Photography for bloggers copy

No notes for slide

Test attached to first slide

I have written thousands of blog posts and taken pictures to go with them. To me it is un thinkable to create a post without a picture. The Internet is visual. Accidental photographer. Took so many pictures that they started to look okish and people ask to buy my pictures and I don't mind taking their money. As a realtor I would have to hire a pro. I take my own but never with my phone and if they don't look amazing I will hire someone. Google has my contact information.

Eye candy - Images can attract readers Images are as important to blogging as the words are yet many bloggers don't even consider the visuals. The super smart really great writers used to tell me that pictures are a substitute for writing.

Pictures can tell a story. I can look at this, put it in a blog post and tell you about the most amazingly beautiful day I spent on the North shore. Each of these pictures were taken with my phone using isntagram. Before I went to bed I made the collage and wrote a short post for my friends.

They break up dense walls of words. I am not a fan of 1000 word blog posts. They look like work and I have a lot to read and am a skimmer.

Data. We all know how popular info graphics are. They are pictures with words.

Give the picture a name for google Alternate text so there is a word on the mouse over. I some times put little messages in there. To embed or not to embed. I say don't imbed . . You are splitting the juice

Check out google web master tools for more information about how to make your blog images google friendly One of my blogs is broken and "alt- text" isn't working

We share stuff in Facebook and on pinterest. Is your post pretty enough to pin.

Can not think of what to write? Find a picture and write about it. This is my dog.n

Four ways not 5 friends don't let friends use clip art drawings The four ways are Buy them Use free images Steal them Create your own

How to buy them. Subscription or image and the use is stipulated. I license my own work in a similar way. I may allow a small print or for use on a single web site or in a blog post. If it is for commercial work I charge more. It is presumed that the image will make money for someone else which makes it more valuable.

Under stand creative commons

By the way all of the images in this presentation are mine or can be used. Remix?

Practice and learn. Create your own stock library as you go. iPhone photo stream and android google and or drop box. Collect photos every where you go. Take a ton of them some will turn out. Even thinking about pictures while you are taking them or deciding how you want them to look will help.

Your phone can be a powerful tool for taking photos and capturing images for blog posts. Instagram is now owned by Facebook and integrated into Facebook

My mini stock library of houses using Instagram I have pictures of letters on my keyboard and a picture of crayons and pens and other I

Pictures of real estate The ordinary it might be new to them News photos street construction Fire hydrants The zoo Local parks Bridges Historic homes & buildings Real estate Neighborhood amenities What you photograph is as important as how you photograph it.

A wide range of cameras that will work. 500k + home The shot was taken without a wide angle lens That is why there are so many partial rooms on the MLS. Poor lighting and if a flash was used it was used incorrectly. It is crooked and I am not sure what it is supposed to say. Can agents tell a good picture from a bad one? This is a bad one.

This is what a dining room should look like. Show the whole room

The photo shows that I know the area and what is going on. Think before you shoot. Photography is mental. The picture of the huge parking lot with the store in the distance. I was not sure what the point of the picture was. Was she trying to show the business? Or the size of the parking lot? The cars? Before I take a photo I usually have a reason. Showing my readers St. Paul through my eyes Photography is like writing. It usually turns out best when some thought is put into it.

Photo stream and the auto uploads to drop box or google just make it so much easier. Take advantage of them.

640 pixels or smaller. No my pictures do not turn out perfect every time. Picasa iPhoto Aperture. A few Okish photos can add so much to your blog

The time I got the best shot on a photo walk because I turned around. Practice is key but taking the same shot over and over isn't practice. Move around.

The disappointment of buying an expensive and amazing camera and still having crappy photos. That is how I buy cameras used from people who could not use them. People ask what kind of a camera I used if they like the picture but if I write something they like they never ask if I wrote it on my iPad or my pc. Why won't I tell you which camera to buy? Because there is no best camera or right camera. Just opinions and there are so many cameras on the market. Next year there will be a new batch of cameras and I will still be using a 2006 model. You have to learn how to use it. Cameras are like Wordpress some people get so hung up on themes and plugins that they never get around to writing posts. Panasonic lumix. Bought on a whim great camera. They sell a newer model.

