One of the greatest options available today for all your wonderful digital prints are photo books. Most of you will recognize immediately what I'm talking about, but in case you're not sure, these are actual bound books that contain all your personal photographs, and can also display detailed descriptions of those photos, or any other information you want to include. These books can be beautiful works of art to display on your coffee table, or they can be a simple straight-forward way to organize your photo library.
There are many websites that offer them, but if you're going to do one yourself, make sure you do your research! Pricing, layout and cover options, as well as ease of use all very greatly from program to program. WalMart.com, Costco.com, KodakGallery.com are a few of the big retail names that allow you to put together your own bound and printed book of all your favorite digital shots in a relatively simple format. There are also several software programs such as the one available through iPhoto for mac, that offer the option of creating a photo book. Many of these offer stock backgrounds and page templates and will even allow you to automatically populate your photos into the book.
Here are a few of the things you'll want to look into before getting started on your book project:
1. What type of book are you looking to organize? Is it a child's biography (K-12), a baby book, a vacation log or just your family's year in review? The reason for your book will help to determine style, layout and look. It will also be helpful to have a plan as to how large you would like your book to be, and how many pages you want to use to tell your story. Will this book be displayed on your coffee table, or do you want one that will fit easily onto your book shelf?
2. Do you want it to be photo-only or provide detailed information about those photos? Baby books or wedding albums for example, might be photo-only, providing a beautiful way to display all your professional portraits. But be careful not to make this your only record...some day you will want to remember a lot of little details that would otherwise be lost, so be sure to write them down somewhere! My philosophy is that if you're going to do that anyway, why not include it in the book alongside your beautiful portraits?
3. What story are you trying to tell? I like to include as much information as possible, so that if someone was looking at the book and I wasn't sitting next to them, the story would make sense to them. Sometimes you can actually tell the whole story in pictures. More often, to tell the complete story you will need to include additional information. Details also make the photos more interesting and will usually be forgotten fairly quickly, so I like to add as many interesting little details or fun facts as I can remember. The amount of detail you'd like to include may affect your design layout, so you'll want to have an idea of this before you begin your project.
4. Think long-term. Remember that someday your children, grandchildren or great-grandchildren may be reading through this book to get to know you better. Plan to include pictures and information that may seem everyday and mundane to you, but will provide future generations with priceless information about your life. Be sure to plan specific information you want to include depending on your project. For instance, a holiday book may not be complete without a few favorite family recipes.
Develop a plan based on these first four steps and you'll be on your way! Compile all your photos, information & memorabilia you'd like to include in your book. Don't have a lot of pictures? No problem! You can build a beautiful book with very few pictures whether you're into writing or not! Got lots of memorabilia that won't fit in a photo book? Take a few creative photos of your favorite pieces and include them! I like to do this with ticket stubs, programs & other common items that help to tell the story. The beauty of this whole process is that it's by YOU. Include what's important to you and let your personality shine through.
Now Go Make History!
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