The Art of Photo Books: A Guide for Photographers
How to Choose a Professional Photo Book for your Photography Business
Professional photo books are an invaluable tool for photographers. They showcase the best examples of your work, communicate your skills and artistic values, and serve as exceptional marketing materials to present to potential clients or buyers. The best photo books for professional photographers offer top-tier design and production quality. This is true of all photography niches, whether it’s wedding, commercial, fine art, portrait, travel, or editorial.
As a professional photographer, you likely have an eye for design alongside an innate understanding of your own works—these are incredible assets when it comes to creating a custom photo book. Before getting started, it’s helpful to examine the various options as well as best practices for creating a professional photo book for photographers.
Top Photo Book Considerations for Photographers
Choosing which of your photos to showcase in a portfolio or other professional photography book is the first major step in the project, but there are many other factors to consider as well.
Here are the key considerations:
Design Elements
There’s more to designing the best photo books for professional photographers than simply placing photographs on pages. The visual focus should always be on the photos, with minimal distractions, but there are other design details that come into play. These include:
- A well-structured layout
- Balanced compositions
- A compelling narrative
- Any essential text elements
- An inviting cover page
- Personal branding e.g. a bio page, contact info, logo, QR code.
These elements are easily achieved by using one of Mixbook’s design themes, or by starting with a blank canvas. All photo books are 100% customizable using the suite of intuitive tools in Mixbook Studio™
Size, Cover, and Paper Options
Having a wide range of photo book sizes, covers, and paper types enables the best photo books for professional photographers. Larger sizes, hardcovers and lay-flat binding, and premium paper options like premium lustre and premium matte offer the best possible representation for your photography.
Mixbook photo books are available in square, portrait, and landscape formats. The best choice will depend on the characteristics of your photography portfolio (and the same goes for the choice of glossy or matte covers). For example, panoramic scenery pictures are best presented in the landscape format, whereas the portrait format is the obvious choice for portrait photography. Square formats are usually the most versatile option.
For more, read our ultimate guide: How to Choose the Best Size, Cover and Paper Types for a Photo Book
Print and Production Quality
The printing and binding of your photo book should reflect your commitment to quality. This includes choosing a photo book printing company that showcases your images at their best.
We’re proud to report that Mixbook is the Tom’s Guide No. 1 Best Overall pick for photo books in 2025 (and also 2024!). Among other highlights, their reviews cite our excellent print quality and thick papers that give the books a professional feel.
Related: Choosing the Best Photos for Your Photo Books: Avoiding Quality Downgrades
Recommended Products for Professional Photographers
Among hundreds of available themes, there are certain designs that stand out as the best choices for professional photographers. We suggest browsing our simple, everyday, and coffee table book collections. Niche photographers might want to check out travel photo books, wedding photo books, or family photo books as well.
Blank Canvas
For total control over every aspect of your photo book design, start with a Blank Canvas photo book. Use the tools in Mixbook Studio™ to design your layouts, text elements, cover pages, and more. This option is best for photographers who have a clear vision in mind for their photo book.
It’s still a good idea to browse themes for inspiration, and to see if there’s one that’s close to your ideal design. It might be more efficient to customize a similar theme than to start from scratch.
Super-Minimalist Themes
Minimalist themes, including those recommended below, are always a smart choice for professional photo books for photographers. With few visual distractions from your photographs, they let the images do all the storytelling. These super-minimalist themes offer crisp, unfussy styles. Note that they don’t feature text elements, so prepare to add your own with the Text tools if needed.
Minimalist themes with a white canvas:
Minimalist themes with a black canvas:
Large-Format Themes
These recommended themes are designed to present photos at as large a scale as possible on the page. To do this, they include few or minimal frames and white space. Some feature two-page spreads for panoramic shots—opt for lay-flat binding if you want to showcase wide photos at their best.
- Full Photo
- Single Photo Layout
- Full Photo Coffee Table Book
- Full Photo Travel
- Luxury Vacation Coffee Table Book
- Editorial Wedding Coffee Table Book
Themes with Typography
If your photo book needs to include captions or other supplementary text, or you want to feature interesting typography in your photo presentations, consider the following themes.
Themes with Aesthetic Elements
Many of Mixbook’s more maximalist designs, as well as those designed for specific occasions (birthday books and yearbooks, for example), aren’t going to be the best choices for professional use. However, with caution, you might find a stylish theme that does suit your artistic vision and photography style, and appeal to your potential clients. Consider the following examples:
- Minimal Gallery Wall
- Everyday Black and White
- Rainbow Brush Lettering by Amy Tangerine
- Softly Painted
- Simple Modern Book
- Instagram Book
Ready to Create a Professional Photography Book?
Professional photo books for photographers are just a few clicks away in Mixbook Studio™. Head over there and get started on your portfolio today!
For more tips about photography portfolios, read our guide: Creating Beautiful Photo Books with Mixbook Studio: A Step-by-Step Guide for Photographers
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