You’ve captured birthday parties, family reunions, vacations, and weddings, and now it’s time to do something with all those photos. Sure, you could share your photos on Facebook and Instagram, or even paste them into an old photo album, but those options are limited. With shutterfly’s easy-to-use service and tools, the most convenient and elegant way to share your photos is to create photo albums. why? photo albums provide beautiful, true-to-life reproductions of your digital photos, make the perfect gift for any occasion, offer clean and tidy storage of your photos, and preserve your memories exactly how you want them.
need another reason? Our exclusive pro tips and tricks guide you through the steps of creating the best photo albums. And with Shutterfly’s new photo book experience, it’s easy and fun to do. Our unparalleled collection of styles, from modern to rustic, plus design ideas for children’s and baby books, travel photos, and of course, wedding photo albums, result in professional, personalized photo albums you’ll love to own. or give away We’ve rounded up some photo book tips and tricks and provided a simple guide to learn more about the process.
You are reading: How to make photo books
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- photo book tips
- create a photo book on your computer
- let our designers create a photo book for you
- create a photo book in the shutterfly app
how to make the perfect photobook: tips and tricks
Whether you choose a hard or soft cover, or choose a premium leather cover, our photo albums have the look and feel of the books you’d buy at a bookstore. but they are actually very easy to create on your own for a custom end product that is really impressive. explore all the photo book styles to get ideas for the overall layout you want to use.
Once you decide on a photo book style, there are additional options to make about your photo book. You can choose from six different sizes and three page styles, including standard pages, standard flat pages, or deluxe flat pages.
After you’ve familiarized yourself with the different options and styles, it’s time to start uploading your photos. You can upload your photos from anywhere, including your desktop, mobile device, shutterfly mobile app, google photos, instagram, facebook, and the shutterfly art library, or all of the above!
If you are using the shutterfly app to create your photo book, it automatically pulls in all the photos stored on your phone. you can switch between the app and the website while creating your photo album and easily upload photos from the app to the site.
While our photo book editor offers helpful tips throughout the design process, it’s a good idea to know a few things before you start so you can get creative while designing. First, you need to organize your photos. Next, you want to choose the right photos to display in your book. Once you’ve followed those steps, you can choose a theme to use for your photo album. You can choose a theme like “year in review,” “family,” or go simple with an “everyday” theme. Finally, writing some useful text for your book will help you tell the story you want to tell with your photo book. this helps you develop a narrative that makes your book unique. These are shutterfly’s 7 steps to creating perfect photo albums:
- organize your photos
- choose the right photos
- highlight your favorites
- create variety in spreads
- choose a topic
- includes helpful text
- tells a story
1. Organize Your Photos
The key to enjoying the photo book design process is organizing your photos beforehand. These days, many of us have digital photos scattered everywhere: Facebook, Instagram, our camera apps, email, the list goes on. spending a few minutes collecting and organizing your photos will save you a lot of time later; Plus, you might find photos you forgot you had. create a folder on your device and label it with something easy to find, like “photo book photos”. If you’ve already chosen the photo book style you’re going to use, go ahead and use it as inspiration for naming your photo collection folder so it’s easy to find and remember.
Copy the photos you want to include in your book into a folder that you can upload all at once. you can categorize them by date, topic, people or any system that makes it easy for you to keep them organized.
2. choose the correct photos
Once you’ve gathered your photos, it’s time to select the ones you want to display. start by including all the photos you like, then scale them down based on quality. keep in mind that if a photo is out of focus, it will look even blurrier when enlarged and printed in a photo book. You may have many photos of the same subject, but each photo may have slightly better lighting and angles. review them carefully and highlight your favorites.
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Choosing the right photos for your photo book just got a little easier with shutterfly’s photo editing features. To enhance your photos, you can crop, resize, add backgrounds, and other embellishments in edit view. so even if your photos aren’t perfect, you may be able to make them look better. When you’re selecting photos, consider how people will react to seeing your photos printed in a book, and make sure the photos are flattering.
3. highlight your favourites
It can be a challenge to select your photo collection. you may have to make some tough decisions. if you are challenged to curate your photos for your book, you can always do the task collectively. post them on your social networks and poll your friends about which ones are the best. On the other hand, if you want to keep your photo album a secret, for example if you’re making premium wedding photo albums to give as gifts, just ask a close friend or family member for their opinion on the best photos to include. Getting a second opinion reduces stress, and will probably give you some great new ideas!
