This is an image of my two youngest daughters a few years ago. We got them a plastic blowup igloo. Great fun. When they got in, the static electricity nearly caused a thunderstorm!Creating interesting products using your own digital images has long been plagued by what I refer to as "The Three Myths". These myths have been well earned in the industry and are still around today in an industry dominated by software tools, computer hardware and technology wonks. Here they are:
Myth Number 1: It takes too long
Myth Number 2: It costs too much
Myth Number 3: The quality is poor
Today, I'd like to take on the Myth Number 1.
In the early days of digital photography only the hearty, knowledgeable few were able to navigate the cluttered ocean of software tools and hardware. Creating a photo book using your own images was, well impossible. Along came some bright developers and not only was it expensive, it also took a long time.
At the beginning of 2008, the Photo Industry published a study saying that it took more than 19 hours for the average person to create a photo book. I was blown away and did some research. Did you know that it only takes, on average, 183 minutes to buy a car!
Who has 19 hours? I worked with a great lady, an expert in scrapbooking and the industry. When her mother died, she made her a book using an online photo book tool. I asked her what she thought.
"It took a long time" was her well considered reply.
"Will you ever make another?" She thought a moment, pursing her lips and looking up and off to the left. "No" she said after a moment. "Really?" I asked.
"Well maybe I'll do another if my father dies."
I was shocked. Here was an expert and she might make two books in her lifetime because it took too long.
More shocking was the industry's answer. After thoughtfully considering the time and effort it took, they suggested that retailer offer "training classes" in how to make a photo book.
I met another lady at a high end Photo Retail store. she had been coming to the store for more than a year in order to make the perfect book of a trip she took with her daughter.
Last March, I looked at a piece of software that touted itself as "the easiest to use option" on the market. The books were lifeless and single dimensioned. Worse yet, I did the math. If you were to try all of their potential features, you'd be choosing from more than 9.6 trillion choices. At aVinci, we're working to create solutions that create professional looking photo books, DVD's and posters in seconds.
If you have layouts or styles you like, art that impresses, tell me and we'll tell the industry.
I met a woman over the holidays, a mother of 2 from Pensacola, FL, who went on to tell me that she loved photo books but they also caused her a lot of embarassment.
ReplyDeleteI asked her to explain, and she said that all her friends had a photo book of their kids, but she didn't have a comparible book because she found the experience much too difficult. And since she was the only one without a photobook, she didn't want to admit that. So when they all sat together and talked about their kids, her reply was always that she hadn't had the time yet to make a book yet, but she would.
Unknown to her friends, she actually had tried a few times to make a photo book. Her first experience was with some software she downloaded. She commented that she only spent an hour or two one evening on it, but ended up with a "crappy looking book" (her words) because "I didn't know how to make it look any good." After three hours, she just gave up.
She asked one of her friends how long it took them, and they said that it was a project she did "for the holidays", implying that she worked on it for several evenings over an extended period.
Oddly enough, she said she found a different solution, albeit temporary until she gets more time to make a photo book. For now, she simply buys another memory card, and carries around memory cards in her purse with her camera. When she wants to share photos, she just pops the memory card in her camera and shows them on the screen. Not ideal she says, but she also said it was good enough until she gets more time.