Another take away from my SoFoBoMo book Places Amongst Us has been the relatively feel in my hands of the Blurb square 6-3/4 x 6-3/4″ softcover book. Perhaps a little too small. My square images appear to be stuffed in it. Admittedly, I use the LensWork magazine (also softcover & pefect bound) as my “gold standard” for small softcover books at the moment.
I had thought, since I am shooting square, then publish a square book. But the images just do not have a enough breathing room. I know that I have said this before, but I feel it is worth repeating and I want to write more about it now.
Fortunately, I have the ability to make a quick comparison, in as my film photograph example in my Sharpening book is the same one from the same square format series.
In the square book, my square image is 5-1/8 x 5-1/8″ with a 1/2″ surrounding margin. In the 10 x 8″ horizontal book, the square image is 4-3/4 x 4-3/4″ with a 1-5/8″ margin. The slightly smaller image with the larger margin in the larger book just looks and feels so much better. I think that this is where I also admit that I use really big mattes when I frame my prints.
The extra margin I call breathing room for the photographic image. Which I guess also puts me in a design space for a classic, not a contemporary book design. I do like the effects of a gallery in a book look.
Thus, next time I complete another series of square photographs and use Blurb, if they have not launched a larger version of the square book, I will be going with the retangular formats. That works better for me.
Best regards, Doug
