If creating a photo book is something you’ve always wanted to try but have continually put it on the back burner, these days of increased downtime at home now makes it easier than ever to make space for the things we enjoy. Create your precious photo keepsakes with ease by learning how to make the perfect photo book. Our drag and drop function, background image uploading, photo library with unlimited storage, and thousands of design template makes creating simple and fun. Making a photo book has never been this easy!
This free time presents us with opportunities to do things which we’ve always want to do – whether it’s finding a new hobby, personal enrichment, or creating a photo book, it makes sense to be productive with this extra time and do things that are meaningful to us. To get inspired about using your downtime to create a photo book, we’ve compiled tips and ideas that will help make photo book creation painless and easy to use.
Tips For Creating Your Next Photo Book
If you love memorable keepsakes but never had enough time for DIY projects or scrapbooking, know that creating a photo book is super simple, convenient, and the result is totally gorgeous and professional. Even with a hectic schedule of work from home Zoom meetings and trying to create a remote learning environment for the kids, our design tools to make a photo book are intuitive and easy to navigate through. If you’re ready to start, here are some tips for creating your photo book.
Choose An Interesting Topic
Traditional photo book themes such as vacation, birthday party, or wedding photo books are always hot topics, but remember, you are not limited by them! Let your own creativity inspire your project. A good idea is to create a photo book dedicated to you or your family’s hobby – sports, painting, cooking, fashion, sunrises, or sunsets. The possibilities are endless. For even more inspiration, we’ve compiled a list of 80 creative photo book ideas that will help inspire your next book.
Get Creative With Text
Leave space for the short comments or even long text. Whether it’s inspirational quotes, a reminder of when and where the photo was taken, a story related to the shot, or just your thoughts, with text, these little details will never disappear from your memory. You will find pleasure in rediscovering them and making others discover them with you. Some photos tell a story themselves, but it’s always interesting to know the backstage. If you make a photo book with your beloved ones, it might be a good idea to write text together and share different visions on the same moments.
Edit Your Photos Beforehand
It’s better to spend the time on editing your photos before printing them out than feeling disappointed because of the result. Light, brightness, and contrast are extremely important and you can adjust them manually or even automatically in almost every photo editing software, such as Lightroom or Photoshop. Crop the photo to create a better composition and don’t forget to straighten the horizon! Among thousands of digital photos, these details might seem insignificant but in the photo book, every single photo will be showcased and become itself an important element of the whole project. When we take in our hands a good quality photo book we want to go through it slowly and pay attention to the details of each picture, so editing your photos isn’t a luxury but a necessity when you decide to print them out.
Duplicate A Previous Book
If you have spent hours custom designing your own pages and laying your photos out just right, Shutterfly makes it easy to duplicate that whole book and then replace the old photos with ones from your new project. You can change the backgrounds and graphics a bit, and even the fonts. You can also move around a few boxes or change the page order and voila – you’ve got yourself a new book! Recycling photo book designs can be a huge time saver.
Enlist Your Friends To Help
Invite a friend for final proofing and get their honest opinion on your choices of photos, layouts, cover fabric, and paper. Staring at a screen for a long time, you’ll begin to miss the details, so getting someone with fresh eyes to scan any text for spelling or grammatical errors is a great help. You’ll be able to make your decisions more quickly and have the added advantage of a second opinion.
Utilize Our Services
Get familiar with our three services to make designing your photo book as easy as possible.
- Make My Book: Leave your photo book to the pros with Shutterfly’s Make My Book Our talented designers will curate your photos and make a photo book for you for free! Plus, you still have the opportunity to add finishing touches before it gets printed.
- Custom Path: Custom Path is a customer favorite because of its flexibility and functionality. This easy-to-use way to make a photo book allows you to personalize each page down to the last detail. Choose from our collection of over 200 styles to make the best photo book possible.
- Simple Path: Simple Path instantly arranges your photos to make the process as easy as possible. This method is perfect for those who are looking for a straightforward option that saves time but still produces a personalized, high-quality book.
Closing Thoughts
Shutterfly makes the image upload and design process easy and if need be, you can reach out to our customer service staff to get you over any humps that are causing you to procrastinate. Putting aside time to do something meaningful feels good, so put aside a few evenings in the week to put some music on, pour a glass of wine and complete your book. You’ll likely get more than you expected done and allowing small blocks of time per week will make all the difference. Your memories are worth it.
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