4. create variety in spreads
Variety is the spice of life, and our photo books deliver on this front. there are endless options when it comes to photo album styles and templates. most styles offer a wide variety of page layouts to vary the presentation and add visual interest. With shutterfly’s photo book maker, you can choose different layouts for each page of your book, choosing from one photo layouts to 5 or more photos on a page.
Creating variety in your photo book page layouts helps you tell your story because different page layouts can emphasize photos differently. you can place one photo on an entire page, center a small photo in the middle of a page, or display multiple photos on one page. Since photo books allow you to create two-page spreads, you’ll want to choose photos for these pages that relate to each other, or even a panoramic photo that can span the spread.
5. choose a theme
The theme of a picture book gives the book a story. Fortunately, with our wide range of themes, styles, and customization options, you’re guaranteed to find a theme that fits your narrative perfectly. for example, a photo book of our children & The baby collection can be transformed from a regular baby book to an ABC book or a story about your baby’s first year. A travel photo book dedicated to your recent vacation is redefined when photos from a cross-country road trip are accompanied by an Old West typeface. To commemorate your family trip to Disneyland, you can choose a classic Disney photo album from Shutterfly’s Designer Collection that features vintage Disney characters featured on the pages. For an even more distinctive look, check out designer collections from top designers like Merriment, Sarah Hawkins Designs, and Float Paperie. It’s completely free (and a fun creative outlet) to experiment with different ideas and themes to determine which style best suits the story you want to tell through your photos.
6. include useful text
One way to capture time is through photography. Another way to ensure a memory is through words. our photo books offer plenty of space for your text and captions to describe photos or tell a story. You can write dates, place names, anecdotes, quotes from an event, or colorful descriptions to help recreate your memories for years to come. for a photo book about the year in review, for example, you might write messages like “what a year!”, “family memories,” or simply “our family.”
7. tells a story
At the end of the day, your photo album is just a small part of a story in your life. so when you collect and organize your photos, arrange them in your photo book in a way that tells a story. the easiest way to accomplish this is to create the book in chronological order. the story of the album will be easier to follow if you recreate the sequence of how the event happened.
For example, wedding photo albums might start with a photo of your engagement rings and end with a photo of the happy couple driving to their honeymoon. A photo book of your baby’s first year can start with your pregnancy and then progress to a photo of the baby in the hospital. some photobooks can tell a story that recreates significant stages of your life. A “love” book, for example, could be modeled after a children’s story using our Jenny Romanski Everyday Fairy Tale photo book style, filled with unicorns, mermaids, and rainbows.
make a photo book with shutterfly
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shutterfly offers three ways to create photo books: use our website’s photo book service on your computer, let our designers create them with our make my book® service, or use the shutterfly app on your device mobile. this is how each photo book process works:
creating your book on a computer
If you prefer to think big, using your computer to design photo books may be right for you. Once you decide on the basics using the tips above, you’ll be directed to the editing page that will display your book’s outline. upload your photos and start adding them to the empty pages. play with background colors and embellishments until the pages reflect what you envisioned. you can crop the photos to your liking and include captions to help tell the story. design your own photo book cover and add any title you like to add the finishing touches to your album.
let our designers create a photo album for you
don’t have time? not a diyer? No problem! use our make my book® service and our designers will create it for you. To get started, first choose the size and style you want. You will then be prompted to upload your photos from your desktop or select photos you have uploaded via the shutterfly app.
Next, you’ll be asked to answer questions that will help the designer, such as your order preference (chronological, auto-sort, or themes), layout density (number of photos you’d like per page), and book design elements ( how many stickers and decorations you prefer). finally, you’ll choose a title and include special instructions for the designer.
The designer will post your book to your account within 3 business days. you can then edit the book, add finishing touches (like subtitles), and place your order. You pay a small design fee only if you order the book. there is no charge if you don’t order the book.
create photo book in shutterfly app
For those who are on the go and want to use an iPhone or other smartphone, Shutterfly’s iOS and Android app is there to help. Easily upload your photos to the app, using your unlimited free storage to transfer your photos from your phone and free up space on your device. Once you’ve uploaded your photos, choose your desired book size and theme and start creating.
The app allows you to simply touch and drag your photos to where you want to place them on the page layout to create simple photo albums. once on the page, you can edit and adjust them to your liking. this allows you to create a personalized photobook in a matter of minutes from anywhere.
summarizing
Photo albums offer a fun way to organize all the photos you’ve taken. They’re also an awesome way to relive memories with your friends and family. However you choose to make your photo albums, be sure to add unique touches to make it more personal.
more resources:
shop all our photo albums
explore the best photo books
more information about photo books
explore make my book®
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