Capturing great Blog photos

The world of blogging has become HUGE in the last few years. It seems that everyone has a blog. There are so many types of blogs too...craft blogs, cooking blogs, travel blogs, family blogs and on and on. I don't know about you but one of the reasons I find myself going back to the same blogs over and over again has a large part to do with the quality of their photos. I find that if a blog doesn't have beautiful pictures or even just decent ones, I'm a little turned off and I don't end up going back to visit that blog. Am I the only one who feels like this? I'm guessing not, but you can let me know if I'm way off! :)

This past week a friend of mine had a baby shower so I decided to make her a baby blanket. I took some pictures along the way to give you some tips and ideas of how to take good "blog worthy" (as my hubby likes to say) photos. I geared this post toward taking good pictures to use in tutorials and in selling an item.


First and foremost...use natural light. Taking a picture using a flash tends to produce cold and uninviting photos. The image below is taken using the light coming in from the nearby window.
Now compare the above image to the image below. The following image was taken using a flash. See the difference?

The next tip has to do if you are posting a tutorial or giving your readers some type of step-by-step instructions. Try and show your reader the details of what you are explaining. For example if I were explaining how to make this blanket it would be helpful to show the following picture as I was explaining how to leave a small opening in one of the sides to pull the blanket right side out.



Another tip to keep your images fresh and appealing is to try different angles. This shot would have been fine straight on but by changing the camera angle just slightly it adds a fresh dimension.


When it comes to displaying your final piece to either sell or to show off here are a few keys to remember. First is to DECLUTTER your background. So many times I see a really cool project but the picture is detracting from the actual project due to the clutter in the background. A good tip is to use a couple of white foam boards to display your projects. And as a bonus, besides giving you a simple clean place to take your photos, using white will help draw more light thus giving you a faster shutter speed which will in turn give your sharper images. (confused? I explain all this in my photo ebook!)

The image below is to give you an idea of my set up when using the foam boards...
If you had a very small item to photograph you could even use a few pieces of cool scrapbook paper as a background.


Next, when presenting your piece, show your viewer many different angles and view points. If you're selling the item think of the different things you would want to check out if you were looking at it in the store. Use a very low f-stop like 1.8 or 2.2 to showcase the details.




Overall try to keep your photos looking artistic. Many times that's what really sells the product...the artistry of the photo!