As someone who has been a blogger for over 10 years and also a photographer for other content creators and small businesses, I wanted to share 3 tips that will help you with your next photoshoot. Content creation is something that will always evolve dependent on your niche or focus with it, but having interesting, high quality photos that make sense for your blog is a must no matter what you talk about. Whether you’re creating for fun or are pursuing this as a career, knowing how to get the most out of your photoshoots will help you not only maximize your time while creating, but also help you establish a bit of consistency with your content so that you will always end up with photos that you love and want to share with your audience.

Before you pick up your camera or book your next session with a photographer, keep these 3 things in mind.

Pick top pillars of content (your main categories)
I do not believe in taking pictures just for the sake of taking pictures. Regardless of what you blog about, there should always be intention behind your photos. It’s not enough to just pick out an outfit and go and snap it up. If you’re not focused on being a fashion/style blogger and sharing style tips or new trends to try, those type of photos should not make up the bulk of your content-they should actually be used as fillers. If you talk about beauty, get action shots of yourself testing out different product, stylized photos of the products, and things like that. If you talk about life as a mom, there should be images of you in environments where your kids are (you don’t have to show their faces if you don’t want them to be seen), products that you use as mom/things that the kids love, etc. My point is, you need to figure out your top content pillars (1-4 is a good place to start), and think about what you want to talk about within those categories. That should lead you with photo planning ideas vs constantly taking OOTD photos.

Write out blog post headlines/social media outline for content
Again, intention should always be at the forefront of your mind when it comes to your photo content. If you don’t know how you will be using your photos, that will affect the TYPE of imagery that you create. Whether you want to do fashion styling posts, share travel tips, or show how you updated a room in your home, you should have an outline of your blog/social media posts in mind so that you know where to start. And don’t try to cram it all into one shoot; the goal is to build stories, so once you have your headlines in place, you can decide what needs to be shot together and when.

Batch process category shoot days
Gone are the days where you have to create all of your content in real time. For most influencers/bloggers, batch shoots are the easiest way to create an abundance of content that you can then schedule out with posting. If you’ve already decided what your posts are going to be about, you can then develop a shot list that will help you with keeping your photoshoot organized and flowing quickly. If you have traditional outfit posts that need to be shot, plan that for a session and try to knock 3-6 looks out (and get detail/accessory shots). For example, the day I took these photos, I took pictures in 3 other looks while I was out that day bc I needed more style focused photos. If your focus is more about your home, plan to get shots of your spaces, but also include images of you being active in those spaces, decor details, etc. You could be reading a book, watching tv, working on your laptop, or even meditating in a special area that you’ve designated solely for that. Scheduling your sessions so that your content pillars are done together will help you to create variety within each category that will then flow well together once you post it to your blog and/or social sites.

Trying to do too much during a session will cause you to sacrifice quality because of quantity and you don’t want to do that. If you feel like you need to knock out a lot of content at one time, make a shot list first and think about the “set ups” that you will need and how long it should take you to get each one done. Based on experience with both clients and shooting my own content, 3-5 max is what you can comfortably fit into a 2 hour shoot (unless you have everything staged and ready to go before your photographer arrives). Trying to do more than that is overwhelming and rarely turns out well.

Content creation is WORK, but if you’re wanting to elevate the type of content that you put out, taking time to properly plan out your sessions will help you create the type of content that you love and that works with your brand in no time.

How often do you create content for your blog/social media?

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