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Photo Book Tips: Choosing the Right Photos

When your focus is on creating printed photo books for your clients - or even to promote a cause or showcase some of your best work - one of the most important things that you can do is to take the time to choose the right photos.

When you choose the right photos, you’ll find that it’s a lot easer to create a certain feel: want to be sure that there’s a sense of free-spirited fun throughout the photo book? Make sure that you are choosing the photos in which laughter and smiling and even a bit of silliness are present.

Likewise, if one of the factors that you’ll want to think about is color which, in photography can have an impact on the theme that you choose. The right photos can serve to unify the theme, but it’s also possible - if you’re looking to create a focal point - to choose those photos that you want to make stand out.

When you’re creating a photo book, choosing the right photos is essential: think like a designer, understand what will make the difference; understand what it’s going to take to create the look that will suit your needs and give you exactly what you were looking for.

Professional Photo Books: Making a Difference

When you’re looking for the opportunity to make a difference with the work that you do as a photographer, or even when you’re simply making an effort to set yourself apart from other photographers in your area, professional photo books can make a huge difference.

Professional photo books aren’t just the same books that you would use if you were an amateur photographer who was looking to create something out of their family vacation shots: they’re of a much higher quality.

Professional photo books are printed with an ink of a much higher quality. The binding of professional photo books is library quality - not just a glued binding that may come apart over time. With professional photo books, you will also find a much higher quality cover - and you’ll find that there are a number of additional options that become available to you.

That’s why you are able to create so much more than just an album of photos when you use a professional photo books: you’re able to do show your professionalism and you’re able to focus on creating something that will last for many years to come.

Printed Photo Books Allow You to Speak Your Truth

When you’re working as a photographer, there are going to be moments when life just speaks to you - when something captures your attention and refuses to let go, until of course, you take action. As a photographer - whether you are passionate about putting an end to homelessness or poverty or you want the world to understand the struggles that those whose children are ill face - the best way to speak this truth is to share your work in a printed photo book.

With printed photo books, you’re able to showcase your interest and talk about why you believe that following up and participating is so essential for others in the community. With printed photo books, you are able to put a human face on the cause and - ultimately - help to show why others should share your commitment.

Many photographers who start out with a passion find that, once they are able to share that passion with others, it only strengthens. Printed photo books do more than merely allow them to share the passions and commitments that they have, however; printed photo books allow them to speak a truth and to make a difference.

Printed Photo Books Can Be Used to Document Most Everything

These days, when someone reads the phrase “you can find just about anything,” most of the time they are referring to searching the web; for photographers though, particularly those who are aware of the benefits of self-publishing with printed photo books, they know that there’s more to it than that.

(source)Anything? I can’t find photography about the Newfoundland Fishery…especially if it dares the photographer to use his sea legs. And I can’t remember the last time I saw a news reporter donning his rubber clothes to do a report on offshore fishing (then again I don’t watch the news every night). This is why the quote got my interest.

I photographed the Mainstay series in 2003. And for the last few years I have been mulling over the idea of doing it again. I felt that there has always been a lot of talk about the fishery but not a lot of action on the photography scene. When I do an internet search I find mostly old photos or photos that were pretty much taken on or near shore. Bill Owens quote falls a little short in this arena. There really isn’t much modern visual documentation to be found on the Newfoundland Fishery.

Please, if you have a link to some great photojournalism on this wide issue let me know.

Photojournalism is not always the primary thing that is being taken into consideration when it comes to creating printed photo books, but the above reference does prove interesting: if there is an interest in a topic that is shared by the photographer and members of the public and the information is not readily available online, self-publishing printed photo books becomes even more important.

When you’ve got the information that people are looking for, when your photos are there to show a new perspective, why shouldn’t you go ahead and make it available?

Printed Photo Books: Creating a Documentary

When filmmakers are passionate about a topic, they start looking at things a bit differently and many turn to documentary projects - even if what they are documenting is simply a day in the life. Photographers often think about undertaking similar projects; the challenge is that they don’t always know that their options are.

One way in which photographers can undertake a documentary is to work with printed photo books.

Printed photo books create the opportunity for photographers to tell a story so that they will be able to get the information out there. Printed photo books allow you to complete your project, to focus on your interests and to make a number of choices and to share the end result.

What you choose to create a documentary about is up to you - follow your passions. See what life is like for local musicians; talk with kids and get a feel for how exciting life used to be when everything was new; document something about your city. The topics are out there just waiting to be discovered; a printed photo book can ensure that you present them well.

