Entries Tagged as 'Photo Book Tips'

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.

Photo Book Tips: Creating How to Instruction Guides

When it comes to using printed photo books to expand your photography business, one of the options that you will quickly discover is the possibility of creating How To guides.

As a photographer, chances are good that you know a few things about developing film or manipulating digital photos to touch them up. One way in which you can expand your business is to help to teach others how to do these things with their own photos. Using a photo book that documents the process allows you to sell your guide in local bookstores or from your studio gives you a chance to offer instruction to those who are looking for the info but who aren’t interested in sitting down for an all day lesson.

Similarly, if you’re an experienced sports photographer, you could use a photo book to help parents of high school athletes take better shots of their kids while they are out on the field or the court or the track: after all, who doesn’t want to have a great shot of a proud moment?

So that’s today’s photo book tip: look at those things that you, as a photographer do really well, and then create a photographic guide that helps others to do them as well.

Photo Book Tip: Stick With Your Theme

When you look at photography books in your local bookstore, you’ll find that there’s something about each that makes it consistent:

  • Photo books focused on shots taken at a particular National Park don’t include shots from other places.
  • Photo books like those created by Bunny Yeager, while they may have similarities, stick with one notion. As she said in a recent article, “My latest book is “Striptease Artists of the Fifties.” The one coming out at the end of the year is “Femme Fatales of the Fifties.” I’ll be starting a new pinup book soon.”

When you’re creating photo books, the best tip that you can receive is this: stick with your theme.

Whether you’re focused on a book of gardening photos, interiors, landscapes, portraits or something else altogether, you’ll find that the best photo books allow you to show works that have something in common with one another.

Photo Book Tip: Allow Your Clients to Help Create Their Coffee Table Book

Professional coffee table books: those who have visited a number of bookstores have seen coffee table books featuring black and white photographs so striking that the place itself cannot compete or portrait shots collected in a volume will tell you that there’s nothing like a coffee table book of photography.

As a photographer, one of the best tips that you can be given is very simple: offer your clients the opportunity to use family photos, event photos and more brought together in a coffee table book.

You’ll be able to give them a number of choices:

  • What type of cover should be used on their photo book?
  • Do they want a dust jacket for the photo book?
  • What sort of theme - if any - would they like to center their photo book around?
  • Is there a layout preference that appeals to them?
  • How many pages should the book have?
  • Would they like to add text or other mementos to the photo book?

There you have it: a photo book tip to keep in mind: when you allow your clients to work with you to create a coffee table book, you’ll be able to build the rapport that you have with them, enhance your relationship, and provide them with tangible access to their memories.

Photo Book Tips: Show Off Your Editing Skills

When you take digital photographs, one of the goals that you’ll have is to take those photos to the next level. In a photo book, you’ll find that you are able to not just show off your photos, but also to show off your editing skills.

The isolations that you spend so much time on, the color adjustments, the combined elements and the art that you create from your photographs: all of these elements are things that can be shown in a finished photo book.

You may do your editing using open source programs like GIMP or you may invest in Apple’s Aperture or Photoshop. You may spend your time editing to enhance the photo by reducing noise or you may focus on creating something new altogether - using the photo simply as a starting point.

No matter how you edit your photos, no matter which processes you use, your editing skills are often as important as the work that you do behind the lens: why not take advantage of a photo book and show those skills off: after all, that’s sure to help you promote your work and advance your career.

Use a Photo Book as a Wedding Gift

As a photographer, you may not specialize in taking photos at weddings, but that doesn’t mean that when a friend or family member gets married you aren’t going to be taking your fair share of photos as well. Printed photo books that collect your best shots, scans of the couples’ invitation, your thoughts about the event and comments made by others in attendance can allow you to create a unique gift for the couple - something that they’ll treasure for years to come.

Now, that’s not to say that your printed photo book will be designed to replace a traditional wedding photo album, it’s not. But there are things that you’ll be able to capture that the photographer hired for the event might not be able to see.

For example, the wedding photographer will stage shots that he or she poses every couple into; your photo book can be more playful - catching the bride or groom in one of those looks that says “this is ridiculous, we’ll never buy a print of this.” The hired photographer may take photos of the bride during the processional, you can include the stunned look on the groom’s face as she walks down the aisle. At the reception, you’ll also be able to include more candid shots.

Don’t you think that those memories will be as valuable to the wedding couple as the professional album might be? In some cases, you just might find that a well-planned photo book offers them even more of the memories that they want to be able to capture and keep fresh forever.

Photo Book Tip: Choose the Right Cover for Your Project

When you’re collecting your best work in a printed photo book, there are a lot of things that you’ll want to consider. You’ll have to decide what the subject of the book will be, which photos you’ll want to include, whether or not you’re going to use text and backgrounds to help you tell a story. You’ll also need to think about the purpose of the photo book - is it to showcase your work, market your services or to create a unique album for your clients.

Once you know what you’re using your photo book for and you know how you’ll be laying it out, there’s one more essential step: choosing the right cover for your photo book. Here’s a tip for you: take a closer look at your book and it’s purpose to decide which cover style is best.

printed cover

If you’re collecting images for a client, you may want to use a printed cover for the book using images that will be meaningful to them.

leather cover

A leather cover can be used for albums and for those images that you’re sharing with others.

linen book cover

If you’re going to be using your photo book to share options with your clients, you may want to look into a simple linen photo book cover.

Photo Book Tips: Offer Your Clients a New Look at Their Kids

Kids are great - and the photographers who work with them know that they can be among the most frustrating and rewarding subjects to work with.

Their parents also offer a unique set of challenges, most of which come from their wanting photos that show all of what they see in their kids.

Here’s a tip for photographers who work with kids: printed photo books are a great tools for gathering a number of shots together along with other memorabilia and creating a keepsake that those parents are sure to treasure.

With printed photo books, you’ll find that you have a wide variety of options available to you. Here are just a few ideas of how you could use them:

  • Capture photos of their kids in different seasons.
  • Collect photos of their kids while their dressed for favorite activities and create a montage of all their interests.
  • Keep a tape recording running during the shoot and add some of the best lines the kids throw at you.

By looking at a number of different options, you’ll find yourself offering something as unique as each child you photograph.

Photo Book Tips: Get Ready for the Holidays

It may still be the middle of October, but that doesn’t mean that the big holiday season is right around the corner. For many pro photographers, the holidays are a chance to bring in more clients, sell more portrait prints and take photos that families will use on their holiday cards.

In light of this, here’s a photo book tip for you: with a printed photo book, you’ll be able to show your backdrops, the different pose options that you make available - if you take outdoor family portraits, different indoor setups and props that you have available.

Similarly, you’ll be able to use the same photo book that you use to market your services to let your clients have another great option - giving printed photo books to their families or friends as a great holiday gift. What grandparent wouldn’t love a coffee table book filled with images of their grandkids - especially if they live far away? Can you think of some couples that you’ve photographed who would love to have a different version of their wedding photos to give as a gift now that financial situations have changed?

Because printed photo books are easy to layout and customize, they offer a great solution to those who are looking for a new marketing tool or a unique gift. With just a little bit of time and effort, photographers will find that there’s a great choice to make when it comes to getting ready for the holidays - something that they will be glad that they’d offered.