Photo Book Arrived

The photo book that I ordered over the holidays arrived in the mail this week.  I threw the design together in just a few hours.  I used mostly a selection of images that were shot with a hand held digital SLR.  None of the files were re-touched or adjusted, I used them just as they were saved from the camera.  I did add a few images to the book that were scanned from my large format black and white negatives.  The intent of this book was to get familiar with the design software and to get some idea of the print quality.  I was very impressed with the quality of the book.  My layout leaves something to be desired, but it was thrown together in a hurry and the intention was for it to be just an experiment.  For the most part the images look really good in print.  The ones that are not great, were not great to begin with.  The original files are unsharp due to camera shake/slow shutter speed.  The highlights are a little blown away in a few of the shots, but this is inherent in the original file and not a result of the print process.  Some of the choices I made for background photos are a little busy and detract from the images that are overlaid.  There is a color cast to some of the files, but not as a result of the printing process.  I made a couple of typo's that I did not catch when I proof read my layout.  But these are my fault and not the fault of the printing.  This book is not of the same quality as that of a high end printing process such as tritone or quadratone.  But considering the cost and the size of the production run - ONE COPY - I am very impressed.  So much so that I have already begun putting together a second book that documents our Christmas trip to Austria in 2007.