When you have been on a trip to far away (or not so far away) countries you’ve probably taken lots of pictures. And of course you want to show them to friends and realtives, whether on your website, on a TV or, most popular these days, in a photo book. Here are a few tips how to. Here are a few tips on how to present your photos in a way that keeps the audience engaged.
Limit the number of images
This is proabably the most important advice. Keep in mind, that your audience has not the same emotional bond to the pictures as you have. Don’t bombard your friends and relatives with hundreds of images. Limit yourself to perhaps a hundred or so. Only if your photos appeal to a very special audience, let’s say lovers of classic cars, well over a hundred pictures are acceptable.
Limit the number of selfies
There is no need to show your selfies in a photo book or slide show in front of every sight a destination has to offer. Your friends and relatives probably know what you look like…
Visual rhythm
Think of your pictures as musical notes. Playing the same note over and over again is no melody. Or in other words: Ten landscape photos in a row can be boring. Twenty can be very boring, no matter how impressive the landscape seemed to you. Try to establish a visual rhythm. Include close-ups, details, people and whatever you came across.
Think in topics
Free yourself from the purely chronological arrangement of your photos. A chronological sequence may seem reasonable at first. But then you run the risk of repeating certain topics. For example, if you visited several ranches on a trip to Canada or America, it may be important for you personally to know at which ranch and when the photos were taken. The viewers of your photo book, on the other hand, only see that the theme “ranch life” is repeated. Therefore, it may be better to group the photos taken at ranches, even if they were taken on different days. Then present the life on a ranch in just one block. Nobody will be bothered that the photos were taken at different ranches and/or different dates. It is much more important to convey the feeling of ranch life. And that is always more exciting than repetitions.
Limit the use of effects
The software for photobooks or digital slide shows come with many different effects. There are numerous backgrounds, frames, transitions and what have you to choos from. Resist the urge to use them all. Limit yourself to two or three. Otherwise your photobook might look like this:
Have a look at the books in your library and you’ll see that the layout follows strict rules for example with respect to margins, image sizes or text. There is no harm to follow some rules for your own photo book as well.
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