Photography tips by Style Vanity

There are a lot of personal style bloggers out there and still more are coming. It’s like everyday there are a hundred new batches of fashion bloggers who the first thing they do is posting about their Outfit of the Day or OOTD for short, either in their personal blogs or in sites like Lookbook. So nowadays, it’s quite hard to stand out with those thousand more bloggers out there.

Let me tell you the secret of those super bloggers such as Chiara Ferragni, Adam Gallagher, and Andy Torres. Its good quality photos! Besides having an awesome sense of fashion style and designer clothes, those super bloggers’ photos have good composition which gives high budget magazine a run for their money. They don’t shoot in a studio with a professional photographer, they don’t have a makeup artist either and especially a stylist, so what makes their photos stand out? It’s because they know these things that I’m going to share with you.

1. Proper Focus on the subject

Common mistake of a new personal style blogger is choosing or doing the wrong background. Majority of them have too many unnecessary elements going on their photos. For better quality photos know these photography lingos: Negative Space, Depth of Field and the Rule of Thirds.

Negative space is the empty area around a photo subject. It doesn’t necessary mean it has to be white or a plain colour. It could have a texture like minimal lines of stone bricks.

While the depth of field is a bit tricky and only possible to those with cameras that has a manual mode which usually a DSLR camera, it is a range of distance within a picture that appears sharp and in focus. Depth of field always gradually transits from sharp to unsharp. Using it helps the viewer to focus on certain subjects on picture. You can do it by adjusting your camera’s aperture size. The larger the aperture size (smaller F-stop number), the shorter the depth of field and thus fewer things are sharp within the picture. Look at Andy Torres’ background on the photos below.

Lastly, Follow the Rule of Thirds. This is one of the most important rules of photographic composition. Landscape photographers are particularly fond of this rule, but it works well for lots of other subjects too. It came about based on the fact that placing the main focus of subject right in the centre of the frame can sometimes make a very ordinary looking picture. Some digital cameras have a feature where they show a grid on the screen’s live view mode, but for those who does not have that kind of feature, be creative and use your imagination. Placing the main elements of your composition on the thirds, and especially on the intersection of the thirds, is a powerful composition tool and will immediately improve your picture.

2. Determine your angle, Proper Posture, Relax & Smile!

Look at yourself at the mirror, ask a friend to take photos of you or just put your camera on self-timer and on a tripod and then start experimenting on different poses and smiles to see which you’re most flattering side is. Don’t forget to show confidence by showing a proper posture. If I had a dollar for every time I was told not to slouch, I’d be a millionaire now. Slouching is an instant hara kiri to portraying confidence. Always remember that a good posture dramatically improves one’s appearance. Sitting or standing up straight will make you look healthier and more alert. And when that happens, confidence will become second nature to you.

Lastly, relax! Rather than holding everything in, take a deep breath and exhale slowly to loosen your shoulders and the smile with your eyes, or according to Tyra Banks, smize! Flashing a wide smile may not only look unnatural but also a bit freaky. Think of something nice, like your crush, boyfriend, chocolates, a funny joke to get that genuine smize or you could also do my close and open technique. Relax, think of happy thoughts, close your eyes and then open them slowly just before your photo is taken.

- by Alyssa at http://stylevanity.com/

Photo Sources:

[1-4] Andy Torres from StyleScrapbook.com

[9] Young woman balancing books on head and holding them with arm by Donata Pizzi from GettyImages.com & Tyra Banks smizing from Google Images