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.
This is how the two pictures sit together on one spread.
What to look for
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.
- Back up before deleting anything
- Write a few words beside the best ones
- Include at least one place, not just faces
Why it works
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.
If you have too many photos of one day, that day probably mattered. Give it a spread of its own rather than cutting it down to one.
We don’t take more photos than we used to. We just look at them now.
Ana, a reader since the first year
What we got wrong
Hand the phone to someone else at least once a month. It is the only way the photographer gets into the book.
If a month feels thin, look again at the photos you took without thinking. The best ones are often hiding there.
Good to know: every Paperleaf book has room for thirty photos, so there is no prize for keeping more.
This is exactly the nudge I needed. My camera roll has four thousand photos from this year alone.
We have the same problem. Starring photos as we go helped a lot.
Agreed, this was the tip that worked for us too.
I never thought about the light from the window. Moved the high chair and the difference is huge.
Same here! It got easier after the second month.
Thanks for asking this, I was wondering the same.
Older kids are tricky. Asking them to take some of the photos works better than chasing them.
Any tips for doing this with twins? I end up with two of everything.
Thank you, that really made our day.
My grandmother cried when she got the book. That is all I wanted to say.
Does this work for older kids too? Mine are 11 and 14 and hide from the camera.
Lovely post. The bit about keeping the blurry photos made me go back and rescue a few.