Watch the background, not just the face

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.

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

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

Priya Nair, Paperleaf print room

Keep it simple

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
• Pick a fixed day each month
• Include at least one place, not just faces

What we got wrong

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

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

When to stop

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

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.

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

A few small rules

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.

• Leave the cover for last
• Star photos as you take them
• Keep one photo per day at most

Try it this month

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

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

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

Marcus, father of three

Make it a habit

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

• Include at least one place, not just faces
• Keep one photo per day at most
• Pick a fixed day each month

Why it works

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.

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.

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

Ana, a reader since the first year

One more thing

Hand the phone to someone else at least once a month. It is the only way the photographer gets into the book.

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.

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

Start with what you already have

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

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.

• Write a few words beside the best ones
• Keep one photo per day at most
• Back up before deleting anything

Keep it simple

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.

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.

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

Priya Nair, Paperleaf print room

What we got wrong

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.

Watch the light at different times of day in your own home. Most houses have one window that is lovely for an hour every afternoon.

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

When to stop

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.

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.

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

A few small rules

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.