Raise your hand if “make a family/travel/baby photo book” has been on your personal to-do list for, oh, years? As photographers, the sheer volume of photos we capture can make this seem like an insurmountable project. Even if you’re able to get your photos under control, the ever-increasing number of options for where to create and print a photo book can stop you in your tracks.
The time has come to stop worrying about making the perfect photo book. Instead, start thinking about your kids sitting on the couch, flipping through your books, giggling and pointing at pictures of moments forgotten until they were holding those tangible memories in their little hands. Read on for five tips to help you not only get started on a personal photo book, but also see it through to completion.
1. Shoot for the Album
If you shoot professionally, whether it is babies, families or weddings, you are likely trying to capture three main elements in a session: the people and their connections, the location for context and some details to round out their story. You may even have the goal of selling your client an album and you shoot accordingly. Why not approach your personal work with the same goals? Focusing on just these three elements — context, characters, and close-ups — will provide you with three different and compelling perspectives of your story without overwhelming your hard drive with images and choices when the time comes to make your album. Shoot a wide shot of the landscape for a double page spread, a few people interactions, and then come in tight for a detail shot. Added bonus: Once you’ve nailed these three shots, give yourself permission to put away the camera and enjoy the experience yourself! If you already shoot your kid and then hone in on their sweet curls or chubby feet, trust me your album design will be a breeze!
2. Make a “Warm-up” Book
If you have never made a photo book before, warm-up to the process by selecting a smaller story to tell. You didn’t jump right into off-camera lighting when you got your DSLR, you first learned how to master natural lighting. Rather than launching into a “Year In Review” album, why not tackle your #100DaysOfSummer photos, or your latest vacation? These are both examples of projects that have a well-defined set of photos and storyline. Set yourself up for success with a limited set of options at the onset and you will be much more likely to complete your book. Once you have that first book in your hands, it will be all the motivation you need to tackle your larger stories! For example, rather than telling the entire wedding story, I focused this album on just the story of my kid’s roles as flower girl and ring bearer…
3. Pick Your Printer Quickly
I’ve been guilty of agonizing over choosing the perfect album vendor. Recently, I spent far too long selecting an album style for my “Year in Review” books. My vision of our annual family albums lining our bookshelf with perfectly matched spines paralyzed me. The decision I made for the first one would follow me for years to come. I’m guessing some of you can relate?
I finally realized that there would be no albums on the shelf at all if I didn’t just pick one and move forward. It may not be the perfect choice, but no one in my family will care if I change directions, pick a different vendor for the next year, and our books don’t match! By approaching album creation as an exercise in practicing my storytelling vs. creating a perfect book, it frees me up to experiment and enjoy the process. Want even more specific direction? Give Artifact Uprising or Blurb a try, you won’t be disappointed.
4. Write a Design Recipe
Limit the ingredients, or options, you include in your book. Less decisions = faster design time. For this album chronicling my visits to San Francisco coffee shops, I established and repeated the following recipe:
text on the left side (coffee shop name, address and my favorite thing about it)
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full bleed single image on the right
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several pages of supporting images
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easy album design!
5. Set Mini Goals
Most professional photographers have an established client workflow. From their first point of contact to the final handwritten thank you note, each step along the way is documented and ticked off upon completion. The same approach works beautifully for creating a photo book.
When we take a big project and break it down into smaller pieces the project becomes much more manageable. Setting mini goals, i.e. today I will star rate my photos, tomorrow I will edit my photos, the next day I will export them etc. provides you with success checkpoints en route to completing your project.
I would love to hear your tips and tricks for getting started AND finishing your personal albums!
Love your books! I’m new to creating photo books and I have found your recommendations so very helpful. My question has to do with the fonts: for example a book size 10×10, do you stick with the same font and size when writing your storyline throughout the book, or do you change the font and size on various pages? Would you mind sharing what size and font you use for your story telling? And, do you tend to use that at size font for all book sizes?
How perfect! I have just started to go through all my photos from this year a few days ago and made a goal to create my first photo book within the next few weeks. I have decided to go with Artifact Uprising an dyou are comforting me in my choice, Thank You!
Great Ideas! Thanks! Can you tell us the type of books you have in the photos of your post?
Great post here! Photo books can overwhelm me and I appreciate these great suggestions and advice.