Your flat lays won’t be boring with these easy background suggestions.
If you’re doing a lot of product and lifestyle posts for social media, flat lays are most likely one of the most used styles in your arsenal. Whether it’s for personal purposes or for marketing campaigns, it’s imperative that the shots look eye-catching. According to the suggestions in this quick video tutorial by x. cape on YouTube, some simple items around you could make for some pretty interesting backgrounds for moody, Instagram-worthy flat lays.
In the video tutorial above, x.cape gives us some great examples of the looks you can create with just a few items you have around the house: books, sandpaper, non-stick frying pan, clothes and fabrics, and white cardboard. The idea is to use them as interesting backgrounds for your flat lays.
Some of them, like books and non-stick frying pan, work great for small items like fancy cups, accessories, and stationery. The black color and texture of the non-stick pan even looks great for food photography. Treat the white cardboard as a staple for clean flat lays and product shots. When you’re feeling experimental, the gritty texture of sandpaper (especially colored ones) should help you create interesting results. Lastly, if you’re shooting some delicate and intricate items like jewelry and flowers, fabrics make beautiful backgrounds. Experiment with different fabrics and textures to get the results you want. A selection of plain white and colored cotton blankets or sheets would be great to start with.
One thing I would add to this list is craft paper. It’s a favorite background of many stationery addicts and DIY-ers for flat lays because it effortlessly makes anything look rustic and crafty. To make it even more rustic and crafty, you might be adventurous and use a rubber stamp to make some sort of pattern on it.
The tutorials on x. cape’s channel may be originally for smartphone photography, but you might want to check them out anyway to see if they can be of use to you!
