How to collect photos from family for a photo book (without a group-chat mess)

Asking the family to “send me your photos” usually ends in a group chat with 200 compressed pictures, three duplicates of each, no names and a few that never arrive because an uncle's email bounced. Messaging apps also shrink photos, sometimes to a size that prints soft on an A5 page.

A shared collection fixes the logistics. In Foldpic, open the project and choose Invite friends: you get one link and a QR code. Relatives open the link on their phone, type their name and choose photos from their camera roll. Nobody installs an app or creates an account, which is the single biggest reason older relatives actually take part.

Give a specific request and a deadline. “Please send your three favourite photos of Mum from before 1990, by Sunday the 14th” gets far more replies than “send anything you have”. Name the occasion, the size of the book and why it matters; people send better pictures when they know the photo might end up on a page.

Send the link twice: once to the whole family and once, personally, to the two or three relatives who hold the old albums. A collection stays open for 60 days and takes up to 500 photos, so there is time for the slow responders and room for everyone.

Many of the best photos for a memorial or anniversary book exist only as prints. A phone camera scans them well enough for a home-printed booklet: lay the print flat by a window in daylight, avoid direct sun and the phone's flash, hold the phone parallel to the print and fill the frame. Free scanner apps that remove glare and straighten the edges help, but a careful photo is usually enough.

Ask the relative who owns the album to photograph the prints and send them through the same link, so you never have to borrow the album. Write the year on the back of the photo or in the caption while someone still remembers it.

Every photo arrives with the sender's name, so you can see at a glance who has contributed and who has not. Add the photos you want to the project; they go into the tray, and Fill empty frames places them in order. Keep one strong photo per page for the important moments and use the grid layouts for groups and gatherings.

A 16-page stapled booklet holds 25–35 photos and prints on four sheets of A4, double-sided. For a memorial, leave one page for words: a short piece of writing or a favourite saying. For an anniversary, run the photos in date order so the book reads as a life together.

When the book is finished, stop collecting. The link closes and the photos relatives sent are deleted from Foldpic's server; the ones you added to the project stay in it. Families appreciate knowing their pictures were not left online indefinitely.

Print a copy for each household. The same PDF prints as many times as you like, and you can add a matching envelope or gift tag from the gift kit for the ones you post. For relatives who cannot open a printed QR code, you can also print a reading copy and send it as a PDF.