Shooting and editing are my favorite things to work on in terms of blogging. If I could, I’d spend hours, every single night, just editing photos. There is just something incredibly rewarding, satisfying and… a little bit soothing about the entire process. Also, here’s a little secret: my Instagram and blog images never look all bright and pretty when I upload them to the computer. One of the best things you can do, as a beginner, is to understand how your camera works. Despite my love for bright photos, most of my images are actually on the dark side when imported to my computer, and that is because in order to get a sharp image, you sometimes, depending on your light source, have to sacrifice other things, such as brightness of your image. This post explains this relationship in detail. If you’re just getting familiar with Photoshop, YouTube can be your best friend here. There are so many amazing channels out there and so many great tutorials (Phlern is one of my personal favorites), there literally are hundreds of different ways to do things in Photoshop. In this post, I will focus on very simple and quick fixes that you can […]

The post Blog Tips: How to Fix a Bad Photo in Photoshop appeared first on Lifestyle Gleam.

Let’s be real- first impressions are everything. This includes your blog. Your photos are often what gets you noticed, and it’s what gets people to click on your posts, share them and like them. A huge portion of blog-related questions I get from you guys have to do with photography. The type of camera I use, lens, equipment, how I edit my photos, how I get them to look bright and sharp. I also know that photography is one of the categories I’ve been neglecting a bit, recently. Since I’ve been getting a lot of requests for more photography-related content, I thought that today I’d talk about some of my favorite photography tools. BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TOOLS + EQUIPMENT FOR BLOGGERS   Shot using a 50 mm lens: 1/500 sec; f/1.4; ISO 100 MY FAVORITE LENSES  Two questions I hear most often are: “how do you get your photos to look so bright?” and “how can I get that nice, blurry background?” One of my favorite lenses is a 50mm f/1.4 lens (you can also get a f/1.8 version, often called a “nifty-fifty” which is very lightweight and super affordable- it was my go-to lens for many, many years). If your budget […]

The post Best Photography Tools + Equipment for Blogging appeared first on Lifestyle Gleam.

First impressions are everything when it comes to running a blog or biz. Creating quality content is important, but usually, the first thing that will capture your audience is featuring bright, clear images. Photography is, without a doubt, one of my favorite things about blogging. Over the years a hobby turned into a passion, something that I love to continue to learn about. There are days though, where nothing goes right. You know exactly what you’re doing, but something is just off and your pictures don’t come out the way you want them to. Sometimes you have a great blog post written but just can’t find the time to take a few photos. I love keeping a bunch of pre-shot and pre-edited photos that would work with any of my lifestyle/blogging posts, just for those reasons. Maybe photography is something you’re still trying to figure out? Or, perhaps, you love to write, but photography just isn’t something that you’re into. If that’s the case, then styled stock photos can help you with creating a beautiful blog. 5 WAYS TO USE STYLED STOCK PHOTOS + FREE STYLED STOCK PHOTOS FOR YOUR BLOG   PINTEREST GRAPHICS One of the obvious ways to use […]

The post 5 Ways to use Stock Photos + 10 Free Styled Stock Photos for Your Blog appeared first on Lifestyle Gleam.

How to get the most out of your DSLR I’ve been blogging for nearly five years and when I started, there were many things I was clueless about. Photography was one of them. I actually owned a DSLR way before I started blogging- I just didn’t know how to use it. We called it “the big camera” and we’d bring it with us when going on vacation. Surprise, surprise, we only used in auto mode. When starting this blog, I knew that photography was going to play a huge part. I knew exactly how I wanted my images to look, I just didn’t know how to get there. I can’t tell you how frustrated I felt when I wasn’t getting the results I wanted. I thought that shooting in “auto” would solve all my problems. Well, it didn’t. If you own a DSLR, chances you have spent a nice chunk of your hard earned money on it, so it only makes sense that you’d want to make the best of it- shooting in auto definitely isn’t that. The first step to getting the most out of your DSLR? Understanding how it works. HOW TO GET THE BEST OUT OF YOUR […]

The post How to get the most out of your DSLR appeared first on Lifestyle Gleam.

If I’m being honest… there’s nothing *instant* about about my Instagram game. I know that a lot of you who are bloggers as well, can relate. You won’t find me using my phone taking pictures of anything other than some really… REALLY random shit… or my dog, or Mark sleeping. I’m creepy like that. Okay, so it’s mostly videos of him snoring which I collect as evidence, since he constantly argues that his snoring is “really not that bad” and that it’s “pretty much impossible” that it’s loud enough for me to wake up in the middle of the night. Well, it is possible, mind you. I’m a light sleeper, can’t help it. BUT, this post has nothing to do with my marital distress, but everything to do with creating beautiful Instagram shots. So… let’s move on now, shall we? In this photography post, I’ll share a few things that are a must for me when it comes to Instagram photos. If you follow me there, then you probably know that I mostly post beauty-related content, but these tips can be applied to anyone who wants to create bright, clear and sharp images. LOOK FOR THE LIGHT I think we can all agree […]

The post 7 Tips For Better Instagram Photos appeared first on Lifestyle Gleam.