How I Take & Edit My Blog Photography!

 Hey Beauties! After spending what seems like forever trying to find the best way to take my blog photography I finally feel like I've landed on a system that works for all my needs. I wanted something that was very inexpensive and that wasn't going to cost a fortune to buy and use. I also wanted something that would work in the area that I currently have for doing my blog work (aka my desk) and finally I wanted something that would produce high quality photos that not only I would like but my viewers, readers and followers would really enjoy coming to my blog and looking at. First I'll talk a little bit about my 'vanity' and photography set up (seen in the picture above) I currently use a desk that was from Wal-Mart that actually was an 'l-shaped' desk but I got rid of the one side so it fit in my room better. I then use two clamp desk lights from a local hardware store and they cost about $8 each and then for in them I use 'Soft White' 100 watt light bulbs, its best to use Soft White bulbs as this will give your images a more natural look than if you were to use regular bulbs with the yellow hue to them. I then place one of the lamps on the back of my desk and one above my desk so that the shadows are limited in my photos and for the backdrop of my images I use just a booklet of scrapbook paper that I purchased at Wal-Mart for under $10! See inexpensive!

So that's just my basic step up and what I currently use to take ALL of my photography for my blog, tumblr and instagram photos. However sometimes my photos don't come out the greatest because I do have a window right above my desk area, so I do find that I have to edit my images slightly and I'll show you and give you some tips and tricks on how I best edit my images to work for Bloggers. I currently use Photoshop CS6 Extended to edit all of my photos and sometimes you can find this online for free, but its best to download a trial version and get used to it before you decide to buy the full version! I've been playing around in Photoshop for about ten years now and I'm going to do a QUICK overview of how I edit my photos using that program. Am I in no way trying to say this is the best program or way, because photo editing is all about what you like and how you take your photos! This is just the way that has worked for me. If you have any further questions about Photoshop or my editing process you are more than welcome to contact me! Lets begin:

The image below on the left is the original photo that was taken under my desk lamps and the image on the right is the edited version of the photo. I always crop my photos to the size that I wish them to be so there is no extra background that isn't needed in my images. For this image below I sharpen the image on the right to make it a little more crisp, I then adjusted the 'Selective Color Layer' and increased how dark the black color was on the entire photo. I also added a 'Vibrance Layer' which allowed be to increase the overall pigmentation of the photo making the colors appear more true to what they are - I tend to do this with many of my photos because the camera I use tends to dull the colors a bit. I also then added some 'Brightness and Contract' just to make the image more visually appealing and so that you were able to see everything in the photo. This is an example of a simple edit that I do, sometimes my edits can get more complicated depending on how the images turn out after taking them.

The image on the left was taken on my desk in my photo taking set up but was taken without the desk lamps on and was taken on a sunny bright day. The photo on the right is the same exact photo taken with the desk lamps switched on and slightly edited like the image above. The small edits that were made to the right image was adjusting the black shades to be more black and then slightly adjusting the vibrance of the image and of course the brightness and contrast. I wanted to be able to show you guys how having a lighting system can really help your images stand out and become more clear on your blog. While the image on the right is still okay, your able to see the products and brand name and such things but you aren't able to see the true natural colors of the products whereas on the right you can see all the images including the brand names and the true color of this products.

If there is one thing I can tell you from my learning experience about blog photography is this: taking photos outside is life saver and this how I used to take my photos because this produces really simple natural lighting and is super easy to edit the items you want to once its in Photoshop. My final thing to tell you is invest in Photoshop or a photo editing tool. Yes, sometimes your photos may come out perfect and you may not require any editing but most of the time, lets be honest, photos are not 100% and you are allowed to edit them and its okay to do so. If you don't have the money to purchase Photoshop, there are other editing tools such as the site picmonkey which many people also use! I know this post has been crazy long but I really wanted to be able to show you that running a blog and taking blog photography doesn't have to be a huge expense on top of purchasing products for on your blog. Blogging for me is a hobby, its not something I get paid to do or something that I plan to get paid to do. Its something for me to sit down at night, unwind and write about makeup and beauty and really show you all my passion. In running my blog yes it has become a lot of hard work and its time consuming but taking your blog photography should be the simplest part of the whole process and with a little bit of money and a lot of passion you can create truly beautiful photography and art for your blog!

How do you take your blog photography? What are your tips and tricks?