How To Get Bright Photos || Backgrounds

There's no doubt about it, when it comes to blogging photos really do play a huge part and everyone wants their pictures to look bright, beautiful and most importantly to show case off whatever the focus of the photograph is to its very best. This however can be a lot easier said than done, and after two and half years of blogging I've had my fair share of photo mishaps (if you ever take a look back to my very first posts they are completely cringe worthy). Now whilst I am no photography expert, I have picked up a few things a long my blogging journey that have worked for me and sharing is caring as they say! A few months ago I did a little post on what website I use to edit my photos, in-case you missed it you can find it by clicking this link here. Today I wanted to share with you another little trick that I use to get my photos looking bright and as you guessed from the title of this post its about backgrounds.

When I say backgrounds, I'm talking about where we decided to take our photos and what on. I don't know about anyone else, but I have probably tried and tested just about every surface, counter and bit of furniture in my house to take my blogging pictures on. Whilst I found the dresser in my bedroom made a pretty setting for my blogging pictures, there was still a huge part of me that was never really satisfied. One reason being that my dresser was in a bit of an awkward position and I only had a few hours of good daylight there in a day; And we all know the importance of taking your pictures in the correct lighting. Let's face it we can't move our furniture around every time we need to take pictures for our blog. 

Another thing that made me feel disheartened about my blogging photos was the colours of my furniture (don't get me wrong I picked it all out and love how pretty it makes my room look, but beige's and browns didn't make my photos look bright). If I'm honest, I always envied those bloggers that had white furniture or those studio boxes. I know it can be a little cliche with beauty bloggers taking pictures on white backgrounds these days; But I honestly feel that there is good reason for this -Having a white background can make your pictures appear a lot brighter. Having a white background also makes editing your pictures a whole lot easier as your not altering the balance of too many colours, just the products in the photos. Not only does having a white background make for brighter and crispier photographs, I also think that it makes any beauty product really stand out and make it the main focus of your photographs, but that's my personal opinion. 

I thought long and hard about what I could use or change in my home that would create a fabulous white background for my pictures. Buying new furniture was out of the question as that was just way too drastic and I'm terrible at saving, so a lightening studio box seamed out of the question too. However my prayers where soon answered on a trip to B&Q. James and I ended up in the tile section and there I picked up a white and pretty large glossy sample tile that would be perfect for taking blog pictures on. 

Picking up this tile was seriously one of the best blogging decisions that I've ever made, it makes a great surface to take all my blogging pictures on and it only cost me £3.99! The shine on the tile gives all my products a lovely little reflection in pictures. Any of my reviews that use a white background in their photos have been taken on this tile, I absolutely love it! Not only does it make a great little blogging background, but its portable too and I can take this into any room that has the best light for that time of day. 

If your really struggling with your blog pictures right now and feel that something is not quite right, I can't recommend enough picking up a sample floor or wall tile for your pictures. B&Q had a sample tile for every tile they sold in store, so there are so many different ones you could choose for your pictures ad it really does make a big difference. 

I know that this is a pretty random alternative to achieving bright blog pictures, but its something that has really worked for me and I thought it would be mean to keep it all to myself. Who would have thought tiles where just for walls and floors? Ha.

I would love to know what your thoughts are on my wall tile and if your planning on getting a tile for your blog pictures too?

Lots of Love

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How To Get Bright Photos Using Pixlr Editor

When it comes to blogging I think its fair to say that photography plays a huge part. Not only is taking photographs really fun, but its a way to immediately engage our audience with our blog posts.  Whilst I believe written content is equally important, I do believe that a beautiful picture can work wonders in getting people to read your post in the first place. Now I am no photography expert, but I really wanted to share with you all some little tips I picked up on a free photo editing website which have really helped when it comes to editing my pictures for each blog post that I do. 

Although editing pictures is not necessary, I do feel that sometimes it can help a picture (especially beauty products) look more like how we would see it to the eye. Like I say I am no expert, I'm still learning a lot about photography but most of us are aware that good lighting is essential and can really make or break a picture. With the weather being so unpredictable and lets face it rubbish most of the time here in the UK, it can be really hard for us to capture our pictures in the right way and for the camera to really pick up the colours in the picture -You want that pretty nail polish to look as bright as what you see it in real life. With that being, this is where photo editing can really come into play and help get your pictures looking bright and beautiful, just like you've taken them on a glorious sunny day.

The free photo editing website that I use is Pixlr and I always choose the Pixlr Editor option to help my pictures looking bright and beautiful. 

Below is the original picture I have been working with, as you can see the picture is looking a little bit dull and we all know that those Barry M Jelly High Shine nail paints are much brighter than what's shown in this picture.

Once you've uploaded your picture onyo Pixlr Editor,  all you want to do is look at the top bar and look for the 'adjustment' button - A drop down menu will appear once you've clicked on it and you want to choose the 'levels' option. This will bring up a little box like the one shown below. 

The levels box has a few little sliders that you can drag back and forth, but I find that the very top one on the right best works wonders for brightening your pictures (as you can see I've highlighted with a pretty start for you ha). Just keep sliding it to the left to adjust the brightness to a level that you think will work best for your photograph. Don't be afraid to play around with all the little sliders too as they can sometimes help to adjust the balance of the colours once you've brightened your picture. And it really is that easy!! 

Depending on what I'm photograph I'm editing, I can sometimes find that adjusting the levels of brightness can sometimes alter the colour of the products in the picture, but this can easily be sorted out on Pixlr Editor too. Again you want to go to the 'adjustment' tool on the top bar and this time click on 'colour balance' which will again bring up another little box - Just like the one shown below.

Again all you want to do is adjust the little sliders back and forth to alter the colours a little. Just a little heads up, you only need to move them a fraction to make a difference - You'll see :)

Once you happy with the way your photo is looking, a great way to finish it off in Pixlr Editor is just to sharpen it, which will make the detailing on the picture just pop out a little and I always use it. This time you will want to click on the 'Filter' button at the top of the screen and choose the 'sharpen' option - Clicking this button will immediately sharpen up your picture - which is a look that I personally like

All you need to do now is save your picture and your ready to upload it to your blog - It really is as simple as that. 

For the purpose of this blog post I took the original picture with the ISO setting down on my camera really low so it looked dull and and so you really could see the difference in the before and after photos. I think it just goes to show you that you don't need a fancy camera to get really bright pictures and if your camera doesn't have an ISO setting then you can still make a dull picture bright. 

I really hope that this helps some of you when editing your blog pictures in the future and to show you that you don't need to pay money for photo editing software in order to get bright beautiful pictures - Just use Pixlr.

If your already a whizz on Pixlr (I only know the basics) then I would love to hear any tips or tricks that you may have. Also if you do use this way to edit your pictures I would love to know how you get on with it.

Lots of Love