How many pictures should be in a picture book?

It’s normal that with so many photos that you will have you wonder how many photos will fit in a photo book, because we know there will be many that you will want to include and you are worried that there is not enough room for all of them.

The truth is that digital photography not only changed the printing technique, but it affected the way we taught photography.

Digital album with cell phone photos

Nowadays we capture thousands of images with our mobiles, tablets and digital cameras, which are often forgotten in a folder of the computer.

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But with a photo book, you can always have your photos at hand and remember the good times.

Also, these albums allow you to collect a large number of images, because you can play with the size and crop the photos to give prominence to details.

Remember that with the Snappybook app you will create your digital album with your mobile photos Try it!

How many photos can you fit in a photo book

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Bear in mind that it is usual to include between 80 and 100 photographs, but larger photo books, with up to 80 pages, allow you to add many more.

In the end it depends on your personal criteria and basically answers the following question:

Do you prefer to give importance to each image and see them big or do you like to see them all on one page even if they are smaller?

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How many pages are there in the album

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As a general rule of thumb, you usually do a combination: reserve more space for the photos you want to highlight and squeeze more less important images together on one page.

You will also have to take into account the cost, since usually the more pages the higher the price of the album, although the final result usually makes it worth it.

All in all, a photo book ends up being a connection to the memories of your life, where time remains unchanged and we can re-live our favorite moments.

How to choose the photos in a photo book

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A photo book visually tells a story. It’s not about haphazardly putting together a bunch of photographs, but developing a narrative that allows you to relive memorable occasions.

A photo album

is a visual storyteller.

That’s why, before thinking about design you should pay attention to what you want to tell:

Is it your wedding? A trip? The pregnancy and birth of your child?

What’s your wedding?

Whatever the reason, it’s worth taking the time to decide what aspects you want to highlight.

Whatever the reason, it’s worth taking the time to decide what aspects you want to highlight.

This previous step will make it much easier for you to select photographs, because we already know that with digital media there are no restrictions like we had with photographic film.

Gone are the days when you had to choose your photos very carefully, because each roll of film only allowed us to take 12, 24 or, at most, 36 images.

Today we shoot like crazy, and yes, it is true that we get very funny pictures and capture spontaneous situations that before were almost impossible to get.

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But we also fill ourselves with repetitive shots, which eventually become monotonous.

Sorting your photo book photos

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So, once you know what your photo book is about you can start sorting your photos, grouping them chronologically or by themes, depending on the storyline you decide.

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For example, if you’re creating your wedding album, you’ll probably want to follow a chronological order, since it’s an event that has a time sequence.

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The same goes for other ceremonies or if you want to compile your children’s first year.

But if, for example, you want to make a compilation of your last year of college, it might be better to group the photos by themes.

So you could have chapters dedicated to reminiscing about the times you spent binging after exams or the sleepless nights finishing a group assignment.

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The key is not how many photos fit but how you lay it out

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Whatever order you choose, grouping the photos together will make it easier for you to design it

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The next step is to select, from all the chosen photos, the ones that will finally be in your album.

The next step is to select, from all the chosen photos, the ones that will finally be in your album.

This process will surely take a lot of time, not only because of the amount of images you will have, but also because you will spend a long time looking at each one and remembering each situation.

Albums of different sizes

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And while we know it’s a fun task at first, you may find that after a few hours you’re so tired that you won’t be able to make up your mind anymore

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In those cases, take a break, you don’t have to finish the job in one day.

Remember that you’re making an album that will last forever and it’s not worth rushing through it.

When you’re making an album that will last forever, it’s not worth rushing through it.

Package your photo book like a pro

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The design programs from Snappybook will make this task much easier for you. You will find pre-designed templatess that can perfectly fit the motif you need.

You also have backgrounds and frames that will allow you to create special sections for the photos you want to highlight.

All of these elements have been created by designers and photographers with years of experience, so the result is usually a totally professional look and feel.

The idea is that you have fun while making your photo book, and even more fun when you flip through it and remember the experiences you have had.

