BLOG TIPS: 5 KEY PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS FOR BLOGGERS

When you have a fashion, food or beauty blog you know that photography is one of the most important things to make your blog succeed. What are the 5 key photography tips for bloggers? I am telling you all about the basics in this blogpost…

Being a blogger means being a model and photographer at the same time. Some of us are lucky to have a boyfriend or friend who knows everything about photography and help us out where needed. Others will have to get it together themselves. Photography is not something you learn from the books. You will need an eye for details and practice, practice, practice. But for everyone there are a few things to start with…

1. Invest in a good camera
When I started my blog, I thought that my old camera would do (think: 4 years back, one of the first digital random cameras with 5 megapixels. Uhuh! Someone was just starting…) Nowadays one may think that a good camera phone might be enough. And sure, it’s ok to start with, cause some blogs may only last for a few months and you don’t want to have spent a lot of money on an expensive camera if you may never use it again. But if you’re blog is doing well and you like photography you should definitely think about Nikon, Canon or Olympus Pen.

2. The lens is most important!
Now where a camera is important, the lens that you use to make pictures with may be even more important, because eventually this will determine your shots. For example, will your photo have a blurry background? To what extent does it zoom? How is the quality of the glass? Different variables may be of importance to what lens to use. Are you shooting indoors or outdoors? Landscape or portrait? Daytime or nighttime? Nearby or from afar? Simple kit lenses are ok to start with and usually cost about 100EUR. I would suggest the 50mm lens if you want to shoot outfit pics with a blurry background and a 18-55mm zoom lens for product photography in which you need all details to be sharp. This is just for starters, from 350EUR and up you will find better lenses eventually.

3. A l w a y s use photoshop
People often ask me if I use photoshop and the answer is: ALWAYS! Not to change my eye color, body figure or hair color. No! But to change the overall photo. When I see my photos on the camera display they look very good, and they also seem to look great when I put them on my laptop. However, if I take them through photoshop they will become so much better. I am talking about the following features in particular: shadow/highlights, brightness/contrast, hue/saturation. This will give a photo much more vibrance and take the grey of a dull day out of the picture.

4. Photograph from different angles
If you are photographing for your blog: try out different angles. And also post photos from different angles: close, from afar, from the right, from the back. But as with videography try not to cross the imaginary line of 180 degrees, meaning that you should only photograph from one side (if background is different from the other side). I usually photograph my full outfits from a frog perspective which means that my photographer will go on his knees to photograph my full outfit from a lower point of view.

5. Pay attention to composition
Symmetrical images can be wonderful, but don’t automatically put yourself (or what ever you are photographing in the center). This can create energy and direction. Steve Mc Curry made a lovely video about it that explains the rule of thirds, framing and the role of the dominant eye. It’s very inspiring. Watch it here!

Let me know what you think of these tips. Since I’ve had loads of great compliments on my blog tips posts, I will definitely keep doing this in the next year. I think that my next post will be all about the “money issue”… How to and how much to ask for a banner, blog or instagram post… Read all about it next month!

Photo via Pinterest