Using Photos to Enhance Your Blog Posts

A big welcome to guest blogger Courtney from Click It Up a Notch! She’s a whiz at photography and even does cool photo critiques where readers constructively criticize a reader-submitted photo. Today Courtney’s talking about five great ways to use photos in a blog post.

When it comes to blogging and photography you want your photos to enhance your post, not hurt it. There are several things you can do and avoid to make sure your photos are the best they can be for your blog post.

1.  Create a Properly Exposed Image.

You don’t have to shoot on manual mode to achieve this. Make sure you have enough light in your image or use a flash so that your subject is properly lit. If you capture an image that you love but it is underexposed you can use a free program like PicMonkey to increase the exposure.

2.  Use Composition to Draw in Your Viewer.

I could spend days talking about composition. In fact, I took a four-week photography workshop that was solely on composition. However, if you can master the “rule of thirds” you will see an instant improvement in your photos. When using the rule of thirds, place your subject/focal point in one of the thirds of the image. You do not want your subject to be in the dead center of your photo. The human eye is naturally drawn to one of the thirds of the frame so be sure to place your subject there.

3.  Include a Photo in Each Post, if Relevant.

Unless you have been living under a rock you have heard about Pinterest. This site can be a huge traffic referral for you if you use it to your advantage. However, people can not pin your post if there is not an image or video in your post. The image doesn’t have to be a photograph, it can be a text image you create. Think about what you like to pin. Are most of your pins attractive and inviting photos? Yup, mine too!

4.  Don’t Post Every Photo You Have Ever Taken.

I read a book a few years back by Scott Kelby where he talks about what photos to share. We all take way too many photos in this digital day and age. I’m guilty of this. Do your readers want to see 25 photos from your last vacation. Nope. Sorry.

Scott Kelby talks about how about half the photos you take are good and probably only about 10 of them are “Wow, that is amazing!” No need to show everything. Pick your very best ones that show what you did. You don’t have to show every single step to a craft or a recipe. Pick the best ones that get your point across. Personally, I try not to post more than 10 photos in any one blog post. Of course, I have some posts with more and some with less. That is just my general rule of thumb.

It is much better to have one or two amazing photos than to post eight so-so images that may bore your readers.

If you really want to include more photos consider putting them in a collage so save your readers from scrolling through so many photos. I realize this is hard especially if you blog about your family. It’s hard to narrow down pictures of your kids. I am there with you. It’s an impossible task to decide what to share. After time, you will get picker and it will get easier. Your readers will thank you!

5.  Bigger is Always Better.

Now that you know a few tricks to make sure your post is full of awesome images that is going to enhance your post and not hurt it, enlarge those photos. Please don’t put up images in the smallest size. Oh, that pains me. You have this wonderful image and I can barely see it. Find out what the dimensions of your post width is and take advantage of that. You can use programs like Flickr to upload your image and pull the URL for a size that is good for your post.

When you get your post ready think about these 5 things to make sure your post and photos are the best they can be.