The Evolution Of My Blog Photography

Over the course of the Christmas and New Year period, a lot of bloggers were sharing what their blog photographs once looked like compared to now. I, of course, joined in and I was delighted to see how much I've improved, so today I thought I'd share with you the evolution of my blog photographs and some of my top tips to improve. 

I've been blogging for just over two years now and this was one of my first images I ever took. Back then I was very much into focusing a post on just one product, using the flash religiously and using very little editing to help brighten my image. Although it's not the best, I have continued to use the same camera throughout and, despite a change in lens, I think you can still see the depth of field in this image; something that I've carried on throughout my blogging journey. 

2015 was the year that I really fell in love with my blog and wanted to improve every aspect of it. Although I hadn't really found my feet in blogging, by the end of the year I had been nominated and won the award for "best up and coming beauty blog" which definitely helped inspire me to continue to improve and get better. In terms of photography, I was still very much relying on using the same settings, but I could slowly see a difference despite getting happy with over exposure from time to time. I can't believe that the above and below image were taken with the exact same camera in the exact same spot, I just learnt how to use my camera better! 

At the end of 2015 I started to change the angles from which I photographed, but it was in 2016 that I started to focus more on photographing in portrait to capture more products, as well as use different props to make the images interesting. I came on leaps and bounds with my photography last year andI saw continuous improvement throughout, which inspired me to take my blog further in September. At the start of the year I was still playing with my usual Canon 600D, but had a new lens- the 50mm- to turn my hand to, so by end of the year I feel like I have had a lot of practice to get the high quality photographs that I want to go along with my content. 

The L'Oreal Foundation was shot during May, which is probably one of my favourite shots, but I still struggled with editing and finding a balance of whether an image is under or over exposed, whereas the bottom image was photographed in December and I think it shows each product well, but keeps the photograph aesthetically pleasing. I'm sure this time next year I'll be slating it though, stating all the things I've improved on since then. 

Although we're only a few days into January, I can already tell that this is the year I'm going to really push myself, creating photographs that will hopefully make everyone swoon. I hope that my photographs are quite recognisable and have been from day one, I like using a wide range of blog props and backgrounds as experimenting is all part of the process! Here are my simple top tips on how to improve: 

- If it's a good, light day, snap away. If you get as many photographs as you can then you will be stocked up for a good few blog posts 

- Experiment. If you're photographing on your phone, practice makes perfect and if you're snapping away using as DSLR, I couldn't recommend getting to know your manual settings well enough. Shutter speed, ISO and depth of field are definitely the three main ones to get your head around. 

- If it's bad lighting, try shooting from the side - this can hide a magnitude of sins and help to create a really dreamy soft focus background. If you're shooting a flatlay, why not switch up your composition and backgrounds, incorporate cushions, books or blankets to add texture to your images too. 
- If you often over expose your images, why not switch up your background and opt for another colour besides white. I really like using my rose gold top as a background at the moment as it's the perfect background no matter the weather. 

Have your photographs improved over the time you've been blogging?