11 comments

Diary of a Failed Fashion Blogger: How Many Photographs Is too Many?

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Along my blogging journey, I have often pondered how many outfit photos to include in my posts. It was so difficult to choose—not because I thought I looked so fabulous in all of them, but because it’s nearly impossible to be objective about my own image.

So I just included every photo that seemed inoffensive. And that was usually too many.

In recent years I began to really scale back and include just two or three photos per post. I began to consider fewer photos as a sign of experience, professionalism and editorial judgement. After all, our founder Jennine Jacob often included just one photo in her outfit posts—the ultimate in restraint!

And then I came across this post by Aimee Song of Song of Style: TWENTY THREE photos! This from one of the most successful fashion bloggers in the world. Clearly, having lots of photos is not equivalent to lack of good judgement.

Or, do you think it's too many?

No doubt all of Aimee's photos are gorgeous, and they're also arranged interestingly. As a reader you want more–and maybe that’s the key: if your photos leave readers wanting more, give them more. If your photos are slight variations of the same image again and again, think about eliminating a few.

Determining that for yourself is, perhaps, the trick. It's a skill that comes with experience, and one that I'm still honing six years into my fashion blogging life.

In the end, the answer is likely different for every blogger: one photo worked perfectly for Jennine, and 23 works great for Aimee. Maybe four is my magic number and it's up to me to figure out what's resonating best with my readers.

How many photos do you include in your posts? How many do you think is too many? I’d love to discuss in the comments!

[Photos by Sofala Mai and Brad Wittke and via Song of Style]

11 Responses

Al Warren July 27, 2016

I try to limit myself to no more than 8. Any more seems like a never-ending scroll fest! LOL!

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- Kristen August 9, 2016
  
  Haha I tend to agree!! 🙂
  
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Zuma July 27, 2016

You are so right, Kristen! I do think it all depends on a blogger and there is no right or wrong answer. I post about 5-6 photographs to show the look (or whatever is the topic) from different angles. xoxo Zuma
www.splashofteal.com

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Devinne S. July 27, 2016

It really depends! I usually use around 8-10, but that’s because I aim to tell a story through my pictures. My rule of thumb: with every picture, I ask myself if it’s really necessary!

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- Kristen August 9, 2016
  
  That is a great rule to follow, I do the exact same!
  
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Everest July 29, 2016

I love that layout that songofstyle did!
I usually post 6-8 pictures in total, probably I haven’t got that many nice pics too!

Cheers,
Everest
www.everestsays.com

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- Zuma July 31, 2016
  
  Yes, that too! I don’t think I can come up with that many great pics! xo Zuma
  www.splashofteal.com
  
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SaraLily August 4, 2016

I tend to post 8-14 pictures. I try to narrow them down so that none are too repetitive but don’t want to narrow them down so much that I don’t have enough photo to break up the text. I like to include a story/anecdote/whatever with each post and photos to break up the text is good – people are scrollers/scanners and may not even read the text. They just want the images – I think it differs for every blogger.

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- Kristen August 9, 2016
  
  It’s true, ironically, so many “readers” don’t actually want to read! Which is distressing since writing is more my thing than posting for a camera, but I keep trying to imporve!
  
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  - Kristen August 9, 2016
    
    POSING* darn autocorrect :/
April Kusewicz September 14, 2016

3 or 4 photos… if its just outfits …if there is story like travels and such, im posting more.

http://www.aprilwashere.com

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