Whether you’re a brand new blogger or a seasoned writer, blog photography is something every blogger seeks to improve at one point or another. Taking awesome photos for a blog is tough work. If you blog in fashion, beauty, food, home decor, or travel, then it’s a necessity for your blog to feature high-quality and near-professional photography if you plan to earn a living doing it.
Using free image sites or buying stock photography for your blog at the beginning, but sooner or later, you’ll need to start creating your own imagery if you want your blog to grow into a successful, thriving business.
Cameras
You may be wondering what cameras are best for bloggers. With thousands of cameras available – some of which can get really pricey, it’s tough to know which one you need that fits in your budget.
I made the mistake of purchasing a fancy expensive DSLR camera, only to realize a few years later that all I really needed was a smartphone.
So my advice for new or beginner bloggers is to pick up the most advanced quality smartphone you can afford and start taking your photos with it! Head to your local electronics shop and ask them which smartphone offers the highest quality camera under $800, for example, or whatever your budget is.
I take all my photos with the iPhone XR, which fit into my budget and offers high quality photography. As a bonus, it’s super lightweight so I can take it with me when I travel easily! Much easier than lugging around a huge DSLR in my bag.
Now, of course a smartphone won’t suit everyone’s needs. If you want to get into vlogging, videography or YouTube in any way, then you’ll need to consider a more advanced camera. If you want to take stunning travel photography or even food photography, then you’ll probably want to opt for a professional camera, too.
The cameras I see recommended most often for bloggers are:
- Sony Alpha a6000: This compact mirrorless camera is commonly used by vloggers to take high quality videos. The preview screen actually flips up so you can see yourself while filming, great for independent bloggers!
- Fujifilm X-T100: This is a great starter camera for entry-level bloggers. You get a good price for a high quality camera that takes top quality photos.
Lighting
Lighting is the holy grail when it comes to photography. It can make or break a photo. If you don’t naturally pay attention to lighting when it comes to your photos, then you need to shift your mindset. Personally, I won’t even shoot under poor lighting conditions (rainy days), and wait for a sunny day with natural lighting to shoot.
Blog Photo Editing
Of course, sometimes we’re forced to shoot under poor lighting conditions, and that’s where editing comes in! Editing photos is one of my favorite things to do. While I don’t edit my photos too much, it’s important to have a good tool that lets me adjust the brightness, saturation and shadows/highlights of a photo. This can really make it stand out in a sea of iPhone photography!
Adobe
The basic Photos app on my Mac is typically sufficient, but I also have a copy of Adobe Lightroom for more advanced editing. If you need to remove objects in the photo, then it’s worth looking into purchasing Adobe Photoshop, as the Clone tool is very precise.
Photo Pea
For light editing, I recommend Photo Pea which is very similar to Photoshop at the bargain price of free. Yes, you read that right: PhotoPea.com is a free version of Photoshop that has almost exactly the same features at no cost to you. There is a long ad to the side of the editor, but it’s not intrusive at all. This solution works very well for those on a budget!
Remove Background
Remove.bg is another photo editing tool that I use to automatically remove the background of product shots. You simply drag and drop any image and the tool will automatically erase the background, leaving you with a png file to download that has a transparent background.
This tool has been invaluable for creating product collages! I used to easily spend half an hour removing the background using a brush in Photoshop of an object so this tool has been a huge time saver.
Photo Storage
When it comes to storing photos, there are many options available. Since I rarely print my photos, I don’t need them in a super high quality size. For this reason, I opt to store my photos with Google Photos, which offers a large amount of storage at affordable cost of $20 per year.
You can also buy an external hard drive like this one to store photos, which I do for my most precious ones.
If you have any other questions about blog photography, don’t hesitate to leave me a comment below!
ohh its cleared my mind that what to do thank you.