The Five Do's And Don’ts When Creating A Photo Book

There are guides for everything nowadays. But that’s not to say they are any good, because many A-Z guides can be hard to wrap your head around.

Seriously, we wish IKEA manuals were just a few pages full of DO’s and DON’T DO’s, that way we might actually end up with some furniture rather than something that looks like it should belong in a Picasso gallery.

The same goes for photo books. You’re sure to find a number of guides on the internet about how best to create a photo book, but sometimes you just need something in black and white. Do this. Don’t do that.

But then, that’s what we’re here for. Below, you’ll find a list of five DO’s and five DON’T DO’s, ensuring that your photo book creation is as good – and as simple – as it can be. 

Let’s get started:

The Do’s

• Pick A Theme

Okay, the first and perhaps the most important thing: picking a theme. When creating a Facebook and Instagram photo book, you have two different platforms to choose from, which means it’s easy to forget a central, focused theme. Make sure you find a good theme (birthday party, vacation, cat, dog) and stick to it.

• Choose The Best

It’s also important to make sure you pick the best. Your photo book has room for a number of photographs, but it’s still a finite room, so you should fill it with all of the very best photographs you have taken.

• Create A Story

Whilst actually in the process of creating the photo book, try and find a story that will guide the reader from beginning to end. Any good book has a narrative thread, and your book should be no different.

• Include Showstoppers

Every so often in a photo book, you should have a page that is dedicated to one photograph only. This is what’s known as a “showstopper”, and it should be treated with care if you want to create a big impact. Make sure you at least have a showstopper at the beginning and at the end, kicking and rounding off your photo book with a bang.

• Make It Fun

Lastly, make sure you have fun with it! It can be easy to focus on getting your photo book just right and forgetting that this is supposed to be an enjoyable experience. Make sure you keep it fun, light-hearted, and let the photographs do the talking.

The Don’ts

• Photo Dump

You should never be lazy when it comes to photo books. That is to say, don’t simply bring all of your pics to a photo book maker and hope it’ll work. A cluttered photo book is no fun for anyone -- we think your photographs are great, honestly, but we could do without ten pictures of your blurry, red-eyed friend – and any theme or story will immediately be lost if you don’t simply choose the best.

• Add Filters

There are many pros and cons to photograph filters, but typically they only work when they are carefully thought through and elevate the photograph in question. In other words, don’t retrospectively add filters to your photograph just to make your photo book look a little more colourful.

• Get Too Excited

It’s also important to remember, this isn’t the only photo book you will ever make. A lot of the time, people ruin the theme and story by adding photographs they love to a collection of photographs that don’t correlate thematically. You might love the photographs in question, but that doesn’t make them right for your book. The theme is important and there’ll be time to give your other photographs the glossy treatment later!

• Forget The Quiet Moments

Speaking of excitement, it’s also easy to include all of the biggest and best photographs in your photo book, and forget the quiet moments. But smaller, more intricate photographs can give a nice respite to the reader. As well as this, sometimes those quieter photographs hold more weight than the loud ones. There’s a number of reasons why photographs give us a comforting sense of nostalgia, but most of the time it’s due to an emotional reaction to a memory, and the quiet memories often speak the loudest.

• Leave It There

Lastly, make sure not to leave it there! There’s nothing better than having a bookshelf full of photo books, each with their own story to tell, and you’ve likely got hundreds more photographs to showcase. Ensure that you continue creating and become an official photo book pro!