How I Upped My Photography Game On My Blog and Instagram?

Hey beaut's!

Photography is something I absolutely love and the one new years resolution I had this year was to play around more with my photography skills, but without spending a fortune on a fancy pants camera with a million pricey lenses. I feel like recently (without blowing my own trumpet) my photography is improving and this makes me happy, I feel like I'm understanding more about how I want my pictures to look before I take them and making the best out of what I've got and I'm pretty chuffed with the results at the moment, so I thought I would share all about what I use to achieve the pictures that I'm super happy with. 

Camera
As I just mentioned it isn't all about spending an absolute fortune on a fancy camera, of course you want your pictures to be clear and great in quality but you can find a lot cheaper camera options out there and even use your phone. Most (90%) of my Instagram photo's are taken on my iPhone 6s, yup that right beaut's my iPhone, the pictures are clear and if you have a room with a big window that lets lots of natural light in like I do in my lounge then your laughing, good natural lighting is the key. I do have a Canon IXUS 155 Camera that I got a few years ago when it was in the Curry's sale for £70.00 and I take all my blog photo's on it, this teamed with natural lighting creates the perfect pictures for my blog. Sometimes with a cheaper camera it's all about playing with the settings, trust me some settings in your camera can really make all the difference, I tried all the settings out in full on mine until I was completely happy, so don't be afraid to press buttons and try new things on your camera because you might come up with something quite genius. The setting that I love to use the most is brightness, whacking the brightness up on my Instagram photos and on my camera makes a huge improvement, so if you'd don't already I'd highly suggest giving that a whirl. When I'm actually taking my photo's whether it be on my camera or iPhone I always stand directly above my flat lay, this way you can fit so much in and your photos stay looking the same and in formation at all times.

Photography Space
As I'm a blogger most of my photography is taken in my house and consists of flat lay after flat lay, to do this I have a small white table that we already had in our house anyway, again you don't need to spend a fortune, you can use your dressing table, dining table, kitchen work top or even the floor. You may have noticed that recently the background of my photo's aren't white yet I have a white table, well.... the secret is to go to your local DIY shop and stock up on wallpaper samples (which are totally free by the way), this is what I did and now I lay my wallpaper down on my table and hey presto you have a pretty background. What I love about the wallpaper is you can literally lay it anywhere, the floor can literally become your table and no one would ever know, well unless your reading this of course he he. You can even buy tile samples for a couple of pounds if your looking for a marble background, my local DIY store doesn't do this but I know a lot of other shops do so this is another way of getting a 'blogger esk' background for a couple of pounds. I've also found that the pound shop is great for seasonal back rounds, my latest Valentines posts literally have valentines wrapping paper and tissue paper in them, I got a whole packet for £1.00, so it's definitely worth checking out your local pound shops too. 

Props
Filling empty spaces or gaps around your flat lays can make such a difference, this is something I only started doing around September last year and I noticed that not only did it look so much better but my feedback and engagement grew dramatically. I generally use things around my house like candles, magazines, flowers and cute notebooks. During autumn I used leaves, pine cones, scarves, fairy lights and cinnamon sticks, and then at Christmas I just used my Christmas decorations and baubles that I had. Other things I like doing are when I'm taking beauty photographs I might use other makeup products to fill spaces, such as if I'm taking a photo of an eyeshadow palette I might place down a few eyeshadow brushes to fill some space, or if I'm taking a photo of a foundation I could use a foundation brush or two and a beauty blender, these added extras make all the difference and really do complete your photo's. 

And there you have it beaut's, its all about working with what you've got and making the best out of it. I really hope this helped some of you out and if you have any tips of tricks that can help me improve further I'd love to know!

nopin

5 comments

  1. I take pretty much all of my blog photos on my iPhone too! And wallpaper samples are such a godsend. I wish I had picked some up so much earlier in my blogging life haha! xx

    Jessie | allthingsbeautiful-x

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  2. I only found out flatlays existed a few months ago! I just thought everyone had really nice table tops. Thanx for the tips xx

    www.thatsjustspiffy.com

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  3. This helped me so much, i never thought about getting wallpaper for backgrounds.

    Great post lovely xx

    amyelizabethporter.blogspot.com

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  4. Thank you for the tips, I do have a good camera/iphone but I think my pictures are missing stuff you mentioned such as candles :)

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  5. That wallpaper type is brilliant, thank you 😊

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Thank you so much for taking the time to look at my little blog!!! Reading all your comments really does put a smile on my face and makes my day everytime. I aim to reply to to all comments as soon as possible, if you do wish to speak to me more directly feel free to email me at haysparkle1@gmail.com

Thank you girlie's!!
xXx Hayley xXx