Holiday keepsake

Don’t keep your holiday snaps on your computer, says Claire Gillo: turn them into a memorable photobook to keep forever

If you’re like me, the first thing you do when you return from a holiday is run to the computer to start sifting through all of the pictures you have taken. Often, though, you might give them a small edit and upload a few to Facebook; then they end up sitting on your computer not doing anything.

So why not turn them into a photobook? They don’t cost a fortune, and you can look at them in years to come and remember those precious moments. I used White Wall (www.whitewall.com) to make my book.

When it comes to selecting the right finish, think about whether you want a matt or glossy paper, which font to use for the text, whether you want image captions, and what’s on the front cover. All these critical decisions (there is no right or wrong answer) will shape how your book feels, so get the style you’re after to match your photography and taste.

Rate your images 1

In an image browsing program such as Adobe Bridge, the first thing you want to do is sort through your images. This can seem like a daunting task (especially if you’ve been a little trigger-happy on holiday), but it’s vitally important you get the right feel and look for your book. Consider how images look together and how you might want to group them, and pick out show-stoppers that will look good as stand-alone images. I gave each image I wanted to use in the book a five-star rating.

Batch edit 2

To ensure your images fit well together on the page, it can be best to batch-edit them in groups. Not only will you save time by doing this, but your images will have a similar feel. I used the Adobe Camera Raw editor to process my images, ensuring that each image was correctly exposed and boosting the tone and contrast. If any file sizes are very big you may also need to reduce the image size at this stage: some photo book editing services have a limit to the file size they can take.

Turn into a book 3

Once you’ve picked a company to design your book go to its website and launch its software. For my book, I uploaded all of my images and used a templated design that White Wall provided to get the images initially in some sort of order. I then tweaked the design around. I found easier and quicker to do it this way rather than designing the book from scratch. Once you’re happy with your design, order your book – then wait for it to be delivered to your door!