I’ve had some requests for a How-To on creating product photos for social media, so here are a few of my tips and tricks for photographing flatlay posts on Instagram. This is purely photo advice rather than social media advice on tagging and hashtags as there’s loads of that info around the web. I hope you find these tips of mine useful. Please tell me what you liked and used in your upcoming photos.
PREPARATION
So, you’re ready to make a flatlay photo. The preparation is key. A white background is in right now. When I started, the trend was for all sorts of crazy filters, and I remember one that had burnt edges like a vintage photo! Nowadays, a clean, simple look is favoured. Buy a sheet of white cardboard – I bought a pack of 20 huge sheets of white paper at a dollar shop for $3.90 and use it until it gets dirty then give it to the kids for art and get a nice clean sheet.
LIGHTING
You could well say that lighting, lighting, and lighting are the three most important aspects of any good photo. I do natural light, without any shadows or direct light. I use my kitchen table and make sure there are no shadows at all and I turn off all electric lights. Ensure your body and your hand and camera don’t cast a shadow on the products.
EDITING
I do all my editing on the Instagram functions below the image when you click Next. There’s a choice of FILTER or EDIT, and I tend to go with EDIT. I find the filters distort the colours too much on the whole with flatlays, but I do sometimes use them for event photos/portraits and outfit posts that are too dark. In EDIT, you click on the function you want and simply slide the black dot up or down the horizontal line to where you are happy and click DONE.
TIP: If you press your finger on the screen after clicking DONE, it will show you the previous image before the edits.
I use the Edit/Brighten on every photo I do to get a cleaner white background. Sometimes I increase the Sharpen and the Contrast too. If there’s any blueness I remove it with Edit/Warmth.
Types of Instagram posts I do –
Structured
Here’s an example of a structured flatlay I did, of makeup brand Wet n Wild. If things are lined up (see structured photo below), they need to be perfectly lined up, or it is really, really easy to spot the crooked line. Tip: use a book or ruler to gently push everything in line and keep checking in your phone to make sure it stays in a square format and doesn’t get pushed out to a rectangular shape as some bits will be cropped off.
Colour Inspo flatlays
Sometimes I like to do a colour inspo and choose a variety of products in a certain colour, such as the orange pic below. I think they are nice for a lifestyle post and you can pull together a theme across books, food/drink, jewellery, flowers, and beauty products.
The importance of diagonal lines
Think about how the lines flow in the photo. I like doing diagonal products at angles to each other; I make sure no lines are parallel, but, instead they are askew. I think it makes the viewer’s eye cast around the page and look at everything. it’s worth adding here that I don’t like products touching each other; I really like white space between them.
PROPS
Props bring a photo to life, and I try to put a living/organic object in each photo, such as plants, food/drinks, a hand, or a photo of a person. My signature look – tea cups and flowers. When I use props, I think about what the product is about, or what it contains. Below, L’Occitane hand cream contains almond, so I used some almond nuts, and a white towel as props. Ingredients of beauty products make for easy ideas to use, such as fruits, herbs, flowers and seeds that are listed on the product.
Tips for photographing makeup
Clean the products really, really well. I see flatlays with grubby make-up and it just puts me off.
Take products out of boxes and plastic wrappers. As well as plastic reflecting light in the photo, it looks bad and best practice is to remove all wrapping.
Remove all the barcode stickers. We want to see the product not the sku codes and bar codes.
Summary
So that’s my top tips for creating great Instagram flatlay images: preparation, a good background, natural lighting without shadow or flash, nice clean products with thoughtful arrangement and a colour or a theme, and interesting props. Let me know how you go. Have fun creating your images!
Megan Robinson
8th May 2018