The Fine Art of Family Magazine

Winter isn’t the only gift-giving season. Every spring welcomes a back-to-back lineup of special occasions—Mother’s Day, graduations, weddings, Father’s Day—that require some sort of thoughtful shopping. If you’re feeling all tapped out of ideas, I’ve got a simple solution for you: A customized photo album.

Useful, affordable, personal, and memorable, it might just be the perfect present. It’s one of the best gifts I’ve ever given. Using the photographs I had taken at my friend’s beautiful rehearsal dinner, I created a photo album for the newlyweds. I had it produced and delivered to their home as they were returning from their honeymoon. They were ecstatic. It now sits on their coffee table as a showpiece for everyone to enjoy.

You don’t need to be a photo geek like me to create a personalized and classic photo album. I tested several online photo book websites just for you and found three that I consider to be topnotch and super easy to use.

1) Kodak’s Photo Books

While popular photo sharing sites, like Shutterfly and Snapfish, offer similar book-making services, Kodak beats them with its wide-ranging design features (both interior and exterior) and high-quality print. Other perks include free, unlimited, private storage of your photos on its website, new design styles updated monthly, and the flexibility to add extra archive-worthy glossy pages, starting at $0.29 per page for up to a maximum of 80 pages per book.

Each album is professionally bound as paperback, hardcover, linen, or leather. Bonus: You can save a bundle by taking advantage of the site’s regular “Special Offers,” which may knock 20 to 40 percent off books. Prices range from $9.99 to $69.99* for a 20-page hardcover book, Kodak.com

2) Smile Books

If you’re pressed for time, Smile Books will take your images and design a book for you. All you need to do is upload your photos and set it on autopilot. Its designers will select the best images, then edit and lay them out in a series for you. When it’s done, you’ll receive an emailed link for your review of the book. At this point, you can make suggestions, add captions, and choose between a glossy or matte finish on their archival quality paper. Additional copies will only cost the printing fee ($40), making this a great gift idea for multiple people. Prices start at $80* for a 26-page hardcover book, including design service and photo selection. Smilebooks.scancafe.com

3) Blurb

This is the go-to site for all my photophile friends. It’s easy to see why: It offers the largest selection of book sizes (ranging from seven-square-inches to 11 x 13-inches), plus options for dust jackets, wrap cover printing (your cover image appears on the front and back, but not along the spine), and premium paper. To create a book, just download its free BookSmart software to a PC or Mac.

When you upload your images it will instantly sort them by date or alphabetical order. Each subsequent step is very intuitive, such as clicking and dragging a selected image to the page of your choice. Best feature: There’s an automatic warning if your digital image’s resolution is too low. It suggests an optimum size so that your shots never get pixilated or grainy! Though this site’s services are pricier compared to its competitors, the quality is undeniably incredible. Prices range from $13 to $200* per book, additional costs for up to 440 pages (which is huge!), Blurb.com

*Shipping costs are extra

About Our Expert: With 20 years as an editor, director and producer of photography for magazines and newspapers, Amelia Hennighausen has been immersed in the change from film to digital from the beginning. Also, as a professor of photojournalism at New York’s Fordham University, she’s made it her job to keep on top of the latest developments in technology and to stay current with the most recent trends.

[Photography by Sam Comen (opening shot). Additional images are courtesy of Kodak, Smile Book, and Blurb.]

Published on April 28, 2010

Tags: Digital Memories, Photography, Sharing