In the past few days I was thinking of writing a different and interesting article, not the usual beauty reviews you often see here. As if God heard my dilemma, a while ago, a good friend during an event told me that there was a certain comment against me on youtube and she showed it to me.
Nakakaloka ka namen teh.. kalma lang :)) hehe
Thank you for that comment, Tara . Without it, I won't have time to reevaluate my photos because personally I am really sort of a perfectionist on this area. Your comments also paved the way for me to come up with this blog post.
Admittedly, I would often get praises and some people, like Tara, would criticize my photos because for them it seemed/looked so edited. So what's the buzz with my photos nga ba? hehe
Thus, after reading Tara's comment, I came to realize that its a good way to help new bloggers and wannabe bloggers in their blog. :) One of the best way to draw readers - take good pictures! :) Oh, you could also gain instagram followers too.. hehe :)
So, here are my simple tips on how to take good photos for you blog and how to make them better :
1. Make sure you have good lighting. It does not matter if you have an 8mp or less camera but with good lighting you can get the most amazing pictures. I bought two lamps with fluorescent bulbs but nothing beats natural light. I only take pictures until 3-4 pm.. at 5 pm my pictures would turn out dim and my camera would not even capture the products and swatches properly.
2. Think of ways on how do you want to present your photos. If you want readers to mainly focus on the product or swatches, just use a white background. I use white folder btw and it works perfectly fine. Otherwise, you can use artistic backdrops like other bloggers and photographic set ups like those in a magazine lay out.
3. Get a camera that suits your style. You can actually do a lot with a digicam. I honestly don't know why I got a dslr. A digicam is perfect for blogging, you can bring it to events and it has everything you need from flash to zoom lens. . For dslr, you need certain lens to achieve the photo that you want. For example, my 50mm prime lens can't be used to capture fine details, thus I just use my dslr for face shots or other product shots. My digicam, however, is very well loved and abused at the same time. It can take photos of my lashes even my iris because it has 30x zoom. So when you buy your camera for blogging, think of the things you need, will I take swatches or will I do food blogging? List down the pros and cons. Do not be impulsive like me. I got a dslr thinking it will make my photos better but it turned out that I am fine with a digicam after all.
4. Like a lover, make sure you know your camera well. :) Discover your camera settings. Do not be afraid to turn that dial and change from one setting to the other. You will find your favorite setting and you will learn what setting to use in different circumstances.
5. Take as many shots as you can at different angles. As for me, I can spend my entire weekend morning taking photos. I can take 200-500 shots depending on the volume of product I take pictures of. You will see that the more photos you take, the more options you have. You can even see that taking a palette with this angle is better or otherwise.
6. Lastly, make your photos better if you need to. What I usually do if my photos are really good is that I just resize and put watermark on it (best photos are taken during summer time because natural lighting is extra bright). Otherwise, I tweak photos to show the real life imagery of a product never to tamper or make it appear that the product is better. For example I never tweak pictures to say to my readers - hey, look! this foundation made me look flawless or my lip swatches are too pigmented when in real life it isn't. Who am I fooling? My readers, the reason why this blog is still up and running? Sometimes, I even think that brands do not want to contact me because I drop brand names and products that are not so worth my readers' penny.
By the way, before I was using photoescape, but last year I learned that a website like picnic is once again up and running. I use picmonkey (www.picmoneky.com).
Sometime a photo can look too yellow or too bland, thus, when I am blogging I see to it that swatches are what it looks like on photos. Sometimes, red on my lips, look orange picture. You get what I mean?Picmonkey is very easy to use not like photoshop with many alien buttons and applications. In Picmonkey I just tweak highlights and shadows or at times, "colors' because as I have mentioned earlier actuals colors are not always captured in picture.
Oh here are some of my raw pictures straight from my camera.. as in literal na from my camera. hehe
Please do tell me if based from these set of photos if major overhaul was done or there is a huge difference with my before and after shots. I really welcome suggestions and comments. :)
My Makeup of the Day Post
My Ellana Minerals Foundation Post :)
ohhh.. I will be doing a wet method way of contouring post but I did not like the photos I took a while since I just experimented on it, so I will do a retake. :)
At the end of the day, you need to have a good photo as a base, otherwise even you are learned in photoshop or any other computer program, your pictures will not turn out good at all.
