I have used Mixbook.com to make 5 or 6 books over the years and was always very pleased with the quality snd speed of service. Hard or soft cover, horizontal or vertical are all possible and while more pages mean more money, I think you can go up to 100 pages.

On1PhotoRAW has been great. It combines capabilities of both LR and PS and has good support and lots of video training. Scott kelby is a great teacher snd he puts stuff on YouTube all the time. The best thing is you can Browse and Edit photos wherever they are — hard drive Desktop, Dropbox without bringing them into a special folder.

I think On1 No Noise and Sharpen is the best for both -- preferable to Topaz.

How many people in photo? You need goid photographer with right equipment —not necessarily big name photographers. I have suggestions once I know number of folks in the picture.

How many people need to fit into the photo?

I was disappointed to see the Subscription option because only a few years ago, On1's marketing pitch was don't get locked into subscription mode. In any case, the individual plug-ins are mainly for people who use LR or PS (or someone else) -- all the software is included if you purchase the new version. Not sure why someone would want both the complete software PLUS the plug-ins. Maybe someone will explain that to me.

Meanwhile, I'm very happy with On1's Photo RAW processing -- basic tone & color, special effects, masking, layers, portrait mode -- it does it all.

You only pay once a year. Any interim upgrades, e.g., 2021.5 are free. If you're an On1 Plus member, you pay more but the software is included in that. To my mind, On1 does whatever you can do with Lightroom, quite a bit of Photoshop, better than Topaz Sharpen, so much more than Luminar and nobody comes close to their Portrait Module. I've never used DxO so can't say anything about that.

Strange that I’ve been an On1 user for 6 or 7 years and never experienced any if the problems you’re having. Helpful people get back to you in 24 hours or less. The Portrait Module is worth the price alone. I’ve been helping my son retouch portraits and headshots and it’s amazing. Many people including PS and LR users have been raving about Topaz Sharpen but On1’s NoNoise blows them out of the water. Any software will give you adequate lightening, darkening, color correcting sliders but the “extras” from ON1 are really amazing. And the BROWSE module that lets you edit photos on your Desktop, hard drive, external hard drive or even cloud services such as Dropbox is innovative genius—not to have to bring photos into a LR catalog to work in them. Wow! If none of those features impress you, then by all means, stick with LR.

Raise the ISO and raise the shutter speed—1/5000 of a sec for hummers. Can also try flash. It’s not easy.

If you’re going to use a plug in I believe that ON1 No Noise AI is much faster and produces better results than Topaz. I’m sure you can sign up for a free trial for both.

My son shot a bar mitzvah and he was asked to keep a certain distance from the altar, which requires a long lens but was also prohibited from using a tripod. He also had to sign papers promising to adhere to specific rules for photographers shooting bar and bat mitzvahs. There were certain portions of the ceremony where there was no picture taking at all. He videoed another bar mitzvah in a very informal setting outside of a synogogue and that was a totally different experience. Also, different rules for shooting the ceremony vs. the party after.

GEEK SQUAD is useless. My son and husband had NO HELP from them. Took computer for 3 months and same problems were there when it returned. But APPLE CARE has been very helpful. Phone help available by calling 800-275-2273 or 800-692-7753. I did not pay extra for this service but you will have to have the serial number when you call.

I just replied and suggested folks check out Park West Camera Club in NYC. Currently, nearly all our activities are on Zoom and we have members who live in Connecticut, New Jersey and Long Island. Since Covid, many members who live farther outside of the city at least part time (upstate NY, Florida, California) are active members. We aren't doing as many field trips as we used to but hope that will come back eventually.

You may think this is totally crazy but the Park West Camera Club in NYC now has its meetings, monthly competitions, image critique workshops, and once a month guest speakers all on Zoom. Before Covid we met weekly (except in July/August) in person. People miss the in-person contact and frequent photo walks but also enjoy the regular contact with other photographers and now we have members with homes in other states who can participate. Modest dues are required to pay for guest speakers and judges. Check out @parkwestcsmeraclub on Instagram and www.parkwestcameraclub.org

ON1 Photo RAW does everything that Lightroom does in terms of data management only better—you don’t have to import files to use On1’s—but can tag and sort and edit your images whether they’re on your computer’s hard drive, external HD, desktop or Cloud storage system like Dropbox using the BROWSE module. In terms of editing, it is not as robust as Photoshop but you can work in layers, which you can’t do in LR —but have to go back and forth between LR and PS. And there’s no subscription —just a one time payment, though I do wind up upgrading each year when they come out with enhancements.