How to Pick Photos for a Photobook: A Shortlist of 25 from 700

Start from the book, not the folder

Count the slots before you choose a single photo. A 24-page book with one photo per page, plus a cover, needs about 25 photos; pages with two or three photos need more. Decide early which pages carry a single large photo—those need your strongest and sharpest frames.

Write a short brief: who the book is for, what story it tells (a year, a trip, a child’s first summer) and the tone—documentary, playful, quiet. Keep it next to you while you choose.

Remove the obvious and collapse similar frames

Go through everything once and set aside only what fails for the book: accidental shots, screenshots, missed focus on the main subject, photos you would not want printed. Do not judge mood yet.

Then group similar frames—the ten tries at the same group photo, the sequence at the beach—and keep one or two from each. The remaining choices are then about moments, not near-identical versions.

Choose anchors, then fill the story

Pick the cover, the opening and the closing photo, and the few moments the book cannot exist without. Then fill the gaps against your brief: people who must appear, places, small details, quiet in-between moments.

Keep the shortlist longer than the target—about twice as long is easy to cut down once you see the layout.

Check variety and print readiness

Look for balance: wide and close, portrait and landscape orientation, busy and calm, and a consistent colour treatment (or a deliberate black-and-white section). Layouts are easier when orientation matches the page design.

Check resolution at the printed size using the original files, not previews. A common print target is about 300 pixels per inch, so a photo printed 20 cm (about 8 in) wide needs roughly 2,400 pixels across. Ask your print service for its own minimum.

Sequence, then cut to the target

Lay the shortlist out in order—usually chronological for a year or a trip—and read it like a story. Photos that share a spread should relate to each other; repeated compositions should be split up or cut.

Only now cut to the target. When two photos compete for the last slot, keep the one that adds something the book does not already have.

How PhotoMentor Bulk Culler does it

Upload the whole set from the browser—a folder of JPEG, HEIC or RAW files; you can add several batches before the AI sort starts. For RAW files only a reduced preview leaves your computer. Choose Creative / personal work for a family or travel set and write the brief in a few sentences.

The AI sort puts every photo into Keep / Review / Rejected and groups similar frames. Ask for 25 finalists (presets are 10, 25 and 50; up to 100), pin the photos the book must include, read the reasons given for each finalist, and compare similar frames side by side before swapping.

For a book built from several shoots, add the finalists to a collection such as “Photobook 2026”. In Chrome or Edge, Bulk Culler can then assemble a package of the original files from your own disk—byte-for-byte copies checked with SHA-256—ready for the print service; originals are read locally and never uploaded. The free demo covers one session of up to 25 photos; a full 700-photo set needs a paid plan.