We're coming up to three years, three years since I plucked up the courage and started my own blog. First crowned as xBeautyMagic and eventually changed to LizzieGines just last year, my blog has seen drastic changes and improvements throughout the years. Whilst the design of my blog and the content I've written over the years has grown a significant amount, one of the most apparent changes there for everyone to see is certainly the progression of my blog photos!
2014 
When I first started blogging I knew absolutely nothing about photography. Over the years I have managed to teach myself an incredible amount, but it was evident to see from my earlier posts just how little I actually knew when beginning. Back in January 2014, the camera I used was from my Samsung phone. The camera was in all honesty absolutely terrible, taking grainy and not to mention tiny photos; no way comparing to the decent cameras many of us can get on our phones nowadays! I also knew zilch about using natural lighting to improve the quality of my blog photos and the backgrounds I used were, well quite questionable to say the least.
As the year went on my photography seemed to improve. Although not anywhere near to the standard that I would deem acceptable on my blog now, I began using a much better digital camera and began to learn about the importance of natural lighting. I was also able to keep my photos focussed on the actual products themselves...I'm actually quite surprised at how blurred out the background is in that final image, but once again, a questionable background it is!
2015
2015 definitely saw a big improvement for my blog. I finally figured out that a great way for me to improve my photos was to use some large white card to pop my flat lays on (which I was also beginning to figure out how to do). Whilst this helped to both brighten up my images and make the products in question pop out significantly more, I still had some issues with my photography. Looking back, I found that when taking photos of said product, I would simply place that product(s) on my plain piece of card and then take a photo. No props, no decor, no detail whatsoever. Nothing. My photo were simply boring. And I know you should never compare yourself to other bloggers, but if I was to put my photos up against the vast majority of bloggers out there, then there's really nothing special about them, nothing to draw a single reader to my blog.
And lets not get me started on my photo editing skills. Whilst I had figured out that the best time to take photos was in prime sunlight, particularly in my conservatory, I still evidently steered clear of those times at some points and something would tend to go extremely wrong whilst editing photos, as shown by the purple hue in the second photo. Believe it or not, that photo was actually taken on my white card...yes, white! You can really notice the stark differences between that image and all of my other flat lays...I actually can't believe I ended up posting that!
2016
This was the year that something just drastically changed. Whilst I spent a large part of the year away from blogging, when I did eventually come back, I came back with a vengeance! Towards the start of my blogging year I was still taking relatively simply blog photos (with just the product in question there), but fast forward to December and I truly started to feel happy with how my photos were turning out. I was learning about the importance of using props in order to make a photo more eye-catching and interesting and have since been experimenting with different props throughout my photos.
All of my photos were now being taken with a DSLR too, which whilst it shouldn't be significantly important when taking blog photos, it definitely helped to improve the overall quality of them. I was also taking these photos in the best light at all times, keeping the ISO on my camera as low as possible to better the quality. And my photo editing saw improvements too. I was now adjusting with contrast, saturation and brightness, along with many other tools to further improve my photos and help them stand out significantly more.
And finally we get to 2017. Whilst this year has only just started it's safe to say that I have learnt a considerable amount in terms of taking photos. Most importantly I've realised that not all photos need to be flat lays and have since been experimenting with taking photos from down below and capturing them I guess from an angle (or however you could explain the photo above). Also by taking photos in this way, I've been able to focus on the particular products in question towards the front of my images, with a pretty blurred background in the back, adding a little more depth. I've also continued using different props and have been loving using fairy lights which not only add a little bit of light in the background, but look amazing when blurred out in the back of photos! Recently I have also discovered a photo editing app called Pixlr, and whilst I am susceptible to using PicMonkey for the vast majority of my photo editing, I have found the Pixlr helps greatly in improving the whiteness and brightness of my photos, making them clearer, crisper and more appealing to the eye!
Have you seen a drastic improvement in your blog photos? What would be your number one photography tip?
Lots of Love
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