photo:flatlays
how to shoot flat lays
Introduction
General principles of creating an aesthetic flat lay
choose a simple surface
many use a piece of white art cardboard but it could be a table or floor boards, etc
it should be clean - otherwise you may be doing a bit of annoying editing in Lightroom or Photoshop to clean it up!
create an interesting, aesthetic composition to convey a narrative
there are many principles of composition that need to be considered
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in general, keep it simple, consider using a restricted colour palette and perhaps negative space
know how to use colour or textures (textures generally are better when lit from the side not straight on)
your flat lay should ideally tell a story or communicate an emotion and should keep to a single theme
check each object to ensure it looks good from when shot from above
review these 3 aspects:
optimise the lighting
generally a large bright light source such as a window (not direct sunlight), bounced flash or a studio style softbox works well
look at the shadows each object gives off, you may wish to place the light source to minimise shadows - this may mean two overhead large light sources at 45deg angle to the flat lay to minimise unwanted reflections
you generally will want an evenly lit flat lay and this is where multiple light sources placed at 45deg angle to the flat lay can really make a difference
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get the white balance correct
optimise image quality, exposure and depth of field
one generally wants everything in focus, so a fairly small aperture eg. f/5.6 on a
Micro Four Thirds system, f/8 on APS-C or f/11 on a full frame camera will generally be the best for overall sharpness and detail - but if using available light from a window, you may need long exposures that require a tripod (avoid shadows from the tripod legs!)
remember that when shooting at small apertures, any dust on the sensor may become visible as an ugly smudge on your photo so clean your sensor if there is dust on it
shoot in RAW mode at the camera's base ISO will allow the best image quality (if you are happy with jpeg output and no post-processing then you might get away with just shooting in jpegs)
post-processing
generally for most flat lays and product photography you will be wanting a natural looking result, so you probably will want to avoid using Instagram filters or Lightroom presets, and just restrict post processing to tonal adjustments and sharpening, and perhaps removal of lens vignetting if present (you generally will want an evenly lit flat lay).
if an accurate natural representation is not required, you can get really creative with post-processing, this may include using matte presets to create a retro styling, or vibrant settings to give the image a visual pop and emphasize individual colours, although over-saturating colours is probably not the way to go for most images
consider adding some simple text in Photoshop or Enlight to add further explanation or context
photo/flatlays.txt · Last modified: 2019/07/14 13:00 by gary1