Today we’re deep-diving that oft-procrastinated project that may be lingering on many of our to-do-someday lists: creating an annual photo book.
I’m (theoretically) a very big advocate of the annual photo book.
As a kid, I and my family would spend hours poring over our family photo albums. We’d pass books back and forth, laughing at embarrassing photos of naked toddlers and reminiscing about weekends at the cabin.
Now in our digital photo era, scrolling through my phone’s photo roll doesn’t have quite the same appeal. I still crave photos we can pull off the bookshelves on a rainy day and hold in our actual hands.
So when Adam and I got married, I had really great intentions of making an annual photo album. That one book would provide a full snapshot (had to!) of our year, from international trips to ordinary dinners on the back porch.
But I’ll be honest – the first book took me like 2.5 years to actually complete. I’m just now getting caught up from the intervening years – I printed 2020’s book at the beginning of January, and our wedding album from 3 whole years ago is freshly finished and still sitting in my cart as I wait for a sale. (I have big plans to finish our 2021 album by the end of February though – let’s see if I can set my own record?)
I’ll be the first to admit that completing an annual photo book can be a hard thing to maintain. Sorting through photos and creating layouts that look nice requires a big investment in time and energy.
But for me, it’s worth it, and it’s something I want to prioritize going forward. And as I’ve caught up on our family’s photo books, I’ve discovered some tips to make creating an annual photo book as procrastination-proof as possible.
Maybe you, too, have been meaning to create an annual photo book for a while. Here’s some gentle encouragement and tips to make make creating an annual photo book less overwhelming.
Step 1: Decide why this matters to you.
So maybe going back through your digital photo history and creating books just feels like something you should do. You know, if you were organized and had your life together and stuff.
But just feeling like you should do something is not a compelling reason to finish a project. (It’s also not a fun way to live your life.)
If creating an annual photo book is truly something you care about, get specific and name why. Do you want to look through your photos more often? Have easily accessible memory books to remind you of your kids growing up? Get your photos off social media?
I include a quick note of my photo organization “why” in my monthly reminder to back up my photos. It helps motivate me to make progress when scrolling random articles on the Internet would be easier.
And if you don’t actually care that much about printing out photo books? Then by gosh, don’t spend your time on it! You are by no means required to do this in order to be a functional, happy adult.
Step 2: Get all your photos in one place.
Lots of the online photo organization experts will tell you to add your favorite album-worthy photos to a folder every month. Then poof! At the end of the year, your photo book practically creates itself.
But I imagine that if you’re reading this post, it is perhaps possible you haven’t been diligently gathering photos throughout the year. (Me neither.)
And that’s okay! We can both still do this without succumbing to complete overwhelm.
The first step is to get all of your photos for the year in one place. (If you want to back them up while you’re at it, I’ve got a guide for that here.)
Locate the photos from alllll the places: your phone, your partner’s phone, your camera, those ones your dad texted to you, the Google drive from that bachelorette party. Then choose one place where those photos are going to live and download all of those photos to that singular place. Don’t worry about choosing any album-worthy photos yet – just get everything together.
I like to gather my photos in my computer’s Photos app, as I find this whole photo-selection process too clunky to do exclusively on my phone. (This article has some tips for how to get photos from your phone to your computer – the Image Capture trick will change your life.)
Step 3: Choose the photos you want to include
Now’s the fun part! Go through all those photos from the year and pick out your favorites. Pop them into an album.
There really are no rules for this part – include whatever photos you think you’ll want to remember in the future. Do what brings you joy!
(Optional Step 3.5: If you’re into editing your photos, now would be a great time to do that. If that sounds like too much, skip it and move on! Your goal was likely not to have a perfectly edited collection of photos to show off, right?)
Step 4: Download your photos into monthly folders.
This is one trick that has made creating photo books SO MUCH EASIER for me. Previously, I would upload all of my photos into my photo book software at once. Then I would spend so much time scrolling around making sure I wasn’t forgetting any photos from an event. It was the worst.
No more! Creating monthly folders (that you’ll then upload one at a time) makes things so much simpler.
Step 5: Create layouts by month.
You guessed it – now that you’ve got those monthly folders, upload January’s photos into your photo book software. Create layouts using January’s photos before uploading anything else. When you’re finished, upload February’s photos. Create the layouts for those. You get the picture.
Step 6: Proof your book!
Once you’re finished, do a final check! Did you add a label to the spine and cover of your book? Proofread any text you included? Choose a photo for the back cover?
I also like to download the PDF proof, if one is available, and have my husband take a scroll for anything I’ve missed. A fresh pair of eyes is very helpful when you’ve been staring at the same photos for hours.
More Tips for Creating an Annual Photo Book
Here are some additional tips for creating an annual photo book that I’ve discovered through plenty of trial and error.
Don’t use the photos directly from social media
If you can, use the original photos, not the ones that downloaded after you posted them on Instagram. Social media photos will be lower resolution and may show up blurry.
Don’t feel obligated to have any text!
I used a total of maybe 15 words in our 2020 photo book. I had a title page for each season and just a few titles on events that took up more than two pages. Other than that, I didn’t do any captions or journaling or anything. If coming up with captions is holding you back, skip it!
Simple layouts are better
This is totally personal preference, but I think photo books look sharpest when the photos are all on white backgrounds without a lot of other decorative elements. Follow your own tastes, of course, but don’t worry that your book will be boring if you skip the extra design-y stuff. (Plus, it saves time. That’s a nice perk.)
Start with the past year
If you’ve got tons of years’ worth of photos that you’d like to turn into photo books, start with the most recent year. You’ll feel so accomplished when you finish it! Then use that momentum you just created to work your way backwards year by year.
(Also, as an aside, you don’t have to go backwards and do previous years. You can just start now and keep moving forward. It’s really okay. No shame necessary.)
Some photo book software is easier to use than others
If you’ve been frustrated trying to create photo books on Shutterfly, well, it might be because their design software is actually not that user-friendly. (Just me?) This applies across the board – if you’ve been stuck trying to make it work with one company, it may be worth trying another! I’ve used Photobook America for the past two years and have been happy with them. I’ve heard Printique and Mixbook highly recommended as well. Perhaps try uploading just one month’s worth of photos into each program you’re considering and see what’s easiest for you to use.
Release your perfectionism
Go back to your reason why you want to complete this project. It’s likely because you want to preserve your memories and have something fun to look back on – not because you want a perfect relic that belongs in a museum. “Done is better than perfect” in pretty much all cases, including this one.
Let this be fun!
You get to look through photos of people you love and fun things you did! Yay! Put on some music, light a candle, grab a drink, do whatever would make this process as enjoyable as possible.