Experimenting With Blog Photography

One of the things you must learn if you want to be a lifestyle blogger is how to take better blog photography.

It is something that I am not good at. At all.

I have always had great intentions and even bought a Canon T6i because I just knew that it would be the magic bullet to better photos.

It wasn't.

Here's the thing – you need to learn how to use your camera because your camera is only as good as the photographer behind the lens.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”Your camera is only as good as the photographer behind the lens.” quote=”Your camera is only as good as the photographer behind the lens.”]

After a few failed attempts at learning how to use a DSLR camera I kind of gave up and basically used it as a good old point and shoot on the automatic setting.

My pictures came out ok and I basically used PicMonkey to edit and enhance my photos as best as I could.

But lighting continued to be a problem.

Many rooms in my home tend to be darker and it was really hard to schedule my amateur photo shoots on bright days only because I was really at the mercy of Mother Nature.

So, again I did the logical thing that any self-respecting wannabe photographer would do (here's a hint: it WASN'T “learn how to use my DSLR”) – I went out and bought photography lights.

Yup. I got a set of standing softbox lights like you see in photography studios and a Lowell Ego tabletop light for taking food photography (this no longer appears to be available anywhere 🙁 ).

The lighting helped but still – my photos always tended towards the dark or yellow side of things.

Up until now you can see that a lot of my blog photos are actually stock photos from services like Haute Stock and Deposit Photos.

I had resigned myself to the fact that my own photography would never stack up.

Now, it just so happens that I recently (as in earlier this week) completed a blogging course called Building a Framework by Abby Lawson.

The information in the course is top notch. But what really got me excited was the unit on blog photography.

Abby blogs at JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com and the pictures that she posts of her home are just stunning. Of course, her home decor is beautiful, too.

Here is an example of one of her photos from her recent post about Red and Aqua Christmas Shelf Decor:

In her course, Abby explains a little about the relationship between aperture, ISO, and shutter speed.

It was just enough to inspire me to take another crack at learning how to take better blog photography.

So, today I pulled out another camera that I have (I won it at BlogHer a few years ago!). This one is a Nikon P530 which is a point and shoot with a manual setting. I wasn't quite ready for the DSLR yet.

On the Nikon I was able to adjust the aperture and the shutter speed.

So, according to Abby's instructions – I set the camera for a long shutter speed and a low aperture and experimented a bit.

My Blog Photography Experiment

I took these photos in my living room which is naturally dark because although we have a large window, there is a covered front porch on the outside.

Honestly, if you could see how dark that room usually is – you'd be pretty impressed with the outcome. 

However, the photo is still ho hum. Even though the window has a covering (Levolor Sheer Shades – Silhouette type shades) the light coming in from the window still feels harsh.

Also, the colors of the accent pillows feel really washed out.

In the photo below, I enhanced the colors using PicMonkey and like the result much more.

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So, I know there are lots of issues like focus, angle, and more than I even know about. But, hey, it's a start.

Do You Take Your Own Blog Photography?

If so, how did you learn? Did you teach yourself? 

What type of camera do you use?

And here is a big question – now that the iPhone XS and XS Max are out with their souped up cameras – do you think it would be better to invest in the new iPhone or go with a more advanced standalone camera?

Share your thoughts in the comments below.