Top 5 Photo Tips for Lifestyle Bloggers

Great photography is vital to lifestyle bloggers who want to stand out and get results. Impactful images get increased engagement on your posts, as well as attracting new followers. Here are my top five tips for great photos.

Location
Pick a location that compliments the theme of your blog and at the same time provides you with a variety of scenes within a short distance from each other. That way you can capture various different looks, quickly, building a library of stock images to use for future posts.

My aim is 2 hours shooting, 5 different locations and looks with approximately 100 images

(Stay tuned for my upcoming post on my favourite locations.)

These were all taken in the same block for fashion blogger, Kirsty, With Love..

Lighting
Always the key to any good photography is lighting. Whether you manipulate the natural elements or use lighting equipment to achieve your look, it should match your style.

For a more fashion look, use flash equipment and for a softer feel, use shade or an overcast day. To really make an image pop, use a combination of both as I have done in my images with Kirsty.

For this image I used my flash (with a bit of help from Daniel)

Detail Shots

These are the close up shots of items you are describing in your post. For Kirsty, these were earrings, necklaces, sunglasses, shoes, and handbags. By including credits and hashtags for these items you will have a higher chance of "shares" and "likes" from these companies and people that follow them.

Collaboration
As well as your photographer, you can include many other businesses in your shoot. This benefits them because they receive photos to use on their own social media platforms. Plus by giving them credit, they are exposed to your audience. Likewise, you are exposed to their audience when they post the pics plus you get the use of their products for your shoot.  Be sure to give these businesses credit when posting your photos and ask them to do the same for you.

For this shoot we had Melody provide the makeup and Cantabulous Creations provide some of the accessories. 



Good Equipment
My favourite lens for portrait lifestyle photography is definitely the Canon 70-200mm f2.8 lens. It allows you to be at a comfortable distance and also gives you that lovely blur in the background. Yes they are expensive to buy but you can rent them for $85 per month.

For portable lighting, I love my Godox AD200 pocket flash. It is very reasonably priced and comes with a range of cool accessories. Can also be rented for $22 per month.

I like the super sharp 85mm for the close ups. It really makes the products pop in the image.

That's it for now. Stay tuned for other tips and locations coming up. If you have any questions or any tips of your own, please feel free to share.

About The Author

Nina Beilby is a professional photographer and photography educator based in Chatswood, Sydney, Australia. You can see more of her work at www.ninabeilby.com.au. 

Social Media:  Facebook |  Twitter  |  LinkedIn  |  Instagram

Thanks for visiting!