A few weeks ago we were looking up a project by a favorite blogger that Sage had remembered seeing a few years ago and wanted to include in a roundup on our blog. When we finally found it in her archives, we were shocked — it wasn’t at all the way Sage had remembered it. The photo of the final reveal was so small and dark, with a distinct yellow tint. And this is a big-name blogger, one who we know is a talented photographer and takes gorgeous photos. So what gives?
We spend a lot of time trying to take nice photos of our projects and homes. It’s one of the most time-consuming parts of blogging besides actually doing the projects, and we know all you other bloggers reading this would agree. But in the pinterest-fueled world of DIY blogging, taking gorgeous photos is an absolute necessity. It can drive a person crazy (getting a submission on craft gawker rejected because it isn’t taken on a perfectly white background is so infuriating), but it’s also hard to believe/remember that it wasn’t always the case. Yet this tiny dark photo staring at us from the archives was a stark statement about how much the industry and our expectations are changing.
We all know blogging has changed a lot as it’s moved out of its infancy — we’ve seen big shifts in how many people are bloggers, the ways we make money, how our readers consume and interact with our content, and on and on and on. As an emerging industry, naturally it’s changing. We’re not going to write a long post today about all those changes, but we thought it would be interesting to focus in on just one piece: photography.
Rather than drone on and on, we figured we’d have some fun comparing old and recent photos from some of the big name bloggers many of us know and love, and who we know take awesome photos. We went hunting through their archives (generally 2007 – 20011) to pick out some old photos they’d each posted — these are the photos they were posting as their blogs were gaining popularity and moving them into the spotlight. This isn’t about picking on anyone for their photography — to prove it, we’ll start with an old photo of Sage’s from her first blog (did you know she had a blog before we met? It was called Beacon Street Manor. Little did she know what the future held!). Instead it’s just meant as a stark demonstration of how much our norms around photography have changed.
So here’s Sage’s comparison, on the left a photo she posted in 2012 and on the right a recent photo she shared of her living room. It’s not like she’s become a professional, but it’s definitely a pretty big change. After all, we both invested in a DSLR and now spend a ton of time trying to get the “perfect” shot. (Be sure to check out our tips for shooting with a DSLR as a newbie.)
But let’s move on to a lesser known blog: Young House Love. Just kidding obviously, you guys remain an inspiration AND WE MISS YOU SO MUCH! On the left is a photo from a project they did in 2007, and on the right is a recent photo from instagram AND let’s keep in mind that they aren’t even actively blogging anymore (like we could have forgotten). Seriously, look at these photos next to each other.
Photo credit: Young House Love
Next we have the ladies who we’re pretty sure invented perfectly-styled crafting photography: A Beautiful Mess. It’s nice to know that even they took less perfect photos back in 2008. It’s a totally fine photo, but compare it — on the left — with a recent photo on the right that was taken for a post about searching for a new house. DIY blogging photography has gotten so intense that we now have styled shots to accompany non-DIY projects, and we don’t think twice about it.
Photo credit: A Beautiful Mess
Next up is Mandi at Vintage Revivals, an extremely talented DIYer who also takes gorgeous photos. But look at how much her photography has changed over time — compare a project from 2010 with one from this past spring.
Photo credit: Vintage Revivals
Lastly we have Centsational Girl, a staple in the DIY blogging world. She’s a very talented photographer with a lovely home. You can see it in the two photos below, both of bathrooms that she made over — the left one taken in 2011, the right one this year.
Photo credit: Centsational Girl
When you see all the photos side-by-side like this, it’s kind of crazy. We now expect bloggers to produce magazine-worthy photos of their projects and homes plus churn out content on a daily basis — and yet it hasn’t always been that way. It wasn’t that way when many of us got interested in DIY, and yet we still fell in love with the industry enough for it to experience the boom that it has. But today, bloggers could never put out the kind of photos that were commonplace even a few years ago.
Obviously we think it’s fascinating, and would love to hear your thoughts! Why have our expectations changed so dramatically? Are we being too hard on ourselves and on each other? Or is this just the natural evolution of an industry that’s maturing and getting more professionalized, and where creative people who love DIY are also learning to love photography?
(Sharing at Weekend Retreat Link Party, Think and Make Thursday, and Thrifty Decor Chick’s October Before and After)
One day I would love to get a DSLR and hope that it will improve my photos. There are so many beautifully created pictures on blogs, pinterest & instagram out there – it feels sometimes like we all have to be a stylist, but it’s fun.
It’s definitely fun! But it’s a lot of pressure too, it’s just so interesting to think how much it’s changed!
I’m way behind on photography but I wanted to thank you for your posts on publishing in general. After reading your article on Serif I checked it out and subsequently ordered their publishing software. It doesn’t seem to go with Windows 10 very well — at least I couldn’t make it work with 10 — but I downloaded to a different computer with Windows 7, and it’s great. I’m back in the family newsletter business!
