Photo Books

Create a Photo Book

For Gifting, Display, or Selling

By Katriel

 

Whether you’re looking for a great gift or want to create a portfolio to show potential clients or publishers, a photo book can do both.

The general steps to a photo book are what you might expect.

1.       Collect

2.       Design

3.       Print

As the expression goes the devil is in the details.

Collect. Think of a theme that could run throughout your book such as Mom’s life story or My most highly rated online pics, or Wedding portfolio.  What you decide will determine your selection of photographs. 

If your final selection includes printed pictures for which you don’t have a digital equivalent you will have to create a digital copy of those prints in order to send your images to a professional printer or your personal printer at home.

To create a digital image of the prints copy the original photograph by shooting it with a digital camera or scan it with a scanner.  If you use a digital camera make sure the original photograph is parallel to the camera and that it fills up the camera’s frame as much as possible before taking the shot. This will cut down on photo editing time.

The last thing to “collect” is text. If your book will include stories and/ or captions go ahead and type it into your computer.

Design.  After you’ve completed the selection of photographs, typed the text that you want, and have stored them all on your computer you may think it’s time to design the layout out of your pages, but before you arrange your pictures into a page format you should figure out who is going to print it.  Will it be a book printer, photo lab, or you using your personal printer at home?

If you’re outsourcing try online vendors such as CafePress or Zazzle who are print-on-demand manufacturers and retailers who allow you to upload your designed pages to their website for printing.  SmileBooks offer options such as design layout software that you can download and use; the company also offers design services done by professional graphic artists. Try also your local camera store and ask if they offer photo books creation services.

If you’re creating a photo book as an avenue for income, consider hiring a professional graphic designer or ask your printer if they offer design and/or color correction services.

After deciding who will print your pictures, use that company’s guidelines to arrange your pictures.  The guidelines often include information such as margins for text and minimum quality settings for images.

For you do-it-yourselfers, besides image editing software (which you can find for free on the Internet), you’ll need a personal home printer optimized for photography, a front and back cover for the book, paper and a way to bind the book.  An online search will yield various options.  I like entering the word review as part of any search I do, if the potential exists that I may purchase something. Input into an Internet search engine review photo book kit and see what you find. 

Print. You’re at the finishing line.  You’ve collected, designed, uploaded your files to an online vendor or mailed them to a brick-and-mortar manufacturer.  One last detail: Review a proof of your book before buying a copy to make sure everything is as you want it.  That may not be possible with all online vendors but call to see if the company can send you a proof of the work via email if you don’t see that offered on their website.  For the do-it-yourself person, print one copy of the pages on the printer that you plan on using for the book and carefully review each page.  If all is well, continue and print as many copies as you want.

 

List of equipment and software you may need to complete photo book

graphic tablet
digital camera
image editing software
paper
printer
photo book kit