Make better memories: Five ways to get more from your photos

Who remembers film photos? No one, right? It’s all about digital these days, and while we love that our phones can take brilliant photos, most of us don’t know what to do with them. So, we’ve decided to help you in two ways. Firstly, we want to help you take better photos. We’re talking about creative ones that’ll help make memories last longer and create a stronger impact. Secondly, we’ll show you a few different ways to turn those photos into memorable art for your walls, fridges, scrapbooks, LED frames, screens, desktops, Instagram pages, and more. Oh, and we’ll share a few of the best gadgets and products, too!
The question is: what do you need to get started? We’ll cover everything, but the most important point is to be ready to try something new. You’ll also need some patient subjects: children, friends, family and even pets are great!

Here are five ways to make better memories for your home and office.

1. Start with these five photography rules

It doesn’t matter how many megapixels your camera has; there are a few fundamental tactics you can use to take better photos.
  1. Lighting is crucial, and natural light is best. When shooting people, be wary of the sun shining in their eyes or bright light affecting the colour balance. If you’re using a phone camera, shooting at night or with a flash is more difficult than with traditional cameras, so try to use other sources of light to illuminate your subject.
  2. Steady your phone. If you can, rest it on a surface or use a tripod. The more stable it is, the more likely you’ll get a sharp, crisp photo.
  3. Experiment with focus and exposure. Most smartphones now have sliders and options to change this on the screen before taking the shot, so you’ll need to play around to find out how they work on your phone.
  4. Use the Rule of Thirds. This may sound super complicated, but it’s relatively simple and has been used by professionals forever. You need to imagine that your image is split into nine equal blocks in a three-by-three grid (some camera apps even offer it as a viewing option). Your aim is to get the most interesting part of your photo into the corners of the segments where the gridlines intersect. Try it out: you’ll see that it will help you take creative, powerful photos! And lastly,
  5. Shoot from above. This is crucial for selfies or if you’re taking photos of people. Shooting from below can lead to double chins and awkward poses – never ideal.

2. Turn your selfies into real memories

So, here’s the thing: selfies are great, but they only live on our phones and social media. To get more out of your favourite shots, you can use one of these Selfie Printers to turn them into permanent, physical memories for yourself or even gifts for others. Once you’ve printed them out, you can laminate them to protect them and stick them onto fridges, collages, scrapbooks and more. They also become the perfect content for epic craft projects: here are some of our favourite ideas.

3. Upgrade your home or office printers

We get it: in the past, printing photos could be costly due to the printer and special paper needed. The good news is that the technology has advanced so much that it’s now much more affordable to print at your home or office versus going to a professional studio. You just need to choose the right printer and photo paper. One tip from us is to price the photo inks as well: you need to know what they cost and how long they last. These days you have more opportunities to edit your photos on your phone or computer, and the smart printers do the rest. You can stick with printing out traditional-sized photos for collages and your photobooks, or you can invest in larger format photos that you can frame as striking, personalised artwork on your home or office walls. With the larger print paper, you can print several images on one slide and then use a guillotine to cut them out. 

4. Invest in digital tools

One of our favourite digital tips: using your photo albums as your laptop or desktop background. Most operating systems will let you choose a rotating photo background which shows you a new photo memory every time you log in. However, we're big fans of digital frames, electric screens, and interactive LED panels if you’re still looking for more options to share your photos outside of social media and your photo books. Some of these options double up as work assets as you can use them as conference and presentation tools.

5. Get crafty with your photos

Now that you know how to print your photos at home affordably, there are hundreds of nifty ideas to create different and creative artworks and gifts. From magnets and lanterns to pillows and calendars, there is so much potential for new, creative craft projects. Here are some of our favourite ideas.
Return to blog
Share