Beauty Blog Photography on a Budget - Part 1: Setting up an Improvised Studio

I don't own a fancy state-of-the-art camera nor can I boast with an elaborate studio with professional lighting or skills for that matter. In fact, for the last two years I've been taking pictures with my mobile phone Samsung Galaxy S2. My pictures aren't even close to professional, but they are decent, so today I'm sharing my knowledge that I acquired during my years of blogging, while trying to keep the whole thing as budget friendly as possible. 

I've been planning on doing this series forever, but since I'm a complete amateur, that fact always pulled me back, but sod it, here it is. It is in three parts: first dealing with location, background and lighting, in the second I share tips about taking pictures (with a smartphone) and I discuss editing in the last part.

Let begin with the background. You can just take pictures wherever you like as long as it has good lighting. Outdoors, indoors, with a cluttered background or not - it really doesn't matter, just make sure it's not too distracting so it might take focus from the product(s). White background is a nice, classic, simple option and it's best for accurately showing the shades of the products, so if you're determined about having a white, clean background, but the place where you take your pictures is anything but white, the solution is damn simple - large sheets of paper. They are cheap as chips and when they get dirty, you simply replace them. Currently I use one A2 sheet for the background, but before I've done renovations and the desk was beech, I used another one for a base (by the way, I suggest a thicker paper, I buy them in Müller). Of course, I don't always use a white background, I prefer to mix it up a little and different textures in the back can really make a picture.

I highly suggest taking pictures in natural light, however, avoid direct sunlight as it's quite a harsh light and strong shadows are cast, not to mention it's too yellow and it'll compromise the accuracy of colours and swatches. Indoors take pictures by the window, but try to avoid hours with strong sunlight. Pictures in this post were taken during a storm meaning there was very little of natural light, but as you can see it can be done even without an expensive camera and lighting.

Where I take pictures the source of natural light (a.k.a. the window) is on the left. So how to avoid it looking darker on the right? There is a very simple, low cost solution that I learned from Makeup Savvy and here is a whole post dedicated to it. So to make an improvised reflector, take a piece of cardboard or an old folder, basically anything that has a hard surface. Now go to the kitchen, grab some aluminium foil and tape it on one side of the chosen surface. You'll place this on the side opposite of the natural light source and it will reflect the light, making that part of the setting as well as the image lighter.

If you find your location is not light enough (like in storm conditions as in my case), use an additional source of light. My improvised "studio" light is a work/office lamp I got from Ikea for 15€ and it's bloody brilliant because I can set it the way I want to (btw for Slovene readers, there is a very similar one in Merkur for 13 €, I checked yesterday). I have another lamp as back-up in case it's still not light enough and it's again a cheap, simple night light that I purchased a million years ago. 

Use a cool daylight light bulb -  I have a Phillips Economy Twister Cool Daylight (15W, E27), which was about 6 € in a local hardware store, but I plan to get a brighter one. So many brands make these, it doesn't even have to be this shape, LED's are nice as well, just make sure it's cool daylight and not warm (warm means yellow toned), somewhere around 5000 - 6500K is great.
Edit (2.1.2015): I did get brighter/stronger bulbs from the same brand. Both are 23W and when I have both on, it looks almost like day. I have taken several pictures at night by now and they are just as good. Picture of the bulb with the packaging here.

This is optional and I usually don't do it - to make the lighting a bit softer, so it doesn't cast strong shadows (especially in the case of strong lighting), you'll need to make an improvised soft box - I use one layer of tissue taped over the mouth of the lamp. White T-shirt works as well. 

There is no need for an expensive tripod, I use boxes.

And that's the improvised studio done. See how simple it is? 

If you have any tips as well, I'd love the read them in the comments.

Part two dealing with how to take photos for a beauty blog (with a smartphone) will follow soon. Until then have a great day!