Design,Photobooks,Travel,Travel Tips

Making Travel Photobooks

Photobook 1 SheenaLovesSunsets.com-min

One of the ways I beat my after-travel blues (the kind when you’re at home, bummed that a trip is over!) is by making photobooks of our trips!

A lot of people tell me that they’re too lazy to make photobooks but for me, it’s one of my ultimate stress relievers! I love choosing which photos to use, putting all the captions and arranging everything. You probably think I’m crazy but this is what I usually do on my me-times on Sunday afternoons! Haha!

Photobook 6 SheenaLovesSunsets.com-min

To me, there’s nothing quite like holding a book filled with your travel photos. I sure don’t have the patience of browsing through 3000+ pictures every time I want to relive a trip!

I enjoy making them so much that I started offering photobook services. Lately though, I try to limit the number of orders I take because I’m busy with a number of other projects, but once in a while, I still take some on.

For this entry, I want to share some commonly asked questions about our travel photobooks. Hope this inspires you also to make your own!

Photobook 5 SheenaLovesSunsets.com-min

KIND OF BOOKS

For our travel books, I use softcover for all of them. It looks and feels like a magazine. They are not only cheaper to print (cost is a big factor if I want to include a LOT of pages!) but they are also lighter to hold. I’m not very fond of heavy hardbound photobooks so this is perfect for us.

The size I use is 8.5×11 portrait style. Again, magazine style! I guess, unknowingly, that’s the feel I’m going for.

Photobook 3 SheenaLovesSunsets.com-min

STORAGE / DISPLAY

I had customized acrylic shelves made for a wall in one of our rooms at home to hold all the photobooks and I was so happy with the way it turned out! It will look nicer with more books (I think it’s time for more trips soon!)

Photobook 2 SheenaLovesSunsets.com-min

DESIGNING AND LAYOUT-ING

Some people think that making books is as easy as just throwing in all the photos on the photobook program but I design books with a lot of careful thought and consideration; I choose only the best shots, post-process all of them and make sure that they’re well laid out.

I use the photobook program of my printer to lay them all out but I edit all my photos in Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop.

Photobook 4 SheenaLovesSunsets.com-min

TIPS

At the end of the day, how nice the books turn out really depend on the photos that you have. Here are tips I wanna share based on my experience about taking travel photos that will look great on photobooks:

  • Have a variety of angles and poses
  • Take candid photos
  • Take fun, wacky photos (if that’s your style!)
  • Take photos of things and places: like signs, flowers or food
  • Use both horizontal and vertical orientations (to give you options)
  • Ask people to take your photos. Or take shots using a timer and tripod! Trust me, you don’t want a book full of selfies.

As you can see in my photos above, I lay the photos out in such a way that no two similar looking photos are beside each other. Even though the entire page is just about Stonehenge, you get Stonehenge from different perspectives.

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11 Comments

  • Reply
    Sheena Dy Fung
    April 25, 2016 at 5:08 pm

    Oooo. I’m also planning to make a travel book of our honeymoon! This will help a lot. Although I’m sure mine won’t be as nice as yours haha. :)

    • Reply
      Sheena Sy Gonzales
      April 25, 2016 at 5:40 pm

      I want to see the book after!! I’m sure the photos are wonderful!

  • Reply
    Rejoyce Canaynay
    August 11, 2016 at 8:53 pm

    Wow, I’ve always wanted to document and print all my travels but I guess I lack of inspiration to do this. But will totally love to do it on my next trip. It’s such a nice way to keep every memorable memories and for visitors at home too. Hahahaha! May I know where ka nagpapagawa ng ganito or do you still do it? hahaha!

    xoxo, rej | reeejoyce.com

    • Reply
      Sheena Sy Gonzales
      August 11, 2016 at 9:10 pm

      Thanks Rejoyce! Yes, definitely a good icebreaker also when new guests see the albums haha! Yes, I still do this but I only accept a limited number of orders because I have a lot on my plate right now. You can send me an email at hello@sheenalovessunsets.com if you’re interested!

  • Reply
    Roxel Santos
    August 8, 2017 at 11:01 am

    Thanks for the tip I’ve been dying to make my work travel photo! <3

  • Reply
    Anne
    October 20, 2017 at 12:32 am

    Wow! Nice! Love it! had mine on soft cover and magazine style as well, feeling ko artista ko dahil asa magazine mga photos ko, hahaha.

    • Reply
      Sheena Sy Gonzales
      October 20, 2017 at 9:06 am

      Haha nice!

  • Reply
    Erika
    January 24, 2018 at 4:25 pm

    Hi Sheena, wanted to ask if you print this these yourself or have the printed?

    • Reply
      Sheena Sy Gonzales
      January 24, 2018 at 5:09 pm

      I have them printed at Photobook Philippines. :) But I do the layouts myself!

  • Reply
    Yelle
    March 26, 2018 at 11:03 pm

    Im just curious if you layout it in the photobook ph application or different application. ????

    • Reply
      Sheena Sy Gonzales
      March 27, 2018 at 6:48 pm

      I used Photobook PH’s application for these but just the blank pages. I designed in Photoshop.

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