The NINE shots all product businesses need : The Flat-Lay
For the next NINE weeks I am delighted to be sharing my top NINE must have photos & video for product based businesses with you, along with tips on how to achieve the look yourself.
All these tips are taken from the my soon to be released course ‘Product Photography Confidence : A simple step by step guide to taking your own storytelling photos’’
Last week we looked at the ‘Sharp Product & Blurry Background’ shot, and this week is the turn of the Flat-Lay image. In essence the Flat-Lay image is a Birds Eye view of a selection of items laid out on a flat surface, in visually pleasing manner. The Flat-Lay image is to photography what the mood board is too Interior Design, it creates a vibe / it evokes emotion whilst at the same time gives you very practical and easy to digest information.
Below is a breakdown of some of the key elements that makes this shot work
One top tip is to use a tripod with a ‘boom arm’, it leaves your hands free to all the tweaking and rearranging whilst looking through the viewfinder, also hands free… it was honestly a game changer for me!
Below are some variations on how Flat-Lays can set up and used, once you have the basics in place it’s great fun to play around.
There is just one product to showcase, a plant climber. The natural time wood contrasts beautifully against the white of the product, it ties in with the ‘garden’ theme and the olive branch is a great way to show the scale / size of the product. The product sits in the middle third and the branch in the LHS third, allowing text overlay to sit beautifully in the RHS third.
Retro memory cards ‘pop’ clearly against this old concrete floor. I actually asked the kids to set the game up without turning them over, to create an authentic layout of the cards, and then just waited for the 6 year old to lean over. The models hands indicate scale and whilst there are no leading lines in this set up the pattern created is balanced and authentic
I do believe that Flat-Lays are much under-utilised in the product space. They are SOOOOO good at getting alot of key information across quickly and clearly.
I’d love to know how you go with using this technique….
With gratitude
Deb
