Flat Lay photography is becoming more and more popular, it is a so-called still life of the 21st century. I wouldn’t be myself if I hadn’t tried to use this style 🙂 That’s why I would like to share my 14 photo tips for better Flat Lay photography. To be honest, I have stolen some from famous photographers.
1. Camera position
A Flat Lay is basically when you’re shooting items from directly above. Usually those items are arranged or styled on the flat surface.
2. Light
The best light is soft daylight, for example near the window in the morning. The perfect weather is a cloudy, since you’ll get more neutral and balanced light. Use the reflector on the opposite side. And not to be dependent on weather conditions, you can use Light Cube, 2 Soft Boxes or even LED Ring.
3. Background
Find some backgrounds. This will save your time while shooting and then while retouching. For example, an A3 format sheet of paper (white, black or gray-brown-crimson), non-transparent cover, fluffy carpets, kraft paper, burlap, textile napkins or even a map! And you can order or make a special photo background, which is is a wooden “1mx1m” board, it can be with a wooden, concrete or marble coating. In general, it all depends on your style, needs, or what you can find at home ; )
4. Color
Actually, for me this is a complicated topic. I recommend you to choose two or three favorite colours and stick to them in all your photos. Or use The Color Wheel. Also you could read the book “Art of Color” by Johannes Itten.
5. Empty Space
Since the Flat Lay photos are flat (Captain Obvious), we cannot show the dynamic or space, but we can add some ‘negative space’, i.e. the space which has no information. This way we will create an imaginary space, where you can easily add some text, for example.
6. Chaos
Disorder of elements makes the viewer stay longer to find ‘the main hero’ in the photo.
7. Imagination
Did your parents tell you not to play with food in your childhood? But we are adults already and can play the way we want 😉 Do not kill the a child in yourself.
8. Lines
All long objects usually show some direction. To create structure or harmony, they should be parallel (or perpendicular) in relation to others objects.
9. Hands/feet
Also, people manage to add hands/feet to the composition. For example, a hand that reads a book, a foot half covered with a blanket, and sometimes even more… Such pictures tell about a person as much as portraits do. I really tried to take pictures like that – it’s hard. But you can try too, ask relatives to help you.
10. Food
It is important that a photo of food is already like a recipe, so do not photograph incompatible products (for example, ice cream and broccoli or poisonous flowers in food – even if they are great in color). But next to the dish you can put the ingredients from which it is made or a beautiful spoon / fork and other kitchen props. Olga Drach has already shared more information about how to take food pictures here.
11. Workplace
All rules above are suitable to this point, plus you can add some of your favorite details. Therefore, first of all, I suggest starting to photograph the work environment. A table, a laptop, a monitor (or two), a flower, stationery and other details and cute little things.
12. Fashion
Girls will be girls… A very popular topic is ‘What’s in my bag?’. Rhythm looks great in beauty Flat Lay – when the same jars or similar products are repeated, when we build diagonals, circles, lines, semicircles from them. You can add greens, flowers, fruits, sweets (everything that is associated with nature, water and naturalness). All this looks beautiful. You can even sprinkle something, smudge against a bright background that has already been prepared, or use 2-3 backgrounds that overlap in one photo and are compatible in color.
13. Kids toys
Another popular topic, and a very bright one, so why not? Involve children in your photo game – for example, you can arrange a photo shoot of children’s toys. Children have fun and you have practice. As a result, you will learn how to choose beautiful color combinations.
14. Photo editing
The main thing you need to know while photo retouching is that the original image should already have a high quality, not too dark and not too light, and remaining natural after retouching. White should always be white 😉
Came up with a photo idea? Got inspired? If you would like to have more information, how to take pictures at home, please contact me at ulianaprotsak@gmail.com
