I’m participating in Bookending Spring this year, hosted by Sam and Clo, and you can find the challenge info here!
I’m on time today!!!
Check out Lauren’s post as the host here!
Prompt
Discuss how you bring life to your (book) photos for blog posts or instagram! You can talk about your focus on composition, how you edit, or stay inspired, etc.
Hiiii!! I am so excited for this prompt and I have been WAITING to post it because I love it so much. One of the things I started last July was a bookstagram to go along with my blog. I expected it to be just a fun little diversion, but by December I was really into it, and it became a focal point of my day. As I got more into it, I started to enjoy seeing other people’s themes. Mine still isn’t perfect, but I’m starting to get it, and find something that works for me. I think the hardest part is sticking with something. I like change, so changing things up makes me happy.
In December I got a whole bunch of pinecones, and thus started my pinecone obsession. In almost every photo I use a pinecone. Usually my shelfies don’t have one in it, or one off photos, but most do. I really enjoy using them.
One of the hardest things (and something I am still learning) is composition and angles. I am trying to put more variety in, and learn what works. Sometimes I like something for a few days, and then after that I hate it. I still don’t know how it all works. The other thing that I learned is filters have to look good on EVERYTHING not just one or two photos.
I edit mostly in adobe lightroom, but I also use google photos and photoshop at times if there are touchups I need to do. All my pictures of my kindle are edited with the book cover being pasted on and manipulated.
I take quite a few photos all at one time. Of different books but also of the same book and setup at different angles, and then from those I pick the ones I liked the best.
I’ve changed my theme look several times, the last one had a purple tone to it, but I missed seeing all the beautiful book covers and their true colors.
My new theme is one of brightness. I’ve upped the whites in it, and the brightness, but removed the purple tone. I am liking it a lot better because I feel the images are much more cohesive together.
I often lose inspiration, so I often go days without doing any of them. I also queue up ahead of time, so my captions sound funny at times. Now I’m only queuing a week at a time, and of course, sometimes I’ll randomly post something because it inspired me in that moment. Of course, this always happens at night when it is dark and the quality is much worse.
So that’s how I bookstagram!! I’ve recently reached 1k followers, so I am no expert on this, however, I do feel like I have learned A LOT through trial and error.
Almost all the photos on my blog are pulled from my instagram.
Such pretty pictures !!
Book photography is something i really struggle with.. mainly as it often don’t look as good as the idea in my head ? although lately they aren’t so bad- i’m on a good spike!
Ah, i actually never thought of doing that with ebook photos, thank you! Now to figure out if I can even do that as I don’t have photoshop.. mmmh
I think there are several free sources you can use that aren’t photoshop! I just have it because I’ve had it for innumerable amount of years. I think from something like 7.0? So…haha!
Same though! Sometimes they don’t come out the way I want them to!
We do, but not as much as we’d like! These pictures are so pretty!
Thank you very much!!
I just started Instagram so this is super helpful! I’m still trying to figure out my theme and everything but it gives me hope because your photos are gorgeous and you’re still changing things up!
Your Bookstagram photos are absolutely beautiful, talk about goals!! ?
Thank you so much!!! I really appreciate it!
Wow I love your bookstagram posts! I’m still very much a beginner to taking good photos but I really want to have a more cohesive theme, but still one that lets me post selfies and non-book photos as well so I’m struggling. I keep reading blogs like this for inspiration!
I actually have a post planned for the future where I discuss more of my journey, because although I’ve been doing it for a year, I feel that I still have more to go, and I think it would be helpful for others in the same boat as me! That is the exact situation I am in! Want a variety of photos, but a cohesive theme!
That would be so helpful! I’m thinking of going down a route with a similar colour palette/lighting/filter so I can still have a variety of posts, but I adore the aesthetics of accounts that just post with the same background each time & different books/props
Me too honestly! But I love mixing things up so that never works!
I love your pictures ❤️ I also have a bookstagram but I kinda have no inspiration for posting photos that look really nice and so on. In the end it’s always random lol. Thank you so much for your post!
Thank you! Inspiration can hit me randomly, so sometimes you’ll see some really ??? photos that are not as high quality mixed in!
Please can you take all my bookstagram photos?????
☺️☺️ I know I mentioned it in another comment but I’m planning on doing a post about how I started!
I look forward to it!
Both themes are absolutely beautiful! And congrats on getting 1K followers! I do have a bookstagram, but I always forget to take photos, I do bulk them up. But when the moment comes to take new photos, I forget ?
I have like 10 left! I really need to take some more haha!
omgoodness im absolutely IN LOVE with this blog post and your insta feed. truly enjoyed reading this.
i agree about the colour filter aspect, i used to give mine a purpley tone too but i definitely prefer it now i dont
Ahhh thank you!!! Yes, I definitely much prefer a more “natural” tone to my filters!
Ah I love your themes! I definitely prefer the more natural theme, it’s bright and the colours are so pretty! I actually use a purple filter but I have it on fairly low so it doesn’t add too much purple and darkness in haha but I’m sure I’ll play around with filters at some point.