Read reviews. Dps, amazon.com , B&h Try cameras Personally I like camera stores but if there are none in your area best buy. I have rejected cameras because they took too much coordination to operate. No point in buying it if I can't make it work. A good point and shoot is going to cost at least $200 low end dlsr with lens about $650 ouch The higher end canon powershots have some manual controls. How many megapixels? The more the bigger the picture and the bigger the print. Consider storage space and computer processing. I use a computer optimized for gaming and a 1tb desk drive

Down load the manual you can almost always find it through the manufacturer in PDF format which is nice because it can be searched. I keep mine on my computer. Printed it is far easier to read than the one with the 2pt. Font that comes with the camera. DPS survey 73% wish they had better control of their camera. Most people don't get the most out of their camera because they only use a fraction of the features. Expensive camera or point and shoot What is wrong with this property shot? Room parts because who ever took it did not use a wide angle lens.

Point and shoot ready to go. Leave it on normal or simple so you don't miss a shot but if you know ahead of time that you bate going to be at an outdoor sports event select the right camera setting before you go. Same rule applies for dslr. Don't shoot in manual if you are likely to miss the shot. Doesn't hurt to leave the camera in the point and shoot mode. Guess what? There are some conditions where you can not get a good picture no matter which settings you use. Dimly lit rooms at conferences and bars are examples. A tripod, and off camera lights would work

There is a shutter delay with digital cameras Press half way down and you will have it focused. If you don't like what you see just let it go, move and press half way down. Then the rest of the way to get the shot. I know some cameras are so small 2 hands won't work. Avoid camera shake for a crisp picture. This also applies to iPhone shots. He is using a tripod. I use a tripod, mono pod or gorilla pod about half the time and always a tripod for interior shots with wide-angle lens.

Photography is about light. Party shots with flash washed out faces on a black background Blurry images - not enough light but you can compensate, see setting. Interior shots are among the hardest to take. A wide angle Lens and a tripos will help immensely.

This shot never had a chance. The Realtor pointed the camera at the sun which was high in the sky. We have a nice washes out look. I can see too places the photographer could have stood that might have worked. Some times we can not be there when the light is perfect. More like most of the time. Work with it. Move around. Try some angles.

Taken about two hours after sunrise it was the best I could do. The house faces North. You can't always have the best light but you can work with what you have by trying different angles

Point and shoot cameras often have party or night setting. Use them. Experiment. Be sure to turn on red eye reduction if shooting people. Putting the camera in burst mode when you really want to get the shot. Interior shots are the hardest to take.

So maybe lighting isn't the only rule. The rule of thirds can more easily be broken but composition is an extremely important in art and if you take a photography class it will be mentioned. Break the image down into 9 parts 3 horizontal lines and 3 vertical lines. There are 4 importance spots in the photo and that is were the lines intersect. That is where you put the points of interest in a picture. At least think about composition. I can see the end result in my head before I shoot. The editing takes place before I take the picture and so quickly that I don't notice. Like light composition Helps make the shot on any camera I mutter under my breath as I shoot. I am really going to hate this shot.

Take more than 1 but not more than 2 from the same place with the same settings. Mention Flickr explore and getting feed back Sign up for the dps weekly news letter. For those who are really interested in photography check "meet-up" there are photography groups in every area.

Cropping is also a way to use the rule of thirds. It is rare that you want someone or something dead center in a picture.

Editing = resize which you can also do when you insert it into a post. Crop, flip any which way. If you are new to Wordpress codex is your friend. Great instructions on how to upload photographs. Give it a name that is what people will see when they mouse over it. Link to the image.

One of the many advantages of next gen is smaller images can be used and when they are clicked on they go to full size

Wild flower gallery Housing style gallery

Being able to use a smaller picture and if anyone wants to see it in a larger size they click and it magically floats into a large photo that overlays the screen. Better than the click and the the picture is on a white background in the upper left corner of the screen.

Many of the same rules apply to video.

Photography for bloggers copy

Teresa Boardman

Photography for bloggers copy