How to take killer blog photos: Photography tips for Bloggers

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If you are looking to up your blogging game and you’re wanting to learn how to take great blog photos then you are in the right place! Being a blogger means you are including images in your blog posts and most likely on your social media. Of course, Instagram is the holy grail of photos so you need to know what you are doing if you want to crack Instagram.

The great thing is you can learn everything about taking good blog photos yourself! You also don’t even need to spend tonnes on a fancy camera. You can do just as well as using your phone.

I have come up with some photography tips for bloggers that may help you. I know I struggled when I first started Instagram and taking blog photos, I had no idea how to even take a good photo and what to do with it. On my personal Instagram account I had never edited any of my photos!

If you want to find out “How to take good blog photos” then this is the post for you!

How to take blog photos: Overview

• Why your own images are important
• Look around for your brand colour
• Do some research – get inspiration
• Create a preset
• Get the right lighting for photos
• Get your friend to help
• Try different angles
• Plan your content in advance
• Create a media Library
• Conclusion

Why your own images are important

When I first started blogging I was stumped at whether I should be taking my own photos. For me, it was simply easy to use free stock images. I started using Unsplash.

Free stock images are great, don’t get me wrong!

I still use free stock images, but when I started to read other peoples blog and see they were using the same images as me, I felt like my blog was unoriginal.

I had also been struggling to find the right space and the right outfits/ items to take pictures with because I started my blog in the middle of lockdown when we couldn’t go outside. By leaving the majority of my outfits and possession back in my student flat in a different city I was very stuck on photo ideas. So at the time using stock images was the best shout for me.

Due to this issue, I didn’t even think about taking my own photos. But boy was I missing out!

I learnt that taking my own photos was super important and here’s why:

Pinterest favours original images

If you have mastered the art of Pinterest (I am still figuring it out!) Then I would advise you to use your own photos on your pins. This is because due to Pinterest being a visual search engine, it knows what the picture on your pins are about. If you are using free stock images then that picture you use can be put onto so many pins created by other people making it less original and also making it connecting to lots of different blog posts. So Pinterest will never really know what that particular image is about.

If that makes sense!

I also have some Perfect Pinterest Templates if you would like to have a go using them! Templates save so much time when creating your pins!

I have found that my pins with paid or original images do the best!

This may just be a coincidence but I do believe original images will do better on your Pins.

It will open up more opportunities

Using your own photos on your blog and Instagram means brands can see your work and see your style. They may really like this and want to work with you.

Obviously it goes without saying that a nice themed Instagram account will probably get more attention from brands than a personal account with family pictures.

You can put your own photos on your Media Kit

When reaching out to brands, you can showcase your photos and your style. You can show them how you take your own blog photos. This also shows that you put time and effort into your blog.

If you don’t have a media kit yet then you can check out my post on how to create one.

Sign up now and get your FREE 4 Page Media Kit Template!

Look around for your brand colour

A great thing to do when creating blog photos is to stay on brand. Use similar colours around your blog. I have a blog colour palette.

So when I am looking for items to take pictures of, or if I am finding paid stock photos, I try and go for light pinks and beige colours.

This way your blog will look more put together and organised. It gives your blog a theme that people can identify.

Do some research – get inspiration

When I first started blogging and taking my own photos, I had no idea what direction I wanted to go in. I decided to head over to Pinterest and do some research on fashion shots and flatlays.

If you don’t know what flatlays are they are sort of when you lay multiple items down on a plain background and arrange them in a nice way and take a birds-eye view shot. These are great when doing product reviews and they are very popular on Instagram.

Some Great Instagram Bloggers who know how to take photos

I have 3 examples that I would love to show you. These IG accounts use a range of photos and they each have their own individual stlye.

There are so many amazing accounts on Instagram where the creator puts so much effort into the post.

sarahlaublogs

sarahlaublogs is run by Sarah Lauren who is a lifestyle, fashion & travel blogger. She mixes up her account with flatlays and selfies. I honestly love Sarahs flatlays so much. When you look at her account you can see how much effort she puts into it.