The idea is that you have fun while making your photo book, and even more fun when you flip through it and remember the experiences you have had.

To layout it like a pro, here are some tips that can help you:

Different angles

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If you are going to include several photos of the same situation,make sure they are taken from different angles or have significant variations.

If you are going to include several photos of the same situation,

make sure they are taken from different angles or have significant variations.

Highlight a detail

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or have significant variations.

You can take advantage of a detail to re-frame the image and give more prominence to a specific gesture or object 

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Out of boring layouts

Be mindful of the format you’ve chosen for your photo book and look for balance in the page layout

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With the possibilities offered by these albums it makes no sense to put all the photos in a grid with a boring layout.

Horizontal and vertical photos, together but not jumbled

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You can combine horizontal images with vertical ones, but avoid placing the landscape ones on top, because they would feel too heavy.

Better if you don’t load the pages

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Do not overload with photos on each page, three or four is usually more than enough, although if you vary the image sizes you could add some more.

What do we do with the black and white pictures?

If you have color and B/W photos use them separately. This allows you to create pages with a certain vintage feel, very artistic, and others that are vibrant and very vivid.

It is difficult to combine both types of photos and make it look good, although great professionals achieve it is not an easy task.

That’s why we advise you to think about how a full-color page would look like with a gray page.

Make special use of center pages

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Select the image that will occupy the center pages. This does not have to follow the chronology, as it is an interlude in the story you are telling.

Choose a very good resolution photo and take advantage of binding technologies to fold it out to a double-page spread.

Create your photo album with our editing software

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Remember to take advantage of the utilities provided by snappybook’s editing software and apply masks or add bullets and text by playing with typography.

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But be careful not to overuse them as the result could be a cluttered, messy-looking album

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Use them on some pages, always taking care to maintain the harmony of the design.

Use the templates, you will love the result

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Follow the same advice regarding templates. On our site you can find professionally pre-designed templates, which will save you a lot of work and the result you will love.

Less is more

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But if you want a completely unique photo book, try one-page templates, but don’t go overboard.

Double-page templates

As a general rule, use no more than 3 or 4 templates throughout the book. Also remember to make use double-page spreads or make sure that the ones you use do not clash with the opposite page.

Balance

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Finally, balance the number of photos and their size on each page. Unless you want it to look like a typical American movie yearbook, don’t put pictures that are too small.

Combine sizes

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If the resolution does not allow you to enlarge them too much, combine some small ones, probably detail ones, with some larger ones.

How to choose the size of the photo book

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There are some preset formats, which are usually intended to easily lay out photos of standard dimensions.

Album measures 10 x 15

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To give you an idea, theusual size of a photograph on chemical paper is 10×15 cm, which is equivalent to 4×6 inches.

Album measures 21 x 14

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There is also a larger size, 21 x 14 cm, which is proportional to the previous one. Most of the photo frames will fit these measurements.

Similarly, the digital albums fit these sizes very well

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But you must consider not only its dimensions, but also its layout vertically or horizontally.

Album measures 21 x 28

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One of the most commonly used formats is the 21×28 cm, which has a very similar size to that of a letter sheet

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This format is ideal for vertical photos with indentation (meaning no margins) that take up all the space on the page. It is very convenient and easy to handle and store.

Album measures 33 x 28

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But if it’s a wedding, you’re probably going to need a slightly larger photo book that allows you to put group photos in it.

But if it’s a wedding, you’re probably going to need a slightly larger photo book that allows you to put group photos in it.

In these cases, a landscape album, which measures 33×28 cm will give you much more play for the design.

If you use the center pages unfolded you will have an image of about 66 cm that will look great for a panoramic photo.

The finishes

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Again you have important decisions to make but with these tips you are guaranteed an end result you will love.

The finishing touches.

There are different printing techniques, with which you can achieve different finishess.

On the one hand, digital printing offers a very good quality at very competitive prices.

But if you want to see your photos printed on photographic paper, as if they were the ones developed with chemicals, then opt for photo printing.

Digital albums

For important events such as weddings, baptisms or communions, which happen only once in a lifetime and that we want to keep forever, this is the best alternative.