Creating Printed Photo Books: Are There Benefits to Black and White?

Sometimes, as photographers, it’s easy to get caught up in the familiar. Those of us who shoot portraits sometimes make an effort to at least look at the ways our best shots look in black and white, but we know that clients tend to prefer to order color prints.

On the other hand, what if we were able to do more to show the beauty of black and white shots? What if we were able to better market the way the work looks: what if you started using printed photo books to show the merits of shooting in black and white?

Shooting in black and white offers a number of benefits and not just when it comes to portrait photography. There are also advantages to shooting some wedding photos in black and white - and using a printed photo book to group them all together for your clients. There are advantages to shooting landscapes, buildings, travel photos and even macros in black and white as well.

With printed photo books, you’ll find that you have the opportunity to show off your best work - and even ways to show your current and prospective clients some of the different options that are available to them.

Printed Photo Books Can Document a Project

As a photographer, you probably already have a sense of the work that you do for your clients. Chances are good though that you also have a sense of the work that you take on that’s more of a personal project.

These days, one of the most common projects that photographers take on is maintaining a photography blog where they talk shop, talk process and showcase some shots that they’re proud of. In part, these blogs are marketing projects, and in part they’re also something that the writers are proud of. Whenever you are proud of a project that you have undertaken, you’re going to find yourself wanting to document that project. Printed photo books can give you this outlet.

With printed photo books, you’ll be able to document the best lessons that you’ve given. You’ll be able to capture great shots, go into more detail and, ultimately, you might find a broader audience for the work that you’ve done.

Now, printed photo books aren’t always going to be a “new and improved” or more detailed version of your blog; different photographers tackle a wide variety of different projects. Regardless of what your interests are, regardless of which projects you choose to undertake, a printed photo book can help you to show off the results.

Printed Photo Books: Choosing the Right Supplier

In this age of print on demand, when you’re looking to publish a printed photo book of your work, you’ll find that there are a lot of options available to you. But that doesn’t mean that you should just choose any option that’s available; you need to be sure that you’re choosing the right supplier.

Focus on quality

When you’re planning to create printed photo books, it’s important to look at all of the options that are available to you and to choose a quality printer - one who uses quality inks, high end binding methods and intends their books to last.

Focus on your goals

How will you be using the printed photo books that you’re making? If you are distributing your professional portraits, one of the things that you’ll want to be sure of is that your clients are getting something better than they could order for themselves.

Focus on the assistance that’s available to you

When you need help creating a printed photo book, you need to be sure that it is going to be available to you.

When printed photo book suppliers cater to professional photographers like you, you can be sure that you’re getting a high quality photo book that will impress your clients, and you’ll also be able to know that you’re able to get the help that you need when you need it.

Perception of Value: Using Photo Books to Organize Contact Sheets

When it comes to simplifying the process of having a client determine the best shots for printing, it’s important to let them see all of their options. That’s ultimately the reason why you use contact sheets - a chance for them to see all or the shots in one place.

When you start looking at ways to increase the client’s perception of the value of your services, consider the benefits of organizing your contact sheets into a photo book:

  1. When you create a photo book that includes all of the shots from a sitting, your clients are able to have a copy of all of the photos.
  2. When you are able to create a photo book, you’ll find that you’re able to have a better dialog with your clients about the photos that they choose to have printed and about others from the shoot.
  3. When your clients have a photo book with all of the contact sheets from a session you’ll find that your clients are able to get in touch with you if they want more prints down the line.

In other words, when you’re using photo books as a tool for presenting your work to your clients, you’ll find that their perception of the value of your services increases as well.

3 Great Ways to Use Printed Photo Books

When you’re looking for a great way to use printed photo books to market yourself as a photographer, there are going to be times when you just start thinking that there has to be a great way to use the books.

In the event, however, that you’re having trouble deciding how you will use printed photo books, here are a few suggestions:

  • Use printed photo books in place of a more traditional portfolio. When you’re looking to set yourself apart from everyone else in town who offers similar services, why not use a format that’s altogether different?
  • Use printed photo books to market your work. When you market your work with printed photo books that you’ll be able to showcase your professionalism without being in the room.
  • Use printed photo books to create an album for your clients. It’s one thing to give a few shots in frames; when you look at the big picture, however, you are able to give more to your clients with a printed photo book.

Regardless of why you are interested in using printed photo books within your business, you’ll find that there are a wide variety of options and plenty ways to capture a moment in time.