Thousands of photos in, one good book out. Here is a method that makes the choosing easy.
The hardest part of a photo book is not designing it. It is choosing. Start by gathering every photo from the trip, event or year into one album, then take a first quick pass and remove anything blurry, dark, accidental or an obvious duplicate. Do not agonise yet. You are only clearing the obvious.
Phones take bursts and people take five photos of the same pose. For every moment, keep the single best one. Look at faces first: eyes open, natural expression, nobody half-hidden. Then look at focus and light.
If two photos are equally good, keep the one that shows more of the place or the feeling around the person.
Split the book into chapters, such as one per day of a trip or per event of a wedding, and choose one hero photo for each. This is your strongest photo of the chapter, and it gets a full page or a large space on a spread. The other photos in the chapter support it.
If you cannot choose between two heroes, use one to open the chapter and one to close it.
A good book has variety. Look for a mix of wide shots that set the scene, medium shots of people, close-ups of faces and details, and a few candid moments. A book of only posed group photos feels formal. A book of only close-ups loses the place.
For tips on taking better photos in the first place, see how to take photos that print well.
Put the photos in the order things happened unless you have a strong reason not to. Readers follow time easily. For a trip, that is day by day. For a baby book, month by month. For a wedding, event by event.
For each photo you keep, use the original file from your camera roll, not a copy sent on WhatsApp. Chat apps shrink photos, and the lost detail shows up as blur on a printed page, most of all on a large one. Our resolution guide explains how many pixels each page size needs.
A book that includes everything is tiring to read. Leave out good photos that are not needed. It is much easier to make a second book than to fit a whole life into one.
Ready to start? See how to make a photo book, or browse photo books.
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