Hi Bonnie – I’m glad you found the info about Serif helpful! I love the program and find it pretty useful. Nice to hear that you’re back into family newsletters!
I heard or read long ago that as you see better images, your own images improve. That industry would say bloggers are merely progressing from “a quick snapshot” to better photography.
One blogger improves slightly and begins the improvement of other bloggers and their followers.
Exposure, lighting, and scene all gradually improve for each blogger influenced.
It’s not that the DSLR is allowing you to take better photos, collectively. It’s that you decided to learn the extra information to use your DSLR to its fullest. Might be curiosity, might be desire to not waste money. Might be there are more DSLR camera tutorials for bloggers than pocket digital camera tutorials. Blogging about the new skills, and new perceptions further spreads improvement.
It’s the person using the camera, not the camera taking the photos. “Wow, this is a great cake; you must have an amazing oven.”
Ha… I love that cake/oven comment and hadn’t thought about it that way. In the examples above, I’m sure a lot of the difference is in the styling/composition/using the camera settings etc.
But I was actually just thinking that at least part of it is the better technology. A lot of the ‘befores’ above were also grainy/fuzzy. I know when I switched from the point&shoot digital camera that was new in 2004 to one that was new in 2011, it made a huge difference (with no change in my skill level ;-). And now even the iphone camera is really good at automatically adjusting to the light level and taking a nice picture.
Also, I wonder if the hosting servers had lower size limits then…
It’s definitely amazing how much the technology has changed, even for camera phones!
A great point! Composition, lighting, and more fully understanding camera settings makes a huge difference even if the camera itself is constant.
I think some of it reflects a change in photography in general though. It’s also a lot tougher to stand out as a photographer these days because it has become so much easier for ordinary people to take great photos. I think this is partly because of knowledge (as mentioned above) and the easy access to tutorials created by YouTube, but it’s also partly due to the tech improving and coming down in price (making it more accessible) as well as access to image editing software.
Totally. As a total amateur, I was pretty amazed at how much better my photography was with just a high-quality camera and the ability to edit on my laptop. But now I look back at some of those early shots and see that I’ve still improved just by learning more of the technical details.
Hi. I am new to blogging (blogging with my daughter’s) so I found your article very educational! Am going to read your post on DSLR for newbies–thanks!
Thanks Donna! And there are tons of awesome resources out there more informative than ours about how to use a DSLR, but we figured we’d just cover some of the obvious things without getting into anything technical. Your blog is so cute!
I’m new to blogging and I suppose I’m doing it more for my own benefit to keep as a good memory while I’m living in a new country. But I totally feel pressure to take better photos than what I do. I just use my smart phone and adjust the tone to make it as true to life as possible. I honestly just can’t be bothered to do anything more. It would be so exhausting fretting over it (and styling a photos for non DIY projects like you mentioned just seems ridiculous).
Phone photos sounds good enough to me! Anything more is definitely time consuming, I think you have to like exploring photography in its own right to feel like it’s worth it and even then it’s a lot… 🙂
It’s crazy isn’t it!? I look at my photos even a year ago and cringe! Thank you so much for sharing at our link party – we’ve pinned to a couple of our Pinterest boards!
Thanks Shannon, glad to hear we’re not the only ones thinking this! It’s changing so fast but even so it can be hard to realize sometimes. Thanks for stopping by and for sharing on Pinterest!
I’ve only been blogging 6 months and I’ve already noticed a big difference in my photography but still have some way to go yet. I do find the photography part of blogging the most time consuming but one of the most important. I’m a very visual person and am drawn by pictures more than words. I do love blogs like yours with great photography and find that they help inspire my styling.
Thank you, Claire! I think you have some really lovely photos! It is definitely the most time consuming for me, too… even just cleaning and setting up the shot, but then also choosing the image and editing it.
Sage and Naomi, this post encouraged me SO much. I just got my first DSLR and have been so overwhelmed with trying to learn it and learn to take good pictures. This post was great. I love the then and now pictures and seeing that even really well known bloggers started somewhere. I read this post when you first posted it and it inspired me to start a photo a day to get better. I’m also going to do a weekly photo challenge on my blog to get other people involved. Thank you for writing such a helpful post and for the encouragement!
<3 Jessie
Thanks for commenting Jessie — it’s awesome to know that you found the post helpful and encouraging! And the idea of weekly photo challenge sounds so fun, definitely stop back and share the link with us and we’d love to check it out!
This is such a great and encouraging article! Right now I am totally at the ‘Before’ stage with my photography, particularly of rooms. I find it so hard to get the lighting right in my teeny tiny english cottage! I love your other post on DSLR tips, but do you have any others on this? A full ‘better blog photos’ post would be amazing! 🙂
Thanks Anna! We thought about doing a more in-depth post but wondered if it would be helpful since it sometimes feels like a lot of other folks have done similar things, but it’s great to know you think it would be! Maybe we’ll follow up with something more in-depth!