Yay …you are already on Stage 3! Get you!
We have now covered Picking your theme (Step 1) and Choosing your Photobook supplier (Step 2).
In Step 3, we'll cover "Choosing your photos" and "Uploading them to the photobook website".
So, this part of the journey, is to now find these photos and put them in one place.
It's like a mini audit of your photos. You're bringing them together.
Like a mini reunion.
And this bit is the really lovely bit. 💙
The bit where you sit, reflect, laugh, cry, ponder, cringe...
Ladies and Gents...It's now time to go through your photos! 🎊
(I LOVE THIS BIT!)
So the first rule:
Sit somewhere calm and quiet.
Light a candle.
Pour yourself a glass of vino.
Or a lovely cup of tea.
Grab the chocolate.
And then really cherish this 'golden time' going through these pics!
I tend to sit at a desk! But you may prefer to snuggle up on the sofa.
Just enjoy the moment.
Tell me... when did you last have time to do this?
Let me guess…never!
So...this all looks fine and dandy...but when do i actually start SORTING the photos?
Here are the options coming up:
1) Organising photos on your phone & uploading them.
2) Collating photos from your partner/friend/family's phone & uploading them.
3) Uploading photos from your laptop/device.
4) Uploading photos from Social Media.
5) Uploading photos from your shoebox!
So, let's begin:
1) Organising photos on your phone:
For your phone photos, go through them and then select your photos on your phone by putting a tick next to them.
(iPhones have a button in the top right corner which says "SELECT". Once you have selected your chosen photos, then you can click on the share button in the bottom left of the screen and ADD TO ALBUM. This will be an album on your phone to put these photos in.
Android photo galleries have an 'Album tab' at the bottom of the gallery. This was tested on a Samsung Galaxy. Every phone may differ, so google this if you need some help. Once you have clicked on the 'Album tab', press the 3 vertical dots in the top right corner and press "Create album". Name your album, click on it and ADD ITEMS TO ALBUM. Then add your photos to it.)
The share icon looks something like this:
Now you can name this 'phone' photo album. Choose something simple:
“Rover's book”
or
“Barcelona”
or
"Sally's 40th"!
I know you may WANT to call it something like “I am amazing because I’m making a photobook”.
But there just isn't the space.
Sorry!
Here's an example of my 'mini phone album' from our trip to Annecy in 2018:
So once you have put all the photos in one place on your phone, it’s time now to be picky.
You need to choose the exact photos you want in your book.
It's Cull time, folks!
Only choose photos which give you joy.
Then remove the ones which you don't want OUT OF THE ALBUM.
Do not delete them off your phone.
(Your phone will give you the choice of "Removing from album" or "Delete".
Please just click "Remove from album".)
Be brutal! Keep culling!
And don't worry about the order of the photos yet. That's in Step 4.
Also, one little tip. It may be tricky to decide between six very similar images but PLEASE do decide!
Just pick one.
The impact of one image far outweighs putting four similar ones on the same page.
Trust me.
I should have just picked one strong image below, instead of putting three very similar photos on the page. 👇🏻
The only time this DOES work, in my opinion, is when you have a little sequence, which tells a cute story, like these photos from World Book day a few years back:
Now upload the photos, from your phone album to either:
the photobook website (Option A below)
or the photobook app (Option B below).
This should be fairly straightforward.
Option A:
For those of you who have chosen to use Photobox, go to your google/safari page on your phone and click www.photobox.co.uk. Then log in with your email address and password. Scroll to "My albums." There you will see the empty album, that you created in Step 2, ready and waiting, for you to upload these photos into. Click "Add photos", then click "Upload photos" and away you go.
Option B:
For those of you who have chosen to use the Photobox app on your phone, click "Upload" on the bottom of the phone screen. Then click on which album on your phone you want to upload. Select the images (by clicking "Select All" in the top right), followed by Done (top right). Then it asks you which Photobox album you'd like to upload these photos into. Just select the Photobox album which you created in Step 2 (which is currently empty). It will start uploading automatically.
