Flat Lay Photography

Flat lay has easily become my favourite thing to do over the past few months. I spend so many hours laying out different products taking loads of flat lay photos, some of which turn out incredibly bad and some I love. I wanted to write a post on it and some tips that I've learnt so far. 

Before I get into this post, I wanted to say that I'm not an expert whatsoever, I'm still learning and trying to make my flat lay as neat as I possibly can, but here's my tips: 

Take loads of photos and move things around: I take loads of photos in a go and then normally move a lot of the things around and take loads more photos, that way I have a lot of choices and see what looks better. I also take the photos in landscape and portrait because it sometimes looks better one way or another. 

Take photos somewhere where it's easy to photograph from above: I find it incredibly difficult to take photos on something high up (like my desk), while keeping the camera still. It's so much easier to take photos of something that's quite low. I take flat lay photos on my chest of drawers because they're low, so I can take still photos from above. My tripod also doesn't go really tall, so taking pictures on my chest of drawers means that I can use my tripod. Taking photos on the floor would be good also.

Plan: This isn't something that you need to do, but this is something that I do occasionally and find quite fun. I sometimes draw out ideas that I have so I don't forget, then when I go to take the photos, I have some idea of how I want them. 

Add things: I don't always like gaps in between each product or whatever I'm taking a photo of. So I like to add mini pinecones or rings or something to fill in the spaces. 

Blu Tack can become an essential: If you're taking photos of something that's likely to roll away on a flat surface (like my chest of drawers), Blu Tack it down so it stays! I do this all the time and it's so helpful and has become really handy.

Practice: Practice, practice, practice! It's taken me practice and I do still need more practice, but you'll get there. I like to try and make mine as neat as I can. Practice makes perfect, right?

Look for inspiration: I don't mean copy others, but there's a TON of flat lays online that you can scroll through and get inspiration from if you're stuck. There's a lot of different flat lays online, like for cooking/fashion/makeup, etc...

I hope you enjoyed this post, I enjoyed writing it. Flat lay is something I really enjoy, so I thought I'd share my few tips and what I do to create it! Do you like flat lay?:-) 

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