Flat Lay Photography

In this tutorial, y'all're going to learn flay lay photography and how to make your photos wait like a pro has taken them. And we're only going to use budget equipment.

I'll show you how to become great flat lay photography using just a window, a cheap second-hand camera or telephone and a piece of polystyrene!

Get access to ALL our online courses - 1000's of videos, worksheets, critiques of members piece of work, personalised support and much more with our monthly membership.

What is Apartment Lay Photography?

Flat Lay Photography is a photograph taken from directly above looking down on commonly products or food. It gives a bird'south eye view of what it is your photographing and is an extremely pop genre of photography on social media. It's a bang-up way to show off products from a small business organisation, plates of food from restaurants or only to have a bit of fun at habitation.

Food Flat Lay Photography - Credit – ReplicaSurfaces.com

Food Flat Lay Photography - Credit – ReplicaSurfaces.com

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 reach. Try not to go in bullheaded, what mode would suit the things you desire to photo? Is it a night moody scene of mechanical products or a bright fresh theme for java and cake.

Food Flat Lay Photography - Credit – ReplicaSurfaces.com

Food Flat Lay Photography - Credit – ReplicaSurfaces.com

Food Flat Lay Photography - Credit – ReplicaSurfaces.com

Food Flat Lay Photography - Credit – ReplicaSurfaces.com

Flat Lay Photography with Cameras

Flat Lay Photography with Cameras

What to photograph?

What y'all choose to photograph will too dictate the feeling of the shot. If it'south for your business or restaurant then clearly what you lot sell will be the focus but if doing it for yourself try to cull something that'southward personal to you or something you have a passion for.

We are a photography preparation company then for our example I'm going to use my loving drove of quondam archetype cameras.

Flat Lay Photography with a Camera

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 y'all're going for. You tin use anything for a groundwork, piece of wood, table, piece of vinyl etc., or y'all tin go 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 fabricated ridged and come in a diversity of styles making your job a lot easier when creating flat lays.

Bank check out the range of backgrounds available from www.ReplicaSurfaces.com

Flat Lay Lighting

All photographs need light and flat lay photography is no dissimilar. The dominion hither is the lighter the improve and more often than not, it's a soft light that works all-time for this type of photography. Utilise a large window for your main light source and if there is harsh low-cal coming through the window you tin can just put net curtains or chiffon fabric onto the window which will diffuse the calorie-free, making information technology soft.

So you need to use a reflector to fill up in any shadows or nighttime areas. In my instance, I simply use a slice of white polystyrene (a white piece of card will besides work) and a silver reflector to bounciness back the light and fill in the shadow areas.

Softening light with chiffon fabric

Softening calorie-free with chiffon fabric

White card or polystyrene for reflector

White card or polystyrene for reflector

No reflector

No reflector

With white reflector

With white reflector

Balance

The adjacent thing is to set out your products in order so they volition await good. In photography, this is called composition and it's a really important part of whatsoever photograph. For more in-depth cognition on composition click here.

In apartment flay photos, the main thing to become right is the residuum of the shot. Call up of it like a set of scales, what you accept of 1 side of the shot, try to accept the same or like on the other side. This is not an exact science and it'south good to experiment but just don't have a large object on one side of the shot and nothing on the opposite side.

Flat Lay Photography with clothing - Credit – ReplicaSurfaces.com

Flat Lay Photography with clothing - Credit – ReplicaSurfaces.com

Camera

So, you tin can use any camera for this from a mobile phone to a DSLR. If it's simply for Instagram so a mobile phone volition exercise fine, but if it's for more professional use similar on websites or print, I recommend using a DSLR camera.

This is because using a phone tin can sometimes give more than noise in the image and on a DSLR you can control things like focal length and minimalize camera milkshake.

Credit – ReplicaSurfaces.com

Credit – ReplicaSurfaces.com

Food Flat Lay Photography - Credit – ReplicaSurfaces.com

Food Flat Lay Photography - Credit – ReplicaSurfaces.com

Camera Settings for flay lay photography

Yous 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, specially mobile telephone lenses, tin can obscure the scene and apartment lay photos arrange what's called an 'as your centre's sees' focal length. This ways the objects and scene volition await as close to the real thing as possible.

On most DSLR cameras this will be a focal length between xxx-35mm. This can be different on cameras with dissimilar sensor sizes and to find out the exact equally your eye sees focal length on different camera click below.

Camera Sensor Size Comparing – Which i is right for you?

To avert camera shake set your camera to its Television or S mode which is called shutter speed priority. And then set the camera's shutter speed to one/125th of a second. If you're still seeing a slight blur at this setting alter it to 1/250th of a second.

Then put your ISO onto Automobile and make sure you take enough of light available.

In summary

  • Photographic camera way – Idiot box or Southward (Shutter Speed Priority).

  • Prepare the shutter speed to ane/125th or one/250th.

  • Put your ISO on Auto.

  • Put your lenses focal length to 30-35mm.

  • Make certain you accept plenty of light.

To get more in-depth knowledge on photography click hither.

Camera Settings for Flat Lay Photography

Camera Settings for Apartment Lay Photography

Camera settings for flat lay photos

Camera Settings for Flat Lay Photography

Leave infinite for graphics

Adding graphics to flay lay photographs is a slap-up matter to do, so make sure you ready the scene leave space for any text. And if you want to utilize a different aspect ratio set the scene for that size, e.thou. if information technology'due south going to be for a sixteen:nine ratio (Television set Screen) prepare the scene for this.

Flat Lay Photography with a Graphic

Flat Lay Photography with a Graphic

Post-processing for flat lay photos

Lastly, you will need to do some post-processing on the prototype. This could be as simple as cropping and calculation contrast using phone or free PC apps or, if you desire a more professional person wait you can take the pictures in Raw format and post-process them in a programme Lightroom or Photoshop.

For my instance, I created a Vintage preset in Lightroom.

Lightroom Presets Free Download

Classic cameras without preset

Classic cameras without preset

Classic cameras with vintage lightroom preset

Classic cameras with vintage lightroom preset

Like this? - Bank check out like tutorials beneath

Costless Photography Tutorials and Pro Tips & Techniques

Complimentary Photography Tutorials and Pro Tips & Techniques

I hope you liked this tutorial, please leave us a annotate and support us by sharing it with your friends and subscribe to our newsletter at the bottom of this page for more.

We also have an excellent learning community on social media so please join us at that place also.

Thanks for watching and recall – Learn more than at The Schoolhouse of Photography.