Shopping for Photo Albums

With digital cameras making it easy to take pictures, photo albums are an excellent way to display and protect your photographs. These hardcover books gather your prints in one place, safe from loss or damage. While some people prefer using a service to print digital photo albums, you can also make your own book using hard copies of your images. Choose books that hold pictures only, or use scrapbook photo albums for a mix of memorabilia and pictures.

Choosing the Right Photo Albums

Many digital cameras create pictures with a 3:2 aspect ratio, making 4x6 inches the preferred size for prints. There are 4x6 photo albums made especially to accommodate this popular format. Since most photo albums have plastic slots into which you slide your pictures, you need to match the size of your images to the slots. You load the slots either from the side or from the top, so that the plastic completely covers the pictures. With this design, it's easy to rearrange pictures if you find some are out of order.

If you want to mix different sized images on your pages, you can mount your pictures on plain paper pages using mounting corners. Corners can be made of plastic or paper. The backs are sticky, so they adhere to the page and hold your picture secure at each corner. Unlike sticky paper, there's no danger of getting glue residue on your pictures when you use corners. You can also get pages with varied sizes of plastic slots, if not in an album, then as album refill pages.

Scrapbooks and Sketchbooks

Scrapbooks let you keep mementos alongside your images. Items such as programs, ticket stubs, and thinly pressed flowers work well in scrapbooks. You decorate the pages to your taste, and you can include stamp work, stickers, foil, and similar craft items. These types of projects are a fun way to memorialize a special event, such as a wedding, milestone anniversary, or graduation. Photo album books that have plain pages and open to lay flat make for good scrapbooks. We think of sketchbooks as artists' tools, but some make good scrapbooks, too.

Album and Scrapbook Accessories

Various album and scrapbook accessories can turn your plain paper photo books into custom photo albums. Make notations and labels with colored gel pens, surround photographs with pre-printed stick-on frames, and decorate borders with foils and stickers. Create a vintage look by mounting pictures with archival corners, which also help to preserve the photos.

When it comes to books for displaying your photographs, there are enough choices to suit just about everyone. Visit B&H Photo and Video for a wide selection of items to meet your need for photo albums, scrapbooks, and sketchbooks.