subject: Making Memories With Photo Books [print this page] Photo books offer a wonderful way to collect memories of a special day. Why not put together a book for someone special, and give them visual memories to treasure for ever?
The days of collating lots of hard copy pictures and slotting them into a photo album are gone; now it's so much easier to create a book online with digital images, and it gives much better results. Many companies provide the service, and allow you to use their creation software for free. You can then have the book posted to you.
With digital photography, it doesn't really matter how many pictures you take before you get the right one, because it costs nothing to snap, analyse, and delete if you are unhappy with the result. If you are going to be making photo books for someone to mark a special day, get plenty of practise in at home before the day so that you can take some really great images.
Play around with your digital camera and get to know the functions properly. With old-style film cameras, there wasn't always much you could do to adjust settings, and so if you're unfamiliar with how to focus on certain objects and not others, or set the flash properly, get to grips with these functions.
The more you practise with your camera, the greater the look of the photos will be for your photo books. Don't just point and snap, take time to consider aspects of the scene you are photographing. Think about the composition of the image; does it have a good balance? A good focus? You can use lines which occur naturally to create direction within an image.
The orientation of lines within a shot can create different moods. For example, you can create a three-dimensional and convey scale, depth and distance within a two-dimensional image by positioning the camera to include lines that converge, such as a winding road disappearing into the distance. Curved or s-shaped lines create a calm, quiet and sensual mood.
Think about colour as you shoot. Strong, bold contrasting colours create interest, tension and drama in a frame, and draw the eye to certain areas.
