Blog Photography || My Process & Tips

Last year I wrote a blog post on Editing Blog Photos and it is time for an update. A lot has changed in my blog photography over this past year and I wanted to share with you the new things that I have learned and am learning. There was a time when I felt like I needed to know everything before I sat down to share with others but the truth is, we are always learning and growing. We read new articles, try new things, play with different settings, and change the way we do things. It is pretty exciting actually.

In May of 2014 I got a DSLR for my Birthday. Up until that point, I never thought that I would own a “real” camera. I even wrote a sassy (and embarrassing) blog post in 2011 about how I would only ever use my iPhone (that I do not own anymore) / Instagram (with terrible filters) for my blog posts. Proof right here that people change. One of the things I love most about other blogs is photography. That love has inspired my growth. My Instagram style has changed over the years as I’ve figured out the look I want to go for and my blog photos have changed too.

Never be afraid to change and never be afraid to use what you have to grow. It took me four years of blogging to buy a DSLR because it took me four years to get that serious about my photos. Go at your pace and use what you have to create the look you want, but take the risk when you are ready and do something new!

Today I wanted to share with you how my process is looking these days and hopefully encourage you when you see how far I’ve come 😉

CANON REBEL T3

My camera has been huge in creating the photography style that I want for my blog. I have so much more freedom to take quality photos. Up until this point, I was afraid of cameras and kept everything on the auto setting. When I got this camera, I knew that I needed to put my big girl panties on and try to shoot in manual. I adjusted one setting at a time and tried to master it. I read a lot of articles and made my husband help me. It has taken some time but I am much better at making the needed adjustments in the moment to create the photo I want. It is so worth it to learn how to shoot in manual and the only way you’ll learn is if you just start.

50 mm LENS

With my Christmas money I made one of the best purchases ever of my photography carrier, I bought a 50 mm lens. I was still at the point of being overwhelmed with other lens options and figuring out my manual setting but it was getting wonderful reviews all over the place. I spent hours looking at photos shot with this lens and knew I needed it because it helped create the beautiful blurry background that I am absolutely in love with. It works! I leave this lens on most of the time because I love it so. Seriously, a good lens can do so much of the work for you in creating beautiful photos!

LIGHTROOM

As my blog has grown, I have had more money to invest in making my blog even better. This year I finally jumped into the world of Adobe and bought the Photoshop & Lightroom pack for $10 a month. The cool thing about this is that you are able to have it on multiple devices so my husband and I both have it on our desktops and laptops. That makes it more worth it for us. When I purchased this package, I had never used either of  them so I hit up Pinterest for all the tips I could get.

I haven’t figured out Photoshop yet, but I have been editing all my photos in Lightroom. Ever since I started shooting in RAW, I haven’t gone back! I upload them all into Lightroom and then get to editing, flagging all of the ones I want to export in jpeg. When I started, I had no idea how I should edit my pictures so I purchased the Lightroom Collection from A Beautiful Mess to help me play with settings.

CANVA

This is my new favorite place to make any kind of graphics for my blog! This is the place to use if you want to make graphics or photos with text! It is clean, professional, and free if you use your own images!

FOTOR

This is a free resource that I mentioned in my post from last year and I still use it for collages and editing! It is perfect when you need to crop or straighten a picture or you want to do a collage of photos for a gift guide post. I have it bookmarked on my desktop and I love how easy it is to use!

OTHER TIPS I’VE LEARNED AND LOVED

• Make all of your photos have the same width ( you can edit these beforehand or in the html of your post by deleting the height number and changing the width to the number you would like. All my photos are 640 wide )
• Death to Stock Photo is a great place to get stock photos for  your blog if you are not wanting to use your own images.
• Tips for shooting Lifestyle Photos

What is your blog photography style? Have you changed over time? Are you learning something new? Are you a Photoshop pro and want to teach me all your ways? Let’s chat in the comment section!

xoxo, elizabeth