How to start a photography blog, a guide from start to finish.
One of the best ways to showcase your photos and show them to the world to is by starting a photography blog. What does that mean? A photography blog is a place to share your photos, your feelings, your ideas, and really anything you want.
Think of a blog as a timeline of your photography life. You will be able to look back on it and see how far you have come in your photography.
There are many reasons to start a photography blog, but in my opinion, the best reason is to help your business and help you make money. By starting a blog and posting frequently, you will start to rank well on Google and therefore help you with your photography business. Being at the top of page searches you are guaranteed to be in front of potential customers first.
If you are just a hobbyist, you can keep track of your photo albums and share those with your friends in a nice and organized way. It is also a great way to keep a timeline of your family and your pets. I have been blogging for 7 years and to me, it is another creative outlet as well as a timeline and it helps me a lot with my photography business.
Let me show you the easiest way to start your photography blog in under 15 minutes for the most affordable price out there. Bluehost is the best and most affordable provider out there.
Step 2: Select your monthly plan. I recommend something that is comfortable for you. I pay yearly to save some extra cash.
Step 3: Pick a domain. Mine is my name, but you can get crafty with yours. If you already have one just type it in the box.
Step 4: Enter your billing info.
Step 5: Confirm your plan and options.
Step 6: Install “WordPress”. Go to the website and click the “WordPress” blue box. This will redirect you to a page called MOJOMarketplace where you will click install new scripts.
Step 7: Enter your domain name, leave the directory blank and click on check domain.
Step 8: Show Advanced Options. This section allows you to set up your own username and password for your WordPress install. FIll it out and click on “install now”
Step 9: It will take a few minutes for WordPress to install. Once the installation processing is done, you will get redirected to a page where you will be given your WordPress login credentials, keep these in a safe place as this is the way you will always log into your WordPress. (take a screenshot and keep it on your desktop)
Step 10: CONGRATULATIONS!!! Your WordPress blog is now up and running. Enter your admin URL and log in to the back end and start uploading your beautiful photos.
WordPress works with “themes” and there are so many, just about anything you can imagine. I use Theme X. I have found that for photos this is one of the best WordPress themes on the market. They update it often and comes with lots of FREE of extras.
If you want to learn more about the business of photography click on this link.
In this video, I show you how you can take a flat image into Lightroom and make it pop. By playing with a couple local adjustments and by using the sliders in the basic panel, you can make any image come to life.
I shot this image underexposed on purpose, only because I knew exactly what I was going to do with it in post. I wanted to create drama, not that I need to as the landscape lent itself to such dramatic light.
Lightroom is great in this way, you have so much control over your RAW file you can bring out the colors just as you saw them and create drama just like you have it in your head.
I shot this with my Nikon D800 and my Nikon 14-24mm lens. Drop me a comment below, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Do you ever use local adjustments?
Composition – is the placement or arrangement of visual elements or ingredients in a work of art. How do I master composition?
In this short video, I give you 8 tips to master composition. That is what people tell me they struggle with the most, and understandably so. Composition can be extremely difficult to understand and or achieve. It is a way to tell a story, to express your feeling and what you are seeing.
There truly is not a way to tell you how to compose your photos. That will come with time and experience. However, with this tips to master composition, you will be able to start understanding it a bit better and taking better photos.
Think about these tips while you are out there taking photos. They make a big difference in the way you look at things and the way you see through your camera. I can assure you that by following this tips your photography game will benefit greatly.
1. Use leading lines to invite the viewer into the image.
2. Add a splash of color to your image.
3. Change your perspective. (drones are great for this)
4. Find interesting people to photograph.
5. Use foreground elements to tell a compelling story.
6. Use a zoom lens to compress your image. (bring the background closer to the viewer)
7. Go shoot during bad weather. Crazy weather makes dramatic photos.
8. Break all the rules. In the photography game there are NO rules.
Have fun out there and remember to enjoy the scenery. Watch the video below to see examples of these 8 tips to master composition.
