Help Deciding Number & Format of Photos for Book

[NY_Dan]

Hi. Spent about 4 months catching up on all my Rolleiflex scans from past decade. Then I went through thousands of photos - got it down to 950, then 650, then 350, and now about 110.

It's brutal trying to decide which photos are my faves. I want to put together a mock-up book to show publishers with the hopes of getting it printed.

I had a previous book, Never Seeing Nothing printed at the end of 2015. Some of the same photos may be included in the next book - however, I'm trying to limit this number.

So my first question - how many photos do you think should be in a book like this?

All photos are black and white 6 x 6 Rolleiflex shots - I don't want to pull from any other work I've done. And all the photos are street photos. I think a photo book should be cohesive.

And my second question for the mock-up - should the format of the book be 12 x 12" square, or 12 x 10 vertical, or 10 x 7 vertical, or 10 x 8 vertical? This is kind of the age old concern for square photo books. I think I'm leaning to a vertical format.

Oh, one more question - do you prefer books with a single photo on every page (so that photos are on facing pages), or one photo per spread (so if a photo is on the right page, the left page is blank)?

I think I prefer having one photo on each facing page - however the problem is that then you're creating juxtapositions -- as opposed to the photos being viewed on their own.

Thanks for your thoughts.
Dan

 

[CameraQuest]

Everyone will have different opinions, so I'm not sure how much help this thread will be for you.

I personally doubt its a good idea to include pics from the first book. Didn't you comment you were disappointed with its sales?

Get professional help in choosing the pics from a publisher. Photogs are not always the best judge in knowing which of their own images are the most commercially viable.

Don't get hung up about book size, it does not matter. Only the images and the marketing matter.

 

[NY_Dan]

"Everyone will have different opinions." -- a yeah, that's the point.

So...

How many photos do you think should be in a book like this?

Should the format of the book be 12 x 12" square, or 12 x 10 vertical, or 10 x 7 vertical, or 10 x 8 vertical? This is kind of the age old concern for square photo books. I think I'm leaning to a vertical format.

Do you prefer books with a single photo on every page (so that photos are on facing pages), or one photo per spread (so if a photo is on the right page, the left page is blank)?

 

[Andy Kibber]

I'll bite.

- New images only

- Target 50 photos, but let image selection set the final number

- I like 10" x 8" vertical format

- A combination of single and double spreads is nice. Breaks things up and allows for juxtapositions or complimentary photos where appropriate.

 

[Godfrey]

Another bite...

• I like smallish photo books: easier to handle and view. My favorite is the 7x7 inch format that Blurb offers. It's plenty of space for a nice layout, and if you keep the picture count within a reasonable range, the total number of pages isn't much to hold onto a viewer's attention span to see—and read!—the whole book in a sitting. (If your subject matter is mostly fine-grained landscape work with lots of detail, go bigger; if it contains mostly portrait and square photos, go for a vertical format... Et cetera, et cetera.)
  
  
• Somewhere between 60 and 75 presented photos seems about right to me for a book to sell in the $50-$75 range (for hardbound with jacket) from a POD vendor, with a decent small profit from each sale. The specific number should address your intent, not some arbitrary count.
  
  
• Single photo on facing pages usually dominates in my book designs, with singleton photos facing a blank, sometimes a bit of text by itself on a two page spread, and rarely a double-page spread when the particular images demand it.
  
  
• The balance of how much text, and foreword/endnote material, is all part of the book design too ... don't lose sight of that in your design. Few books with no textual material are all that successful in my experience, and few photo books with too much textual material grab the user's attention well either.
  

It's all fun stuff to work on and focuses your intent as you go along with the process. 🙂

This is what I did in 2012: Ways Together on Blurb.com.

G

 

[Particular]

I like books that have a clear idea or concept. If the new book has a clearly different concept from the previous one it is not a problem to re-use some images from the last one. If it is more of a 'part-two' book, I'd stick to new images.

The format of the first book worked well. The images are framed by a lot of white, and are high on the page so there is room for your fingers to turn the page at the bottom. If the square images are printed larger and filling the page, a square or landscape format makes more sense.

I like books with a lot of images, but I prefer a tight edit over having images that don't fit so well. Take the Steidl advice (from the video on your website) to page through the mockup until it feels like it is too much, and stop it there.

When you face images they have to talk to each other. Some images are too strong to be muddied by another strong image, some work well with another image. I would mix it for variety. A single image after a few spreads of doubles can work as a breathing point in the sequence.

 

[NY_Dan]

Take the Steidl advice (from the video on your website) to page through the mockup until it feels like it is too much, and stop it there.

Thanks everyone!

LOL - can't believe I didn't go to the video link on my blog site!

So, for my mock-up I've decided on 59 photos, 8.5 x 11, one photo on right pages only, and each photo 7" square - that leaves a nice amount of white space. It's looking good so far. I have 105 photos that I will edit down to 59 - and then see how the whole thing looks.