Picking is the part nobody warns you about. Taking photos is easy; deciding which ones deserve paper is where most monthly books stall. The trick is to make several quick passes rather than one slow one, and to decide before you start how many photos the month actually needs.
This is how the two pictures sit together on one spread.
Keep it simple
Start with the photos you would rescue from a fire. There are usually five or six, and they make every other choice easier because the month already has its anchors.
Do not compare every photo with every other photo. Compare each one only with its neighbours, keep the best of a small group and move on.
- Leave the cover for last
- Keep one photo per day at most
- Write a few words beside the best ones
One more thing
Keep a note of what happened that month as you go. A few words beside a photo are worth far more than you expect a year later.
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.
My mum reads the captions more than she looks at the pictures.
Leila, who writes every caption by hand
When to stop
Think about how the photos sit next to each other. Two busy pictures side by side can fight; a busy one beside a quiet one usually works.
Faces matter, but so do places. Include at least one picture of the room, the street or the view where the month happened.
Good to know: every Paperleaf book has room for thirty photos, so there is no prize for keeping more.
A few small rules
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.
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
- Include at least one place, not just faces
- Keep one photo per day at most
Why it works
Hand the phone to someone else at least once a month. It is the only way the photographer gets into the book.
Delete duplicates as you go rather than saving them for later. Later rarely comes, and a cleaner camera roll makes picking much easier.
I thought I needed a better camera. I needed a better window.
Tom Okafor, Paperleaf
Start with what you already have
Do not wait for a special occasion. The ordinary weeks are the ones people forget, and the ones they most want to see again.
Share the book when it arrives. Leaving it on the kitchen table for a day is often enough for everyone to have a look.
Quick tip: star photos on your phone as you take them. Picking takes half the time at the end of the month.
Make it a habit
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.
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.
- Leave the cover for last
- Star photos as you take them
- Pick a fixed day each month
Try it this month
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.
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.
My mum reads the captions more than she looks at the pictures.
Leila, who writes every caption by hand
Linked from The difference between a print and a picture