Albelli Photo book Blog

Greek Orthodox Monks…. one of the best

F.Durcan — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 10:06:19 +0000

Every now and then we come across a customer photo book that really knocks our socks off! Wim de Vos shared his photo book about Greek Orthodox Monks who live on Mount Athos in North East Greece on our Facebook page… and we were entralled!

Wim took the photos whilst travelling to Mount Athos to film a documentary, in his role as a lighting cameraman for CBS 60 minutes. It was only later when looking at the still photos he’d taken that he decided to create a photo book. The photo book took him a month to put together and he said one of his biggest tips for other photo book makers is to be very critical about the photos that go in the book – think about the colour matching, size and layout.

Have a flick through and be impressed at this truly professional and utterly breath-taking photo book – we think it’s one of the best we’ve seen.

Spring photo book

F.Durcan — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 13:57:19 +0000

Spring is such a beautiful, exciting time of the year – spring bulbs, longer nights, Easter celebrations and of course, the promise of summer ahead.

To celebrate all that Spring entails, we decided to put together a Spring photo book using some of our favourite Spring images and combining them with our easy photo book editor options. See below a couple of our favourite spreads and instructions on how you can create this look in our photo book editor.

How to make our ‘Flower Power’ page: Select ‘Insert’ tab, then ‘Backgrounds‘ then ‘Children – unisex baby’. To place the daffodils on the page, select ‘Insert’, then ‘Clipart‘ then ‘Flowers’ and insert the flowers of your choice.

How to make our ‘Easter Countdown’ page: The effect on the eggs is created by a Mask: Select the photo you wish to use, then select the ‘Insert’ tab, then ‘Masks’ then ‘Torn paper’, this will give the panel effect. To add the numbers to the page, select ‘Insert’ tab, then ‘Clipart’ then ‘Alphabet’ and select the numbers you wish to insert.

How to create a ‘Garden Wall’ page: Select ‘Insert’ tab, then ‘Backgrounds’ then ‘Wood’ then insert the wooden background you would like to use. To add the polaroid effect to the photos, select ‘Insert’ then ‘Frame‘ then ‘Holiday – Summer’ and choose the polaroid look frame. To place the flowers on the page, select ‘Insert’, then ‘Clipart’ then ‘Flowers’ and insert the flowers of your choice.

The final product in our office – doesn’t it make a lovely unique Easter gift for friends and family?

Excited to launch an updated Mac Editor

F.Durcan — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 16:17:50 +0000

Great news for our Mac users, we have just launched a new version of our photo book editor for Mac (version 1.4)! This new version comes fit with 4 major developments… details here:

1. Color Frames

In addition to our custom designer frame, we now offer color frames for your photos. Choose one of the standard colors or a color from any point of your screen.

2. Photo Effects

You are now able to create photo effects within our photo book editor. Options include sepia, black and white, blur and tint adjustments. Easy to select and add, these effects help create a truly professional photo book.

3. Horizontal and vertical alignment

There are now 6 new icons at the top of your screen. These tools allow you to align your photos on a page or spread with a simple click.

4. Quickly see which photos you have already used

There is now a ‘counter’ which indicates how often you have used a photo in your photo book to ensure you are not doubling up unintentionally.You might recognize the symbol from your iPhone.

Throughout the Mac editor other small adjustments have been made to ensure your photo book creation is a easy and enjoyable as possible.

Coming soon: Clipart!

The next version the Albelli Mac editor will also feature a selection of clipart. Until then you are able to use the internet search function to add images to your photo book. Tip: if you search “.png” you have the best chance of finding a picture with a transparent background.

Do you have any suggestions for our next Mac version? We’d love to hear them!

How to get the updated software: If you already have our Mac software installed, the latest version will automatically install when you are connected to the internet. If you haven’t tried our Mac editor yet, you can download it here.

Share something you love

F.Durcan — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:37:24 +0000

Are you a blogger? We hope so! Because along with our friends at Love All Blogs, we are calling all bloggers for an image of something they love! The competition is simple, if you are a blogger you just need to share an image of something you love on your blog; the kind of photo that brings a smile to your eyes!

