One photo per day is enough

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.

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

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

Leila, who writes every caption by hand

One more thing

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.

• Keep one photo per day at most
• Write a few words beside the best ones
• Pick a fixed day each month

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.

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

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.

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.

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

A few small rules

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.

When a month has a big event in it, such as a wedding or a first day at school, let it take over. There is no rule that says every week needs equal space. The book should feel like the month felt.

• Leave the cover for last
• Include at least one place, not just faces
• Back up before deleting anything

Start with what you already have

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.

Print sizes matter less than you think. A small photo surrounded by white space can feel more special than one stretched to fill the page.

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

Leila, who writes every caption by hand

What we got wrong

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.

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

Quick tip: star photos on your phone as you take them. Picking takes half the time at the end of the month.

Keep it simple

Faces matter, but so do places. Include at least one picture of the room, the street or the view where the month happened.

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.

• Back up before deleting anything
• Star photos as you take them
• Keep one photo per day at most

When to stop

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.