How to Create Beautiful Photos for Your Blog
At some point in your blogging
It might be because it’s hard to find photos for your niche or you might be tired of using free stock photos. Or you might not have the budget for paid stock photos right now.
Photos and imagery are an essential part of your online presence and you need photos for your blog, social media and on your website. And you can take them yourself!
Today, I’m sharing a simple step-by-step guide for taking your own blog photos. Let’s get started!
Begin with the end in mind
This might be one of the most important things you can learn for taking photos for your blog.
Going into a shoot without an end goal can make the actual photoshoot feel aimless.
So, here’s what I want you to do: create a secret board on Pinterest and gather some photos that you like on it.
Take note of what you like about them. Do they have white backgrounds or are they outside? What are the details that make the photo special? Do you want to use your brand colors?
This will help inform your prop, background and lighting choices later on and help you create a consistent look across your blog photography.
Gather your supplies
Depending on what niche you are in will depend on some of the supplies that you need.
And if you are taking pictures of yourself, that’s another story. For the sake of this post, I’m going to talk about taking photos for your blog that are object based and not YOU based.
Niche Prop Ideas
- Food – kitchen tools, ingredients, linens, dishes
- Fitness – free weights, kettlebell, yoga mat, meal plan, protein powder
- Frugal, Finance – coins, paper money, piggy bank, budget planner
- DIY, Crafts – scrapbook paper, Cricut, scissors, project supplies, cutting mat
- Sewing – Scissors, fabric, bobbins, needle, thread, pins, patterns
- Blogging – pens, paper, notebooks, laptop, cell phone, tablet, planner
- General – flowers, leaves, office supplies, coffee or tea
You know best what kinds of things communicate the topic and purpose of your blog. So, using anything that helps your blog readers understand you and your purpose is perfect!
Choose your background
There are a lot of background choices out there and finding one that you like can be frustrating.
Take note of the most prominent backdrop in the Pinterest board you created earlier. This is the base of your photo and choosing the wrong one will frustrate you during editing.
Say, you are trying to achieve a light and airy feel in your photos. If you take your photos on a dark countertop, you’ll have a hard time getting to light and airy. All because you started with the wrong base.
Backdrops are affordable and easy to DIY. These are some of my faves:
- White, black or gray Ikea desk
- Foam boards – black, white, gray, colored
- Scrapbook paper, craft paper
- Contact paper attached to foam board
- Peel and stick flooring on foam board
- DIY backdrop on 2×2 or 2×4 sheet of thin plywood (I like this tutorial from The Bite Shot!)
Lighting
To take great photos, all you need is an open window or door. No fancy lighting equipment necessary!
The only thing that you might need is something to diffuse harsh light that might be coming into a window during the afternoon. I use a piece of polyester lining fabric to do this. You can order it on Amazon here. You only need 1 yard.
Camera
The saying goes that the best camera is the one that you have with you.
And honestly, the camera that you are the most familiar with is the best one, too.
There are two options: your iPhone camera or a DSLR of some kind.
I love my DSLR if I’m going to be doing an extended, planned photo shoot of some kind. I’ve been shooting portraits and studying photography for a while and I like the control I get from the camera. But, I find myself reaching more and more for my handy dandy iPhone 6s for the daily stuff!
Whether you choose to use a phone or DSLR for this
You do. Your cell phone is perfect. And that’s what I’m going to use here.
Find the light
Mastering light is can be tricky. The best place to start is with a window, next to an open door or even outside. To get started, look for diffused light.
Cloudy days are your friend! But, if the sun is blasting through your window, hang up the diffusion fabric that you bought using masking tape or blue painters tape.
My desk is right next to a window that gets a ton of afternoon sun which also happens to be where I take a lot of my photos. I have the fabric hanging over the curtain rod so I can pull it in front of the window as soon as the harsh light starts peeking in!
Start taking photos!
Pro tip: Wipe off your phone camera lens before you start taking pictures. No cloudy photos
Now, lay out your props in different ways. You don’t even have to change the props for every single shot. It’s as simple as choosing a few props and moving them around your backdrop to create 20+ photos to choose from.
Not every photo will be a winner, so options are good!
Keep in mind what you are planning for. Do you need cover photos for your facebook group or page? Or do you need photos for Instagram? Make sure that you reference your needs list so you get exactly what you want out of the photo shoot.
Here’s a few I got from my photo shoot!
