How to Process Your Blog Images Quickly

Creating eye catching visuals for your blog can be a real drag on your available time. Use these these tips to create blog images quickly and efficiently.

As the internet becomes more visual, the pressure is on to create a variety of great looking photos in all sorts of different sizes for every. single. post.

It is crazy!

If you are flying solo, how do you do make it happen?

I used to spend sooo much time dealing with blog images. And I really think it became an obstacle that kept me from creating more content.

You know how you avoid doing things you hate? Well, creating and processing blog images was one of those things for me.

So, this year, I decided to take a different approach and try to group similar tasks and streamline my process.

I have to say that so far, it is working much better than my old way of doing things.

If you have the same struggles, I hope this will help you. If it does, please take a moment to share this post on Pinterest and social media – I would much appreciate it!

Stock Photos or Your Own Photos?

I include an image with every blog post that I write.

Usually, I either take my own or use a stock photo from either Haute Stock or Deposit Photos.

My preference is to use my own pictures on this blog, but if I am writing about something like blogging – take this post for example – then I usually use a stock photo.

Be careful of using free stock photos – make sure you fully understand the licensing agreements of any photos that you use.

Working With Your Own Photos

The first step in the process is to use the right camera.

The Camera You Use Could Slow You Down

The camera you use is actually quite important in the speed of processing your photos.

I used to use my Canon T6i DSLR because I thought I would be able to take better looking pictures.

But I spent so much time fiddling with settings to get the lighting to look right.

So I switched to a Nikon point and shoot that I won a few years ago because I thought that would be easier.

Still no luck.

I spent a lot of time transferring images from my SD card to my computer and if I didn’t like any of the images then I would have to pop the card back into the camera and start over.

I now primarily use my iPhone to not only take my blog photos but also to do my initial edits.

And because I am also trying out the Lumix FZ 1000 II which I like a lot.

It is so much faster!

How to Edit Your Blog Photos Quickly

First I take as many shots as I need.

Then I open them individually in the Photos app on my phone.

Here I rotate, crop, and resize them to a

2:3 ratio (for Pinterest photos),
3:2 ratio (for Facebook and Twitter), and
square (for Instagram).

I add any filters or adjust the lighting levels right on my phone in the Apple Photos app.

Then I go to my computer and all my photos are magically there thanks to syncing with iCloud.

I drag the ones I want to use onto my desktop and further edit them in PicMonkey or Stencil to add the text overlays and watermarks.

Bulk Compress Your Photos

The next thing I do is compress the photos I am going to use.

We all know that Google wants to see small image files and fast site speed.

To do this I use a service called ShortPixel.

If you use the free version, you simply

drag the photos onto their interface,
they compress them,
you download the compressed versions all at once to your computer,
and they you upload the compressed images to your blog.

However, if you can swing a paid subscription to ShortPixel – it is better.

With the paid version you can use one of their WordPress plugins.

The advantage to using the plugin is that it will compress all of the different sizes of the same image that your theme generates (for thumbnails and featured images etc).

The plugin also saves you time because you don’t have to go through the process of compressing your blog images manually.

Bulk Upload Your Blog Photos To WordPress

Whether you use ShortPixel or not – bulk uploading your images to WordPress is also a huge time saver. But it took me a long time to figure this out.

I used to write my post in WordPress and upload each photo individually whenever I came to a spot where I wanted to insert one.

Now, I upload all my photos at once into WordPress before I write my post.

To do this, I click on the Media option in the left sidebar and drag all the photos I want to use onto the screen.

Once all the photos have finished uploading, I click into each one and add the alt tag descriptions and even the captions if I want to use one.

Insert Photos Into Your Post

With all my photos in the media library, I then go and write my post.

You won’t believe how much easier it is to just pop in a photo here and there without having to take the time to upload and describe each photo individually!

Working With Stock Photos for Your Blog Images

My process for working with stock photos is similar to that above.

The difference is that I typically do not have to adjust the lighting because the stock photos are already edited to look good.

In this case I just take the ones I want and create the different sizes and add the overlays using PicMonkey or Stencil App.

Then I do the same steps as above to resize and upload the images to my WordPress site.

Some More Ideas to Help You Save Time Blogging

Grammarly – if writing isn’t your thing, Grammarly can be your proofreader. This handy app checks your grammar as your write so you can make corrections as you go.
Tailwind – I use this service to schedule my pins on Pinterest. Pinterest is a huge source of blog traffic so I want to maintain a consistent presence on that platform.
TextExpander – this little app saves me so much time. Basically you save a small snippet of text that automagically will expand into longer words and phrases when you type it. So, think about the things that you type frequently – your name, the url of your blog, the url’s of your social profiles, even full on email replies that you might send out repeatedly.
I’m probably not doing a good job of explaining it here but you can read my full TextExpander review here to get a better idea of how it works.
Download the FREE Blog Structure Blueprint to help you organize your blog – not only will it help your readers find your content, but it will also help you find focus on what to write about and where to spend your time.

Here Is the Short Version of How to Streamline Working With Your Blog Photos

Use Your iPhone Camera to take your photos. (I’m not familiar with Android – but there is probably a similar method)
Edit your photos for lighting, color, and to resize on your phone right in the Photos app.
Turn iCloud on to sync your edited photos to your computer.
Download your photos to your computer and use a photo editor like PicMonkey or Stencil to add text overlays and watermarks.
Download your final edited photos to your computer.
Use a service like ShortPixel to bulk compress all of your edited photos at once.
Upload all the compressed photos that you plan to use in your post at once to your WordPress media library.
Click into each photo and add your alt tags.
Write your post in the WordPress editor and insert your prepared images accordingly.

Do You Have an Efficient Process for Working With Your Blog Images?

I am always looking for new ideas so please do tell me about it in the comments below.