We are giving all entries a Landscape ‘M’ size photo book for entering and £100 voucher for an acrylic or canvas print for the grand winner, so get in quick!

Entering is easy – check out the details on the Love All Blogs info page. Good luck!

Party photo book flair

F.Durcan — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:12:09 +0000

Some of my all-time favourite photos are party moments; whether they are silly dress ups, formal gatherings or casual picnics (and I’m sure you’re the same!). Just being at a party tends to make people relaxed and happy – all the better for snapping that great shot. Because of this, photos from parties are often ones I want to include in my photo books.

To really make your party photos shine, we have added some new “party” themed backgrounds and clipart to the Albelli photo book editor. See a selection below… they’re sure to add some excitement to your next photo book!

Party Backgrounds:

Party Clipart:

How to say ‘I love you’ on Valentine’s Day

F.Durcan — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:09:53 +0000

Do you find it hard to say ‘I Love You’? You won’t be the only person!

A colleague in our Dutch team has created this photo book for his girlfriend for Valentine’s Day. “Hou ik van jou” directly translates as “I love you”. Such a simple but beautiful way to show your love on Valentine’s. We know his girlfriend will be feeling very special on Valentine’s and will treasure this gift for years to come.

Still looking for Valentine’s Day inspiration? Find it here in our great gift ideas.

The Cost of Love

F.Durcan — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:46:11 +0000

We might like to think we are a nation of romantics but we decided this Valentine’s that it would be interesting to look at exactly how we do spend at Valentine’s so we commissioned a survey to find out more!

We’ve taken our favourite results and put them into an infographic (a small taste of this is below). Click through to see the full infographic and also take the embed code to host on your own website or blog if you wish!

Looking for Valentine’s Day Inspiration? You can find it in our Valentine’s Gift Ideas.

New York, New York; a photo book story

F.Durcan — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 15:58:05 +0000

Remember that moment when you walk in the door from holiday… the familiar, welcoming smell of home, the tired feeling after a long journey, the tinge of regret that something good has come to an end and the knowledge that inevitably routine will kick in the next morning. Yes, you know it!

It’s not the first time we’ve said this at Albelli, but a photo book really is a beautiful way to relive that holiday feeling weeks and months after the memories have started to fade. The latest addition to our photo book inspiration pages is a book by a colleague Martin on a recent trip to New York with friends. Now you don’t even need to have been to New York to appreciate the beauty of this book on your coffee table, but if you are the one who lived through each of those photos, it is a very special reminder of a magical time in your life, to savour for years to come.

Flick through and be inspired this Friday!

Geekanoids and Albelli ‘water’ photo book

F.Durcan — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 09:47:42 +0000

Several weeks ago I announced that we were excited to be sponsoring the Geekanoids Photo Critique. We are now into the 3rd month of the critique, with the January theme being Street Photography – you can see the details here. It’s a great project and if you are a budding photographer, I’d encourage you to check out the current entries and enter here. I wanted to share with you the online widget of the photo book I’ve made of the entries from the Novemeber critique – with the theme ‘water’. Some great images and the book looks beautiful on my desk!

New clip art for your photo book

F.Durcan — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 13:59:51 +0000

We are forever coming up with fun new ways you can make your photo book truly special. The latest selection of clip art in the gallery (available in our free download editor) is called “Pinboard” and features funky ways to add style to your photo book.

I’ve had some fun using the new clip art in a baby book, see below.

To access the clip art in the download editor, simply click on “Insert” then “Clip art” then select the “Download more” button in the pop-up to download the new clip art (and any you haven’t previously downloaded), then select from the range (see below).

Note: To insert text, simply insert a text box on top of the clip art and edit as normal.

If you are ever wondering what other fun assets are available in our editor, don’t forget to check our Layout extras pages for great ideas and tips on how to make the best of your Albelli photo creation.

What’s your favourite clip art features and how do you use it? We’d love to hear!