Overcast days are a gift

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.

Here are the photos that made it into the book. Tap any of them to see it larger.

What we got wrong

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.

• Back up before deleting anything
• Pick a fixed day each month
• Star photos as you take them

Try it this month

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

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.

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

Priya Nair, Paperleaf print room

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.

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.

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

What to look for

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.

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

• Back up before deleting anything
• Hand the camera to someone else
• Write a few words beside the best ones

Make it a habit

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.

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.

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

Ana, a reader since the first year

Keep it simple

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.

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.

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

One more thing

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

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.

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

Start with what you already have

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

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.

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

Tom Okafor, Paperleaf

A few small rules

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

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.

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

When to stop

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.

Write the year on the spine. It sounds obvious, but without it a shelf of books quickly becomes a puzzle.

• Hand the camera to someone else
• Include at least one place, not just faces
• Keep one photo per day at most

What we got wrong

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.

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.

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

Priya Nair, Paperleaf print room

Try it this month

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.

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

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

Why it works

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

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

• Include at least one place, not just faces
• Write a few words beside the best ones
• Pick a fixed day each month

What to look for

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.

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