Shadows are part of the picture

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.

The clip below is what we put on while sorting. It runs long enough to get through a month of photos.

One more thing

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.

• Include at least one place, not just faces
• Back up before deleting anything
• Star photos as you take them

Keep it simple

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.

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.

We don’t take more photos than we used to. We just look at them now.

Ana, a reader since the first year

Try it this month

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

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.

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

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.

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

• Hand the camera to someone else
• Include at least one place, not just faces
• Pick a fixed day each month

A few small rules

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.

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.

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

Tom Okafor, Paperleaf

When to stop

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.

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.

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

Make it a habit

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.

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

• Star photos as you take them
• Leave the cover for last
• Back up before deleting anything

What to look for

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

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.

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

Marcus, father of three