Taking Good Photos For Blogs & Social Media

Photos, graphics and illustrations are what make your content REALLY stand out. Whether it's your blog content, Facebook updates or your Pinterest images... great images are what grab people's attention.

May is Photo Month, and I've been working on setting up a Food Photography corner in my home office. This is a great opportunity to share some cool resources & apps with you, and also hear YOUR favorite gadgets for taking good photos and video.

Fun Apps To Easily Enhance Your Photos

I take the majority of my photos with my mobile phone while I'm out & about. You can find great landscapes, beautiful skies, and endless ideas for gorgeous backgrounds. These are great for illustrations, or to add quotes as an overlay to use for engaging social media updates.

Apps I like to use to add text & quotes include:

• Phonto for Android
• WordSwag for iPhone
• Canva

You can also create beautiful quote graphics using BrainyQuote.

I used the Phonto App to add text to this picture to illustrate a blog post:

Canva has a lot of free images you can use to create quote graphics and blog post illustrations. I used Canva to create this image:

http://www.90DayLowCarbChallenge.com (y)

Posted by Low Carb Traveler (Lynn) on Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Make Your Content POP With Great Graphics

Even if you don't take a lot of your own photos, you can still create awesome graphics & illustrations to make your content stand out. I use a number of resources for quick & easy graphics - including several graphics templates:

• Quality Infographic & Marketing Graphic Templates
• Easy Animated Video Maker
• Easy Title Templates

All three of those are super easy to use!

See my Infographics Case Study
Results speak louder than words.

Little Photography Accessories...
That Make A BIG Difference

This "selfie stick" is currently on sale for $4.15 with free shipping (usually $15.99):

This reflective photography table, with both a black and white surface, is GREAT for food photography or for smaller items like jewelry or other things you sell online:

You can also get awesome backdrops for your photos & videos on Amazon, along with stands to create "stand out" backgrounds:

Lighting Is The REAL Key To Great Photos!

No matter what kind of camera you use, from high end professional camera equipment to a simple mobile phone camera, the real key to any great photo is the lighting. Natural light is ideal for the best turnout so you want to take your photos outdoors when you can. But that's not always possible, which is where lighting kits come into play.

Here's my continuous lighting kit setup. It's easy to set up, works great, and it's very affordable. Highly recommended! This is PERFECT for shooting quality video and taking great photos indoors.

At that link, I also share the web cam I'm using for quick web video - which is the best one I've found in regards to quality & clarity of video images. It has GREAT audio quality too.

For smaller items, a lightbox is a great solution:

Looking For A Great Camera?

Check out the Amazon Warehouse Deals: Cameras & Accessories to score great equipment at good prices.

You can click here to see my video editing software & camera equipment. That's the setup I use to do my own videos, plus the continuous lighting kit I mentioned above.

I would love to hear the apps, cameras, props & accessories YOU use for taking or creating great photos & graphics. Leave a comment & let's share resources!