Flatlays have changed the way I see my artwork and have allowed me to add context and cohesiveness to my art photography so here I am ready to share all of my flatlay secrets with you!
My suggestion when working through each section is to keep your brand in mind to create consistency between your photos.
Not an artist? that's fine! These tips still apply if you're looking for new ways to photograph your favourite little moments of life, like your morning coffee, new clothes or stationary or favourite meal.
Let's get stuck in!
1. Choose your backgrounds
The size of your artwork or product is going to determine how large your background needs to be. For example, I mainly use A4 size pieces so 600mm/23” backgrounds are sufficient.
Start looking for interesting surfaces in your home you can use such as wood flooring, tiled areas, benchtops, etc. Contrast is often key - are your artworks busy? Use a simpler background and vice versa.
If you haven’t got any suitable surfaces, like me, you can also buy them. But don’t be fooled, you don’t have to spend much! Don’t underestimate the power of a flat surface and plain white or black sheet.
TIP # 1:
I use backgrounds bought from my local hardware store.
I bought a 3 pack of tiles on special for $6 with a beautiful grey concrete texture.
My favourite background is made up of 7 primed wood planks, roughly 600mm in length. It’s originally designed to be used for skirting and comes in 2.7m lengths, which I asked the guys at the store to cut down for me. Total cost was $24.
These backgrounds help me to keep my brand images to feel light, airy and organic, alleviating the heaviness of my dark drawings.
2. Find your props
One of the more obvious elements of a flatlay includes the decorative items surrounding the feature product/artwork.
Again, start with what you have around the house. Vases, trinkets, boxes, notebooks, plates, garden finds, rocks, stationary, really anything that relates to your brand and themes. For example, plates and bowls of food aren’t going to compliment my botanical drawings at all.
Use these props to frame your primary subject matter, there is no rule for how many you should use but keep in mind what you’re trying to communicate.
Here are some examples I like to use as a guide:
@vera_paper uses her watercolour palette, paintbrush and a clear glass of water as an insight into creating her artwork
Layering some elements will also pull the eye towards the important parts of the image and emphasise them. Align your straighter pieces so that they’re parallel and allow organic elements to draw the eye around the edges of the photo like @vinckdesigns
TIP # 3:
This isn’t always easy when you’re holding the camera, however, adding in your hands is an amazing way to create a connection between the photo and the viewer, while adding a very personal touch.
3. Use the correct lighting
You’ve likely heard it before: use natural lighting!
Not only is this going to give you a clearer, crisper and tonally accurate photo, but using shadows is a beautiful way to add interest and dimension. Flatlays don’t have to look flat, here’s what I mean:
This layout from smallbitsofloveliness.com, uses the harsh shadowing of the tubs to create a dreamy warm feeling, inviting isn’t it?
You may even decide to use the shadow of an object across your flatlay like the image above. One great thing about this effect is that it can be added in post-production as long there aren’t too many taller objects. I’ll go into that further in part 2.
TIP # 4
While natural lighting is usually king, think outside of the box when it comes to making it unique. Try lighting your flatlay with candles or fairy lights, use a coloured card as a colourful bounce light, or grab a smart globe and add a pink or purple hue!
4. Your featured artwork, products or items
Your flatlays don’t necessarily need to feature one item.
Think about what else you could use a flatlay for: highlighting your art materials and resources or perhaps showcasing a small collection of drawings or sculptures.
When recording a time-lapse or tutorial you may use a similar flatlay setup to record your video. In the example above they’ve filmed their origami tutorial on a clean light surface with a sample of the final result in the background.
TIP #5
In my case, I draw the majority of my florals digitally, so I’ve photographed blank pages to add my drawings to, giving them context and a preview of how they’ll look once printed. This technique saves me time and allows me to create completed flatlays in the dead of night. Here’s an example:
5. Your camera and angles
I started shooting many of my flatlays using a phone camera (includes the above photo) which served me very well. I now borrow my brother’s Song Alpha 7II (he’s quite the photography wiz) which gives me greater control over the lighting and focus as well as more MP (megapixels) to play with.
Flatlays are commonly taken from directly above but I encourage you to look for other angles to shoot from. I’m in the habit of taking multiple images of the same setup, from wide angles to close-ups and side shots.
TIP #6
Consider photographing a little more extra space than you need. I often crop my images into squares and don’t want to end up having to crop out something important, like my artwork!
And that's all there is to photographing a beautiful flatlay!
If you've found this information valuable and feel free to leave a comment or pin it to your Pinterest to refer back to.
Part 2 will be posted next Tuesday and will teach you how to edit your gorgeous new flatlay photos in a multitude of ways :)
Here's a bonus image of my flatlay station that's set up in my parent's lounge (much to my mum's dismay haha). It gets fantastic sunlight from midday onwards and is always ready to go with my props located nearby.
xx