How to Make a Digital Photo Album With Music as a Gift

Picking up to 60 photos

Sixty is the limit, and you don't need to reach it. An album of 35 photos you love beats 60 where you were filling space. What you want is range: different years, different people, different moods, so the album feels like a whole life instead of one weekend.

It starts with a few questions about the person, about five minutes, and then you add your photos straight from your phone. Before you open the camera roll, use this checklist:

• Every era you have: childhood, school years, the early days of knowing them, and now. Old prints count. Photograph them flat on a table in daylight, without flash.
• Their face, clearly, on plenty of pages. Group shots where they're a speck in the back row can go.
• The people they love: kids, siblings, best friends, the dog.
• Candid shots: mid-laugh, mid-sentence, asleep on the couch, flour on their hands.
• Places that mean something: the first apartment, the lake, the kitchen table.
• One or two terrible photos that make them laugh every time.
• Leave out: near-duplicates (keep the best of each burst), screenshots unless the screenshot is the memory, and photos they've told you they hate.

Putting them in an order that tells a story

We put your photos in an order that tells the story, and you open the whole album before you send it, so you can move anything that feels wrong. Knowing which story you're telling makes that check easy.

Three shapes work well:

• Then to now. The simplest and often the strongest: from the oldest photo to this year. It suits birthdays, retirements and big anniversaries.
• Chapters. Runs of photos grouped by place or role: the years in the city, the coaching years, the grandkid years.
• One thread. A single thing that runs through their life: the garden, the kitchen, every dog they've had.

Whatever the shape, two pages carry the most weight. Open on a photo that makes them stop, ideally their face, close. Save a strong one for the end, and end on now, or on the two of you. Then look for pile-ups, like three beach photos in a row, and spread them out.

Say your best friend is moving across the country. A then-to-now album could start with the two of you at 15 and end on the empty apartment the night before the truck comes.

Writing the note on the first page

The note on the first page sets the tone before the first photo, so write it like a card you'd hand them, not like a caption. Two to four sentences is plenty.

• Open with their name, or what you call them.
• Say why now: because you're turning 70, because you're leaving on Sunday, because I never said it.
• Add one line only you could write: a memory, an inside joke, a thank-you for something specific.
• End with a small instruction: turn the pages slowly, or put your sound on.

For example, a note for a dad who was always behind the camera might read:

Dad, you took almost every photo of our childhood, so you're barely in any of them. I went looking for the ones you are in. Sound on, and go slow.

Write a first draft, then read it again the next morning. Whatever still sounds like you can stay.

Sending it: one link, no app

The album goes as one private link, by text, WhatsApp or email. They tap it and the music starts. There is no app to install, which matters if the person you're giving it to finds new apps more trouble than they're worth.

Before you send it, open the whole album yourself, start to finish, with sound. Change the song, the order or the words until it feels like them.

Then pick the moment. Send it when they can sit with it: morning coffee, a quiet Sunday, the evening of their birthday. Avoid the middle of a workday, when they'll glance at it between meetings and save it for later. A one-line message helps:

• "Made you something. Put your sound on and open this when you have five quiet minutes."
• "Happy birthday, Mom. Open this before anyone calls you today."

If they don't use their phone much, open it on yours and hand it to them. Watching them turn the pages is half the gift.

Digital album, slideshow video or printed album?

Each one suits a different person, so it's worth choosing on purpose. A quick decision rule:

• Choose a printed album if they like holding things, rarely use their phone, or want something on the coffee table. The trade-offs: designing, printing and shipping take time, there's one copy in one house, and there's no music.
• Choose a slideshow video for a party screen, when a room full of people watches at once. The trade-offs: it runs at its own speed, so nobody can linger on a photo, the music is usually a song that already exists, and long videos can be awkward to send.
• Choose a digital album with a song when the person is far away, when you want them to turn the pages at their own pace, and when you want the music to be about them. The trade-off: it lives on a screen.

Some people give both: a printed album for the shelf, and a digital one with music for the morning of the big day.

Make their album

Gather the photos first, since that's the step that takes longest. Then start their photo album, answer a few questions about them and add your photos straight from your phone.

It's free to start, and you see it before you pay, so you can open every page and hear their song before you decide. To see how the pages, the song and the link fit together, read about the Digital Album.