Photography 101

Lesson 3: Lesson 3: Planning Your Album

Before you even think about cropping that first picture or buying that first sheet of pretty paper, you need to sit down and plan your album. This is important to insure you have enough pages and that nothing gets left out. When I first began, I would occasionally end up with holes—missing photos, or photos that turned up later—then I would have to work the pictures into the existing album, or leave them out. Planning your album ahead of time eliminates this frustrating experience and insures a better flow and overall look and feel to your album.

Section 1: Photo Arranging

Concentrating only on the photos for your album, sort through them and begin to arrange them in order. Chronological is easiest, but I have certainly seen other albums which were not sequential. Start thinking about how many pictures you plan to have on each page. There is no hard and fast limit, but the more pictures on each page, the less focus on each one.

When you’re finished, lay the photos out in order and try to visualize the effect of flipping through an album in this order. In layout terms, there are single page layouts—meaning one page—and double page spreads—two pages using the same or coordinating paper, theme, etc. Double pages do seem to make an album flow better, but there is certainly nothing wrong with single pages. However, study your photos for similarities in colors, themes, etc. and group into double page spreads where you can. This will ease the process of making the album.

If this is pleasing to you, then you’re finished! If not, keep shuffling them around until it feels right to you. This is your record of your memories.

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