Also, when you’re creating your special occasion photo book, don’t skimp on the binding.

You’ll notice the difference with a quality binding, especially its durability

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Binding for every occasion

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Flat binding allows pages to be fully open. Panoramic photos occupying two pages will be viewed without any loss of image in the center

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Choose the best materials and add text or images that anticipate what you will find on their pages.

At the end of the day there is a moment of great sentimental value that you will reconnect with every time you look at the album

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A Guest Post by Photo Book Girl.

We all know that composition is important to keep in mind when taking a photo, and it’s just as important to think about composition when you’re designing a photo book layout. Here are my five top tips for designing good photo book layouts.

1) Less is More

Don’t try to crowd in a lot of photos in a single layout, give your photos some breathing room. In fact, consider placing a single photo per page. It allows your photo to take center stage.

If you are planning to create a whole spread with several photos, think about the end size of your photo book. A very common size offered by photo book companies is an 8 x 8 inch book. How many photos to put into a spread should correlate to the size of the book. For example, laying out 12 photos on a single spread (two facing pages) of an 8×8 inch book is going to print very differently from 12 photos on a single spread of a 12×12 inch book. Doing the former may make each photo appear rather small in the final product and you don’t want folks squinting at your layouts. If you don’t have the benefit of a large monitor, so you can zoom to actual size, many companies display the measurements of your photos so if you have to, grab a ruler so you can see what end size you’re going to end up with. I typically don’t try to place more than 6 to 8 photos on a single spread of an 8 x 8 inch book and even then, you probably don’t want to do that for every page.

2) Establish a Focal Point

If you have a beautiful photo of which you’re especially proud, as mentioned in #1 above, highlight it by letting it have its own spread. Place it in a full bleed spread, or if the book size you’ve chosen is going to cut off key areas of your photo, then choose a container size smaller than the spread.

Another way to establish a focal point when you have more than one photo in your layout is to display one or two larger photos with smaller supporting photos.

A big pet peeve of mine is when companies provide very boring, unimaginative stock layouts based on the number of photos you want to lay out. If you place your photos into a layout of eight equally sized photo boxes, which photo is the focal point? Not to say that a layout like that would never work, but picking one or two photos to highlight tells your viewers the focus of your design.

3) Vary your spreads

I have done a “portfolio” type book where I only placed a single photo per page, and that makes sense with that type of book, but if you’re doing a book of an event like a birthday or graduation, you’re most likely going to place more than one photo per spread. Try to vary your spreads so the viewer doesn’t get bored. With that said, I often reutilize a layout more than once, but scatter it throughout the book. Similarly you can take your layout and reconfigure or make a slight change to it so it doesn’t look exactly the same. By reusing layouts, you can quickly design your spreads. The key is to not bore the viewer.

4) Tell a Story

Just as with any other book, your photo book is meant to tell a story, especially when making a photo book of your vacation photos for example. When you show off your vacation photos, you’re sharing your experiences with your family and friends. You want to make them feel like they were on the trip with you – seeing the sights, taking in the picturesque views. Think about how you want to tell your story. The typical event-based book will likely be chronological. But don’t be afraid to break from that, by grouping photos that make sense together for impact. For example the following layout highlights all the delicious food we ate on vacation!

5) Do your Prep Work Ahead of Time

Designing your pages will be easier, if you haven’t upload all 1000 photos from your event or trip into the photo book design software. You’ll easily lose your mind going through all of them. I’ve found that in a 100-page book, about 300 photos are more than enough and even then I don’t end up using all of the photos. Edit down the number of photos to the best ones, or the ones essential to telling the story you wish to convey. Also make sure you’ve done your post processing using your own software before uploading, as there are typically very few in-program photo-editing tools.

The author is the blogger behind Photo Book Girl – a resource for finding the best photo book companies, the latest photo book deals and helpful tips on designing your own photo book. For more tips, check out her ongoing series: “How to Make Your Own Digital Photo Book“ and her prior guest post for DPS on the same topic. You can also find her on Facebook discussing all things photo book!