I decided that I wanted to start a bit of a series on here of blogging
tips and tricks, from html to photo editing. I thought I would start the series
with photos since it tends to be the part of my blog I am most frequently asked
about.
VISION
The most important part of blog photos is having a vision in mind of
how you would like the photo to look and what you want it to represent. In
order to do this you can gain inspiration, maybe scroll down your favourite blogger’s
photos, why do you like them? Apply that to your photos. Create a Pinterest board
of some photos you adore, why do you like those? Again, apply that to your
photos. Never imitate though, take inspiration, but make the photos your own!
WHEN? WHERE?
The best time to take blog photos for me is between 1-3pm. This is
because my bedroom is positioned where the most natural lighting comes in
through my window at this time. I recommend you try to take your photos when
the natural lighting is best for you as some artificial lighting can make
photos look yellow.
I use the door to my white Ikea desk as a background canvas for my blog
photos, I use this and not the top of the white desk because I can sit it on
the floor directly under my window and achieve amazing natural lighting, if you
can sit directly under natural lighting, I recommend you do, even if you have
to do outside.
BACKGROUNDS
I adore white backgrounds, something that is very consistent on my
blog. I always use one of two white surfaces. The first surface is the Tejn rug
from Ikea or a white cupboard door which I decided I didn’t want to put on my
white desk from Ikea.
For fashion posts I will hopefully have some cool outdoor spots which
reflect on the bright, white background of my beauty and lifestyle posts, I
will update you guys on fashion backgrounds when I start doing those post.
ACCESSORIES
I use a lot of accessories in my photos around the product(s) I am
talking about and I think using accessories allows the items to pop as well as
making the photos more fun and a lot less boring.
My two favourite pieces to use are my Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn
books. I love using them because they have iconic photographs in them which I
can have at the side of a product and it just gives the photo a classy, clean,
iconic look. I love to use books as a whole and have featured a few other books
in my photos as I like how the angles look.
I also include magazines, sometimes the cover but mostly the
advertisement pages for Chanel, Dior etc. Other products are also a good
accessory and cute notebooks and stationary.
POSTIONING
It may just be my perfectionist nature or I may be OCD, but I like to
have everything aligned, straight and angled well. If I am going to feature the
corner of a rug or a page of a book/magazine I don’t put the full item into the
photo, I angle it at the edge so a part of the page is featured, but it isn’t
over-taking the photo.
THEMES
If you scroll down my blog something you with notice about my photos
from the last few months is that they are all the same size. I think keeping
your photos the same width is super important as it is much smoother and sleek
looking when scrolling down your blog, height isn’t as important.
I myself prefer bigger photos which are the width of the post meaning
that the text of the post isn’t wider than the width of the photo. Another
theme with my photos is that they are all bright, have the same or similar
backgrounds and similar colour schemes. I like this as it is again sleeker and
easier on the eyes than photos which are darker then lighter then bright then
dull.
EDITING
For editing my blog photos I tend to use Photoshop, it’s quite pricey
if you are a student like me, but definitely worth it for the amazing features.
I usually adjust the tone and contrast first by using the ‘auto tone’ and ‘auto
contrast’ features in the ‘Image’ tab, the ‘auto colour’ feature tends to give
my photos a tint of green so I never use that feature.
I then adjust the brightness of the photo to give it a brighter, crisper
look. Lastly, I use the ‘Shake Reduction’ feature which is in the ‘Sharpen’
category of the ‘Filter’ tab. Using this feature makes texts from background
images or the names of products clearer and makes the edges of objects much
more visible, just all over sharpening the photo and its content.
This is normally the only features I use when editing my photos, I also
take my photos on an iPhone 5 turned on its side to expand the width of the
photos to fit my blog.
I hope I was able to help you guys with your blog photos, I am not a
professional, I’m not saying these tips are what you must do. This post is just
some helpful tips and tricks which I do/use to create my blog photos, if I
missed anything out feel free to comment below or ask me over on Twitter
@heythererobyn.
Thank you for reading today’s post,
What do you think is the most important thing to accomplish beautiful
blog photos?
