Blogging Photography Tips, Tricks and Hacks

Photography Tips for Bloggers

Taking photos for your blog might sound like a simple task, but there’s a lot that goes into it. I’ve decided to round up a few great blog posts from fellow bloggers who are sharing their tips, tricks and hacks for blogging photography.

Tips, Tricks and Hacks for Blogging Photography

When I first started blogging, my images left a lot to be desired. It’s embarrassing really. I think a lot of bloggers feel this way. I used my point and shoot camera, never changed the settings and just took willy-nilly photos and didn’t pay attention to the set up, foreground or background. I just took a (single) photo of the project, slapped it up and moved on.

Learn How To Take Great Blog Photos!

Learn. Look at awesome blogger photography and learn how to take great photos. You can learn a lot just by browsing blogs with great photographs. It’s worth it for your blog and you’ll be much happier with the way your blog posts look and perform.

Find a blogger who does an amazing job with their photos, staging, backgrounds and start emulating them. It’s not hard to step up your game, you just have to focus and do it. Photography takes time and effort – and the payoff is big!

Here’s an actual example, no joke. One of my first blog posts ever…. Yep, that’s my fine china (cringe) – I bet you have some just like it, too! However absolutely horrible the photo is, that sandwich is delicious! You can see the actual recipe post here. And no, I don’t plan on changing the photo, I always want to be able to look back and see my poor blogging and photography skills. We shall not erase our past! 🙂

Horrible Photo for Recipe Blog Post

My second mistake was not editing images. I didn’t even try. All bloggers who look back at their shoddy work know the feeling. You do know that feeling, don’t you? A two second edit can give a photo more color and “pop”, even the worst photo in the world can benefit from a quick edit!

Thankfully, I’ve learned what I should be doing from many hours of research, trial and error as well as taking advice and photo tips from other bloggers. This is one of my most recent foodie photographs from a sponsored Kraft Foods recipe post, a Giant BBQ Red, White and Blue Cookie Pizza. Lighting, layers and exposure are key to a great photo!

Giant Red White and Blue Cookie Pizza

The Worst Blogging Photo Advice

One tip I regret ever hearing was “edit your pictures to fit your blog”. Meaning resize the photos to the width of your blog post area as to not use more resources than you need to. Well, I cropped all my images down to 600px wide or so, as you can see with the sandwich image above.

When I changed the design of my blog, my blog post width became much larger. Now my images look small and silly on some of my older posts when viewed from a desktop (and not just because of my shoddy photo work). Unfortunately, most bloggers do this and they’ll also regret it if they ever change their blog to a wide format.

Now when editing my images, I size them down to 1024px wide. I think this is a good width and I doubt I’ll ever need larger images for any blog design I choose. I know a lot of people size their images for their blog post width, I would suggest not doing this, size them so they’ll fit on any blog design.

The Best Blogging Photo Advice

Now that you’ve heard what I consider to be the worst blogging photography advice, here’s one of the best pieces of advice I’ve received. The best photos are shot outside, in natural lighting, on a sunny day in the shade. This is true, 100% true. The cookie pizza photo above was shot on a sunny day, in the shade, under this tree. I moved my patio table from the patio (in the sun) to the lawn, under a tree for that photo shoot – and the photos came out amazing.

Shooting Photos in the Shade

Food Photography DIY Backgrounds

If you’re a blogger looking to up your game, you’ll want to make some custom backgrounds. It’s not as hard as you may think, but it is necessary – otherwise you end up with a bunch of different recipes and other goodies all on the same background. Don’t be like that! Learn how you can easily make a dozen backgrounds in no time! All it takes is some wood and some paint and you too will be shooting foodie photos like a pro!

Learn to make easy DIY Foodie Photo Backgrounds.

DIY Food Photography Backgrounds

DIY Padded DSLR Camera Lens Cases

Us DSLR Camera owners know how expensive and valuable our camera lenses are. This is why it’s important to protect them. With this DIY padded DSLR camera lens case tutorial you can learn to make your own padded camera lens cases to protect your camera lenses! This is a must for anyone who wishes to add a little style to their photography game.

Learn how to make your own DSLR Camera Lens Case.

DIY Padded DSLR Camera Lens Cases

DIY Photo Lightbox

This lightbox hack shows you how to make your own photography lightbox for just a few bucks. Lightboxes are great for snapping photos of things in a close up manner. The lightbox diffuses the light and creates a soft glow, without shadows. One of the battles with indoor photography is shadows and improper lighting. One way to avoid shadowing of your photos is to make a photography lightbox.

Learn how to make your own DIY Photo Lightbox.

