There is an unspoken rule that selfies are not proper photographs and should not go in a printed book. It is worth examining, because for most couples and most friendships the selfies are the archive.
Nobody else was there. Nobody was holding a camera. Ten years of a relationship, photographed almost entirely at arm’s length, and then the book leaves them all out in favour of the eleven photographs somebody else happened to take.
What is actually wrong with them
Two real things, and both are fixable.
1. They all look the same. Same distance, same angle, same two faces filling the frame. A book of thirty selfies is one photograph thirty times.
2. The angle is unflattering to print. A phone at arm’s length distorts — noses larger, foreheads bigger — and that is more visible on paper than on a screen.
Neither is a reason to exclude them. Both are reasons to use fewer of them and place them better.
How to use them well
Vary the background, not the pose. You cannot change the angle, so let the change come from where they were taken. Six selfies in six different places is a journey; six in the same room is a repetition.
Print them small to medium. Arm’s-length distortion grows with size. A selfie at a quarter page is a photograph; the same selfie across a full spread is a nose.
Use them as connective tissue. Selfies work well opposite a larger photograph of a place — the wide shot establishes where, the selfie says who. Photo book layout: how spreads actually work →
Keep the ratio low. About one in six is comfortable. One in two reads as a phone gallery.
| Good | Different places, small to medium, beside a wider shot |
| Bad | Same room, full spread, six in a row |
| Ratio | About 1 in 6 of the book |
The ones that are always worth keeping
The bad ones. Mid-laugh, badly lit, taken in a car, one person not ready. Those are the ones with something in them, and they are exactly the ones people cut for looking unprofessional.
The ones with a date on them in your memory. The airport one, the hospital one, the one from the night something was decided.
The first one. Almost every relationship has an identifiable first photograph together and it is usually a selfie.
Front camera quality
Worth knowing: front cameras are lower resolution than rear cameras on most phones, so a selfie has less to work with before it is enlarged.
That is another argument for printing them small rather than an argument against printing them. For a designed product we check every file against the size it is placed at and flag anything that will not hold. What photo resolution you need for printing →
Frequently asked
Can you print selfies in a photo book? Yes, and for most couples the selfies are the majority of the archive. Use fewer, and print them smaller.
Why do selfies look worse in print? Arm’s-length distortion grows with print size, and front cameras have lower resolution than rear ones.
How many selfies should a book have? About one in six. Half the book reads as a phone gallery.
Should I cut the unflattering ones? Not automatically. The mid-laugh, badly lit ones usually have more in them than the posed ones.
How big can a selfie be printed? Quarter to half page comfortably. A full spread magnifies the distortion.
Part of our guide to choosing photographs. See also: using blurry photographs on purpose and printing screenshots and chat threads.
For the archive you actually have: Photo magazines from ₹499 · Love Story Magazine from ₹499