I want to show you something. Check this out. Hang on..
My wife bought me this to hang on the wall 'cause this kid's gonna look so good on this green wall
Oh my good, how beautiful is that's insane
Anyway, that's I gotta get that framed, get that on the wall and I just gotta. it's gonna look
Expect updates ha let's get the intro and get into this this juicy tutorial
succulent
flavorful
I'm all out of
Coffee is great. Peter what happen to your other office? Well folks I am here. I'm back home
I moved back in with my folks. I'm back here until the the new new office is finished. Things are moving
It was a little sad because I just packed up all my stuff from the other office
Yesterday so it's it's pretty empty
Everything's gone. We're not here to talk about offices. We're here to talk about flat lay
photography when you see those nice top-down shots of gear or food or things meticulously
Lined up like Tetris just perfectly organized pleasing to my OCD style of photos
They look great for thumbnails. They look great for any kind of like magazine ads or a header on a website
Instagram posts a lot of popular instagramers do this like my friend Dennis the Prescott
He is a master of the flat lay photo and it's all in the details
That's where the magic happens in the little tiny little things a few weeks ago
We talked about adding
Texture to your photos with this shot in particular if we're not going to add an actual digital
Texture that we just photograph like we discussed and we want to actually put something physical into that photo
I just grabbed a piece of cardboard to go my knife and started shaving off pieces of cardboard all over that box
So that it looked like this now that photo even though there's just extra little bits and it's it's useless
It's just actual garbage that I'm putting on to the photo
It makes it look that much better or take a look at this picture here of this little tool kit that I carry around in
My camera bag and my truck filled with just different things that I probably will never need
But I feel like I do and it makes me happy stop it. Okay, stop judging me. Note the little bottle cap
Just grab a little bottle cap squeezed it put it in the middle for me. It makes the photo complete
It's those extra little things you got top down photo with a pencil in it
You're gonna grab a pencil sharpener and you're gonna sharpen that pencil and all those
shavings are gonna fall and the lead's gonna fall on top of the items that you're shooting and it's those details
That really bring the photo out
Let's break this tutorial up into three stages how to lay things out, number two would be the proper balance of items,
and then three textures and then we'll just hit on a couple extra points of details
So let's start by taking a look at some rapid-fire flat lays that I've taken over the years of mostly product photography and different things
So when you're laying these things out for the photo, you kind of want to pick what the focal point is if you're featuring a
Product then all the things around
That product should just not take attention away from it
If you're featuring a huge camera
You don't want to have a bigger camera off to the right. That's gonna
Compete for the attention that that main camera has as the focal point of your photo
If everything is the main subject then it just kind of comes down to figuring out symmetry
You want those things to line up nicely
You don't want to just throw them all askew
And have things coming in from every single angle and the main items off to the side another ones. There's really no
Organization, there's no structure to this photo. It's just a mess and when someone looks at it, they're gonna feel like ah,
I don't really get nothing from that. Let's just say we're emptying our camera bags
we're gonna do a what's in my camera bag video and you got to do a flat lay thumbnail for those videos you just have
To you're gonna line everything up
But you want to make sure that everything's lined up in different directions to create intrigue to tell the story to lead
Someone's eye from left to right from up to down
You don't want to just throw it all in. So I think one of the things with flat lay
photography that isn't good is when everybody takes a shot of
everything that they own when you take out
Everything that you own and you've got cameras and batteries and you line every little piece up
It looks cool. But more so than not it's a little overwhelming
I think that when you have something that looks more like this, it's intentional
It's like those items all complement each other in the scene
But you want to take time in laying these things out. Step back
Visualize the frame use your hands use whatever you need to to kind of just understand how it's looking from a bird's eye view
I like to kind of dress those things up with a few personal items like a deck of cards down here. For example
But it's not just about putting the cards down like putting the ace of spades underneath just peeking out makes all the difference
It's such a small little detail
But it's those types of things that make these photos fun to look at they make just more exciting
They tell more of a story they explain more about the person that posted them than the people that don't add the little details
Looking at this shot top-down. I figured it needed something a little extra. So my buddy has this camera strapped
He just had it kind of rolled up in his bag. So
Placing it down kind of loose and messy on the ground, but making sure the flow of the strap works
It's all about how it places I went to school for web design
I believe it or not
But one of the things needs to teach you is when you land on a website you kind of have to
Direct like you have to make a pattern to direct the eye of the customer or the person who's getting there
So when they land, what's the first thing they look at, then where does the eye go, then where does the eye go?
I think the same thing applies when you're taking these types of photos like what's the focal point?