How To Make A Photo Light Box

3 Minute Photo Fix

We all need to edit photos, it’s a natural part of photography. Making our photos the best they can be for our blogs is essential. We live in a visual and photocentric world. Follow this three minute Photoshop tutorial and your images will be blog ready in no time!

Learn the 3 Minute Photo Fix.

3 Minute Photo Fix

DIY White Plank Photo Background

As I said earlier, when I first began blogging, I never thought about backgrounds of my photos. Never mind thinking about actually making a background – who does that? Well, now I do. This white plank photo background from The Thinking Closet is easy to make and store. To get your photos looking professional, you’ll need to focus on the backgrounds and even make some backgrounds of your own!

Learn how to make your own DIY White Plank Photo Background.

DIY White Plank Photo Background

Blog Photos without a DSLR Camera

Let’s face it, when we start out blogging, not all of us want to invest in a DSLR camera. Not only do we not want to plunk down that much cash, we don’t actually know if it’s worth it to us. The good news is, you can shoot decent photos with your point and shoot, as long as you know how to use it.

Learn how to shoot blog photos without a DSLR.

Shoot Better Blog Photos

Canon SL1 DSLR Camera

If you’re ready to buy a DSLR (and I suggest you do), I recommend the Canon SL1 DSLR Camera Bundle, which is the exact bundle I got. The SL1 is more compact in size than other DSLR cameras, so you can take it anywhere around your neck and not feel like you’re lugging a brick around. The SL1 has two great features that I find especially wonderful. It can shoot 1080p HD video and has a touch screen – which makes focusing and changing settings a snap (awesome feature!).

Shop Amazon for this Bundle.

Canon SL1 DSLR Digital Camera Bundle

50 DIY Photo Backgrounds

Yearning for more? Stop over to The Thinking Closet for a great, helpful list of 50 DIY Photo Backgrounds. We’ve talked about how important your backgrounds are for photos. They really can make or break the photo! So, hop over and discover a whole bunch of photo backgrounds you too can make at home..

Discover 50 DIY Photo Backgrounds.

50 Easy DIY Photography Backgrounds

Top 5 Photo Tips from Bloggers

  1. We Love Playtime: Study your photos before publishing them. Make sure there’s nothing in the backgrounds that you don’t want to share! Garbage, street signs, dirty laundry…the list goes on!
  2. The Mommy Bunch: Fill the frame while taking your photographs and use the rule of thirds!
  3. Also from The Mommy Bunch: Blurring the background while taking photos of people is made easy when you zoom in all the way, then approach your subjects – the closer you are, the more background blur you’ll obtain. Choose a background setting which is at least 15 feet away.
  4. Chaos is Bliss: For indoor photography, turn off all lights and use natural lighting for the best results!
  5. Dawn Nicole Designs: Don’t be afraid to seek out a professional photography course! Dawn Nicole now shoots solely in manual mode after taking a pro DSLR essentials course!

What is a photography tip you would add to this list?

Join the Conversation

  1. Wonderful tips! The DIY Photo Lightbox is a great idea that is sure to make your photos look awesome! Thanks for sharing.

  2. You have definitely stepped up your game in the picture department. You really take some phenomenal pictures now! I am definitely going to start trying out some of your tips. 🙂

  3. Sadly, I defiantly have those early posts with dreadful photos. The industry has changed so much as to what is acceptable too. I think the key is to keep learning about blog photography every day.

  4. These are great tips. My husband bought me a new camera – for blogging and life in general – but all the steps and rules and modes and whatnot overwhelm me. When I try to stage photos, they just fall short. Every once in a while, I land one I’m really happy with. I think it’s about taking more pictures and trying different things. If I learn to cook, maybe I can learn to photograph the food better. LOL Thanks for sharing!

  5. It really is crazy to look back at our first recipe pictures!! These are great tips I love to shoot outside as well.

  6. Thank you for all of these great tips!! I need all the help I can get when it comes to taking pictures!

  7. I did the same thing with my blog… I sized the photos to fit the width. I changed my theme and had the same problem. Now I make mine about 1000px wide and hope that I never have a blog wider than that 🙂

    I really like the 3-minute photo fix tutorial. Very helpful.

  8. I used to sell items on eBay before blogging, and learned how to take pictures of my items to sell them. When I started blogging, I was using those same techniques. Unfortunately, it’s NOT the same idea, and I’ve had to learn a lot (and still have a long way to go). We invested in a DSLR this year, so I will definitely be using some of your tips as I learn!

  9. Learning how to edit your photos is super important. Great photos can really make or break a post.

  10. Jennifer Williams says:

    Great tips. I still do the 600 for sizing and will be changing that. I would love to take a good online photography course, I can use all the help I can get.

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