How I Take My Blog Photos!

Hello everyone!

I always wonder how other bloggers take their photos, so I thought I'd share how I take mine. I always find it interesting to see different perspectives and tricks! Sorry about some of the photo quality, I had to take some photos with my phone since I was taking pictures of the camera I use! I hope you find this helpful and enjoy!

How I edited the above photo: Adjusted the brightness, added text and blog watermark, added a star overlay. All on PicMonkey.

Starting off with the camera I use! I take my photos with the Canon PowerShot SX500 IS. I actually received this as a Christmas gift in 2013 and I love it! It's so tiny which makes it perfect for traveling with. I do have a vacation coming up and I can't wait to take some pics and share with you!

Anyways, this takes really good quality photos and has amazing zoom. I don't really need zoom for beauty pics, but it's great for other pictures! It's very simple and isn't difficult to figure out at all! It only has a few controls which is all I need! I still have yet to find a camera bag for it.

It's almost always on the Auto setting. To be honest, I'm not too sure what any of the settings mean expect for video, and fish eye, but Auto seems to work for me!

As you can see from my previous photos, my backgrounds are almost always white. I use one of the simplest methods possible; white foam boards! I get these at the dollar store for only $1 a piece and when they start looking used, I toss 'em and buy a couple of new ones! I simply set one up on the floor and rest the other one against the couch and it gives the perfect little photo backdrop. 

My set-up usually looks a little something like this.

When I'm not using my foam boards, I'm either taking advantage of the nice weather, and taking my photos outside, or finding something else to act as my background. If I have any flowers or other props around my house, I like to occasionally toss those in there too!

To achieve photos like the one above, I take my photos from a bird's eye view. I hold the camera above the subject, and take the photo facing straight down. This was I can have a flawless white background without any creases from where the 2 boards meet.

I like to capture photos from different angles, so that when I upload them to the computer, I can have variety. I also always take more than one in case they turn out blurry. I usually take around 3-8 photos of each subject.

I ALWAYS use natural lighting for my blog photos. In the past, I would just turn on a light or work with what I had, but looking back, the quality is just not very good! I usually find the best lighting on slightly overcast days from around 11am-2pm. The lighting is still good when it's sunny, but I tend to come out with some shadows on sunny days. I also don't take the photos with the light shining directly on my subject, I set up my foam boards almost parallel to my window, if that makes any sense. I do admit, some days if I'm crunched for time, I'll take photos in the evening and I can tell the difference in quality.

To edit my photos, I use PicMonkey! It's very easy and simple to use and it has all of the features I need. Above are some of my favorite fonts to use!
I don't usually, but on occasion I will edit my photos a bit. When I do, I usually just adjust the brightness or add a light filter. I even sometimes add some cute overlays!

OTHER TIPS!:

-Use sticky tack to adhere objects that won't stay put

-Take LOTS of photos

-Wait until you've uploaded your photos tot he computer before you review them. They may look okay on your tiny camera screen but when they're blown up on a computer, they can look a lot different

-Pre-plan blog posts by taking a bunch of pictures in advance

-Use what you have! If you don't have a camera, use your phone and work with natural lighting!

-Retake the photos if they're blurry. Even though it's a pain, I like putting good qualtiy pics on my blog

-Try a white background for a simple look

That's pretty much all I can think of for how I take my blog photos!

I hope this helped some of you!

Bye :)