Lifestyle || Steps I've Taken To Up My Photography

Taking photographs for my blog is probably one of my favourite steps in the whole blogging process. I love trying different things, using different props and generally experimenting when I shoot. As much as I love photography, it does at times become quite stressful. I can picture how I want images to look in my mind but it doesn’t always translate on the camera. I’ve been changing a couple of things up recently which, in my opinion, has helped me to take better photographs.

1.    Planning

I already kind of mentioned this above, but I find planning out what photographs I want to take before taking them helps a lot. This obviously changes depending on what I am photographing. I plan in a couple of ways. Simply searching flat lay ideas on Pinterest or scrolling through Instagram is a good way of researching ideas. Another way of planning, which works mainly with makeup photography, is physically looking at products to see which angle they will photograph best. Do they have anything special on their containers that’s worth photographing?

2.    Props

I’m a big fan of props, especially ones that can be used for a multiple of pictures! As well as my Marble backdrop board that I created as the perfect backdrop, I also use diaries, ribbons and confetti to scatter in the background of images. More recently, and probably thanks to the Christmas season, I have been using fairy lights to add a bit of ‘background’ to my images. You might have noticed a gorgeous light pink faux fur rug in a couple of recent Instagram photos? – That’s my comfy Zara Gilet. So you can truly use anything as a prop for your images! I have listed below a couple of ‘Blogger’ favourite’s that always look pretty when photographed.

-       Light Box (I’m yet to use mine in photos, but they look great!)

-       Other Products – This is a great idea when photographing products from the same brand.

-       Candles – Always look pretty when photographed from above, just be careful not to have them lit as this can damage your camera!

-       Jewellery – There’s something about jewelry that looks pretty when laid out.

-       Rugs – Faux fur, brightly coloured or monochrome. Rugs are always a great addition to a photo, and they extend your frame too if your running out of space on a surface!

Both ribbon and shredded paper that came with my Glossybox made a great photo prop!

Fairy lights and Christmas garland aren't just for Christmas!

Blurred out, the fairy lights and garland look pretty and make the background interesting.

Marble board, fairy lights and my trusty faux fur body warmer!

3.    Looking back at images

This is a step that I have been doing a lot recently, especially with the changing of weather and light when taking my images. Although I now own two studio lights, it’s still tricky to control the outcome of my photographs. So looking back over them when there’s time to change the finishing product is a great step to take. This can be annoying, especially if your using a tripod as you have to take everything apart before continuing with your images, but it’s worth doing trust me. It makes the editing step a lot easier, as you’re kind of taking out the middle man.

Before

After

4.    Angles

I read a great post the other week (I am so annoyed I now can’t find the post or the blogger!) about changing up the angles of which you take your photographs. I agreed with every point that the blogger made about taking photographs for you, and following your own instinct when it comes to blogging photos. Since starting my blog I have been a firm fan of the flat lay, and don’t get me wrong I still am, but I have enjoyed switching the angle slightly and changing up my lenses to photograph in a fresh profile style way.

5.    Have fun!

This isn’t really a step, or a tip, but something that’s taken me a while to truly grasp. Photography is such a fun thing to do, and half the time we stress out so much about it the enjoyment is taken away. I try to combat this by photographing when I want to, rather than when I need to. This does mean I tend to plan my posts in advance, which can be annoying, but it also gives me time to come up with ideas for Instagram posts as well as for my blog. Things don't always go right either and that's ok too! As you can tell from the next set of photographs, taking photos AND owning cats brings up it's own problems!

Hope some of my tips have helped in some way. Photography is truly all about how you want to do it, no rules and no guidelines. I think that’s probably what I like about it the most! I was going to go into tips on shooting OOTD’s or fashion posts on your own, but think that’s worth a post all of its own! Let me know if that’s of any interest!

Until next time,