How to turn your summer prints into an instax™ photo album

You've taken so many instax™ pics this summer you're not sure what to do with them all.  Some are in a drawer, one's been propped against a mirror since June, and a few never made it out of the beach bag. They're your best ones: the sunburnt group shots, the ice cream faces, the golden-hour selfies. They deserve better.

An instax™ photo album pulls the whole season into one place, in an order you choose, on pages you hand round a table. Here's how to build one from a summer of prints, how to make it properly yours, and how to turn it into a gift someone will want to keep.

Why an instax™ photo album is worth it

A frame is great for the one shot you want on the wall, but it only holds one. . An album does something else. It keeps a whole run of a summer in order, in one object you can carry to a friend's flat.

It looks after your prints, too. Sleeves keep the dust off and stop corners getting bent at the bottom of a tote bag. If you've ever fished a favourite print out of a rucksack with a crease through it, you'll know why that's worth doing.

An instax™ photo album is also a good way to see the shape of a summer. Laid out in sequence, a stack of prints starts reading like a story with a beginning and an end.

Choosing your album

Start with your film format, because that's what decides everything else. If you've spent the summer shooting on an instax mini 13™ or an instax mini 41™, you want an instax™ mini photo album with sleeves cut for mini prints. Been shooting SQUARE, or printing SQUARE from your phone? Go for the instax™ SQUARE photo album. And if your summer's on WIDE film, the instax™ WIDE photo album is cut for the bigger prints.

Then think about capacity, and be honest about how much you shot. The instax™ mini photo album takes 108 prints, and the instax™ SQUARE photo album holds 80. For a whole summer, go big. Running out of sleeves halfway through is a pain.

Have a scroll through the instax™ accessories range before you commit. instax™ photo magnets live in there too, perfect for the two or three prints you want out on the fridge while the rest lives in the album.

Sequencing your summer story

An album reads left to right, so the order you slot prints in is the story you're telling. Chronological is the obvious approach and it works: June at the front, September at the back.

If you want a bit more shape to it, group by trip or by person instead. Give the weekend in Cornwall its own spread, and another to the people you saw most. Then one for the small stuff: corner shop ice creams, bus window shots, the bits that don't belong to any particular day.

Then make it yours. Stickers, washi tape and doodles turn a set of sleeves into something that looks like your summer, and a bright film design lifts a whole spread. If your album has a pocket in the back cover, fill it with the paper a summer leaves behind: a pressed flower, a postcard, a ticket. Those are the bits you'll be glad you kept.

One rule worth sticking to: don't put every print in. Pick the ones you'll want to look at again, and keep the rest in a small stack at the back. You can always slot them in later, and an album with a bit of breathing room reads better than one crammed to the edges.

Captioning at the bottom of the print

Every instax™ print has a wider border along the bottom, and that's your caption space. Grab a fine liner and write there, on the front of the print, under the photo. It develops in about 90 seconds, so you barely need to wait.

Dates work. So do song lyrics, one-word reactions, place names, or an inside joke nobody else will get. Keep it short. The border is small on purpose.

If you want more ideas on layouts, film designs and cover styles, our pro hacks for your instax™ photo album go a lot deeper on the creative side.

Getting the rest of your summer off your phone

Most of a summer ends up as a mix. Some of it's on film, and plenty more is sitting on your phone, including all the photos your friends sent you afterwards. A printer closes that gap.

An instax mini Link 3™ prints straight from your phone over Bluetooth, so the festival photo your mate took of you can go in the album right next to the ones you shot yourself. Add a frame, a sticker or a bit of text in the mini Link app first, then print the handful you'd want on a page. If your album's SQUARE, the instax SQUARE Link™ does the same in that format.

Film is sold separately from cameras and printers, so keep a spare pack of instax™ film in the drawer. Running out halfway through building an album is a proper faff. For more personality, reach for instax™ deco film and its patterned, coloured designs. If you're weighing up formats, the full instax™ printers range lays out what each one does.

Printing from your phone also fills the gaps. Every summer has a day nobody shot properly, with one blurry group photo that sums it up anyway. Print that one. Blurry prints belong in an album too.

What's the difference between an instax™ photo album and an instax™ photo book?

An instax™ photo album is a set of clear sleeves you slide your prints into. Prints slide out, the order changes, and you add more whenever you like. A photo book is a different thing: you upload photos to a printing service, they get printed onto the pages, and the bound book arrives in the post.

If your summer is already sitting in a stack of instax™ prints, an album is the one you want. Your photos are printed, so there's nothing to upload, and you can keep shuffling the order until it reads the way you want it to.

Once the summer album is full

At some point the last print goes in and the summer album is done. Close it and leave it somewhere people can reach it.

The habit is worth carrying into autumn. Don't wait for the next summer to pile up. Pick a Sunday at the end of each month, print four or five photos from the last few weeks, caption them along the bottom, and start filling the next album while it's all still fresh.

Twenty minutes a month, and by next August there's no drawer to empty. Just another album, nearly full.

Make one for someone else

Once you've done your own, a second album makes a brilliant gift. Print the summer you shared with a friend, sequence it around them, caption the pages with the jokes only the two of you get, and hand it over. It costs a print run and an evening, and it lands better than most things you'd add to a basket. A printer and a spare album is a ready-made present for whoever features in most of the photos.

Start with what's in the drawer

Pick the album, choose your order, write at the bottom, decorate as you go. That's the whole method, and the hardest part is emptying the drawer.

For more on getting prints out into the world, our ultimate guide to displaying your instax™ prints covers frames, shelves and spreads. And when you're ready to print what's still on your phone, have a look at the instax™ range and find the setup that suits your summer.