Tuesday, June 4, 2019

Flat Lay Photos {Part 2 - Styling}

This week our Season 20 designers are discussing flatlay photos.  Up today is the STYLING of flay lay photos.  Scroll to the bottom for the schedule and links to each post.

I was asked to show you how I did my flat lays.  I have te be honest and tell you am I no expert.  I just followed my gut and looked at other flat lays I liked.  The first thing I noticed in others flat lays was that they add little details.  Details like toys, scarfs anything to make the outfit complete.  Shoes are one of those details a complete flatlay has.  I'll get to that on my third week flat lay.  Fitst lets check out week 1.

In week one I was making my first flat lay.  I wanted the outfit to show all I made plus the theme.  So I played with adding little details.  In my flat lays I added coins.  Tulips, because you see a lot of flowers added to flat lays and the contributed to the theme.  The whale was added by my son because of the water fabric.  As you can see in the pictures below it took me a while to lay it all in a good one.

Left to right.  As you can see I played with different back grounds.  I found that plain white works best for me.  I used a white paper back ground.  Placed this on the ground.  Climbed on top of a bar stool and balanced while playing with iso and F-stop settings.


As you can see in the first picture the flat lay is missing something.  Next flat lay it just does not seem to add up.  At the last flatlay the sleeve seems to be holding the flowers and it all connects.  Everything is touching each other making it one whole outfit.


Week 2 I did not have shoes but had the dress and other items to show.  I wanted to add flowers again and choose one that is similar to the dress shape I chose.  The dress had to be the center of the picture.  Also, with this one I used my external flash that I pointed towards the ceiling to get rid of the shadows you can see in the week 1 flat lays.  An external flash does not have to be expensive and is worth the money.  My first thought was to complete the circle in the circle skirt.  Now the key to showing a skirt well is to actualle add the creases.  Lay it out like the way you see it when it is worn.  Check out the week 1 flat lays and you will see I even added them to the straight skirt there.  It will make your flat lay less 2D and more 3D.
With the week 2 flat lay I tried to see what it looked like when I made it all a bit more messy.  Can you see how it works better making it all connect again due to the circle?  Again I added a toy.

With week 3 I initially forgot to add the shoes. You can see in these pictures that after I added them it looked much better. See how the last one works best. The jacket is holding the bag making it all connect plus there is a square shape in it all making it easier on the eyes.

As you can see I added something extra to each flat lay that adds to the outfit that is shown.  You want it to be subtle.  Flowers almost always work, though with the last outfit flowers would not be the best choice.  The light box however added to the Roar theme the outfit had.  After these three weeks I can honestly say that getting a good flat lay is a work of art.  I can't wait to create one of those running flat lays Christina made. They look so fun!
~ Anne of Sofilantjes

If you are planning your flatlay photo, first think of your outfit.  Is it colourful, classic, modern or inspired by nature?  For me, this is the first item I check. 

For the nature inspired flatlay I just walked around and collected things I found beautiful.  My boys found some gorgeous feathers, they kept in their rooms, but they were so kind to lend me them for a while.  I also found some driftwood, which matched perfectly to the colours of the outfit.  Sticks, stones, pinecones or other natural things are always a great deal for an outdoor outfit.  Please keep in mind, which things are kind of modern at the moment (as driftwood or pinecones) - this could sometimes be more appealing than other things like normal stones or some ground. 


For the green outfit it was clear that I only would collect greenish things.  So I found an old wooden robot at my kid´s room and bought some wooden green beads.  I only buy things I know, they would be useful in the future.  As I am teacher everything can be useful .  The green penny board I found by accident.  I wrote on facebook, if anybody has one to lend me for a photo shoot and it was a friend of mine, who had a total green skateboard.  This was luck, but I proved the experience  that you only have to ask and people love to help for creating a great photo.  Maybe you can make some nice photos of them in return. 


The third outfit was really hard. It was the baptism outfit for little E. and it is very classic.  So if you have a very classic outfit you can´t add crazy stuff on it.  I went into the forest and collected a really old stick.  This would be something like a clothes line.  I was searching for really cool clothespins, but wasn´t successful.  So I had the idea to take my cord, I sometimes use for hoodies.  I just cut off two little pieces and wrapped it around the stick.  I let the other ends of the cord disappear under the clothes.  My husband suggested to add two little wooden animals, little E. was given, when he was born.  I thought, this would be a great meaning for the picture.  For a classic outfit, it is necessary to keep the photo clean.  The two little animals are enough.  More of them would make the flatlay too restless and overloaded.


For my last outfit, it could be a crazy flatlay.  Colours everywhere are allowed.  I kept the rainbow theme to direct the view on the beautiful rainbow fabric.  So I bought these really yummy rainbow sweets and arranged three of it for my three boys.  Of course they ate it afterwards.  I also had that wooden rainbow for my baby at home, which was a great ingredient for the flatlay.  Only the camera was bought – I bought it for M., because it was such fun shooting photos with him.  I think, kids could sometimes get presents without an occasion. 
I hope I could help you a little bit for finding the right ingredients for your flatlay.  Please always remember, that there is no right or wrong.  Flatlays should be fun and I am sure, there are tons of ways to create your perfect flatlay.
~ Christina of Käferlgschaft 


Flatlay photos arrived on the Project Run & Play scene a relatively short time ago.  Their purpose is to level the playing field by helping the public focus solely on the clothing when they are voting.  But flatlay photos are hard!  Perhaps they can even be described as an art!  

The extremely artistic flatlay photos of the Season 20 designers are undisputed in quality.  So I asked them to put together a series of posts to help the rest of us in our flatlay photo game!  Here's the schedule and the main contributors:

by Monica of MaMeMiMo and Iris of Iris May Patterns

Day 2 (today) Flat Lay Photos {Part 2 - Styling} 
by Anne of Sofilantjes and Christina of Käferlgschaft


by Susana of Suco by Susana

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1 comment :

  1. So great to learn more about these and the great tips! Great artists here!

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