What to do with Your Favorite Photos

Are you wondering what to do with your favorite photos? They don’t have to sit on your phone, viewable only on a small screen. I advise my clients to get the photos they love off their devices back into their lives. There are so many excellent options, from the straightforward to the delightful and unexpected.

First, let’s make sure you’ve narrowed your digital photo collection down. If your camera rolls on your devices contain tens of thousands of photos, editing is a must. I’m a big fan of editing as-you-go. Another approach is to start with your most recent photos and work your way back. Again, the idea is to edit down your collection by ridding it of any photos that are no longer needed. This makes finding photos – favorites or not – so much easier!

Here’s a tip: you don’t need 10 photos of that sunset, so choose the best and favorite any (usually by clicking on a heart icon) that really sings to you. If you are syncing your photos to your other devices, viewing images larger on a laptop or desktop can help make the editing process easier.

Now for the fun part. You can choose different printing treatments for different subjects. For example, a landscape photo would translate better to a shower curtain than a baby photo would. Photos in the same color scheme can be grouped together on a wall or in a book for greater visual impact.

Traditional Options

• Photo calendars: choose your best monthly photos to represent the seasons and enjoy all year long. Artifact Uprising offers beautiful ones.

• Photo books: while we create custom luxury photo books for our clients, you can also make quick, decent quality ones on your own. On the budget end, there’s Chat Books. They are just $10 for a 30 page book and while not the best quality they are durable. Or try Groove Books – they allow up to 100 prints and have perforated edges for sharing. Blurb offers magazine formats for a different presentation. They also offer hardcover and softcover photo book options.

• A gallery wall: display your favorite photos in frames, grouped together for a more coherent effect. Remodelista has some great resources for frames.

Something a little Different

• Custom photo wrapping paper, photo puzzles and photo art are all available at minted.com

• Shower curtains are probably not the first thing you think of when displaying photos – but why not? zazzle.com

• Phone cases: caseifty.com will create a custom case with a photo collage for your iPhone out of your fave photos. And since we always display our phones, why not share your photos on them, rather than in them?

• Edibles: Eat your photos? Via cookies, of course! Go to elenis.com for delicious inspiration!

• Tech wraps: You’ll know which devices are yours – and make them look much more attractive with photos at skinit.com.

I hope these suggestions get your thinking about how to display your photos outside of a tiny screen. You took them, you love them, so be sure to enjoy them!