Getting the most out of Photobooks - photo selection and cropping

We get a lot of queries about "are my photos OK?"  That can be pretty subjective but here are some tips to make that a little easier.

There are three important issues in photo selection (1) resolution (2) focus and (3) framing. 

Photo resolution

It is perhaps an obvious statement but the higher the resolution of the photo the better will be the final photobook output.  Higher resolution photos mean that our printing presses have more information to work with and so can produce higher quality results.

The albumworks Editor will provide a warning where photos are below 120 Pixels Per Inch (PPI) with a red exclamation mark, so if you see this just make your photo smaller on the photo book page until the warning goes away.

Clarity

It you are using the little screen on the back of your camera or your smartphone - it can be tough to know whether your shot is in focus or not.  So, once you've dragged them onto the photo book page in the editor, check any shots that look a little "off".  To do this just zoom right in on them and check if they are blurry.

The printing presses we use are extremely high quality and will tend to emphasise if your shots aren't quite right.  Remember, the resolution of your computer monitor is a lot less than the printed photobook. 

Cropping for impact 

Cropping is the removal of parts of your photo to improve the impact of a shot or to better frame the subject.  Assess each shot in your photo book, review whether there are elements in each shot which detract from the shot.   

In the example below cropping some of the right foreground out of the shot creates more drama and increases the focus on the penguins.

Photos that are taken where the subject is right in the middle of the shot tend to have a lot of distracting elements in them.  By applying the 'rule of thirds" (we'll talk about this in more detail in a later blog) you can inject more drama and impact to your shot.

So in an ideal world you will have photos that are of good resolution, focussed well and cropped for impact - but at the end of the day the only critic you have to please is yourself.  If a photo is important to your photobook story, then use it.  

And if you aren't sure, give the albumworks Customer Service team a call, they can give you a few more ideas to work around a critical photo that could do with some extra "love".