Photography Tips For Fashion Bloggers

Besides following everything about photography on the web, I also spend many hours to scroll on fashion (and beauty) blogs to see all their beautiful pictures. But at the other side, I also see there are new bloggers who probably like to read some photography tips. For these bloggers without a firm knowledge of photography it seems difficult to match with todays high standard of quality. Don’t worry, just read these 10 quick tips and probably you may look different to your camera!

At the moment I’m the in-house photographer for Chapter Friday, a successful fashion blog with business tips for go-getter girls. Together with my own experience in fashion photography, I wrote this simple list for you. Always try to find your unique style and people will return more often to your blog to see all your beautiful pictures!

EQUIPMENT

For my blog and travels I use the Olympus PEN E-PL7. This is a compact system camera made from premium metal with a leather-look and eye-catching grip. The perfectly slim size makes it easy to carry this camera always and everywhere. (Don’t miss any spontaneous moment anymore!) Personally I don’t like to walk with a heavy DSLR all day long, so this a great solution. A nice feature on the PEN is the WiFi feature to connect with my smartphone. It is easy to transfer the photos straight on to my phone. Hey super quality Instagram and Facebook pics! And last but not least, I also fell in love with the white retro design. Also remember to invest in a good lens, for professional work I do not use the kit lens. For example, quite often I use the Olympus 25mm f/1.8 (what is equivalent to 50mm). The ‘f’ number (called: aperture) is very important. Good lenses will have a low aperture number! More about this in the next point or in this post.

CAMERA SETTINGS

It is very easy to take pictures on automatic, but make yourself a pro and go manual! See what the different technical options can do with your picture. Likely you want pics with a blurry background. The only way to achieve this, is to play with the depth of field. Go for a wide lens opening, this means a low number of the aperture (for example f/1.4,  f/1.8,  f/2.0,  f/2.8). Make sure to put the point of focus on your model or object and, hello blurry background! Good to know: small aperture = less in focus, and a larger aperture = more in focus. Now let’s talk about ISO. Keep the ISO number as low as possible (100 or 200) if you want to avoid noise, although today’s cameras can handle a higher ISO value pretty good. The shutter speed must be at least 1/125 for moving objects, otherwise you will notice a disturbing movement in your picture. (Or use a tripod.)

LOCATION/BACKGROUND

It’s important to pick your location and background with care. Go outside and try to find a nice wall, a park or a street and write this down so you’ll always know a location when you need to make new pictures! I prefer to choose a background without too many distractions; no graffiti, not too crowded and not too many colours. But, this depends on your style! Figure out what will work best for you and your concept.

LIGHT

Natural light is a very powerful and free tool for every photographer. I think it’s very important to know how to work with this light source because this can improve your photography without spending too much money. Before you go shooting, be sure to know what light fits your concept. If you want to use diffused light, try to find a cloudy day to organise your shoot or avoid the midday sun in the summer. I wrote a post with useful tips about natural light here!

STYLE

Make sure to find your own style in photography, do you like to have very light and clean pictures or maybe you the opposite. Find your style and stick to it. It’s all about consistency!

COMPOSITION

If you or your model want to look a bit taller, shoot from a lower angle. Also, don’t forget to keep moving, maybe you’ll see a better angle if you go a bit more to the left. Open your eyes and experiment! This is also good to remember when you make product shots, put all products next to each other or try something more creative.

FRAME

Choose your frame very well. When you’re making outfit pics, you are probably thinking of full body shots. But also make a cool detail shot of your accessories or make a portrait of the flawless make-up.

EDITING

Of course you made a beautiful image, but keep in mind that great editing will let you complete the mood or style. Maybe the picture needs some extra contrast or brightness? You can also use filters or Photoshop actions to achieve the same style of edit every time again. The same filter will also create consistency in your posts.

SHARE

Made a nice shot? Share on your social media and blog in a big enough size so everyone can see your work!

HAVE FUN

Don’t get to serious, and never forget because photography + fashion = fun. And, unexpected and spontaneous shots are the best!

That’s it for now! I hope you learned a little bit. Looking forward to read your comments and if you have any request for upcoming articles in these photography tips series, don’t forget to tell them!

Read the other Photography Tips posts here.

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