Blogging 101: Blog Photography for Beginners

It’s that time again where I have another Blogging 101 post for you. This time we’re talking about photography for the blog, and how you can take some quick steps to upping your photography game.

Camera

When you first decided you wanted to start a blog, you probably worried that you didn’t have a good enough camera for those perfect blog photos. Now I’m here to tell you that the majority of bloggers started out using their phones. And some still use their phones for a lot of their content! If you have a new-ish phone with a decent camera then you can get started straight away!

Of course a lot of bloggers do have a camera for blogging but they are an investment. There’s a wide range of camera’s on offer, from small compact digital cameras to full blown DSLRs. So which one you need depends on what you prefer, and what you need it for. I personally have a Nikon DSLR, because I used it for my photography before blogging but I also love how I can film on it as well and it has a decent built in mic. If you do think you need one, then I would recommend reading up on some of the models you can afford, and find reviews for them to see what they do. You can also go into store and see how weighty they are, and also look at how they work.

Manual V Auto

Whether you’re using your phone or a camera, most will have a manual mode now! Learning different settings for you camera can help you up your photo game instantly. Learn about aperture, shutter speed and ISO settings and also manual focus!

Aperture: Aperture in simple terms is how much light is travelling to the camera. Aperture is measured in F-stops and the larger the F number is the less light will be allowed to your camera. The smallest F number will allow more light into the camera. This affects the exposure levels and how light your image will appear.

Aperture also affects the depth of field of a photo. You know those photos with perfectly blurred fairy lights behind a beauty product? Yes those are (usually) down to the photographer using a shallow depth of field with the lowest F-number. With a higher F-number you will have a sharper overall image with less blurring.

Shutter Speed: Shutter speed is the length of time your camera shutter is open to expose light to the camera sensor. This affects the exposure of the image and can also affects motion blur. The longer the shutter speed is, means there will be more light and any moving objects will blur. The shorter the shutter speed is, there will be less light and less blur.

So if you’re taking a photo of the car lights moving on the street, you would have a longer shutter speed. If you’re partaking in sports photography, you’ll most likely be using a shorter shutter speed.

Shutter speed are typically measured in fractions of a second, although you can have more than 1 second for a longer speed. Shutter speed and aperture often need to work together to get the best lighting for your photos.

ISO: ISO is another way to affect the lightness or darkness of your photos and give you more flexibility for your aperture and shutter speed. A higher ISO has more light, but can also create noise which is that grainy affect so it can be a trade off. If you don’t have any issues with changing the shutter speed and aperture, then you should alter them first.

Focus: If you have a busy image to take, that includes multiple items and different levels of background and foreground it’s easier to use manual focus. This allows you to choose exactly what you want your image to focus on. For example, your face in a portrait, the product in a flat lay etc.

Raw Images

If you are using a DLSR, then you can choose to shoot in raw format rather than JPEG. When you’re shooting in raw format, your camera isn’t automatically processes the data to create the image. This measn that when you come to editing your photos, you have a lot more control and flexibility in the outcome to process a high quality image.

If possible I would recommend to shoot in raw mode most of the time!

Play with Composition

There’s so many articles written about getting the perfect composition of a photo. Whether it’s leading lines, rules of 3, balancing an image or any of the wonderful ways our brains prefer to look at certain images over others. But the best way to train up your own eye for photos is to play and practice with different compositions.

Bloggers always joke that they’ve taken 50 photos and only used 3, and this is because they’re trying different compositions of their favourite products. Or trying a new pose that works better to draw the eye to X, Y or Z of an outfit! But this is really a learning by doing kind of skill.

Props and backdrops

You can’t really talk about blog photos without talking about props and backdrops. We can joke about it, but we’ve all bought that cute thing in primark because it would look nice in our instagram photos (right?!).

But it is completely true! You need something in your photos that complements what you’re trying to show off, without making it too much. Whether it’s my fur blanket that I use as a backdrop. Or the newest magazine which would look great alongside my newest serum. My images usually need something to make them look a bit different.