:)
Godbless everyone!
Nakakaloka ka namen teh.. kalma lang :)) hehe
Thank you for that comment, Tara . Without it, I won't have time to reevaluate my photos because personally I am really sort of a perfectionist on this area. Your comments also paved the way for me to come up with this blog post.
Admittedly, I would often get praises and some people, like Tara, would criticize my photos because for them it seemed/looked so edited. So what's the buzz with my photos nga ba? hehe
Thus, after reading Tara's comment, I came to realize that its a good way to help new bloggers and wannabe bloggers in their blog. :) One of the best way to draw readers - take good pictures! :) Oh, you could also gain instagram followers too.. hehe :)
So, here are my simple tips on how to take good photos for you blog and how to make them better :
1. Make sure you have good lighting. It does not matter if you have an 8mp or less camera but with good lighting you can get the most amazing pictures. I bought two lamps with fluorescent bulbs but nothing beats natural light. I only take pictures until 3-4 pm.. at 5 pm my pictures would turn out dim and my camera would not even capture the products and swatches properly.
2. Think of ways on how do you want to present your photos. If you want readers to mainly focus on the product or swatches, just use a white background. I use white folder btw and it works perfectly fine. Otherwise, you can use artistic backdrops like other bloggers and photographic set ups like those in a magazine lay out.
3. Get a camera that suits your style. You can actually do a lot with a digicam. I honestly don't know why I got a dslr. A digicam is perfect for blogging, you can bring it to events and it has everything you need from flash to zoom lens. . For dslr, you need certain lens to achieve the photo that you want. For example, my 50mm prime lens can't be used to capture fine details, thus I just use my dslr for face shots or other product shots. My digicam, however, is very well loved and abused at the same time. It can take photos of my lashes even my iris because it has 30x zoom. So when you buy your camera for blogging, think of the things you need, will I take swatches or will I do food blogging? List down the pros and cons. Do not be impulsive like me. I got a dslr thinking it will make my photos better but it turned out that I am fine with a digicam after all.
4. Like a lover, make sure you know your camera well. :) Discover your camera settings. Do not be afraid to turn that dial and change from one setting to the other. You will find your favorite setting and you will learn what setting to use in different circumstances.
5. Take as many shots as you can at different angles. As for me, I can spend my entire weekend morning taking photos. I can take 200-500 shots depending on the volume of product I take pictures of. You will see that the more photos you take, the more options you have. You can even see that taking a palette with this angle is better or otherwise.
6. Lastly, make your photos better if you need to. What I usually do if my photos are really good is that I just resize and put watermark on it (best photos are taken during summer time because natural lighting is extra bright). Otherwise, I tweak photos to show the real life imagery of a product never to tamper or make it appear that the product is better. For example I never tweak pictures to say to my readers - hey, look! this foundation made me look flawless or my lip swatches are too pigmented when in real life it isn't. Who am I fooling? My readers, the reason why this blog is still up and running? Sometimes, I even think that brands do not want to contact me because I drop brand names and products that are not so worth my readers' penny.
By the way, before I was using photoescape, but last year I learned that a website like picnic is once again up and running. I use picmonkey (www.picmoneky.com).
Sometime a photo can look too yellow or too bland, thus, when I am blogging I see to it that swatches are what it looks like on photos. Sometimes, red on my lips, look orange picture. You get what I mean?Picmonkey is very easy to use not like photoshop with many alien buttons and applications. In Picmonkey I just tweak highlights and shadows or at times, "colors' because as I have mentioned earlier actuals colors are not always captured in picture.
Oh here are some of my raw pictures straight from my camera.. as in literal na from my camera. hehe
Please do tell me if based from these set of photos if major overhaul was done or there is a huge difference with my before and after shots. I really welcome suggestions and comments. :)
My Makeup of the Day Post
My Ellana Minerals Foundation Post :)
ohhh.. I will be doing a wet method way of contouring post but I did not like the photos I took a while since I just experimented on it, so I will do a retake. :)
At the end of the day, you need to have a good photo as a base, otherwise even you are learned in photoshop or any other computer program, your pictures will not turn out good at all.
:)
Godbless everyone!
For product reviews, advertisement inquiry email me at mylucidintervals@gmail.com
Wrote by donnarence