How I Take My Flat Lay Images

Recently I have started to share a lot more posts on how I take my photographs, I personally find them so interesting to read and it’s always great to get an insight in how someone else does something. It always gets me motivated or inspired so I thought I would share my process on how I take my flat lay images. I love this style of photo, it’s fun to style but can be quite stressful to get right!

I tried to take this Instagram shot about three times, I just couldn’t get the angle right, the props didn’t look right and in the end I just gave up, it took three attempts before I got a shot I was happy with. I put into practice my own tips that I shall share and hopefully this won’t happen again, I finally got the shot, thankfully!

how-i-take-my-flat-lay-images-6PIN IT!Flat lay images are taken directly above the items, I have a board on Pinterest – Photo Styling – that has so many pins that are flat lay images but also just beautifully styled shots that are great for getting some inspiration. Pinterest is probably the best place to get motivated and inspired, it’s full of so many pretty pictures and brilliant tips posts for bloggers.

Lighting
Obviously lighting is always key to any image, I’m lucky that I have big windows on two sides of my bedroom so I have a lot of natural lighting, I just have to be careful to not get any shadows. This can be sorted out with just bouncing the light. I do this by holding a big piece of white card behind the products that have shadows, I don’t know if this is correct however it works for me and my shadows disappear. You can purchase actual reflectors from JessopsYou can of course edit your images if you aren’t blessed with good natural lighting.

how-i-take-my-flat-lay-images-7PIN IT!Style Through The Lens
If you are struggling with product placement the easiest way to nail it is styling through the lens. I clear my background, hold the camera in position and then looking through the lens/screen I place the items down into position. This way I can see how the image will look instantly as apposed to placing everything down in a way I think looks nice and then it actually doesn’t work once the image has been taken. It saves a lot of time and effort and works every time for me, it’s how I finally got my shot for the Instagram image I was struggling with.

how-i-take-my-flat-lay-images-1PIN IT!how-i-take-my-flat-lay-images-5PIN IT!how-i-take-my-flat-lay-images-2PIN IT!how-i-take-my-flat-lay-images-8PIN IT!Best Area of Shot
Sometimes I place objects everywhere, in every nook and cranny and then I take shots of different areas. This way I can see what works and what doesn’t without having to style multiple photos. When I find an area that does work the best, I just focus on that and get snapping.

Bulk Images
If I’m on a roll with the styling and I’m loving the set up and how everything looks, sometimes I just change a couple of the props between images to get a bulk set of shots. Then I can just upload to Instagram whenever I like as the images are all ready to go. If you’re curious on how I edit my Instagram photos, you can check out my post here.

I hope you have found this post somewhat helpful, styling through the lens is probably the key for me as it helps me so much when I’m struggling with placement. Do let me know if you have any tips below, I’d love to learn more.

How do you take your flat lays?

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