Photography is a big part of blogging if you’re in any kind of creative niche.  Any blogger who is using photos to demonstrate a crafting or sewing technique wants to present the best photos possible, which is why brushing up on basic photography skills is so very important.  If you want to have a great looking blog you need great photos, right?  We’ve all visited blogs with dimly lit, out of focus, or tiny photos.  The posts are hard to get hooked into.  Tutorials with amateurish photos are not going to get a lot of views.  Let’s face it… only the beautiful photos get pinned, and we all want our photos to make it to Pinterest!  Pinterest is my #1 traffic referrer to The Southern Institute, hands down!  I’m not saying that I have the best photos out there, far from it, but I have done quite a bit of reading and have invested in a decent camera… I even took a photography class way back before I was blogging.  Before blogs were even on the scene, for that matter!  Now there is a resource that you can use at home to help you better your photography skills and your blog!

Photography for Bloggers by Vanessa Hewell at lbg studio is a great resource for the beginner photographer, and I love having it as a reference and refresher for my slightly more advanced that beginner photography skills.  What you receive when you purchase Photography for Bloggers is a 42 page pdf file that is available for instant download (you need to have Adobe Reader installed on your computer).  The books is not a basic primer on the functions of your dslr camera (you need to read your camera’s manual for that), although it does touch on iso, shutter speed, aperture, and metering.  The bulk of the book focuses on things that will be helpful to the blogger, such as lighting and composition, and staging photos.

The book shares a lot of great tips and information about shooting in direct sunlight and open shade, which is something that I find tricky at times.  It also does a great job of helping the reader see the importance of photo composition and how it can take a photo from just okay to fabulous.

My favorite part of the book was all of the tips of setting up a little home studio.  Vanessa share a list of supplies that are good to have on hand in your house and how to use them to get your best photos.

I have always kept a white board on hand to use as a back drop for photos, but after reading this book I tried using it as a light deflector when I took this photo for my Handmade Charlotte Post.  You can see a shadow to the left of the “before” picture, when I was not using the board as a deflector.  I took this photo in our bathroom where there is a window to the right, casting a shadow to the left.  In the “after” picture I am holding the white board to the left of the embroidery hoop to reflect the light that is coming through the window back towards the hoop.  The shadow is gone!

With a white board that I already had I was able to create a more professional looking photograph!  I’ve instantly improved my photography skills and my blog, thanks to Photography for Bloggers!  Now I’m itching to buy a backdrop stand and some papers.

Would you like to advance your photography skills and improve your blog?  Maybe you don’t have a blog but you love to take photos of your children.  Vanessa would like to giveaway a pdf copy of Photography for Bloggers (retail value $18) to one Southern Institute reader.  Just enter through the Rafflecopter widget below before the end of Friday!  Many thanks to Vanessa of lbg studio for the generous giveaway.

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a Rafflecopter giveaway