Indoors in winter: making the most of a dark afternoon

Good photos are mostly about seeing, not about settings. Before you lift the phone, notice where the light is coming from and what sits behind your subject. Those two things decide most pictures.

Here are the photos that made it into the book. Tap any of them to see it larger.

Keep it simple

Try this at home first, where you can take your time. It soon becomes a habit you use without thinking.

Small changes in where you stand make big changes in the picture. Move a step before you change anything else.

• Write a few words beside the best ones
• Include at least one place, not just faces
• Back up before deleting anything

Start with what you already have

Make a cup of tea, sit somewhere comfortable and put the phone on do-not-disturb. The job goes faster when it does not compete with messages.

Set aside a fixed time for it. The last Sunday of the month works for a lot of readers because the week is quiet and the month is complete.

I thought I needed a better camera. I needed a better window.

Tom Okafor, Paperleaf

Why it works

If you share a camera roll with someone, agree on who picks which month. Taking turns means each book has a slightly different point of view, and nobody ends up doing all of the work every time.

Write the year on the spine. It sounds obvious, but without it a shelf of books quickly becomes a puzzle.

Before you start: make sure your phone is backed up. Deleting is easier when nothing can be lost.

What we got wrong

Quiet months are worth printing too. A month with no trips and no birthdays often turns into the book people return to, because it shows what ordinary life looked like before it changed.

A good caption answers the question someone will ask in twenty years. Who is that? Where were we? Why is everyone wet? Write the answer while you still know it, even if it feels too obvious to bother with today.

• Write a few words beside the best ones
• Star photos as you take them
• Pick a fixed day each month

One more thing

Take one photo before the moment and one after. The before and after often say more than the moment itself.

If a month feels thin, look again at the photos you took without thinking. The best ones are often hiding there.

My mum reads the captions more than she looks at the pictures.

Leila, who writes every caption by hand

Try it this month

Most people find the first month the hardest. You are learning what you like, and every photo feels important. By the third month you will notice yourself moving faster, trusting your first reaction and spending your time on the handful of close calls instead of on every single picture.

Do not be afraid of imperfect photos. A little blur or a stray elbow often tells you more about the day than a tidy, posed shot.

Before you start: make sure your phone is backed up. Deleting is easier when nothing can be lost.

Make it a habit

Keep the rejected photos somewhere safe for a while. Tastes change, and a picture you passed over may be the one you want next year.

Try not to edit every photo. A little brightening is fine, but heavy filters date quickly and make a year of books look uneven when they sit together on a shelf. Let the light of the day show.

• Include at least one place, not just faces
• Back up before deleting anything
• Hand the camera to someone else

When to stop

Hand the phone to someone else at least once a month. It is the only way the photographer gets into the book.

It helps to know what the book is for before you start. A book for grandparents wants faces and clear captions. A book for yourself can hold the odd corner of the garden, the shadow on the wall and the plate of food that only makes sense to you.

Picking is a skill. Like any skill, it gets faster.

Priya Nair, Paperleaf print room

What to look for

If two photos are nearly the same, keep the one where someone is doing something. A raised hand, a turned head or a half-finished sentence gives a picture life that a perfectly still pose rarely has, even when the still one is technically better.

Be generous on the first pass. You are not deciding what goes in the book yet, only what is definitely out.

Reader tip: one family keeps a paper list on the fridge of moments they want in the next book.

A few small rules

Share the book when it arrives. Leaving it on the kitchen table for a day is often enough for everyone to have a look.

If you miss a month, do not try to catch up all at once. Start again with this month and fill the gap later if you feel like it.

• Back up before deleting anything
• Hand the camera to someone else
• Include at least one place, not just faces

Keep it simple

Look back at last year’s book before you start this month’s. It reminds you what you enjoyed seeing again and what you skipped past, which makes this month’s choices quicker and kinder.

Try to include everyone. It is easy to end up with a book full of the children and none of the person holding the camera.

My mum reads the captions more than she looks at the pictures.

Leila, who writes every caption by hand

Start with what you already have

On the second pass, look for variety. A month of the same room and the same faces feels flat, even if each photo is lovely on its own.

Leave a little space. Not every page needs to be full, and an empty corner gives the eye somewhere to rest.

Good to know: every Paperleaf book has room for thirty photos, so there is no prize for keeping more.

Why it works

Do not wait for a special occasion. The ordinary weeks are the ones people forget, and the ones they most want to see again.

Delete duplicates as you go rather than saving them for later. Later rarely comes, and a cleaner camera roll makes picking much easier.

• Include at least one place, not just faces
• Star photos as you take them
• Keep one photo per day at most

What we got wrong

Do not forget the in-between moments: the car park before the party, the coats piled on a chair, the walk home in the dark. They are the parts of a day that nobody photographs on purpose and everybody recognises straight away.

Back up before you delete anything. It takes a minute and removes the fear that stops people from clearing out at all.

My mum reads the captions more than she looks at the pictures.

Leila, who writes every caption by hand