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Hi! My name is Tracy and I’m responsible for product management at Shutterfly. I’m an avid photobooker. It gives me great pleasure to share my books with friends and family.
Recently I’ve been teaching myself Adobe Photoshop for digital scrapbooking and learning how to use my D-SLR. In June I did a four day photography workshop on the Olympic Peninsula, finally taking my Canon Rebel xti out of automatic mode.
I’m a former yearbook editor (high school and college) and even worked as a sales rep for a yearbook publishing company for a couple of years, so my approach to photo booking and storytelling comes from those roots.
On becoming a photobooker
I’m at the point where I now approach everything I do with the intent of turning the experience into a photo book. Whether it’s a long weekend in
Long Beach, a
monthly hike, or a walk around my neighborhood, I’m thinking about the story I want to tell and what photos I’ll need to take.
As an example, during my photography workshop, I took photos of my classmates taking photos because I knew I’d want them for my photo book. My first photo on the first day was one of another student’s tripod and camera silhouetted against the beautiful scenery. I think the pro photographer instructor thought I was crazy, but for me this photo was pivotal in the story I wanted to tell about my experience.
My Photobooking Process
Step One: Get organized
My first step in making a photo book is to organize my photos. I use a 5-star rating system. A 5 is a picture that I definitely want to feature because it’s either a really good shot or critical to the story4s and 3s are good supporting photos. 1s and 2s are shots I’ll include if I need filler. Shutterfly’s ‘favorites’ and folder functionality in My Pictures can serve the same purpose.
Step Two: Write the story
Next I write my story. Typically I’ll do this in Microsoft Word, writing about events chronologically, using dates for chapter breaks. I also like to write little ‘sidebar stories’ that aren’t necessarily time based. I did this in my
Croatia book to remember my sister’s hilarious pirate dream, include a note about Dalmatians on the Dalmatian coast, and comment on the prevalence of men wearing capris, which my sister and I called manpris
Step Three: Layout design
I’m now ready to start making my pages. I think in spreads and often sketch out layout ideas before I start working in Photoshop. I like to have a focal picture (those 5s) as the dominant element and try to avoid trapped white space and keep text and headlines to the outer edges. I also like to keep my internal margins consistent.
Since I’m a digital scrapbooker, I create my pages using digital kits. I’ve purchased a bunch, and usually stick to one kit per book because everything coordinates nicely. I look for a kit where the colors or elements complement my story. For my Croatia book I was interested in capturing the blue of the water, the red/orange of the tiled roofs and the tan of the concrete walls. I ended up using two kits to get that mix - ‘Island Wind’ by Lynn Grieveson at Designer Digitals, and ‘Twist Of Lime’ on Digital Design Essentials.
But you don’t have to be a digital scrapbooker to make a beautiful photo book. Shutterfly’s ready-made templates and book creating process make it easy. Just choose a single theme and the book is guaranteed to look cohesive. You can also use the new Creating Keepsakes books, which give you that scrapbook look in a snap without all the extra work.
Step Four: Play!
Now I just have fun bringing the photos, words, papers and elements together, until I’ve finished telling the story I want to tell.
July 20th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Tracy, I’m a huge fan of your books as well so was happy you did an article too. These are very helpful tips that I’ll consider with the next book I make. I do have Photoshop but uninstalled it after it wasn’t working with my newcomputer. I’ll have to give it a whirl again. I have not done digital scrapbooks, yet, but maybe one day. I do love the templates Shutterfly provides and I still need to try out Creating Keepsakes books. So many projects, so many ideas. I love your idea of whatever you do, you try to make a photobook from that and tell the story. I love your photography workshop and how you were taking photos of other students. I love the photo of the lone camera on the tripod w/ the scenery in background. See its things such as that in which we may not ordinarily take a photo, but it has broadened my eyes and I’ve been trying to take photos of the everyday type things. Great tips and article. Also, Sam mentioned he too writes his journaling in Word. Thats something I never knew. I’ll for sure try that.
I’ll have to see if you have more books out. I love looking at yours and seeing the creativity.
Joanna T
Shutterfly Gallery Guru
July 21st, 2008 at 10:20 pm
Thanks for sharing your photobook making process! I didn’t know you wrote in Word. I love all your photobooks and try to copy whenever I can -with your permission
I am such a big fan of your books and Shutterfly, i promise photobooks for family and friends for special occassion from time to time. Unfortuately, it’s hard to get the right pictures! People who are new to photobook simply do not take the “right” pictures for me to create a photobook properly. I have to send this link to some people I owe photobooks! BTW, although you have a great camera, it’s not always the equipment. You have a great eye for shots! I have seen you take amazing pictures with your small digital camera.
July 22nd, 2008 at 6:14 am
Tracy, you have a gift. I love it when you share one of your albums because you are able to captivate the viewer, draw them into your story and have them believe that they were a part of your journey as well. I never feel like I’m just looking at some pictures with you, I’m “experiencing” the story. Thank you for sharing all of these tips. I guess my biggest challenge will be Step One. I’d like to start making one of these each year as teacher’s gifts. I make them by hand now & drive my family crazy with all of the panic to finish it during the last week of school.
Tanti baci, bella,
Amy
August 1st, 2008 at 10:22 am
Thanks so much for the tips on using the ratings in Photoshop for your books. I really hadn’t tried that yet. Mostly I create my digital pages with a book in mind. But really I should use the ratings, categories etc. Or at least start with the new pictures I take. Do you have any tips for organizing your digital scrapbooking kits? I have just stumbled upon a system that I am hoping works out. Since you may be like me and have tons of kits - you probably can’t remember everything you have. For some reason the Photoshop Elements Organizer won’t work anymore now that I installed Photoshop CS3 Extended and I find that Bridge takes too long to load everything. So here is what I am doing. I take all papers from a kit and open them in Photoshop. Then I create a Proof Sheet from those papers. I name the proof sheet after the kit and then I save it in a folder where I keep all the paper proof sheets. This way I know what I have AND I can mix and match easily. For elements if they didn’t already come with a sheet for printing, I do the same thing with the proof sheets and save that in elements. Alphabets, too. And so on. Now I can either just skim through the Paper folder or open it up in Bridge and things move along a little faster.
Once again as a fellow traveler, photographer & digital scrapbooker, thanks for the tips!
August 31st, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Hello!,
August 31st, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Hi!,
August 31st, 2008 at 8:01 pm
Good day!,
September 11th, 2008 at 5:16 am
I never thought about rating my photos like that before. I will definately have to check into that. I don’t open Adobe Bridge very often and probably should.
Great article and love your last book! :o)
Shutterfly Gallery Guru