Picaboo Review – Classic Custom Photo Book Layouts and Ideas

Just wanted to share some shots of one of my Picaboo Classic custom cover photo books I printed a while back but didn’t get a chance to post. I really like the way this book turned out. All the colors came out well saturated and matched what I saw on my screen.

Since I’ve already done a “how to” post on using Picaboo X software and software review and another post on Picaboo photo book quality, this post will be more about sharing ideas for layouts and backgrounds. Everything you see here was done entirely with the free Picaboo X software.

First off, here’s the stats for my Picaboo Classic Custom Cover photo book:

Book size:	11 x 8.5 (width x height)
Cover:	Hardcover – Glossy Laminate Custom Photo
Pages:	20 (double-sided)
Binding:	Case Bound
Price:	FREE book promo ($39.99 value) = + $8.99 (shipping) Total: $48.98 Actual Out-of-Pocket after all discounts = $8.99

DEAL ALERT! By the way, as of the date of this post, there is the awesome 65% off Picaboo Groupon available today and tomorrow. Also, Picaboo is offering 30% off Classic photo books (like this one) through 12/30/2010!

This book is entitled “Malibu Dream”. It would be amazing to someday live in Malibu, but for now I’m freezing my “you know what” off in 20 degree weather! The photos are mostly of the interesting inhabitants of the tidepools of the Pacific coast. The photos were taken with my Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5 and my underwater Canon PowerShot D10.

Picaboo Classic Photo Book Custom Cover — I was very happy with how the cover images reproduced. Well saturated and vivid.

Picaboo Classic Photo Book Title — You can title the front page of the book. UPDATE 6/11: Picaboo has updated their software to allow for spine titling for custom cover hardcover books like this one! but not the spine within the program. You can add a title to the spine but you have to do it outside the program.

P1090502

Picaboo Classic Photo Book — My use of black backgrounds gets a lot of comments, but I used a taupe color here! I thought it was more "beachy"!

P1090505 — My husband found this beautiful intact sea urchin shell for me!

P1090506 — Here I used other photographs as backgrounds. I took some shots of just sand (on the right), to use as a neutral but appropriate background. Also, note that if you do that, use a shadow or frame border to make your photos stand out.

P1090508 — The colors came out very true to the original - and crisp.

P1090510

P1090511 — As some of you may have seen before, my husband and I take photos of our shadows every time we're on a trip. I decided to do a filmstrip type effect by placing the photos close together and using one of the black frames to get the effect. Try it!

P1090512

P1090513

P1090514

P1090515 — Ha ha - don't these look like pre-prom photos? We were actually going to a wedding - and I wanted to take advantage of the beautiful scenery 🙂

P1090516 — Our first visit to the Getty Museum. The museum architecture and surroundings are as beautiful as the art housed there!

P1090517

P1090518 — The back cover - this is a tiny bat star - about as big as my thumb!

P1090519 — I loved this little guy - so cute!

P1090520 — Keep in mind that any image you use for the front or back will be wrapped around the edges.

P1090521

Keep in touch!

Subscribe to my blog via RSS feed
Follow me on Twitter
“Like” me on Facebook
or subscribe to my e-mail newsletter (look for the light blue box above right to enter your e-mail address!)
______________