Now that we all stay at home, it’s natural to come up with ideas to keep yourself entertained. As I always want to practice my photography skills I decided to dive deeper into some different kind of photography and provide some tips on how to make it happen!
Photography Tips On How To Get Into:
Flatlays
The mighty flatlays, often seen on food and product photography, but never really tried.
Before I headed into the vastness of our home, I wanted to get some ideas and guidance. I watched a great short and sweet video from Lauren Bath over on her Instagram. Simply explained, awesome.
On another note, I gathered some inspiration on Pinterest and saved them to some of my boards. This was like hitting two flies with one stone as it helped with my daily pinning goal.
Here a little snippet from one of my boards – so many cool ideas to try!
Last but not least, one great video is from Peter McKinnon – if you don’t know him already, head over to YouTube and check him out. He got tons of videos focusing on photography and videography, super entertaining and very insightful. Link to his Flatlay Video Tutorial here.
Pick The Right Surfaces, Props & Composition
Some of the main take-aways I found was to include interesting surfaces, something with a great texture (a wooden board, a granite stone etc.). Even sheets can work very well. In the end, it’s of course all up to you.
Also, most great flatlays include some sort of props that enhance the photo. That could be some rose pedals you add, coffee beans when capturing cafe or some pens deliberately placed into the frame.
In terms of composition, you could follow the Rule of Third where you imagine you slice the image into thirds (both vertically & horizontally) so you have 9 parts. However, in the end, it should come down to what YOU think looks good to you.
The general trick is to directly shoot from above the subject. However, as you see I got up close to capture the necklace on one of the images, solely because I wanted to spice it up.
Choose A Theme & Colour
To compile a successful flatlay you might want to have a theme. In my case, it was the beach or pool. For this, I gathered elements that represent this.
You also don’t want to play with too many colours – in my case I sticked with some light teal, orange and yellow hues, black and grey.
As part of the post production I added a bit of warmth to the image, as its indeed summer here. So playing with the temperature can be a good idea!
Photography Tips On How To Get Into
Food Photography
The second challenge I set myself was trying out some food photography shots. Easier said than done!
Be Prepared
My first photography tip here – be prepared! As I already bought tons of fruit on my last shopping spree, so I had a good choice already. Otherwise, it helps to have a rough idea in mind which colours you want to have and then shop accordingly. A variety of colours and shapes would make it easier!
I opted for those beautiful Dragon Fruits (or Pitayas) as they are just so pretty and super high in Vitamin C. Who doesn’t need more of that right now?
In the place I stayed in before had a pitaya tree with one still growing – never seen this before!
Get Creative With Your Gear
With a model in hand, it would have been a whole lot easier but here I was, juggling various tasks – incorporating my lovely tripod.
To make it work, photography tip number two would be to select the 10-sec self-timer on your camera. Set the focus to just in front of your chosen background (the leave in my case) and press the shutter.
It might take a few tries!
From there it was just a matter of editing and making the colors pop. Editing is actually one of my favorite things to do, I literally get lost in it.
Exact camera settings were ISO 100, f/2.8, Exposure 1/60 and 40 mm focal length.
Choosing a green backdrop and having a magenta subject does compliment it quiet well.
Also, no food got to waste during this shoot – let you be assured! When in Bali, a smoothie bowl a day is almost a must!
Playing around with the layout, location, tweaking some settings and editing everything was honestly so much fun. I hope my photography tips will help you create some fun pictures too! I hope you try it out yourself!
The Photography Equipment I Used
Manfrotto Tripod
Canon 6D with a Sigma 24-70 mm
Adobe Ligthroom and Photoshop