Here are 10 tips and tricks to improve your landscape photography right now. Yes, you read that correctly, right now. These are very simple tips you can start implying to your daily photography game right now. I live and die by these. You can apply these to any kind of photography however some are best for landscape photography. Practice these and your photography game will be brought up a notch.
10 tips and tricks to improve your landscape photography
1. Shoot at F11 and above. This will guarantee everything is always in focus.
2.Add a foreground element to the photo. This will help draw the viewer into the ima and make it more interesting.
3. Use clouds to add drama to your image.
4. Add the human element. This can bring life into any photograph that would otherwise be boring.
5. Shoot at sunrise and sunset. These are the best times to get the best color for landscape photography.
6. Slow down your shutter speed. This will create beautiful effects with surrounding water and clouds.
7. Add birds to y our photo. This creates a sense of movement and brings any photo to life.
8. Shoot low to the ground. This creates a sense of scale.
9. Always make sure your horizon is straight. ALWAYS. This is the number one rule in landscape photography.
10. Have fun out there and remember to experiment.
Follow this tips and with a bit of practice, your photography game will improve. By practicing and experimenting you will be making beautiful images in no time at all.
How to edit real estate pictures. lots of people seem to struggle with this particular topic. People often ask me: Edin how do I edit my Real Estate Pictures so they look nice and clean just like yours?
My answer is always the same. It takes a long time to develop your editing skills and style. Years of shooting and years of editing your photos will get you there. It is not as hard as you think, all you have to do is find your grove. Let’s talk about that.
Finding your groove in photo editing is just like anything else. You need to exercise your photography editing muscle daily. The more you exercise it, the stronger it gets.
If you are just starting out and have no idea as to what you are doing, I recommend you download my Real Estate Lightroom Presets. I decided to come up with an easier way to edit that I could have available to everyone. This particular Real Estate Lightroom Preset pack comes with a bonus video to get you editing like a pro. You can adjust the presets to suit your needs. In the bonus video, I teach you exactly that.
I came up with this Lightroom Presets to make this easy for everyone, and they have been very successful. They are super easy to tune up to your own particular style of photography and they are super easy to use. I have designed and calibrated these presets only for Real Estate Photography.
How to edit real estate pictures
Here are some before and after photos. You can see that the Real Estate Lightroom Presets make a massive difference in the images. Years of editing and practice are put into these presets. I promise you once you try these, they will be the only presents you will ever use for all your real estate photography needs.
How do I price my photography work? This is the question I get asked the most. No matter who you are, if you are just starting out in photography, this can be a daunting question and a complicated topic to cover. However, it does not have to be difficult. In this video, I answer this question. This is exactly how I price my photography jobs and it works really well.
How do I price my photography work? A Step by Step Guide to Pricing Your Photography Work
1. Have a set fee for your work. I have a minimum fee that I have set for my self and I will not show up to any job without at least making that “X” amount of money. Figure out what that is for you and stick to your guns. Sometimes you will need money and want to do any job for an incredibly small amount of money. However, it is important that you stick to your set fee.
2. Hourly rate. Figure out how many hours a job is going to take you. Put a value on your time (come up with an hourly rate), and that’s how you come up with an estimate. You have to make sure you cover your time for proofing and editing images. Most people do not account for this and end up spending a lot of time editing and retouching.
3. Ask the client for the budget. This is the technique I use the most. I always ask the client what their budget is, most will tell me some will not. If you get the answer and you are happy with that number then you can say yes and move forward with the project. If you do not like that number this is a place for you to start negotiations. Remember that everything is negotiable and there is room for every budget to go up or down. Be flexible and you will be ok.
Conclusion
In this video, I cover this topic in depth and show you how you can start making money without being the cheapest guy on the block.
If you need help editing your images, I use Lightroom Presets, give them a try.
Good luck out there, drop me a line below, I’d love to hear from you.
