Blogging: Photography Tips
When it comes to blogging I like to switch up my backgrounds every so often to prevent my posts from becoming too boring. Blog photos are something that draw me in to a blog over the writing, if someone has nice and bright photos then I'll be more likely to follow them. It's not too hard to compose a good photo when adjusting the ISO on a camera, I especially like using natural light as it gives a better effect in my opinion. Unfortunately we don't get a whole load of sunny days in England, and when we do its often on days that I'm busy. I tend to set at least one day a week as a bulk blogging day where I'll photograph products for a few posts, that means that if I'm busy of theres bad lighting on some days I'll always have a post saved and ready to go.
I find that wrapping paper makes a good patterned and inexpensive background, the black and white one I often use is from Next. It's not too distracting from the image, but isn't quite as bland as a plain white background. If I fancy a pop of colour I'll go for something like the pink tissue paper shown above. Magazines are often good backgrounds, I really like using this Kensington and Chelsea one as it's black and white so it isn't too distracting. I have also recently been using this fluffy white hot water bottle from boots, it adds a nice texture to photos. It's amazing what items you can find around your house that can add something extra to your images.
I like to add decoration to my images for example a piece of jewellery, a little heart like the one above, this is from Monsoon or a flower, I often use this white rose from Ikea unless I have some fresh flowers in then I'll pick on of them. I really like the bunch of leaves that came with a bunch recently so I've added them in today.
When it comes to photographing products, I use a Nikon D3000. If you can't get hold of a DSLR then using a phone also works well. My iPhone 5 has a pretty great camera, and if you are shooting with your phone I'd recommend the photoshop app, it's free and is pretty good. I'd also recommend using white tac when photographing products that tend to roll. It keeps them where you want them without being visible. It's literally amazing! When it comes to editing I use photoshop on my mac, I'm used to using it at college so I prefer it over other editing programmes. I tend to only use curves and occasionally colour balance or hue saturation when editing products. I then smart sharpen and flatten my images before saving them and unloading them.
I often find myself on Pinterest looking for blog inspiration so I'd definitely recommend having a browse if you are stuck with ideas. I'm not very good on Pinterest, I'm a bit of a Pinterest newbie and the whole thing still confuses me a little but I'll get there.
Where do you find inspiration?
Do you have any blogging tips?
Lucy x