THE TRUTH ABOUT: FLATLAYS

As a Blogger, you often find your self acquainting with the odd 'flatlay'. You'll know that it's a photography technique in which you lay your subject(s) down, alongside lots of other props, and take an image - usually from above, or at a high-ish angle. Those that do them well make us droll. We could endlessly scroll down their Instagram pages crying into a tub of ice cream at how immaculate their composition is. But, nevertheless, we all persevere and give them a go. And, of course, no flatlay is perefect, and a lot of hard work (and sometimes money) can go into making the best looking ones.

So as far as our friendship with flatlays go: us bloggers adore taking them and are forever aspiring to take the best ones. But, that's mostly what non-bloggers think. We know the truth about that deadly, back-breaking, aspiration-crushing, demotivating, evil photography method.

Here is the truth about flatlays...

Fancy a game of Twister?

I lay on the floor with my left leg stretched out, my right leg behind my head, one arm folded in, and one arm under my leg. I get tangled up on a mess of brown hair, limbs and a camera just to get the right angle. 

Natural light.

On a glorious sunny day, the shadows can be intense so you have to make sure that your 'natural light' isn't cursed with that. Then, on a rainy day, everything is just too gloomy. Now, don't even get me started on the 3 minutes of natural daylight that we get in the winter.

Imagine having a mark-free background.

I use a white wallpaper roll and I find myself rolling out about 3 metres before I find a section that hasn't been scarred by previous flatlay attempts.

Carrying your entire bedroom into your best photography 'spot'.

I have actually started collecting things into an overnight bag now and shipping them downstairs.

Taking amazing pictures then realising that one thing is annoyingly out of place

Check out this blog post from back in 2015. This is one of my favourite, most aesthetically pleasing photos that I've ever taken, but there's one thing out of place that REALLY bugs me. Can you tell what it is?

Getting irritated by auto focus and switching to manual.

Focusing - in fact, any camera setting - is the bane of my life.

Getting the perfect focus then slipping and bodging it all up.

Is this just me? Am I just stupidly clumsy?

Feeling proud of yourself for using gorgeous fresh flowers then realising that they've leaked water all over your backdrop.

Going back to having a 'mark-free backdrop', this doesn't do me any favours.

Trying to take photos of something reflective then realising you can see your goofy face and camera in the 'final' edit.

I can guarantee that, when I'm taking flatlays, nearly 100% of the time I will have no-makeup on, my hair shoved up into a messy bun, and probably will be wearing pyjamas, so seeing my face in a reflective object is something that no one wants to see.

Where is that orange tone coming from and how do I get rid of it?

Again: I hate camera settings. 

The glamorous camera shadow.

I find this one particularly annoying when you're taking pictures on your mobile phone. That E.T.-like arm, stretched out holding a big rectangle - or at least that's what the shadow ends up looking like.

Trying to make those fake flowers look real.

Yep, real flowers most definitely have no leaves, straight stems, glitter on their petals and a label saying 'fake flowers' on them.

Wondering how the hell people do this?!

It's difficult and the people who do it well and blow our minds are forever admired by me. But, I can imagine that those people also have their moments of self-doubt. Don't ever feel deterred by these irritating flat-lay nags, you're not the only one and we must defeat them.

What are your truths about flatlays?

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