Blogging Day 9 | Taking Great Photos for Your Blog

Photography is such a huge part of blogging. It can help further your story, create emotion and feeling, and make any post more beautiful. It’s such an important part, in fact, I’ve dedicated two days to photography. (Plus, I have lots of friends who take AH-mazing photos.) Today, Natalie Chiles, professional photographer and blogger, is sharing her tips and how to for shooting photos with your DSLR. Read on to find out why you should switch from Auto to Manual mode to create a greater impact. And come back tomorrow for Ashley of It’s Fitting for more photography awesomeness.

I’m so excited to be a part of Anna’s 30 Days of Blogging series. Over the last six years I’ve gone from “former-teacher-mom-blogger-with-no-clue” to “woman-knee-deep-in-setting-up-her-new-website-for-her-photography-business.” (Sidenote: If you visit my site right now you won’t get too far. Like Anna, I’m going through a pretty major branding and site overhaul. Hope you come back and visit me when I’m all set up!)

A big turning point for me in my blogging history came about two-and-a-half years ago.

I realized that my pictures sucked.

Not long after that realization I had a (used and old) DSLR in my hands, took a class, and suddenly I went from wanting to blog to wanting to photograph babies, kids, families and….well, anything, really.

Great photos can make someone grab their crafty supplies and get to work

salivate due to awesome food placement,

cry because that baby is so dang adorable,

or laugh out loud because the expression is priceless.

Great pictures can change people, and they can change your blog, too.

So, what do you need to take great photos? I wish I could write a book for you within this post about how to take photos, but it’s truly a personal journey, and something you have to find your way to on your own. However, these are some steps I would take. Some people will disagree, I’m sure, but for me, these things are a must if you want to use pictures to draw in and hook your readers.

Step 1: Get a good camera, and preferably a DSLR, or at least something that gives you control of your images outside of auto mode. Yes, there are great point-and-shoot cameras out there. I do not deny it. But if you truly want stellar photos a point-and-shoot isn’t going to cut it. DSLR cameras put you in control.

Step 2: Once you have a camera, assuming you don’t have a clue what to do, don’t read the manual. That’s right. Put it away. For starters, you’ll fall asleep or cry trying to read it, and unless you have a photographic memory yourself, you won’t remember half the stuff you read, let alone understand it enough to put it into practice. You can reference it later once you know better what to do.

So what should you do instead? Get thee to a class.

Go to a community college, local camera store, or ask a friend who takes pics to teach you (and pay them), or something. Anything. Have someone show you in person how to use your camera OUTSIDE of “auto” mode. You can take great pics in auto, but they won’t be awesome. We’re going for awesome, here, folks.

Step 3: Get some photo editing software. Make sure you can not only edit the photos, but also optimize them so you can get great SEO from your photos. (Check out Steph Calvert’s awesome tips on how to increase your blog traffic via SEO here.) I instantly fell in love with Lightroom, but there are plenty of options out there. Do your research and pick one that works with your brain.

Step 4: Take a boat-load of pictures. Some of them will stink. You’ll get frustrated. You’ll want to give up. Keep taking pictures.

Step 5: Take moments to look at light. Once you start taking pictures you will start seeing that light can be your best friend or your biggest enemy. Learn how to use it.

To wrap up, I want to show you a few shots, all taken with the same camera and lens, but in a few different modes. Hopefully it will “hook” you and help you see the difference! The biggest difference to note, however, is that a DSLR camera will get you great photos, and it’s a worthy investment for your blog and your non-blog life as well. (I wish I could show you the same shots with a point-and-shoot, but alas, my point-and-shoot is on year 3 of a very long nap, and the battery is currently uncharged.)

For the purposes of this little exercise, let’s assume I’m writing a post about lemonade, and I want to showcase a nice photo of a lemon on my tree in my front yard. I’m using a fixed 35mm lens, so it doesn’t zoom. I’m also shooting RAW files, which means the camera takes in as much info as possible for each photo, which makes it possible to do way more with them during the editing process.

Auto mode is basically letting your camera do all the thinking for you.

Aperture Priority mode is like telling your camera that you want to control your depth of field or how much bokeh you want, and it takes care of everything else.

Manual mode means you do all the thinking. This also means if you screw up, it’s on you, not the camera, which can be daunting at first, but eventually you get the hang of it.

First I took this photo, in auto mode, and lo and behold the flash popped up! This is ridiculous because

a) I was outside

b) it was about 10:45 in the morning

c) it was not super cloudy

Starting over, I got closer to the tree and turned a bit more towards the sun, closed the flash, and tried again. This time the flash did not pop up, and I got this photo. You can see below the photo what the “stats” are. ISO is how sensitive the camera is to surrounding light, the “f” number is how wide the aperture is, and shutter speed is how fast the camera takes the photo. {These next three photos are “SOOC” which means they are unedited photos (Straight Out of Camera). I’ll show you below the difference a bit of editing can make!}

This next photo is taken in Aperture Priority. I opened up my lens, or made the aperture number lower-down to 2.0. This is as wide as my lens will go, which will give me a nice, blurry background.

Notice that the bokeh in this photo is much richer. See those blurry dots in the background. That is bokeh. I love me some bokeh!

Lastly, here is our Manual mode photo:

Take a look at the bokeh spots in this one. See how they are slightly rounder and more defined than the Aperture Priority spots? Small difference to some, but a huge one to me.

Now let’s take a look at these three photos again after editing. In Lightroom I adjusted a few things here and there, and cropped to enhance them a bit, but did not use any presets or filters- just a clean edit. They are in the same order, as well- Auto, Aperture Priority, then Manual.

I hope these photos show you that you can achieve so much with a DSLR camera, some education, and a lot of experimentation. Good luck on your blogging journey, and thanks to Anna for having me on her blog today!

SO exciting, right guys? I love my DSLR *almost* as much as my children, and Natalie’s advice is so fantastic for new shutter bugs or those of use who need a little refresher. I’m super excited for Natalie’s site, NatalieChiles.com to launch in January. Until then, be sure you’re following her on Pinterest and Instagram.