Five Top Tips for Taking Flat Lays

We can’t say it enough, food photography is a huge part of pulling readers in to read your blog, if your photos can do that then you’ve already won half the battle. However, amazing photos and styling doesn’t always come naturally to everyone, so thankfully we have Becky, who writes at Bright Side Blog, on hand to share her top tips for creating stunning Flat Lays.

Over to Becky…

If you’re an Instagram fan, as many of us are, then you can’t help but notice how many beautiful Flat Lays there are filling your stream these days. Flat Lays are a simple, classic and stylish way to show off your favourite ‘little bits of life’.

We know (from personal experience) that the perfectly Flat Lay can look quite intimidating. How do you get that perfect light? The perfect colour palette? How do you place the items perfectly?

We’d like to share five tips to inspire you with your own Flat Lays.

1. Forget Perfect

This isn’t about perfection! It’s about trial and error. What are you looking for? What do you want?

Decide which items are important to tell your story.
Start by choosing a background. A tablecloth, a tile, the kitchen floor… something that compliments the items your photographing, Try patterns, backgrounds don’t always have to be plain. When you’re happy, try putting your camera on ‘live view’ mode and keep checking to see if your items look good from a birds eye view.

2. Leave space between your objects

Play around with the distance of your objects. Too many items can look cluttered , so try playing around with the spacing. Not everything has to be perfectly two inches apart – but space lets the eye wander around the image.

3. Colour Palette

Simplistic and yet effective Flat Lays often centre around a colour theme. Theres nothing as overwhelming as a Flat Lay that has too much going on. Try getting your background to work well with your colour palette, don’t always feel you have to go for something stark and white, try blankets, material and in the summer why not use grass for your holiday Flat Lays.

4. Practice

It’s always that old word that pops up with Flat Lays. Practice makes perfect. If at first you don’t succeed… move something!
Find some inspiration. If you see something you like, then bear it in mind for the next time you play with Flat Lays. Screen shot your favourites from your Instagram stream, or ask your Flay Lay idols for advice. You’ll often find that people are happy to share tips that can help you.

5. Play with your Angles and Lighting

Not everything has to be ‘straight shooting’. Try shooting angles, see what suits your items the best, then tweak accordingly. The more you shoot Flat Lays, the more you’ll find you build up a prop box of backgrounds, plates, tiles and lighting soloutions that will help you to tweak your images.
If you’re getting frustrated with your lighting and it isn’t right, then try moving nearer your windows. Natural daylight is the best friend of a Flat Lay.