TOP 5 BLOG PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS

. MY TOP 5 TIPS FOR BLOG PHOTOGRAPHY .

Blog photography is something that over the last few years has become increasingly important to me, whilst when I started my blog I was utterly clueless as to what makes a good photograph, i’ve always loved taking them! But the last year or two have been a big learning curve for me and i’ve spent many an hour trying to teach myself how to better use my kit & get the shots i’m after. So much so that one of the main reasons for me upgrading my blog and shifting to a self hosted site was so that my images could be displayed with their true quality and not be distorted & converted into low res versions!

I’ve actually written two pretty detailed photography posts before, one focussed on the process of shooting & getting the images you want, the second more about how to use your kit & get the quality images you’re looking for. You can read them both here and here. Today though I wanted to share a bit of an ‘ultimate guide’, less tutorial, more the things you absolutely should be doing if quality images are your end goal! They are of course by no means exclusive, and they are largely related to blog photography (e.g. outfit posts, street style & product shots), but they are the 5 key things that really have allowed me to up my game when it comes to imagery! I’d love to know your thoughts & see if you agree with my tips too?

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. SHOOT ON MANUAL & LEARN TO USE YOUR KIT .

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My number one tip is actually pretty simple, but in practice takes a lot of work to get things right! My biggest recommendation for shooting your photos, is to do so on manual! Camera’s have all kinds of incredible auto settings these days, but if you have a clear idea of what you want to shoot in your head, then the only way you’re going to get that exact style of image is to adjust your camera manually. Whether that be fixing your camera on a low F number to get the perfect depth of field, or ensuring shutter speed is high enough to get clear focus & a sharp image, or of course adjusting your ISO to get the perfect amount of light into your shot. All three of these things work intrinsically together and so being able to tweak their settings to get things just right is the best way of ensuring you end up with the perfect shot. I wrote a whole tutorial on learning your DSLR settings & shooting on manual, so give it a read here if you want to learn more!

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. BALANCE DEPTH OF FIELD WITH CLARITY .

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As a fashion blogger, one of the things I know I want to achieve in my shots is depth of field, you know, that perfect blurred (bokeh) background yet a sharp, crystal clear subject matter. It’s the ultimate in fashion blog photography, and getting the perfect depth of field is a quest i’m sure we’re all on. However, in my years of trying to get this perfect bokeh effect, I’ve learnt a couple of things which had made a dramatic difference! We all know the lower your F number (e.g. F1.2 / F1.4 / F1.8) the more depth of field you will achieve, however the one thing i’ve learnt is that often if you shoot on the absolute lowest F number possible (for me F1.4 or F1.8 on my two lenses) then sometimes you’ll find (particularly if you’re taking a full length outfit portrait) that you don’t end up with the completely crisp subject matter you were hoping for! This is even more true if you’re shooting with a  low F number lens  (e.g. 50mm F1.4 lens) on a cropped frame camera (e.g. Canon 550D etc), a portrait will work perfectly, but a full body shot less so! This is a challenge I faced many many times before I upgraded to a full frame camera, but one that I’ve now learnt can be easily overcome by just shooting on a higher F number! Yes you’ll sacrifice a tiny bit of depth, but overall you’ll get a much sharper shot! I tend to shoot on F1.8 or F2 on many of my outfit shots these days, just to ensure the subject focus is totally sharp & got real clarity! It’s totally a balancing act, so have a  play around and see what works best for you!

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. TRY AND SHOOT IN NATURAL LIGHT .

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Obviously unless you’re trying to get that dark and moody shot you can achieve in dark or low light, then the magic trick to a perfect quality shot is natural light. Light is probably the biggest factor that can affect your photography, and frustratingly is often the one thing you can’t control (cue sunshine, I wish)! If like me, you blog and have a  full time job then this can become even more tricky as your limited to only certain times or days that you can actually go and shoot your photos. This often means some days having to shoot in awfully dull lighting (today for example) but sometimes if you’re lucky glorious bright sunshine. The difference on your photography is unbelievable! Whilst I only have Saturday & Sunday as days to try and do my blog photography, i’ll always keep an eye on the weather and try and shoot at the hour or day where lighting looks like it’ll be okay (e.g. not overcast or rainy)! It’s obviously not an easy thing to do when you actually have a life and plans to work around, but trying to shoot your pictures when natural light is available will really make for a great quality photo. This isn’t just because natural light or sunshine looks great in a photo, but it also means the settings you shoot on can be set to allow for the best quality image possible (low ISO, high shutter speed & low F number – as I mentioned, these all work together)!

When sunshine or perfect natural light isn’t available, just try and find open spaces with less shadows & dark areas or even use some white sheets or card to reflect any potential light that may be available. I don’t have any studio light style kit, but you can quite easily create a light catcher to help brighten shots if you’re really keen on getting the perfect setting (I know I should do this more, to get a better light balance and less shadows etc)!

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. SHOOT IN RAW & EDIT .

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One very simple, but amazingly clever little trick, is simply to shoot in raw. I didn’t do this previously as I simply never knew why I would do it, plus of course it means you must edit & convert your image to get a Jpeg image, but shooting in raw is the easiest way of ensuring once your photos are taking that your end result can be finished to perfection. Shooting in raw helps with editing and allows you to make quite fundamental shifts in the image which you can’t really do to the same affect if you’re trying to edit a jpeg, light, brightness, clarity, shadows, darks etc. Once you’ve got your images shot, even if you’ve taken the pictures in the perfect lighting, you may still find there are some small tweaks that need making, and this is where editing plays a part. Whether thats using a free online service (there are loads out there) or using a paid for piece of software like photoshop or lightroom (I have both but much prefer lightroom for image editing)! Not only can you then edit your image to get the perfect finished effect, you can also ensure you’re saving your image in the right size / pixels / format for whatever you need to use it for (web or print etc)! As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, don’t over edit, you’ll lose the natural beauty of the photo, but definitely use the tools to ensure your lighting & composition etc is exactly as it should be!

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. PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT .

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As with anything, practice does make perfect, I like to carry my camera with me as often as possible and am forever tweaking settings to try and get the perfect shot, watching tutorials to learn new tricks and of course reading blog posts to see how other people are shooting their looks! I love to see what kit people use, the lenses, the ISO settings & also of course take inspiration from composition and setting (as these two things can also turn a photograph from average to spectacular)! The only way to truly up your game is to keep practicing, & to keep trying new things. Of course some could end up awful, but you never know you might shoot an amazing image & have found a whole new way of doing things.

And if there’s one thing to always bear in mind, it’s that this should be fun, photography, blogging, writing, all of these things should be enjoyable & bring a smile to your face. Don’t let the quest for perfect photos stress you out, get you down or pee you off (easier said than done, i’m forever getting huffy with low light & rain), but make some fun of it! Plan a day trip with friends & take your camera to capture shots, spend a day strolling your favourite city testing out your kit, and of course practice makes perfect, nothing will be perfect straight away or all the time! Just keep on going, and soon you’ll realise you’re images have gradually been getting better and better without you even realising!

READ ALL MY PHOTOGRAPHY TUTORIALS HERE

So there you have it, my top 5 tips for blog photography, i’d love to know if you agree, or if there are any other tips you think are equally as important?