Flat Lay Photography
In this tutorial, you’re going to learn flat lay photography and how to make your photos look like a pro has taken them. And we’re only going to use budget equipment.
I’ll show you how to get great flat lay photography using just a window, a cheap second-hand camera or phone and a piece of polystyrene!
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What is Flat Lay Photography?
Flat Lay Photography is a photograph taken from directly above looking down on usually products or food. It gives a bird’s eye view of what it is your photographing and is an extremely popular genre of photography on social media. It’s a great way to show off products from a small business, plates of food from restaurants or just to have a bit of fun at home.
Food Flat Lay Photography - Credit – ReplicaSurfaces.com
Flat Lay Photography - Credit – ReplicaSurfaces.com
Theme and Feeling
The first thing you need is a theme or feeling you want to achieve. Try not to go in blind, what mode would suit the things you want to photograph? Is it a dark moody scene of mechanical products or a bright fresh theme for coffee and cake.
Food Flat Lay Photography - Credit – ReplicaSurfaces.com
Food Flat Lay Photography - Credit – ReplicaSurfaces.com
Flat Lay Photography with Cameras
What to photograph?
What you choose to photograph will also dictate the feeling of the shot. If it’s for your business or restaurant then clearly what you sell will be the focus but if doing it for yourself try to choose something that’s personal to you or something you have a passion for.
We are a photography training company so for our example I’m going to use my lovely collection of old classic cameras.
Flat lay Backgrounds
Your flat lay background is going to be an important part of your shot and you need it to match the mood you’re going for. You can use anything for a background, piece of wood, table, piece of vinyl etc., or you can get backgrounds that are specifically made for flat lay photography which are the ones we use for our example supplied by ReplicaSufaces.com.
These ready-made backgrounds are great as they’re made ridged and come in a variety of styles making your job a lot easier when creating flat lays.
Check out the range of backgrounds available from www.ReplicaSurfaces.com
Flat Lay Lighting
All photographs need light and flat lay photography is no different. The rule here is the lighter the better and generally, it’s a soft light that works best for this type of photography. Use a big window for your main light source and if there is harsh light coming through the window you can simply put net curtains or chiffon fabric onto the window which will diffuse the light, making it soft.
Then you need to use a reflector to fill in any shadows or dark areas. In my example, I simply use a piece of white polystyrene (a white piece of card will also work) and a silver reflector to bounce back the light and fill in the shadow areas.
Softening light with chiffon fabric
White card or polystyrene for reflector
No reflector
With white reflector
Balance
The next thing is to set out your products in order so they will look good. In photography, this is called composition and it’s a really important part of any photograph. For more in-depth knowledge on composition click here.
In flat flay photos, the main thing to get right is the balance of the shot. Think of it like a set of scales, what you have on one side of the shot, try to have the same or similar on the other side. This is not an exact science and it’s good to experiment but just don’t have a big object on one side of the shot and nothing on the opposite side.
Flat Lay Photography with clothing - Credit – ReplicaSurfaces.com
Camera
So, you can use any camera for this from a mobile phone to a DSLR. If it’s just for Instagram then a mobile phone will do fine, but if it’s for more professional use like on websites or print, I recommend using a DSLR camera.
This is because using a phone can sometimes give more noise in the image and on a DSLR you can control things like focal length and minimalize camera shake.
Credit – ReplicaSurfaces.com
Food Flat Lay Photography - Credit – ReplicaSurfaces.com
Camera Settings for flay lay photography
You don’t need to know the ins and out of photography for this type of shot but just knowing a couple of things will improve your photography greatly.
Lenses, particularly mobile phone lenses, can obscure the scene and flat lay photos suit what’s called an ‘as your eye’s sees’ focal length. This means the objects and scene will look as close to the real thing as possible.
On most DSLR cameras this will be a focal length between 30-35mm. This can be different on cameras with different sensor sizes and to find out the exact as your eye sees focal length on different camera click below.
Camera Sensor Size Comparison – Which one is right for you?
To avoid camera shake set your camera to its Tv or S mode which is called shutter speed priority. Then set the camera’s shutter speed to 1/125th of a second. If you’re still seeing a slight blur at this setting change it to 1/250th of a second.
Then put your ISO onto Auto and make sure you have plenty of light available.
In summary
Camera mode – Tv or S (Shutter Speed Priority).
Set the shutter speed to 1/125th or 1/250th.
Put your ISO on Auto.
Put your lenses focal length to 30-35mm.
Make sure you have plenty of light.
To get more in-depth knowledge on photography click here.
Camera Settings for Flat Lay Photography
Camera Settings for Flat Lay Photography
Leave space for graphics
Adding graphics to flay lay photographs is a great thing to do, so make sure when you set up the scene you leave space for any text. And if you want to use a different aspect ratio set the scene for that size, e.g. if it’s going to be for a 16:9 ratio (TV Screen) set the scene for this.
Flat Lay Photography with a Graphic
Post-processing for flat lay photos
Lastly, you will need to do some post-processing on the image. This could be as simple as cropping and adding contrast using phone or free PC apps or, if you want a more professional look you can take the pictures in Raw format and post-process them in a program like Lightroom or Photoshop.
For my example, I created a Vintage preset in Lightroom.
Classic cameras without preset
Classic cameras with vintage lightroom preset
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