How to Take Your Own Beautiful Blog Post Photos

Bloggers usually think of themselves as writers—not photographers. But in the current online environment, images have a tremendous ability to attract an audience and engage readers. That’s why bloggers need to learn how to take blog post photos. Today, freelance writer and ghostwriter Sanjay Bojan (@sanjaybojan) provides some tips to help you begin taking beautiful photos for your blog.

Gone are the days when bloggers could mesmerize—and retain—readers by merely playing with words, showing off writing talent, and coming up with creative ideas. Today, successful bloggers also must know how to use photographs and images to build audience and increase engagement. Not only that, they must become photographers.

That means you need to learn another skill: photography.

It will do your blogging career a world of good if you learn photography or, at the least, how to use images in your posts. In the days of Pinterests and Instagram, and at a time when digital cameras are getting more and more affordable, basic photography skills have become mandatory.

Why Bloggers Must Become Photographers

Here are more reasons why bloggers should start learning photography. You should develop photography skills to:

1. Save money on buying expensive stock images.
2. Snap your own super-creative and apt images that support your points.
3. Create never-seen-before images that stay in your audiences’ memories longer. (Stock images are usually used over and over again and lack freshness.)
4. Increase your chances of creating an emotional connection with your audience as you shoot pictures that capture specific emotions or ideas you want to express.
5. Bring more attention to your blog.
6. Make you a better and more creative blogger.

Learning photography isn’t rocket science. It’s easy. It doesn’t cost you much. An affordable digital camera or even a smartphone with a good camera can do the job for you and won’t break the bank.

With that in mind, here are some simple ideas to help you shoot better photographs.

1. Start by Trying Close-up Photos

Time and again, it has been proven that people love close-up photographs, especially the ones that provide lots of detail.

So why not attempt those types of shots first?

Cover up the entire frame with the subject you want to capture. Doing so creates an attention-grabbing photo and also avoids blurriness.

Get close physically and avoid the “zoom” option. (No, photography is not for lazy people). Zooming can reduce the quality of your image significantly.

There are so many other tricks you can master to become a good close-up photographer. Check out the posts at professional blogger Darren Rowse’s site for photographers, www.digital-photography-school.com/.

2. Use the “Rule of Thirds” to Shoot Better Photos

This is a simple but very effective method for framing and snapping better photos. Modern smartphones and cameras let you use the “grid” option to divide the frame into thirds, horizontally as well as vertically. This is extremely useful when you want to align the object in certain intersections and lines and improve the quality of the image.

3. Keep the Light Factor in Mind

Light plays a very important role in the world of photography. As a beginner, you should be looking for a well-lit area that is not too glaring. Avoid any source of bright light in the frame area. If you have to shoot scenes in the dark, make sure you find a source of continuous illumination. Look for soft and diffused light that will not disrupt the quality of your picture.

There are tons of resources online to educate you on photography lighting.

4. Experiment with Perspective

This technique can be extremely handy when you want to shoot unique stills for your blog. Most photographs are shot at eye-levels; as a result, they might lack variation. It’s easy to switch perspective to bring interesting results to your images. Try shooting from below or above the object to achieve significant differences.

Editing Your Images

Taking a decent photograph is one thing, and editing it is another. If you are good at editing your own photos, the skill helps you go a long way as a blogger. There are many simple ways to tweak your photographs to improve quality before you uploaded it to your blog. To make this taks easier, there are tons of photo-editing apps for your smartphones as well as your computers.

Stop Outsourcing

Hiring people that have skills you lack can be one of the biggest problems when you start a blog. For amateurs, you will need a professional web developer, web designer, SEO analyst, and even an editor or proofreader. Plus, you might need a photographer.

But maybe not.

You are a gifted writer, yet you spend so much money trying to get your blog just right. Why burn a hole in your pocket when you can most of these skills—including provide images for your posts—yourself. You can master most blogging tasks with a little practice. You don’t necessarily need anyone to help—especially when it comes to photography.

Stop outsourcing or purchasing photos and, instead, train yourself to be the perfect photographer for your blog.

Do you take your own blog post photos? Tell me your tips in a comment below.

About the Author

Sanjay Bojan is a blogger and researcher who contributes on various high profile sites including Forbes, Huffington Post, and TechCrunch. For writing wok and brand promotion, you can contact him at sanjay.bojan2@gmail.com.

Image copyright: armoluk / Pixabay.com