It is a new year and a new schedule here at KatrinaGwenRose and I am excited to bring you some fun content! When I first started blogging, or even entered the IG world, I was so in awe of the photos that I found.  Gorgeous, detailed, curated flat lay images that were just perfect.  Wanna know a secret?  You can do these too and it is super easy!

I am giving you a behind the scenes of creating those IG worthy shots and breaking down how you can rock your flat lay!

The key to a flat lay is to start off with a clean surface.

Find one that is neutral and allows your products to really shine.  I don’t know about you, but I do not have fancy marble counter tops.  Why is it that every cute blogger has amazing counter tops to shoot their flatlays?  Some probably do, but here is a secret… we cheat!  I headed to my local flooring store and asked if they have a sample tile, 24×24, in a white marble.  To my luck, they had one and let me have it for free!  If your store doesn’t have any samples, you can often buy the single tile for about $12.  Before I had my tile, I bought white bristol board!  You can even try that foam board that you used to used for those science fair projects and buy fancy paper from amazing in a ton of different prints and patterns like these or these.

Natural light is your best friend.

In the summertime I take my tile outdoors on my deck.  When it is too cold, I make sure I lay it near a window where lots of natural light pours in.  This gives you the best lighting possible and more options when it comes time to editing and filtering.

Set the scene and don’t be afraid to use props.

What do you want to show off in your flat lay?  That, honestly, is the hardest part! What feel do you want from your image?  Are you showing your makeup routine?  Your morning coffee?  Your date night outfit?  Pick a theme or a vibe you want to create and work from there.

This is a flat lay I did to show off some jewels that I would wear on a date night out!

Or this flat lay that shared what a Sunday morning looked like in my house – tea, a little mani and some affirmation cards to get my through the day.

Have a cute candle or flowers hanging around?  Throw them in there!  I have seen confetti, fake greenery (think IKEA plants!) and paper cutouts used to help spruce up the shot.

Get artsy and play with angles.

Some people have their flat lay very straight or perfect, some have them like the items are spilling out of a bag.  This is YOUR image, so create whatever feel you want and whatever looks good to YOU.  Try having some items that are only partially in view and spilling off the edge (you can also accomplish that look by cropping at the end!)  Leave space between your items or edges.  Blank space can help accentuate your image and keep it looking crisp and clean.

I don’t ever take one single image – it takes a few shots until I get something I like.  I play with the location of the items and the angle of my image.

Shoot from above.

A flat lay looks clean when you can clearly see the items, so use a step stool and take your image with a birds eye view.  This helps each item stand out and not block another.

Edit to your liking.

This is where you customize your image to your eye.  I like to play with the cropping – sometimes I include all the items and sometimes I crop parts of them out.  I often use the editing app within Instagram to boost the brightness, decrease the shadows, increase the highlights and add a little sharpening to make it pop.  VSCO is another great app to use to help put filters over your images to give it either a moody vibe, a touch of pink, a washed vintage look…the options are limitless!

BEFORE

AFTER

And there you have it! Your perfect guide to rocking your next flat lay image – be it on IG, a blog, or even just for your own keeping.  If you do post it on IG, I want to see it so use #30somethingmom !

XO
Katrina Gwen Rose

Linking up with GlassOfGlam  l  ThreadsForThomas  l  NorthwestMountainLiving

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