by Stacey Wiseman | Jun 21, 2015 | Design Series, Inspiration, Photo Book Design Layout, Uncategorized
When you go on vacation, chances are you take your camera and capture a lot of photos.
Although I spend quite a bit of time enjoying the activities with my family (without the camera in my hand), it’s true that I end up taking more photos over the course of the week than when I’m home.
Primarily, this is because most of the things we do on vacation are momentous, out-of-the-ordinary activities that I want to document. I want to capture the building of a fragile sand castle and finding the perfect seashell as it’s the most likely the only time it will happen this year.
Recently, we returned from a fun and relaxing trip from the beach. Over the course of the week, I took over 900 photos. And I’ll have to find a way to narrow these 900 down and select about 20-25 for my annual photo book.
How do I select vacation photos for a photo book?
Selecting photos is often the hardest part of making a photo book.
The first step in selecting photos is to pay attention to the context. Notice how I said “…for my annual book” above? Already, I’m defining the context in which I’m selecting photos. If I was selecting for a vacation book, the number of photos and the criteria of photos would be different.
Once I know the parameter, I can then start the specific selection process. I’m sharing my main strategy for selecting photos in my next video tutorial. (Access is for my email subscribers. Sign up or check your emails for your access code.)
In Part Two of my free video tutorial series, I show the rule I followed to narrow these photos:
To see my free video tutorial on how – and why – I selected only 1 photo
from 180 photos for a layout, sign up for my free video tutorials below.
by Stacey Wiseman | Feb 27, 2015 | Description, Promotions, Uncategorized
This week, I released my Photo Book Design Workshop pre-lesson and everyone is diving in and defining their vision.
This Monday, the workshop kicks off and I want to make sure you don’t miss out.
So, how do you know if this workshop is right for you?
I’ve got 10 great reasons below.
1. Sequence
I’ve organized all of my insights, advice and recommendations into a tested and specific order so you know what to do and when to do it. I’m not just telling you how you make a photo book, I’m outlining a process, an efficient workflow, that you can apply to any book project.
2. Results
With every workshop, I create an encouraging environment for you to make progress, and hopefully finish your photo book.
3. Convenience
You don’t have to endlessly search on the internet for advice or inspiration. I’ve packaged all of the pertinent information in one convenient location.
4. Overwhelm
Making a photo book can be overwhelming. With my guidance, I’ll provide clear strategies so you can be decisive and feel empowered (not overwhelmed) by the process.
5. Missing Pieces
Sometimes you don’t even know what to ask. Or what exactly you’re looking for. I promise to share insights and tools that will help you save time and improve your book. Yes, even for people who have made plenty of photo books before… they still walked away with valuable insights.
6. Accountability
By participating in a workshop, you’re making a commitment to yourself to learn and accomplish something you’ve previously struggled with. There are 4 ways my workshop holds you accountable: my actionable lessons, being motivated by your fellow participants, the ability to ask me any questions and receiving feedback on your work.
7. Me
This one is a little weird for me to share, but it’s true – participating in my workshop provides you with unprecedented access to my thought process and workflow. You’ll see how I work plus get views of entire photo books I’ve designed.
8. PDF Design
I don’t just type out the lessons and add photos. I spend a lot of time focusing on the design of my material and love to make small tweaks every year to make sure the lesson is easy to read, organized and beautiful.
9. Facebook Group
After participating in the workshop, you’ll have access to my Mastermind Group, which includes a private Facebook group of others working on their books. Participating in this group will help you stay focused and finish your book project….or start a new one!
10. Upcoming Projects
Every summer, I like to come up with a fun project to stretch your creativity – with your photos and designing a photo book. However, these projects are not instructional. To participate in this project, you’ll want to already know how to make a book using the BookSmart (or BookWright) software.
Plus, as of right now, this is my only scheduled 2016 run of the Photo Book Design Workshop – so now is your chance to learn!
It’s also important to know if this workshop is not for you. This Photo Book Design Workshop is probably not right for you if…
You take less than 500 photos a year.
You prefer to print your photos as 4×6 prints.
You have absolutely no extra time to devote to learning a new task.
You are completely satisfied in your ability to design photo books.
You have an efficient workflow to stay on top of your culling, editing, and designing.
You love the standard layouts or designs in these photo books.
You’d rather have me design your photo books for you.
You already use InDesign to design your photo books.
I’ve got more information here but if you’re ready to sign up you can head over here.
The workshop kicks off this Monday, March 20, 2017!
