Looking for a great Valentine's Day gift for your photographer partner? Choose from romantic photo books, tasteful camera jewelry and more in this romantic gift guide.
January has drawn to a close and the season of lurrrve is upon us. But while Valentine's Day should simply be a day devoted to the love you share with your partner, it can often be complicated by choosing which gift you should buy to show your partner they're still the apple of your eye. Sure, you can pick up a bog-standard box of chocolates, or the last sad dregs from the supermarket flower stand. Or maybe you could take inspiration from your kid's primary school art class and hand-make them a card.
Alternatively, if your partner is a keen snapper, why not make this their best Valentine's Day yet. Choose from our fantastic Valentine's Day gifts for photographers guide for guaranteed happiness.
• Read more: Best camera accessories, gadgets and gifts for photographers
Best Valentine's Day gifts for photographers
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When it comes to the best photo book services in the UK, CEWE leads the way. Not only are the products affordable, the high-quality finish and range of options are second to none. A beautiful book starts with the right paper and CEWE has six luxury options to choose from, each of which has been selected for its quality and print suitability.
CEWE has it's own award-winning design software, for which you'll find a page dedicated to tutorials on how to create and make the most of your photo book design. There's also the ability, for an added cost, to get gold or silver highlights for any hardcover CEWE photo book.
Whether you've been with your loved one six months or six years, a beautifully printed photobook is the perfect way to look back over the memories you've shared together. With a range of designs to choose from, a quick turnaround time and easy-to-use software, it's not too late to create one in time for the 14th!
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Canon's 2.7-inch square photo printer is perfect for printing out your smartphone snaps to give to your loved one this Valentine's Day. Nothing beats a thoughtful, sentimental present and as they say, a picture speaks a thousand words.
When stored correctly, Canon claims that prints can last for over 100 years which means that long after you and your loved one depart from this world your love could live on- cute! It takes just 43 seconds to print an image, the QX10 is small enough to fit in your handbag making it perfect for future weekends away, festivals or maybe even a future wedding?! Print quality is fantastic thanks to its dye-sub technology and it comes in a range of colors including pink, white and green and black.
Read our full Canon Selphy Square QX10 review
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If you're after an instant camera that can print square photos the Instax Square SQ1 is one of our favorites. It's powered by two CR2 batteries and is rumored to last a massive 300 shots - that's 30 packs of films! For those who love Polaroids but don't want to fork out for the cost of Polaroid film, the Instax Square offers a slightly cheaper alternative as packs of film are $18.90/£16.99 for 20 shots compared to $33.72/$30 for 16 shots which are worth thinking about in the long run.
We're sad to see much-loved features found on the Instax Square SQ6 such as a self-timer and tripod mount missing but it's still a brilliant little camera capable of producing high-quality prints that make lasting memories. Choose from a range of colors including this Valentine's worthy Blush Gold.
4. Lensbaby Creative Bokeh Optic
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If you're after a photo gift that's a little bit quirky this Valentine's Day look no further than the Lensbaby Creative Bokeh Optic kit. Instead of shooting regular round bokeh you can add a touch of creativity to your photos with hearts, swirls or even bird-shaped bokeh! You will need the Lensbaby 50mm f/2.5 lens in order to use this kit but at £135 it's not too expensive to buy and will certainly add a little something different to your photos.
5. Digital Camera Shaped 3D Night Light
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This lamp emakes the perfect addition to a camera lovers living room, office or studio! It's laser cut using acrylic and is mains powered so you never need to worry about replacing batteries. It would look great on a shelf where you store your camera gear or as a quirky source of light on your desk. It delivers a warm, soft light and comes with a meter long power cord.
6. Amazon gift card
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If you're truly stuck and you don't know what to get your photography-loving partner, an Amazon gift card might just be the right answer. "But that's a cop-out!" I hear you cry. "Not so," we would answer. An Amazon gift card can be spent on essentially anything that your loved one desires. If they've been saving up for a new camera, Amazon tends to have the best price on the majority of models anyway, so their gift card will help chip a little more off.
Alternatively, if they'd rather buy something a little less expensive, such as one of the best books on photography (or even just a regular book), then they'll be able to indulge guilt-free. Some Amazon gift cards even come in a nifty little box, making wrapping that much easier.
7. Instant camera
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No matter whether it's a wedding, gig or birthday dinner, the Fujifilm Instax Mini 11 is a camera that can be used by pretty much anyone. It's small enough to fit in a handbag or large coat pocket, this latest version has auto exposure, a built-in flash and comes with a set of 3 color-correcting filters. The Instax Mini range is arguably what made instant cameras cool again and we are here for them.
7. Pack of instax film
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Instax film comes in different sizes... but the most popular instant cameras use Instax Mini film – as used in the Instax Mini 9, Mini 90, Mini 70, Leica Sofort and so on. There are fun film options that give fun borders to the instant prints, but the plain white-bordered color film is the safest gift option.
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Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
When it comes to the best photo book services in the UK, CEWE leads the way. Not only are the products affordable, the high-quality finish and range of options are second to none. A beautiful book starts with the right paper and CEWE has six luxury options to choose from, each of which has been selected for its quality and print suitability.
CEWE has it's own award-winning design software, for which you'll find a page dedicated to tutorials on how to create and make the most of your photo book design. There's also the ability, for an added cost, to get gold or silver highlights for any hardcover CEWE photo book.
We’re not really a fan of having to download an app to be able to order from a photo finishing platform. However, despite being required to do this in order to be able to design our photo book, we did find the software quick and easy to download. It was also simple to navigate for our photo book creation process as well.
Using the photo book creator tool, you can add and edit text easily, choosing from a wide range of fonts and sizes to personalize your book. The CEWE Photoworld book assistant (CEWE’s tool for automatically arranging your images) is also one of the cleverer ones we’ve tested, allowing you to customize what number of photos are spread across what number of pages.
One of the first things we noticed when we took the CEWE photo book out of the fairly minimal packaging was how crisp the image on the front cover was. When compared with front covers on the other photo books we’ve reviewed, CEWE Photoworld’s offering had much more detail. In addition, while the color accuracy wasn’t quite perfect, it was much better than the majority of the other books.
Inside the book we found that the paper stock was really good quality and the images were printed sharply and fairly accurately. It’s worth noting that the sharpness of the printing does mean that noise is much more likely to show up than in other books. We also found that the prints in general ran a little darker than the other photo books we reviewed.