And then where does the eye go after that, etc. So it's kind of using the cracks in the floor here. I picked this spot
Specifically so that it just all kind of flowed together like the strap that I put down
Flowed with the same direction as the cracks and everything just encompasses a nice
Balanced look balanced is what you're going for when you do a flat lay photo that slides into the second point
Which is balance. You don't want to have a photo that's unbalanced
Let's say you have five really big items and five really small items
You don't want all five big items on the right and all five small items on the left
you want to
intertwine them
you want a big item in the middle you want another big item in the corner another big item in this corner then in the
center of the photo in almost-dead spot
you're gonna string everything together with those smaller and
medium-sized items if you're writing a recipe or taking a photo of some
Ingredients or food you wanna do the same thing,
You want to have the spoon, you want to have all the ingredients
Laid out nicely. If you have everything lined up in a row, sometimes just above and below those empty spots
Just command too much attention and it just feels off. What would I do if I had everything in a row?
well
then that goes into the next thing which is
details and the textures I'd probably grab a plant and position it flowing along the bottom then I'd probably add some
Extra detail stuff a hat or a sweater and have that fabric laying over the top to kind of cover the nothing
That was up top and the nothing that was on the bottom back to writing a recipe
For example, we talked about having a spoon there
so if you want to go a little bit above and beyond you put a little bit of whatever baking soda or flour or
That you needed on that spoon and then you place the spoon down
But you just knock it a little bit. So that sugar was spilled off on to the texture of the background
Those are the details that make these flatly photos so much better. Is it practical, would someone actually set something up like that?
No, not at all. But we're talking about photography here. We want to fulfill on that visual
Satisfaction and you get that when you focus on the details
here's a picture of a deck of cards and they looked at it and thought, this theme is a nautical theme there's oh there's a
Lighthouse, there's water
Instinctively and I talked about this in my product photography video
I went and picked up props that
Supported the theme of the main product I was shooting so I got some fishing line
I got some fishing hooks things that have to do with water and the theme of the product I put everything on a big
flat board to give me texture but where that kind of tip comes in with the sugar is I just doused
Everything and I just poured water over everything the cards got all swollen and waterlogged and looked you know all wet in certain areas
but then you could see the
Outline of the water and the reflection of the water from the light that I was using and it just made everything look way more
Stylized and themed opposed to having not done that
Let's talk a bit about textures. Having different surfaces to shoot on. If you have a bunch of items that you want to photograph
Typically a flat
texture less
Surface is not going to complement whatever it is that you're shooting as a flat lay having those items on
something like a wood desk or if you're gonna go with something that's flat and not
Super texturized like a wood background or wood panels at least picking a surface that has some kind of material
That's not exactly just smooth and lifeless. I liken it to this little cabinet I have over here
It's smooth and it's flat but it's zinc. The top is zinc
So it's a it's a type of metal that complements certain things that I'm shooting
so when I get a product or something that I want a photograph top down those items are gonna
Compliment from the background that is the surface of this piece of furniture
It does have some texture and life to it opposed to just shooting on like a white flat. No reflection IKEA desk
That's kind of what I'm trying to say
Here's a shot of a knife that I took because the scales and the handles of that knife are green
I don't you took off my shirt put it on the table made it all wrinkly with the knife on it shot it top down
To match the product that I was trying to focus
You've got a mousepad right here, but look at the texture there's scratches all over it
That would be a great surface to shoot on. My new office, they just did the concrete floors
I noticed a bunch of cracks in them that we filled and it just looks super industrial and really rugged and rough.
That is a great texture to shoot on. The texture almost becomes an
item in and of itself also in the photo
I don't know if you guys can tell how much I love this
But like this is one of my passions in photography
If you keep all these things in mind
You could empty your pockets or anything that you have on your person or in your backpack
Lay it down
follow these steps
Find a nice texture or a nice surface add those extra details and snap a top-down photo and you're gonna have a great photograph
anywhere find a hobby that you're into let's say it's coffee or music or drawing take the accessories and the things that you know are
Incorporated with that hobby lay them out and give this a shot
That's one way to make this kind of easy from finding something that you like
Breaking down what's involved and then following the steps of laying things out
Balance texture and backgrounds adding the details and then you have a beautiful, beautiful photograph. So guys,
I hope you enjoyed this video. I hope you got something out of it
I hope you go and find some flat lay photos yourself
please tag me in them PM flat lay photo 'cause I'd love to find some and
Comment and just interact with what you guys are doing out in the world from watching these videos.
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That should be my new thing probably won't be but also it's good to be back for a little while
well two months of a nostalgic hit ah
And then we're into the new space and I am psyched
That's it for today. Thank you. I'll see you in the next video
Opposed to the really
There's a latte art one too, but I think the Chemex and flowers are I mean I like the other one better of it
So, like I said, these things are especially handy and so like I said these things are especially handy
handy useful, so like I said, these things are especially useful when it
Checking my notes. Checking my notes. Pretty notes
Place those things feel like we're doing like some robot dance move right here that just happened
It's up right there