- What I uploaded, sRGB files (as advised)

- Ordered on Sept. 5th. Arrived today via UPS 2-day today

- The just jacket, as well as all the images have a fairly strong magenta cast in the midtones. But only under tungsten light. If I take the book and look at it with window daylight - it it fairly neutral.

- It is a stiched binding.

- The paper is definitely on the thin side compared to a high-end coffee table book but I think it would be okay if the magenta cast could be solved. I’m sure I could tweak the files to get something a bit more contrasty on the page. Except for the magenta, the images are very close to what I see if I soft proof the image with “paper white” turned on.

- If you look at the image with a magnifying glass, you can see how the magenta dots are wedged in with the grayscale dots. If you look at a book say by Aperture - you just see various shades of gray / black.

- I’ve put a help request in asking: a) what machine did the printing (Xerox or HP Indigo) and whether they have any suggestions for getting neutral b&w.

- The images seem flat and lifeless compared to my epson 4800 prints.

- If the inks exhibit metamerism (color shifts depending on light temperature), then there really is no good solution for this (with b&w). With color, it’s not as evident. And then you’ve got the problem with calibration of the Indigo printer as well. And even if you do manage to correct for magenta under tungsten light with some duotone layer, your next run may go towards the green side.

That is a problem.

What you need is POD that specializes in b&w photography. I guess that’s just too small a market?

P.S. If you search the blurb forums for ‘magenta’ you’ll find lots of people with the same problem: http://forums.blurb.com/forums/1/topics/32#posts-449

* * *

From the comments:

So Dave, is the Indigo (blurb) better than the iGen (Lulu) or closer to a draw?
It will be interesting for us to know what tech says and if the problems are fixable.

Thanks, Bob

Bob - Blurb support got back to me very quickly (it’s all email which frankly is fine with me) - and asked to see some digital pictures of the problem - which is why I did the shot above.

Blurb also uses iGen for the paperbacks but this was Indigo.

Now Lulu v. Blurb, or is it really Indigo v. iGen.

Boy - that is a tough one. If Indigo inks are going to give this color shift for b&w than I don’t think it’s useable unless you do some tinting yourself (sepia) or something so that the shift isn’t as obvious.

On the other hand - toner is toner. The problem I had with the first two Lulu books I did as tests with Xerox iGen was that one copy was pretty neutral, and the same image in a second book had magenta streaks. But - I don’t see any color shift with the toner based books under different light sources.

I’m tempted right now to order a second book from blurb - but softcover - and with various test photos. This would use the iGen printer.
In other words, I can probably accept the iGen rendition if it doesn’t shift color.

The bottom line with print on demand is how consistent they can be over time. If I want to sell them, do I have to order 50 and check each one? Or can I rely on some consistent printing so that the customer can order it from their site - uh - on demand.

* * *

Lulu has a new beta photobook interface (beta) and the paper quality is supposed to be a little bit better than the old color stock; but the beta interface is still pretty poor. For one thing, it really wants to crop or resize images to fit in it’s frame containers. And they don’t even have exact dimensions yet for the frames used by various themes. I’d give it six months for them to work out the bugs.

*** 9/18/07

Blurb support emailed me a return label and said they will reprint the book ASAP.

**** 9/26/07 - Sent the book back to blurb customer service ***

Was looking for my name in google and came upon this contest based on my photography style. I think that’s what it is: www.eyefetch.com/contest.aspx?contest=2954

Well, just some of the strange things you find if you search for yourself on the web. The worst thing is when you’re looking for some photo information and google takes you back to your own blog.

I also once found my images in a book that had been scanned into google (or whatever that project is) taken from the web - still with my copyright on them.   Hey man, it’s all free…  Man.  Music, pics.  Just take what ya want, man.

Just had a request for permission to use an image for a book cover… Quoted a reasonable price … doubt if I’ll hear back from them.