Are you looking to take your brand’s photography to the next level? Check out these four hacks to help you look like a professional!

So you want to cut cost’s because let’s be real, a photoshoot would be great to have done to advertise everything your brand does, but for many people and companies it’s not achievable, here are a couple of tips that can help you until you can afford that big-time photoshoot for your brand. So grab your new iPhone or your camera, and let’s shoot some photos!

Natural light. This nifty tool is your best friend! It makes your photos look five times better! When shooting your products, shooting outside or near a window with lots of natural light makes all the difference, but try to avoid having too much direct light, this can be too harsh to the photo. It tends to make objects look over-edited and make your photos look as if they’re lower quality, natural light will help your photos have more of a “true white” this means it won’t come out too blue or yellow. It will also help with how grainy your photo’s look in the end. Now, put that new camera to work!

White poster board. Hear me out, something so cheap and simple can be a game-changer! I always have one or two ready to use. It is great for a flat lay, all you have to do is correctly crop the photo, and it can make you look just like a professional! If your room is a little dark, you can use the white poster board as a reflector. Pro-tip! If you take a headshot, hold a white poster board at your chest. It will help remove the dark circles under your eyes. If you want to splurge, grab a couple of different colored poster boards, this will allow you to set up a little photo studio! 

Editing. Investing in Photoshop or Lightroom apps to edit your photos is something I would highly suggest, you can buy presets that edit your photos to be different color schemes to create an aesthetic. Just having one of those programs can help you adjust the lighting quickly, giving your photos a finished look that contains everything above, this will make it look like you just had a professional photoshoot.

Crop it like it’s hot. I always joke that I am the queen of the crop. I think you can make almost anything look good, as long as you know how to crop it right. Not always having the focal point in the middle of the photo lets the viewer move around the picture. If you are curating an Instagram feed moving around the focal point makes your feed look more visually interesting, you can also turn on the grid feature on any iPhone camera, it helps you see how you can change where the focal points are and helps you when cropping your photos.

Now that you have these tips, I am expecting all of you to rock social media! I am all for creating a small little photo studio with some colored poster boards. You can’t go wrong with that! Have at it photo experts!