Photography is a passion! If you are not really into it, you might not know the effort and the thought go in it. It is not just clicking the button to take a photo, but it is getting the right composition and reflecting what you want to see on the screen. Photography setup plays an important role for catchy photos.
I’ve always had an interest in photography and it was over 10 years ago where I saved up to get my first digital camera. It wasn’t anything special, however, it was something I could use to capture the moment. Then after a little bit of practice then I needed an upgrade, it was another digital camera which was way better than the previous one. My last and current camera is a DSLR from Nikon, Nikon D3200. It was a birthday gift from now my husband back in 3 years ago. He knew my passion and interest in photography and he wanted to surprise me with getting me something I wanted for a long time… Lucky me! Anyway, enough about me and my camera history, let’s get to the post and talk about photography setup!
Photography might seem easy, however, nothing is as easy as it seems. As I said before, it is not only pressing the button and ta-dah you have the perfect photo. Especially if you are taking a product or a blog photo, then there are so many things you might need to consider. Lighting, background, the setting and so on, so taking a photo is not a minute thing. Summer days are perfect for photography, you have a decent amount of light for a long time and you don’t need to worry about harsh shadows. Well, shadowy photos can actually be good too, have a look at this photo! How about when it is gloomy weather and lightning is bad? If you have studio lights then you are lucky, but what if you don’t have it?
If you want to have a white background and you don’t have any white furniture, you can always use white cardboards which you can find in any craft shop. Also, you can always use them to reflect light if you don’t have a reflector. Do you know what is the purpose of a reflector? Reflectors are used for manipulating the light and creating a surface for a light to bounce off, in other words, it is for redirecting the existing light. You can use a white board to bounce the light to eliminate harsh shadows. All you need to do is position the white board opposite of the light source, so there will be light from both sides.
When you take photos, make sure to have a decent amount of natural light. Lightning is one of the most important things in terms of photography. You might have the perfect setup and idea, however, if the lightning is not good then it won’t turn out the way you want it.
Everyone has their own style to set up their photography scene. When I’m using a whiteboard to take photos, I just use whatever I can find as props. It can be anything from a magazine to some jewellery. When I take the photo in the bedroom then the dressing table is my photography background. For food and drink photography, I usually take it in the garden with natural light from every direction. As I said before, you can be as creative as you can, it is your photography and your rules. In order to make your photography more catchy, you can apply rule of third and make the objects stand out. With this rule, you can balance your images and improve the photography. It is easy, it just needs a little bit of practice.
Where you stand when you take photos is also important. Even though you have the perfect photography setup, if you are at the wrong position, photos might not turn the way you want. When I take photos, I am either in the middle or on the natural light source. If you stand the opposite of the light source then getting the right light balance wouldn’t be easy. When you’re in the middle you will a good balance of the natural light and the reflection.
I use high quality (1920 x 2888px) photos on my blog and even after “save for web”, they’re still around 2MB. In my previous 5 useful blogging tools every blogger needs, I talked about to the way to make the photo size smaller. Photo sizes are decreased around 80% without affecting the quality of the photos.
This is basically my setup at the moment, it is basic and simple. I know I am not an expert and there are many things I want to improve! It takes time to get to the level you want and hopefully soon I will get there.
Just remember that you don’t need a professional camera to take good photos. You can take really impressive photos with your digital camera or phone. I took the photo you see below 3 years ago with my iPhone 5 (Lake District).
How’s your photography setup? What do you use to create your little photography studio and photography setup?
