Creating a Photo Book: Choosing the Right Photos
Creating a photo book is fun and inspiring. You can become as imaginative or as simple as you like. There isn’t a perfect way to make a photo book. It’s about the thought that goes into it, reasoning behind it and adding that personal touch, making it truly unique.
If you’ve created a personalised photo book before, you’ll know that it isn’t a quick task. It can take days, weeks or even months. That’s not because it’s an annoyingly difficult thing to do. It’s because there’s a great deal of thought and effort that goes into creating a photo book to make sure it’s perfect, regardless, whether if it’s for you or a gift.
Selecting the right photos for your photo book
What makes a photo book perfect? The photos.
It’s all about choosing the right photos when creating a photo book – which is why it can take a while.
A photo book is a memory keepsake. The photos are meaningful and tell a story, whether it’s a hike up a mountain in Asia, the birth of your baby, wedding photos or enjoying a cocktail at the beach with friends. The photos you take mean something to you and the person you’re giving the photo book to.
Mindset
To make a photo book, you need to be in the right mindset and not have little distractions around you. It sounds stupid, but when it comes to choosing which photos to include, you’ll want to make sure they’re right.
Rushing a photo book often results in any old photo being picked, with no thought behind it. Once the photo book has gone to print, there isn’t much you can do. So, spend more time deciding which photos you want to include and think about who the photo book is for. Don’t regret your final decision!
Feelings & Emotions
Photo books are exciting. There’s always a warm feeling when you receive your photo book or newly developed photos. It becomes a social event looking through albums with family and friends, reminiscing, sharing tears and laughter. It’s a special, nostalgic moment that should be shared.
When choosing the pictures to make your photo book, think about who it’s for and its theme. Is it a gift for your best friend, partner, parents or for you? This will help you select the photos that are personal to you and the recipient. And consider the pictures that make you smile and allow you to reminisce about that moment when the picture was being taken. You’ll find photos you forgot about – these are the best ones! We’ve all been there. Looked through old photos or even recent ones and cringed, laughed or cried at that one picture. It might not make the final selection, but if it’s worth seeing the look on someone’s face (in a good way), then print it off anyway.
Photo Book Style
You also need to consider the size and shape of the photo book. The size of the album will help narrow the number of photos to include. But with the shape, you need to consider how the photo will look and if you have fit the image dimensions. There’s nothing worse than photos that are pixelated, stretched or squashed. Are you going for a black and white or coloured theme – or both?
There’s a lot to consider when choosing photos to personalise a photo book, but it’s worth it.
Photo book ideas & designs
Long gone are the days where a photo book was a standardised album. With the development of digital technology, smartphones and Instagram lead the way for taking and storing photos, and albums are becoming digitalised – but this doesn’t affect the quality. Of course, a snapshot taken on your phone compared to a professional camera are different.
Inkifi has a variety of designs to suit all occasions, helping you choose the photos.
We have a 5-minute photo book that can be created in minutes – perfect for remembering a weekend away to a classic photo book for capturing your holiday snaps.
A photo book that lies flat and can stay on display on a coffee table – these are perfect for wedding or landscape photos. We have a photo book available for all occasions, styles and themes.
Once you have the photo book theme and style in mind, got a selection of photos to include, think about the order you want to put them in. Each photo has its own backstory, so order them to create a lasting memory and a story to tell with a beginning, middle and end. It’s easier said than done, we know! For wedding albums or first-year birthday photo books, it’s much easier to do.
Photo books recreate memories. It’s a timeless gift filled with treasurable memoirs. As far as personal and meaningful gifts go, creating a photo book is up there.
Read our guide for more inspiration on how to make a personal photo book, whether it’s for yourself or as a gift.