The flatlay angle is one of the most popular angles for creating food images. Often, the top view (or bird’s eye view, as it is sometimes called) is the most effective angle in showing off to their best advantage the beautiful details of a dish.
Creating beautiful flatlays isn’t rocket science, and simply by keeping a few principles in mind, you can compose a beautiful overhead shot. After teaching photographers time and time again these same concepts, I’ve decided a dedicated post would be helpful. So here are my top 5 tips for creating scroll-stopping flatlays when shooting a food subject. If you want to go deeper into understanding composition, my Membership community (coming soon), might be for you. But for now, let’s dive in.
Tip no. 1: use lines in your composition
Think of a line as the “red thread” that connects the elements in the frame, making them make sense together. S-curves lead the eye through the frame (check this post on how to achieve that), and straight ones to “point” to your subject. You can use both actual lines (for example, the straight line created by chopstick or a rhubarb stem) or implied lines. These latter ones aren’t actual lines, but they are created by the elements in your frame. If you want to understand and learn how to compose with lines, check out my post here. For example, in the grilled peach image above, the strong line of the honey dipper points to one of the subjects, and helps guide the eye through the frame.
Tip no. 2: position elements at varying distances
Placing our subjects at varying distances from one another to create a relaxed, organic feel. When we place bowls or plates of food at equal distances, this feels staged and unnatural for the eye. Re-position the food and props if you notice things looking too rigid.
This is one of the things my students struggle with the most, because creating a composition that feels effortless actually requires a good amount of intentionality and thought. Besides a natural styling, positioning elements in varied ways around the frame is the easiest way to achieve that effortless style. In the pasta image below, this is evident when you look at the relative position of each vessel relative to one another.
Tip no. 3: avoid flat lighting
Flat lighting means you don’t have good tonal contrast in your image. If you add to much shadow fill, or use very diffused lighting, of lighting from multiple sources, your lighting can look flat and boring.
Tonal contrast means to have areas of different brightness in your image. An image with good tonal contrast will have bright well-lit areas but also shadows. Good tonal contrast adds a 3D quality to your shot and gives the brain clues about the height of objects in the frame. Notice how in the image above the light coloured background and well lit pasta contrasts with the dark interior of the pan and the rich, deep shadows. It is not only more flattering for a variety of subjects, but it also looks more natural to the eye.
Tip no. 4: layer elements and garnishes in your main dish to create interest
When you do so, you are emphasizing your main subject, drawing the eye towards it. In the red pepper and eggplant soup image below, the garnishes (we have several: yogurt, cherry tomatoes, hemp hearts, and broccoli sprouts) break up the flat surface of the soup, adding interest to the otherwise flat surface. Garnishes are perhaps the easiest way to create interest for the camera in the flatlay angle, as their textures, colour and variety not only draws the eye, but also interacts with light, creating specular highlights that make the image come alive.
Tip no. 5: include elements of different heights
For example, you can achieve this by using glasses, bowls and plates in a single image. These objects have different heights and will cast a different shadow, creating variety and interest in your image. If you have a shot with multiple plates, use a thick marble coaster underneath one or two of them. This will elevate them in an unobtrusive way, change the size/shape of their shadows, and create depth. In the bowtie pasta with kale and basil image above, we have the pan placed on a trivet, smaller bowls, and finally a nearly-flat pinch bowl.
Bonus tip: use negative space
Negative space is “empty” space in your photo, an area where you haven’t placed any of your subjects and is usually sparse, allowing the viewer’s eye to “rest” as they take in the image. This compositional tool is a favourite of mine, because it gives flatlays an open, easeful quality that I find appealing. As an additional advantage, it leaves room for text, which makes them appealing to stock photography buyers.
I hope you’ve found this suggestions useful. If you want to delve deeper into learning food photography, consider joining my Membership community (coming soon).
Until next time, and happy composing!