Small biz and social media 📱💰
So you’re looking to increase traffic on your social to improve engage and get peoples feet in the door. One of the sure fire ways to gain more organic traffic is by simply looking put together on social platforms, simply posting helps but isn’t enough nowadays. Here I’ll go over a few steps that should help you boost your profiles and get seen a little easier.
One of the most tangible and direct things you can do to improve is to invest in some means of producing higher quality images and footage, GoPros, new cameras some ring lights some classes to learn natural lighting techniques (hiring a photographer 👀) etc. these will give you an edge and help you very easily stand out from those that don’t. You’d be shocked at how many people are stuck in the past thinking that they don’t need to invest in better images or even bother with social media, that’s a massive L and a huge mistake in 2021 where these platform are taking place of blogs and portfolios simultaneously acting as interactable billboards. Learn some tools or hire someone who’s done all that learning for you whether that be a social media manager, videographer or photographer easy as that. You can do a lot on your own but professionals take everything to above and beyond 😤👍🏾.
Post, post and post! This is advice I also need to take for myself, it’s probably the hardest on this list tbh. Finding that rhythm of posting frequently enough without being annoying but still posting is different for every type of business but equally essential for everyone in my opinion. Make sure you utilize stories and calls to action to get everyone invested in you as not only a business but as a person and someone representative of your community with interests and passions. If you follow me on Instagram you’ll see me engaging with things I deem highly important as well as sharing ridiculous memes that tell all my followers exactly what kind of person I am, never fake a personality for the sake of professionalism because you’ll end up with a community not really your own and engaging will get increasingly difficult.
So yeah thats pretty much what I’ve ascertained from the whole social media thing with all the years I’ve spent trying to grow. The clients I work with all see noticeable increase in engagement when all these efforts are paired with solid creative direction and polished videos or photos and with reels now being prioritized on Instagram utilizing great photos and video there will have your page exploding in no time!
3 easy ways to improve your selfies from a photographers POV 📸🤳🎥
Covid is still kicking our butts and you want to find fun interesting ways to spice up your selfies at home for tinder or maybe hiring a pro for portraits just isn’t quite in your budget yet, well look no further 😃👍🏾
1. Lighting
So not everyone will understand but the best selfies or self portraits you see either it be on a cell phone, dslr or mirrorless have been taken by people who really know what light is supposed to be doing and what they want it to do. Most all cell phones have a form of “auto iso” baked in, iso is what exposes your photo to more light artificially in addition to a shutter speed or aperture( the latter two being natural ways of exposing an image). I might be slightly unkowledgeable about cell phone specs but most phones don’t have an option for aperture settings or shutter so you’re left with iso and this introduces a lot of noise and quality reduction in photos SO here’s where proper lighting really saves your photo.
Sure fire way to nail light is to find huge windows if at all possible with a sheer curtain that can diffuse the light when to harsh, this never fails to bump up your photo a notch. Get creative and keep what looks good to you photos aren’t an exact science, always add your own touch 😙👌🏾
some go to angles for me are split, Rembrandt and backlit back light might not cooperate with phones to well but still play around with it some apps out there will give some control back so you can experiment more
Rembrandt light from large window to the right
Back lighting from window behind.
Another reason phones will have trouble here is the light blooming is often dealt with through the phones auto exposer so getting around that is step one for phone users.
2. Props 🪴👾🖼
This ones is short and simple find cool stuff you like and set up shop 🤷🏾♂️.
there isn’t much I can tell you guys about expressing your self aside from it being a big bonus to your photos when you do. Find some plants, some wall art maybe, grab those plushies 😅. Any and everything can be a way of expressing yourself my personal favorites are plants though.
3. Pose! Pose! Pose!
Forward facing camera is best when it comes to seeing what you wanna do and finding angles but on some older phones those often offer terrible quality (that is changing though). If you’ve got a crummy forward facing camera try using the main cam in conjunction with a mirror but the best way to go hands down is setting up a tripod and trigger system letting you pose your heart away and with dslr and mirrorless users you’ll get options like using your phone as a remote with a display and flip screens at your disposal.
Honestly there aren’t a lot of ways to go wrong when posing but some good rules of thumb are to try not letting your limbs lay straight, bend joint to creat triangles .
Triangles 🤌🏾
One major don’t do though is the “anime protagonist breakdown” selfie allow for some examples
Please don’t aim the cam directly above head and look up specially considering these are wide angle lenses unless you want to make a meme in that case carry on.
That’s pretty much it, have fun, experiment and knock em dead 😉
In home boudoir shoots and how to prepare for yours 🏡 🛏 🛋 👗
So you’ve booked your first in home boudoir session and you’re wondering how the hell you’re supposed to get ready, what’s the best spot in the house, how do I set up before hand, what do I wear? All very important questions but thankfully they are also very easy and straightforward to tackle.
So let’s start with the most difficult to consider, the space. When shooting in home getting the space in order is hands down the most laborious step; furniture being kinda heavy and all, trinkets you’ve stockpiled over the years firmly settled in their places. It’s a tall order but a couple of major tips should help you conquer the task.
Tip one STAGE. In other words move everything that isn’t strictly for decoration away from the scene ie. mail, keys, cords stray jackets all that stuff so that we can build a scene from the bottom up
Tip two CREATE SPACE. If you worry you’re space may be cramped try arranging furniture in a way that allows your desired room to flow the best. In some cases that will require you moving less pertinent items like extra chairs, floor fans, humidifier thing like that into another room. There’s no need for a full blown make over but staying aware of space will keep the shoot focused.
Now that the hard part is out of the way the last bits are hair, make up and wardrobe.
For hair and makeup enlisting a friend to come over and hang out with you to keep you tip top is highly recommended and preferred, heck bring a whole team. This will do a lot like help set you at ease and let us focus on photos knowing that all the odds and ends are taken care of.
Wardrobe is even easier just go with your heart. Pajamas to negligees, corsets to band tees. What ever makes your heart sing or makes you feel the coziest will be what gets you your favorite photos to date!
I hope this little entry finds its way to all of you nervous wrecks out there looking to break out and create some exciting photos for yourselves.
☺️🙏🏾
