Mini-Book

MINI BOOK ASSIGNMENT

Your last assignment, before you move onto your self-directed final project, is to begin to explore the Photo Book as a form of creative output, using Lightroom’s Book Module. In LR, you can create a Print-on-Demand book to send directly to blurb.com. Everyone will make a mini book for this assignment and send it to Blurb, so that your classmates can flip through it digitally for our critique.

People who are pleased with what they make, or who go on to make a more developed book for their final project, may opt to purchase and print the physical book. This may be a short-term project only, or you can go onto develop it further; many students in past sections of this class have opted to focus on a book for their final, self-directed project.

Due by our 1-on-1 Sessions next week, starting 3/30:

1. View some Photo Book Examples here, including flip-videos, online .pdfs, etc., to give you a sense of the photo book as an art form and an approach to the photographic medium. (It saddens me that we won’t be sitting together at a large table passing physical books around, as we have done in past iterations of this class, but we will make due!)
2. Watch the  Lightroom Book Tutorial. Use these two resources to begin to get a sense of the process, and to consider what you might want to work on for your photo book project.
3. Create a free account on Blurb.com. *Consider using your personal email address if you are not a full-time MassArt student or employee.
4. Create a Lightroom Collection Set in your catalog called “BOOKS” and a new collection inside of that set, dedicated to your mini-book (if you have a title in mind already, use that; if not; just call it “Mini Book”). Add a selection of images to this collection, attempting to keep it to a reasonable number. Your book should contain a minimum of 10 images, including one that you may want to use for a cover.
5. You do not need to begin your book layout until our meeting, but consider deciding what size you want your book to be, as you’ll need to make that decision before you begin your layout.

Due by 12pm EST on Tuesday 4/6, the day of our Mini-Books Critique:

1. Create a mini Blurb book using Lightroom.
2. Send your book to Blurb, and make it publicly visible on the site.
3. Add the full URL of your book AS A COMMENT HERE ON THIS POST, by Tuesday April 6 at 12pm EST, so that your classmates can preview your book live online before our critique.