From the idea to the perfect Blogphoto

Sometimes it takes a long sometimes a short time until a blogphoto is how i want it to be. There are a few staple steps involved that help me get the perfect blogphoto and i thought i might share them with you. This is the routine i go through with every blogphoto i take. Sometimes i'm done in 5 minutes, sometimes it takes 20 minutes so take your time to figure everything out until you are satisfied.

STEP ONE | INSPIRATION & PLANNING

Sometimes i have a immediate idea how i want the layout, background and lightning to be and then i skip this step. Most of the time i don't. So while scrolling through Instagram or blogs i take a screenshot or save every picture i like the layout, background, composition or lightning of and save it in a file named "Photo inspiration". If i'm totally uninspired how to take my photo i look through the file and hopefully find one composition that fits. Same thing happens, when i read magazines. I put a post-it on the sites i think could be a nice background or prop for a photo. In times i need a background or a magazine as a prop i just look through my post-its instead of the whole magazine. 

Once i found the background, lightning, composition i want to use i move on to the next step.

STEP TWO | PRODUCTS & PROPS

This is probably the most important step, because dots in gold is a beauty blog and what would it be without the products? Sometimes i use all the products i mention in a post, sometimes i don't. It depends on the category of the post and if it's necessary to include all products or if a few are enough. For the example picture in this post, i included all the mentioned products.

Next are props. If i decided to skip props, i leave this part out. But if i decided to use some i collect a few that could work and put them in a pile next to the products.

STEP THREE | LAYOUT & COMPOSITION

Now that i have all the products i want to include and all the props that i might use. And i know on which background the things will lay and i have a basic idea of my layout i go ahead and put everything together. If i shoot a bunch-of-products-photo i place the products on my background and arrange them randomly. Then i take a few pictures, zoomed in and out. After i looked at them i see if i like the arrangment of the products and props or if i have to change something. If i'm not satisfied with the placements i change it until i am satisfied. This step can take a few minutes, if i get it right quickly or can take 20 minutes if i have to change it over and over again.

Sometimes it helps to change the angle.

Or to add or take away props.

Some pictures are nice with a big shadow (like the one above) and on some pictures the shadow is too bothering (like in the one below).

 

STEP FOUR | EDITING

I try to shoot the pictures as perfect as possible so i don't have to edit a lot. But what i do most of the time is make the picture lighter and sometimes i crop it. 

And that is the finished blogphoto i would put into a post (and will soon).

Do you have any tips on taking blogphotos or photos in general?