Posted on by Holly

Top Ten Tuesday: My Bookstagram Process

Happy Tuesday!! We’ve made it to the last week of TTT before the bloggers over at The Broke and the Bookish come back with their great themes. As a last hurrah I’m going to share something silly and fun: 10 steps of my bookstagram process.  I started my bookstagram account (@nutfreenerd) over a year ago and I’m so glad I did! Not only do I love looking at everyone’s gorgeous photos, but I also love interacting with other bookworms.

Anyone who posts bookish photos knows how ridiculous taking them can feel sometimes (especially in busy places!) but that’s also what makes it fun. Whether you’re inside, outside, or somewhere in between, one thing is certain: taking photos can definitely be a process. Here’s my bookstagram photo-taking process:

1. Choose a location.

This is a beautiful park near my house that’s my new favorite photo spot.

The first thing to do it decide where you’ll be taking pictures. Inside? Outside? Outside in your front yard or somewhere else? Lately my account’s feed alters between inside and outside pictures so I end up doing a fair amount of both locations.

2. Choose books.

SO MANY BOOKS. This step usually takes me a long time and results in a tornado of books on my bedroom floor.

3. Pack.

Can I fit my entire bookcase into a backpack from middle school? CHALLENGE ACCEPTED. (And ultimately failed…)

4. Transport and set up. 

Sometimes this step is easy, particularly if I stay inside and decide to take photos using my phone. However, it can get tricky when I go to the park with my camera, tripod, and bag of books. There’s so much to lug around!

5. Choose a few different angles.

Finding new angles is one of my favorite aspects of taking photos. Just when you think you’ve exhausted them all, a new one jumps out at you!

6. Actually take the photos.

When you realize the lens cap is still on the camera *face palm*

Here it is, folks: the moment we’ve all been waiting for. Bust out those cameras and say CHEESE.

7. Take even more photos.

I’m always afraid that my camera is out of focus or the lighting isn’t good enough, so I make sure to take WAY MORE photos than I’ll ever need. Chances are that at least one of them will be decent, right?

8. Resist the urge to photograph Watsky’s book for the billionth time.

Note: This step nearly always fails.

This is a hard one– perhaps the most difficult step of them all. If you look at my account you’ll notice that How to Ruin Everything appears in SO MANY of my photos… it’s just such a beautiful cover design!!

9. Sort.

Jumping in the air looked way cooler in my mind, I promise.

Taking a million photos at a time means that there are a million photos to sort through later. Sorting is key because you inevitably end up with ridiculous photos like the one shown above.

10. Post!!!

Finally, it is time to post your photos. I love reading and replying to everyone’s comments!!

Are you part of the bookstagram community? (Let me know so I can follow you!!) What is your bookstagram process like? Do you have a favorite book to photograph? Do you follow a posting schedule? Let me know in the comments section below!

Yours,

HOLLY

53 Replies to “Top Ten Tuesday: My Bookstagram Process”

  1. This is so interesting! I changed my feed earlier this year and now mainly focus on outdoor pictures. Especially the ones I can take during the final hour before the sunset (I am in love with warm colours).
    https://www.instagram.com/whimsypages/

    But my process is quite similar to yours 😀 Pack a bag of books and other props and go for an hour walk to take hundredth of pictures. My doggy loves the walks also (not the posing part though!)

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  3. This is quite helpful as I seem to post on Instagram infrequently when I have read a book rather than on a daily basis. I might have to set up a schedule and give this method a go! Thanks Holly 🙂

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  10. I’m not part of bookstagram, but Shar is, so I still look at everyone’s photos. I really like your ones! When I take photos for blogging I’m mostly focused on making the books look interesting. I’ts kind of sad though, because Shar’s the one with the camera, I don’t really feel like doing so much photography which I used to really love, but I have to take lots of photos for volunteering atm, so I’m kinda getting back into it.

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    1. Thanks!! I can totally relate because that’s basically why I started this bookstagram account… I kept getting the urge to post books pics on my regular instagram 🙂

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  12. I’ve had a bookstagram for awhile and never *really* got into it and used it. I’ve finally bought myself a dslr camera and I actually want to teach myself photography now so fingers crossed I end up with some nice bookish photos to share! 🙂 Your photos are so nice, I love them! This was a really cute idea for a TTT post 🙂

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  14. Interesting, this was a fun post to read about your bookstagram process!! Your proceeds is so unique and it was funny when one of the steps was you trying to fit all the books into a backpack!!

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    1. Thank you!! But believe me, I’m not that great at photography either… I mostly just learn stuff from my younger brother because he’s really into photography and film and tech stuff like that. He’s such a big help when I have questions 🙂

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  16. It’s cool to look into the process for taking photos for Bookstagram. I have an account but I have been quite lax in posting the past few months. I really should start sharing bookish photos again.

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    1. I struggle with the creative part of it as well sometimes. Some days it feels like I’ve already done every bookish post there is to do! Finding new locations for taking photos always helps when I feel like that 🙂

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  20. It was so much fun learning about your bookstagram process! You’re lucky you live near to such a beautiful park! There are a few in my area as well so I definitely think I’ll start taking some books to and taking photos there. 🙂 England’s weather is super bad though so I have to resort to inside photos mostly! XD

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    1. I feel like I’m going to have that problem too when I study abroad in England… I’ll have to get creative at working around the weather haha 🙂 I hope you have fun taking bookish photos! ❤

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  21. Woah you have like a tripod and stuff. I only have a pretty good point- and -shoot camera, but my bookstagram process is otherwise much the same as yours. I used to take photos in my room, but now I do it in my backyard. But currently monsoon means that it’s always wet, which really really annoys me *growls*. I’ve had to wait for breaks in the weather to avoid getting books wet!

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    1. Monsoon season?! Oh no!! Let books are definitely not good! I only use my tripod and nicer camera when I’m feeling particularly ambitious… most of the time my camera on my phone is what I have on hand 🙂

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