0
MaxGag/flickr
After another magical getaway, how will you sort through the memories, souvenirs, and photographs? Create a custom photo book with Printique and remember your travels forever.
In today’s digital age, people are constantly snapping photographs, and they only feel more inclined to do so when they’re on vacation. More often than not, though, the precious images grow stale in your computer’s hard drive, remaining untouched post-upload.
Instead of letting your picturesque memories fade into oblivion, use the last of your vacation buzz to create a digital photo book that puts the best moments of your trip on display for all to see. Luckily for you, a picture is worth a thousand words, so your photos already have a built-in narrative.
The best photo books tell a memorable story, but it’s up to you to create them. Whether you vacationed at a summer cottage or traveled thousands of miles abroad, here’s some tips for creating the most visually engaging, unique content.
Good storytelling requires good material. The first crucial step in creating a photo book is to choose your images. What do you do with five photos of the same vista? You slash and burn, since it’s good editing that separates the interesting photo books from the bland ones. First, whittle down the five pictures to two or three.
Then, if you still feel torn over which one should make the final cut, take a break and return later with a fresh set of eyes. The process can be painstaking, but as you evaluate more and more images, you’ll hone your curation skills and approach the next set of photos with a more experienced eye.
While scrolling through your photos, keep in mind that a strong story requires a good dose of variety. A combination of close-ups, medium shots, and aerial photographs provides the optimal mix.
Also, consider your options for the layout of your photo book: would a landscape or portrait image fit best on a given page? In a well-written story, the narrator describes the scene (aerials), develops the plot (medium shots), and spares no unique details (close-ups).
And the same holds true for your custom photo book. When documenting a single trip, order your photos chronologically for an easily traceable narrative.
Swaminathan/flickr
Now that you have the raw material for your story, it’s time to finesse the images into breathtaking moments that will make you feel as if you were still there. When you look around the photograph’s border, does anything seem amiss? If so, use a cropping tool in your favorite photo editor. Changing the size and shape of the picture’s border will also allow you to switch between landscapes and portraits.
Another way to enhance your photos is through color management. Unless you calibrated your monitor recently, some of your photograph’s colors could be lost in translation. To avoid the hassle of recalibrating, simply brighten your images to avoid the darkening that often happens through the printing process.
Swaminathan/flickr
The hard part is over! Now it’s time to tell your story by filling up your photo book with your beautiful images. Decide how you want to tell your story on each page of the photo book, and then have fun creating it. Switch up the page layout by grouping some pictures together while letting more powerful images stand alone.
When grouping your images, pay attention to the details, like colors and subjects. Corresponding colors in particular produce a calming, harmonious effect, whereas opposing colors offer a more dynamic quality. What fits best with your narrative?
Always remember that the viewer takes in the left-hand and right-hand pages at the same time, so consider how you want the two sides to intermingle and flow. You can also shape your book’s story with text.
By adding locations, captions, descriptions, or brief memories, your words contextualize and spice up every page. For a more polished aesthetic, use the same font throughout the book.
Jamie McCaffrey/flickr
A good place start any photo book journey is the Printique website. Browse a wide array of past projects to find inspiration for your own photo book. Choose from a selection of books ranging in size from 6 x 4.5 inches to 12 x 9 inches, as well as an assortment of colors and textures.
Printique also lets you pick a cover style, paper type, and interior book design — they even have a travel-specific theme! All of these choices will coherently capture your vacation and bring it back to life, giving you a lasting, physical copy of your unique travel story.
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Email