Straight lines, level horizons

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.

This is how the two pictures sit together on one spread.

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.

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

Make it a habit

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

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

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

Marcus, father of three

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.

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.

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

One more thing

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.

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.

• Pick a fixed day each month
• Back up before deleting anything
• Leave the cover for last

A few small rules

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.

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.

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

Priya Nair, Paperleaf print room

Start with what you already have

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.