2) Photos on your partner's/friend/family member's phone:
If your partner, parents, friends or kids have some photos from the same theme, then ask them to share their photos with you too.
(But give them a deadline ... or it’ll never happen!)
Again, share the photo moment with them, as they will probably love going through the photos too!
There are various ways to share their photos with you on most phones:
Airdrop
Text
Send an iCloud link
When i am making a photobook, i'll often go through my husband's phone and pick the photos from his phone. Then i'll airdrop/Whatsapp them back to myself.
This is also important, as i actually FEATURE in his photos, unlike all the photos on MY phone!
So in years to come, my kids will see that i DID come on that summer holiday after all!
Put the photos that are sent to you in your phone album that i mentioned earlier in this blog.
Or if they have been sent to your email, then download them and save them onto your laptop in a folder of the same name. (Rover/Barcelona/Sally's 40th...).
3) Photos from your laptop:
Log in to the photobook website from your laptop. Then add the photos to the online album from your laptop.
4) Photos from Facebook/Instagram/Dropbox/FlickR:
Most photobook websites will give you the option to "import" photos from your social media platforms, so just follow their online instructions:
Most websites want the images to be in the following formats:
Jpeg (jpg)
Png
HEIC
5) Old photos from an old shoebox or biscuit tin:
If you are creating an album with really old photos, you’ll most likely need to scan the photos.
You can either use a proper scanner (normally on a home printer) or you can use an app. Photoscan app (from Google) is a good quality app and it’s free.
Sometimes, photobook websites require scanned photos (from a traditional scanning machine) to have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi (dots per inch).
Eek...this sounds technical! It just needs to be in a high enough quality. Many scanners will ask what dpi you want. Just opt for 300 dpi.
If you go larger than this, it creates massive files which aren’t necessary for a normal sized photobook. Maybe test a couple of scanned photos on the photobook website before you scan them all.
Once you have scanned the images, save them in an album and then upload them to the website.
I created an album for my parents' Ruby Wedding, filled with old scanned photos. Yes it was a labour of love. But it was so worth it!
So a quick checklist on the above 5 points:
1) Phone:
Select your photos ✅
Create an album on your phone and name it. ✅
Cull. ✅
Upload to the website, via google/safari. ✅
2) Friend/Partner's phone:
Ask them to share via Airdrop, WhatsApp, Text, Email, iCloud link. ✅
Save these pics to your phone. ✅
Upload to the website, via google/safari. ✅
3 & 4)
Upload them direct to the website from your laptop/Social Media accounts. ✅
5) Old photos from the shoebox!
Scan via scanner or Photoscan app. ✅
Upload to the website. ✅
So next stop...an easy job... it's time to count the photos...
Once you have put the photos in one album online, then count them, so you know roughly how many pages you need.
E.g. 100 photos = 100 pages. (Great for beginners!)
Or if you’re feeling brave and want to do more than one photo per page, then think 200 photos = 100 pages! Or more...?!
(Don't panic - you won't be creating the book til Step 4. But i quite like a variety of layouts. Sometimes a big photo on one page. And 4 equal size photos on the opposite page. Photobook companies will show you layout options. )
Remember that you can add and remove pages as you make your book.
You can also add and remove photos to the online album.
⚠️ Keep an eye on the cost though, as sometimes that can bump up with the amount of pages! ⚠️
Finally...remember these little gentle bits:
Enjoy looking through your photos! This is lovely time to reflect and remember fun times. 💙
Be kind to yourself 💙
Rome wasn't built in a day 💙
Involve family and friends. 💙
Pick your BEST photos. 💙
Don’t put 10 very similar photos in the book, simply because you can’t decide... be decisive. Pick 1 or 2! 💙
Homework:
So your homework is now to choose your photos and upload them onto the photobook site.
You are now OVER HALF WAY!
WOOP WOOP! 🎊 Congratulations! You are truly truly wonderful.
When you have completed Step 3, it's time for a mini jig around the lounge, before you click below...and progress to Step 4.
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