Create a Photographic Gift

Photobooks are a great way to save memories of holidays and family gatherings. I have many of them – they bring back lots of good memories. They are by their nature very personal to the person who creates them – the digital equivalent of the photo album, with all your birthday parties and Uncle George wearing a funny hat at Xmas. During confinement in the house I have come up with a slightly different take on this idea. I have made a ‘Coffee Table’ photo book using my own photographs which I hope to send as a gift. I went through my recent photos to find a group of photos with a common theme, for me this turned out to be trees. For other people it could be birds, sunsets, India …etc. I then set out to make a book with them. I get my photobooks from Bonusprint and they are currently still taking orders and printing. I ordered one on 24th March and it arrived 10 days later. I get 20 x 15cm (8 x 6 inch) landscape and always order when Bonusprint have an offer on – either 40% or 50% off. The books cost from £10 - £15 each which seems a lot but they are unique! You can get bigger books or portrait or square.

Before putting my pictures in the book I reduce their size to 2048 x 2048 pixels (maximum). This makes them quicker to download and that provides ample resolution for a full page picture.

I find that the finished book looks identical to the preview on the screen. The pictures above show previews of my book. I have kept a white background and used pale blue rather than black for the text and frame so that the picture remains the main point of focus. I have included location, date, brief description and lastly the camera settings for interest. I find the photobook editor intuitive and versatile. You can use templates but I always ask to do the layout myself. I am sure that other photobook services are similar I just use Bonusprint because I used to send them my films for developing :)

For friends and family that we cannot visit this could be a gift idea that reaches out of our confinement and it is also a good way to get a hard copy of your best photos even if you don’t have a printer.