Here’s a preview of the Pre-Workshop Lesson that has already been posted.
by Stacey Wiseman | Jan 22, 2015 | Description, Family Photographs, Photo Book Design Layout, Promotions, Uncategorized
Last weekend, I photographed my morning, noon and night. It’s so great to capture the everyday moments to see how they remain the same and how they change. It’s an easy way to document your life without the huge commitment of taking photos every hour.
This removes the overwhelm from the selection, editing and design process. In fact, for my January submission, I shot 162 photos and selected 29 to edit. I ended up using 24 of those photos. With that simple process, I’m well on my way to design an annual book.
Of course, this book may not include all of the details (chances are….I’m going to design that book too!), but if this is the only photo book you think you’ll make all year, it’s a great one to touch on the details that make up your life.
Morning
Noon
Night
The best part is, I’m working on my book each month as I shoot. Here are a few of my pages.
Want to join along?
by Stacey Wiseman | May 1, 2014 | Description, Inspiration, Uncategorized
Right now my son is obsessed – no wait – OBSESSED with all things legos. It’s the first thing he does in the morning and last thing he does at night before bed. When we force him to break from lego building and do something vital, like eat or go the bathroom, he takes along the lego instruction manual to study the pieces, the characters and the steps.
Yes, we’ve seen the lego movie and even read the chapter book. (He could surprisingly remember what would happen next as we were reading!) What I loved about the movie is how it dissected lego builders into two types: those who go by the instructions and those who don’t.
Of course there is no right and wrong answer here. It’s the beauty of the toy. Either way, legos require a lot of imagination to build and play with. A skill I’m very happy to foster with my 5 year-old….who is a make-up his own invention kind-of boy!
This got me thinking about my own design inspiration when it comes to photo books. Often I start with an image off-the-box – either from a website, a physical book, or a product around our house. Pinterest and magazines provide an endless source of inspiration. At this point I’ll adjust the elements to suit my tastes.
Occasionally, I’ll stick pretty close to a given design – particularly when I’m testing out something and want to see how it looks with my photos or preferred font style. This often describes my photo book cover design explorations.
But most of the time, I like to take something I see and adjust and tweak to fit my own unique personal style and vision.
For this, I’ll use beautiful moleskin notebooks to collect ideas, thoughts, diagrams, and to-do lists on the photo books I want to create and how I’ll set out to accomplish them. With this method, I close down all websites and put away the magazines in order to think through how it is I want to use design elements into a project.
My particular style and strength is developed around a simple design move that is executed primarily through organization. So a lot of times, I’ll use the notebooks to write out how I want to structure an idea which informs how I organize my photos and how I want to graphically convey the structure.
In the end, there are a lot of design concepts frequently used with great success (for example, adding a line under a large title or a bold number in a circle). We should never look to copy directly but understand why the design element works and how it can be applied to your project.
Whether you are starting with something you’ve seen or really thinking out-of-the-box with your design, it’s best to develop a style that is consistent, cohesive and executed with confidence to your vision.
I’d love to hear what’s your design inspiration when taking photos and designing books. Do you start with a visual or do you love to create free from distractions?
by Stacey Wiseman | Apr 19, 2014 | Uncategorized
I was testing out a few covers for a client and wanted to share one of my examples – including it’s design secret.
What makes this cover is using a circle shape to contain the photo and finding a photo with a blown out sky at the top (in other words a sky that is completely white). This creates negative space at the top, allowing the image to float free from the top of the circle.
I love this because the circle is a very defined shape, yet the type of photo selected breaks up hard line of the shape.
I used the negative space to include the year for the book. Select a font that works with the style of your cover photo or your book.
Make sure you pin this example!
by Stacey Wiseman | Mar 10, 2014 | Photo Book Design Layout, Podcast, Uncategorized
As you may have read, for 2014 I’ve set up a Photo Book Accountability Group. That’s right, this is the year where you don’t wait until the end to design your photo book!
In this video, I include a sample of how I addressed a particular question in her book. She was trying to connect how to create a template of the month section divider for her photo book.
If you’re curious to see how I can answer your photo book questions, email me, info@bookthisproject.com, and I’ll fill you in on the details. This product is only available until the end of the month so make sure you check it out now!
To join, click here!
by Stacey Wiseman | Aug 1, 2011 | Uncategorized
Welcome to BOOK THIS PROJECT!
BOOK THIS PROJECT is a design and printing service for custom photo books.
Our mission is to help families take and print more photographs.
On our blog and facebook page, you will find inspiration and motivation for taking photographs. In our shop, all of our products are designed with a streamlined method and sophisticated layouts in order to help you get your photographs off your hard drive and into a custom photo book.
Take a look around. If you have any questions, send an email to info@bookthisproject.com.
We look forward to working with you on your custom photo book project!
