Domestically Blissful’s newest picture update is this Havarti Potato Soup – Doesn’t the picture on the right look way more appetizing than the one on the left?
So when I first started blogging I had no idea what I was doing in many regards – particularly when it came to good pictures.
If you are creating a blog that is more for yourself, your family, and a few friends I wouldn’t worry too much about picture details. However, if you are a perfectionist or are wanting to turn your blog into a professional platform for your ideas and creativity then you might want to look into special cameras and editing programs.
When I first started Domestically Blissful I had just recently graduated from UAB and received a Canon Rebel TS as a graduation present. I had no idea what I was doing. All of my pictures were taken in autofocus and were edited on Picasa. I didn’t start working with Lightroom until my birthday – February of this year. On a side note, some of you might remember that most of February were posts about relationships and other topics that didn’t require any new photos. My computer hadn’t been updated in ages and all of the programs on my computer were having technical difficulties. Luckily my birthday was right around the corner and I was able to get everything fixed by March.
So I definitely learned to keep everything up to date and that finding a great photo editing program can make a huge difference in how your pictures turn out. A lot of people debate between Lightroom and Photoshop and while I admit I have never used Photoshop I know from experience that Lightroom is incredible! Although Picasa was a free editing program you can clearly can see a difference between the pictures during my first 6 months of blogging and these last 6 months. Doesn’t the second picture of the Banana Bread below look so much more appetizing than the first???
Not only has using Lightroom positively affected my pictures, but also learning more about how to use my camera and how to take better pictures has led to a significant amount of my newer (and updated) posts being accepted on websites like FoodGawker, TasteSpotting, and CraftGawker. Not only that but sometimes other sites like Kitchn will pick up one of my recipes and share it on their site. This all leads to the most important aspect of having good pictures for your blog. When you have good pictures, your recipe, craft, ect will be shared more, and the more it is shared the larger an audience there will be looking at and following your blog. So one of the key goals of having good pictures is to increase your audience.
Roger has said in the past that “A good food picture is one where you can taste the flavor with your eyes” – and I completely agree, which is why this motto has become one of my goals for my blog.
So even though this article is about how important good pictures are to your blog I thought I would leave you with 4 quick tips to help you along on your journey.
1. Always Use Pictures
It doesn’t matter what your article is about, if it doesn’t have a picture somewhere in the post you will be keeping your blog from growing its audience. Not only do people like having a visual – and yes it should be related to the article in some way – it can be nice to brake up an article with a few pictures. Also, with Pinterest taking over the world, if you don’t have a picture your post will be unpinnable – thus it can’t be shared with the world hundreds if not thousands of times. Many if not most blogs get a majority of their views from Pinterest and even if you don’t people still like to see and share articles on social media that have pictures along with the link.
2. Good Lighting
I have learned that good natural lighting can in no way be substituted for that of a kitchen light, which might seem like a no-brainer to a photography guru, but for people like me who are still learning about photography this was something that had to be learned – through trial and error unfortunately.
3. Learn from Others
Another important photography technic I have learned this last year is that angles and composition are important when taking pictures. I spent a lot of time just looking at pictures that had been accepted on the above mentioned sites to get a better understanding of what they were looking for in order to better “set the scene” and take well angled and composed photos.
4. Don’t Give Up
When I look back at older posts all I want to do is redo them – which btw I am working on – and in the moment I remember being frustrated because I wasn’t getting the results I wanted. Not only was I still learning how to use my camera, but I also didn’t have the right tools to help me out. Don’t give up or hold off on blogging just because you feel your photos aren’t good enough. Keep working at it and with time and practice you will get it right. You can always go back and retake your pictures – like I am – but in the meantime your recipes will be getting out there and you will be building your audience.
Wanna read more? Check out Domestically Blissful’s other blogging tips here.
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