There’s no denying that there are a thousand and one different ways to shoot a photo. You can be everything and anything with a photo but you need to make sure you do certain things and ask yourself one simple question constantly…
This year, I want to start introducing more lifestyle shots into my Instagram and blog, as opposed to sticking to my comfort zone which is of course, beauty. This doesn’t mean that I’m going away from beauty altogether. I don’t think I could ever abandon one of the things I enjoy most about blogging but I do definitely need to branch out more. I’ve also been looking into cameras recently as mine is slowly starting to die *sobs*. So I’m weighing up my options already so I can be prepared for that dreaded camera death day and I’m currently eyeing up the Panasonic Mirrorless 12-60mm Lens Camera for when I finally start vlogging too.
Just a lil’ disclaimer – I don’t claim to be a professional at this whole photo taking malarky. I just take photos because I enjoy them, I love creating and experimenting. Admittedly, the ‘experimenting’ doesn’t always go to plan, in fact – sometimes I really balls it up. But, if you don’t try, you’ll never know. Am I right?
ANYWAY…
The thing you need to ask yourself is, what do you want to achieve with your photos?
It’s not a case of just ‘clicking a button’ and voila, you’re done. It’s a lot more than that. You want to get the photo that captures the subject best. Whether it’s you when you ‘sissy that walk’ (soz, RuPaul reference), capturing the ultimate sunset photo, your furbabies, a makeup look that slays or of your favourite products. Sometimes, it can take me a good couple of hours to just do one set of photos. You may say ”It can’t be that hard to take product shots, surely?” Well, it’s harder than you think. You need to take into consideration your props, your style, the lighting, the actual product itself and so much more.
As you can tell, I love fairy lights in my photos.
So, when I take a product shot, I need to take them into consideration, they’re probably one of the most important parts of my photos. If I don’t angle my camera right or have my products in a certain place, it can ruin the whole aesthetic I aim for. There’s been many times where I’ve considered straying away from the fairy lights to create a new ‘vibe’ to my photos but I don’t think I can. I feel like they’ve become that much of my ‘brand’ that it’s what makes my photos easy to spot. Now, I could totally be off with this but that’s how I feel.
When considering props, again – I think about the aesthetics.
Now, I know that pink and purple are not everyones cup of tea but I find that my more recent photos are some of my best and I put that down to my pink and purple vibe. I think way too hard about my props if I’m being totally honest. I can’t even tell you how many fake flowers I have lying around my beauty room. Literally, I order tonnes at a time and then when they arrive, I will test them out by taking a billion photos to see how they photograph. Majority of the time, those photos will never meet my high blog or social media standards. But, I will spend hours upon hours taking photos of them with various props and products to see how they look.
Some fake flowers look really realistic and some obviously look very, very fake. The worst culprit for this I’ve found is ‘baby’s breath’. So make sure you always do your research when you buy a prop, whether it’s for fake flowers, dishes, fabrics, books and more.
You don’t want your photos to come across tacky.
Without trying to sound too rude here, your photos should represent you and your ‘brand’. Your photos have the potential to seen by thousands, if not millions depending on your social following, your reader levels and of course – if a company shares your images. You want your photos to be seen and complimented. It’s all about finding out what works best for you.
Some people have really dark photos, which I adore but sadly cannot pull off AT ALL. The best example of this is Bee from Queen Beady. Her photos are something else and they are on par with the rest of her brand. You can spot one of her photos from a mile off and you will just instantly know who the photo is from. It’s quite refreshing to see. I think that’s the key thing in all this. It’s to make your photos identifiable and make sure people know WHO they’re by.
The best advice I can offer you is to just play with your camera and experiment.
Find yourself in the camera and the photos. It doesn’t matter if you sit there for hours on end taking photos and none of them make it to social media and your blog. Sure, it’s frustrating as hell but trust me, it’s worth it if you find your ‘vibe’. Obviously, some people use their phones and that’s ok – if that works for you then great! Some people do it amazingly well but sadly, I’m not one of those people. Just remember to keep asking yourself that all important question what do you want to achieve with your photos?
This post on ‘How I improved my photography’ was my most read post of 2016 and this will hopefully give you a rough idea of how my photography developed in my early blogging years, and the further changes I’ve made since then. Remember, all good things take time. I will of course, do an updated post on how I improved my photography soon!
What do you want to achieve from your photos? Did you find this post helpful? Let me know in the comments below! Why not check out my last post all about my first experience with Korean Beauty Brand: Touch in Sol.
