Slides, negatives and the box in the loft

Old photos are fragile in more ways than one. The paper fades, the colours shift and the people who knew who was in them grow fewer every year. Getting them scanned and labelled is a job worth doing now.

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

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

Priya Nair, Paperleaf print room

Why it works

Do not aim for perfection. A good-enough scan with the right caption beats a perfect scan of a stranger.

Start with the photos that only one person can still name. Everything else can wait.

• Leave the cover for last
• Star photos as you take them
• Pick a fixed day each month

One more thing

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

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

The book comes, and for one evening nobody looks at their phone.

Marcus, father of three

Keep it simple

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.

Watch the light at different times of day in your own home. Most houses have one window that is lovely for an hour every afternoon.

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

Try it this month

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

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.

• Star photos as you take them
• Keep one photo per day at most
• 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

What we got wrong

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.

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.

• Back up before deleting anything
• Write a few words beside the best ones
• Leave the cover for last

A few small rules

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

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

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

Tom Okafor, Paperleaf

Make it a habit

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.

Some readers keep a short list of rules on a sticky note beside the computer. Ours says: faces first, then places, then anything that made us laugh. It is not scientific, but it stops the session turning into an evening of second-guessing.

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

Start with what you already have

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.

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.

• Keep one photo per day at most
• Include at least one place, not just faces
• Leave the cover for last

Why it works

Keep the phone charged and the lens clean on days you expect to matter. It sounds small, but a flat battery or a smudged lens has cost more good pictures than any missing piece of equipment.

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

One more thing

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.

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

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

Keep it simple

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.

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
• Keep one photo per day at most
• Back up before deleting anything

Try it this month

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.