Before I began blogging or crafting, my first creative love was photography. In college, I tried it out as a side job and found that it wasn’t for me (way too stressful, but I so admire all of you professionals!). However, I still wanted to practice photography in some way or another and blogging was the perfect way to share my photos with others. Working on TBM has reminded me how essential photography is to growing your audience, selling products, and just finding a way to set yourself apart from other small businesses. I love checking out other bloggers’ photography style and I’m always bookmarking inspiring tutorials. Here are my faves from over the years!
1. I used to edit all of my photos in Photoshop until Angela shared this amazing Lightroom tutorial with me from The Overseas Escape. Now I’m hooked! Lightroom is the best. In this tutorial, Margo goes through the process of editing a photo from her travels, describing each step in depth. This read was definitely a game changer for me.
2. Nowadays, almost all of us rely on our phones for taking photos on the go. One of our favorite photo editing apps is A Color Story, by A Beautiful Mess. This app is meant to enhance the color of your photos and make them pop, without making your photos look over-edited. Check out their tutorial on how to make colors pop with A Color Story!
3. Over the past few years, I’ve held some retail jobs that involved a lot of styling and visual merchandising. Through that I realized styling was not my natural gift but something I really wanted to get better at. While working at those retail shops and even redecorating my own space at home, one of my biggest inspirations was the style genius Justina of The Jungalow. She knows what’s up. If you’re a lifestyle blogger of any kind, you’ll love her post on styling, shooting, and sharing photos of your home.
4. Product photography is truly an art. It involves technical skills as well as a marketing mindset. You don’t just want people to “like” your photos, you want them to buy what’s in the photos. Linea Mae published several tips for shooting your own product photos that will help you create most aesthetically pleasing online shop.
5. Taking your DSLR camera from the Automatic setting to Manual is a big step, and it’s so very rewarding. I’ll be honest – I didn’t learn how to use my DSLR on Manual for a really long time. But a few summer ago, I took an online course and whoa – I had no idea what I could actually do with my camera. Are you ready to master all the manual settings of your DSLR? Audrey of Audrey Ann Photo has a great post on choosing your camera settings on manual mode with lots of details and beautiful examples.
6. Along the same lines, the ladies of Wandeleur have awesome little manual photography cheat sheet, as well as a few other posts on the topic including tips on understanding your shutter speed and understanding ISO.
7. A lot of people think they need a house with tons of natural light to take perfect product, DIY, or blog photos indoors. I used to feel that way too (and I still always want to live in places with a lot of windows). However, these lighting tips and tricks for bloggers and photographers by Mandi of Making Nice in the Midwest were really encouraging to me. When I came across this post, I was living in a pretty dark house feeling bummed out about my attempts at blog and product photography. Little did I know, I could create natural-looking artificial lighting with a few different tools. Check out the post to get inspired with your indoor photography!
Have you found that photography is an important part of your blog, business, or creative pursuit? What kind of equipment do you use? (see our recommended photography products here!)
Gemma says
Thank you for sharing! There is always room for improvement and boy does my photography need a healthy does of professional advice!! ; )
Gemma
http://www.fadedwindmills.com
Gemma says
* dose! (oooeps!)