If you love a good flat lay situation, but struggle to put one together this is the post for you.
Well hopefully it is. I mean I’m going to give it a red hot crack at showing you how easy it is to up your flat lay game.
All it takes is 5 easy steps and BAM! you’ve got yourself an insta-worthy flat lay.
Let’s get stuck in, shall we?
how to create a flat lay in 5 easy steps
For the purposes of today’s flat lay demo, let’s use one I prepared earlier…
Step 1: Use a simple background
Neutral colours tend to work best as they don’t detract from the products or items you’re wanting to highlight in the flat lay.
Simple backgrounds such as table tops, wooden floors, white cardboard, bench tops, marble tiles, concrete floors, rugs and bed sheets/blankets all work really well.
Insider scoop: I use our coffee table – shown in this shot – and my desk for most of my flat lays.
Step 2: Start with your hero piece
Throw that down – not literally, unless your doing a sporty flat lay that involves basketballs. In which case, throw it hard? Or not. To be honest, I wouldn’t know how to flat lay a basketball. Sport isn’t my strong point – but basically you want to start with your hero piece.
Place it on your background first and let all the other lovely things you’re about to add to the situation compliment, rather than take over, the hero piece.
My top tip when dealing with bottles: blue tac! Place a little lump of blue tac on the back of the bottle and it will hold it in place nicely.
Step 3: Add your other pieces
This is where the flat lay fun really kicks in. Grab whatever you think would work well with your hero piece and play around with the composition – that’s a fancy word for set up.
Take a few photos on your phone or camera as you go – what looks great to the eye can look completely different in a photo!
Always shoot from above and try to shoot in as much natural light as you can. Near a window is ideal.
Handy tip: create a little prop box for your flat lays filled with items you can use alongside your hero piece. My prop box is a bit on the OTT side – I have candles, magazines, books, glasses, trays, mugs, crystals, boxes, cushions, throws, vases, faux flowers, pens, pencils and notebooks in mine – but yours doesn’t have to be that extensive. Just having a few little items that you can grab quickly will save so much time during the set up process.
Step 4: Think about your colour scheme
As your casually scrolling past this flat lay on insta, hopefully it will catch your eye and you might throw it a like or leave a comment. (FYI, engagement on Insta and Facebook is everything! We should all be helping each other by liking and commenting as much as we can)
But if you spend a bit of time looking closely at it, you’ll see there’s a definite colour scheme in there.
When it comes to the branding of Skin Boss, pink is the overarching colour. So while each of our products have different coloured labels, I try to keep pink in every flat lay that I create. It’s a subtle way of ensuring the marketing of our brand is always consistent.
But what if I don’t have a business or a brand and I just want to put random flat lays together for fun?
That’s an excellent question, thank you for asking.
My advice, regardless of if you’re in business or not, is to not get too caught up in the perfection of it all. Have fun with it and remember, done is better than perfect.
If you look closely at the flat lay I’ve put together, yes there is a pink colour scheme but there’s also a scratch on the coffee table underneath one of the yellow roses. I could’ve edited it out, but to be honest, I threw that flat lay together 20 minutes before dinner time. I then cooked dinner, ate it with the family, watched them clean up (that’s the rule in our house – whoever cooks gets to flop on the couch after dinner) while I uploaded the flat lay to instagram.
Spending time with my family is more important than spending 20 minutes editing a scratch out of a photo. And done is always better than perfect 😉
Step 5: Add a hand
This isn’t something I do in every flat lay – mainly because it’s a bit tricky to take a photo one handed – but adding a hand to your flat lay instantly pulls the viewer’s eye to whatever the hand is holding/touching.
Small hero items, such as the face oil bottle in today’s flat lay, can often get lost in amongst larger pieces. So adding a hand brings them back to centre stage again.
Flat lay product details:
Skin Boss Sleep On It® nourishing night oil, from Skin Boss.
Limited edition autumn candle, from The Builder’s Wife Shop.
Flowers from my local flower farm, pink candle & Marie Claire magazine from my prop box.
Hand models own 😉
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