You may just be getting started in the world of blogging, but that doesn’t mean your photos need to be at an amateur level. Here are 3 little secrets to improve your photography right now!

Have you just started out in the world of amateur blogging? Do you not know where to begin when it comes to taking photos for your blog or social media account? Well, you’ve come to the right place. Today, I am going to share with you 3 little secrets for you to quickly and easily improve your photography so you can get from amateur blogger to pro in time at all!

3 SECRETS TO IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY NOW

1. You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars on camera equipment

Before you go pouring your life savings into a bunch of flashy camera equipment, take a moment to consider your options. Most amateur bloggers do not start off with professional gear. Instead, they work with the tools they have until they are ready to take things to the next level. These days, a phone is perfectly capable of taking images that are high-quality enough to post on your blog or social media accounts.

Let me demonstrate. The following photographs have been taken on two different cameras.

This first photo was taken on a professional DSLR and edited using the latest version of Adobe Photoshop. This is gear and software that took me many many paychecks to save up for.

The second was taken and edited on… wait for it… my iPhone, and edited on a free editing app called Snapseed. If I am being perfectly honest, I actually prefer the final result of the iPhone shot! Now, don’t get me wrong, this isn’t the case in every situation. A high-quality camera is naturally going to produce higher-quality images. However, this exercise proved that I don’t always need to shoot with professional gear to get a photo I am happy with. Whether you are a blogging amateur or not, neither do you!

If you are thinking of investing in a camera, check out my guide to the BEST cameras for travel photography.

2. See the potenial in a photo before hitting the delete button

I can’t tell you how many times I go to hit the delete button on my camera if I see a photo is incorrectly exposed or the colors look flat. However, I have to stop myself and remember that the photo I see on the camera screen is not the final product.

Take this photo for example. This was shot on a $350 compact camera, (which I bought before phone cameras became so good), out the window of a plane. At the time, it was a great little compact camera for the price (Canon S100 if you were curious), but a basic camera all the same. When I first reviewed this image, I didn’t think too much of it. The colors look super flat, the highlights were blown out and shooting through a plane window degraded the overall quality of the image. However, the scenery looked pretty and I quite liked the composition. Instead of putting it straight into the recycling bin, I decided to try editing it. This is the result I got:

This brings me to my next point…

3. Editing truly has the power to transform a photo

The magical powers of editing meant I could turn a stock-standard, rather flat image into something a little bit more exciting. This took me about 10 minutes to edit in photoshop. Now, as mentioned above, you don’t have to have high-end editing software in order to turn your photos from amateur to professional. Pretty much everything I did to this photo you could do through a free app like Lightroom Mobile or Snapseed.

Here are the steps I took when editing my photo:

1. Brought down the highlights
2. Brought up the shadows
3. Upped the clarity
4. Warmed the color temperature
5. Upped the saturation

SEE ALSO: What’s in my camera bag: A list of equipment I take travelling

Here is another shot taken on my s100 compact camera at sunset. When I first reviewed the image, I wasn’t overjoyed with it. I noticed the foreground lacked any detail in the shadows and the sky was blown out in areas and didn’t have much colour to it. My editing process for this was very similar to the previous photo out the plane window and took around the same amount of time to complete.

Isn’t it amazing what a little bit of editing magic can do! 

I hope these three little secrets help you to feel more confident on your amateur blogging and photography journey. Just remember, everyone has to start somewhere. With a bit of practice and persistence, you’ll be a professional in no time!

If you’ve found any of these tips to improve yourphotography useful, tag @polkadotpassport on Instagram so I can see the results!

Want more tips on improving your photography? Check out the articles below:

• 5 Common Travel Photography Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)
• The SECRET to getting photos of yourself when travelling solo

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