How To Take Your Blog Photos To The Next Level

You may have noticed that I recently changed my way of taking blog photos and I've since been experimenting with lots of different ideas and ways of taking photos. I really feel as though they've improved quite a bit and I've had quite a few messages from people asking what I do to take my new style of photos. Rather than just answering briefly to each question, I thought I'd share with you a more in-depth summary of how I take my photos in this post, including everything from setting up the photos to editing them. I feel as though these tips and techniques have taken my photos to the next level, so now it's time to share them with you!

USE NATURAL LIGHT
It's always best to take your photos in a location that is bright and filled with natural light, as this will instantly make your photos look clear and appealing to the eye. It might be hard to resist the temptation of taking any photos in the evening and using artificial light, but this won't give a great effect and will often result in photos seeming dull, no matter how much you edit them. I'd recommend taking your photos either early in the morning or in the late afternoon when the shadows aren't too overpowering.

CHOOSE A CLEAN, PROFESSIONAL-LOOKING BACKGROUND
To make the item that you're photographing stand out, it's important to have a good background. I find that something neutral usually works with any product, but you can definitely mix it up depending on the theme of your blog and what you're taking photos of. I used to use a plain white background, but with this you're sometimes faced with the problem of it looking quite grey. However, I think that using patterned backgrounds really adds to the image and makes it seem more interesting. I find that using wallpapers as a base is the way forward as it allows you to customise your backgrounds and change them up whenever you want, which is something that I've done in all of my newest photos.

USE PROPS TO ADD INTEREST TO THE IMAGE
A mistake that I used to make with photographing for my blog, particularly with makeup posts, is that I'd take a photo of the product with nothing in the background. Although it's clear what you're talking about based on the image, it can look quite boring and there's lots of wasted space around the outside of the product. Whether it's a candle, makeup brushes or something else entirely, I think that it's nice to add something to the perimeter of your image, without letting them detract from the main focus of the photo.

CORRECTLY SET UP YOUR CAMERA OR PHONE
If your camera or phone isn't set up in the right way, it can result in losing quality in your photos and them not looking the best. If you don't know what settings you should be using then I'd definitely recommend researching into it, as it will likely be different for every camera. Honestly, these settings can be the difference between good and bad quality photos, so it's always beneficial to be educated on how you're taking your photos. For my iPhone, I usually enable high dynamic range (HDR) and also slightly up the exposure, but with a camera you have much more control over the settings.

ENSURE THAT YOUR CAMERA IS IN FOCUS
Probably one of the biggest disasters that you could have with photography is taking a load of photos only to realise that none of them are in focus. Having a central component of your image will really make it pop, especially if the background is slightly blurred out or not in focus. With an iPhone, this is as simple as tapping the screen where you want it to focus, and there are alternate methods of focusing with a camera. However, remember that this is a step that you shouldn't forget and can really make a difference to your photos.

TAKE A VARIETY OF PHOTOS OPPOSED TO JUST ONE
Although you might think that you only need to take one photo, this could often result in it not being the best or how you'd like it. This is why it's best to take multiple photos, even if they look very similar, as it allows you to choose the best one. I usually take a couple of photos, adjust everything, take a few more and then repeat this until I think I'm happy with the outcome. Also, taking multiple photos means that you'll have other usable ones if you like to post different images to your blog and social media platforms, rather than the exact same one.

EDIT YOUR PHOTOS TO ENHANCE THEM
When you hear the word 'editing' you may think that you have to add lots of filters and drastically change the appearance of the image. However, this isn't the case with blog photos and they often only require a few subtle tweaks if you've followed all of the previous steps. I tend to steer clear from any filters and instead manually edit things like the brightness, contrast and exposure until I like how the image looks. The aim for editing is to make slight improvements, not drastically changing the images to the point of them being obviously edited.

I hope that these tips were helpful and that you will take them into account when photographing for your blog. If you have any photography tips then make you leave them down in the comments as I'd love to hear them. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next week with a new post!

Love from Daisy x