K.alexandrah

K.alexandrah is run by Kate who is a lifestyle blogger. She produces such a range of creativity photos and has a beautiful preset. As you can see, her feed is well put together as all the photos match.

Michelamaries

Michelamaries is run by Michela who offers travel tips. She is also offering 3 FREE Lightroom presets that you can check out! Again, her feed is put together wonderfully and all the photos match. She takes super creative pictures which look amazing together.

Create a preset

As you can see above, each of these IG accounts have a certain style to their photos. A great way to do this is to create a personal preset so that all of your photos are similar. Eg. the same brightness.

Have a constant theme for your photos

You can use the app Lightroom to create a preset (I do believe you have to pay for Lightroom on a laptop). There are plenty of YouTubers who show you the presets they use and how to create them. There are also people selling beautiful presets if you didn’t have the time to create one.

This means your IG feed and/or blog will now have a theme. I like to use the same preset for my blog photos so that everything matches. So it is up to you if you want to link your photos on all social medias.

Get the right lighting for photos

Lighting can be crucial for photos. It really can make or break the photo. If it is a dull and dark day then natural lighting will probably just not cut it. I would recommend waiting until you can use natural light.

Another thing you could do is purchase a ring light. You can buy these super cheap off of amazon. It means you won’t have to wait around to take a good photo!

Get a friend to take the photos for you

Trying to take a picture of your outfit on timer can be tricky so the best thing you can do is to find someone who can help you. Make sure that you can find someone who has the time and patience to work out the best angles. Try different background locations and see where the lighting is best.

Getting a friend to help will be most useful for fully body shots.

Try different angles

If you are taking flatlays then try and mix up the angles. Keep changing around the items and then you will be able to create so many more photos. You may find that your original photo that you thought was great, is no longer your best and you have taken lots of better ones!

Taking photos in non-cluttered spaces will look more pleasing to the eye when taking flatlays. So think about that when you are taking flatlays. Some times a different angle can take it t a whole different look.

Plan your content in advance

Planning your content can give you time to source out items and outfits. It also means you can decide on a day when the lighting may be best to take photos. Or if you are doing a fashion post you can pick a nice day to do the photoshoot.

Use Planoly or Preview apps to see what your content looks like together and how your shots match.

TIP: If you are using your photos for Instagram then also plan your captions and hashtags.

Create a media library

Take a day to create a random media library. Stock up on photos so that you can use them in the future. Take a day to just create plenty of flatlays using different angles. Or go to the park and do a fashion photoshoot and get as many shots as you can.

This is such a good way to bulk up on photos and build up some you can use in the future.

Take photos everywhere!

A great tip if you want to be prepared is to take photos of everything and anything. If you are walking down the road then take a picture of the sun setting or the clouds in the sky. If you are at the beach then take a picture of the waves and the parasols.

You never know what you will decide to write a post about in the future. You will be kicking yourself that you didn’t take more photos.

Categorise your photos into albums

When you have taken all these lovely photos the best thing to do is to categorise them. I tend to upload them to my WordPress library and name them so the next time I write a post about the ‘beach’ I can just search it in my media library and find it.

The biggest mistake you can make is to not name your blog photos!

Conclusion: How to take killer Blog Photos

Thank you for reading my top blogging photography tips on how to take blog photos! I hope you found it useful!

I am currently taking my blog and Instagram photos on my iphone 7. So it just shows you can make the most of what you have already and you don’t need to splash your cash on an expensive camera.

You just need to focus on the main things like stocking up on photos and varying the angles, lighting and locations of your photos.

Please let me know in the comments, do you take your own blog photos? Have you hired a photographer before? Do you enjoy taking your blog photos?

About the Author

If you want to find out more check out my about me page. My name is Amber Page and I run The Unpredicted Page. You can find me over on:

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