Styles / Digital & social

Flat lay

2010–present. Also called Flatlay or Photo à plat.

Where the lights stand

Window: a large soft source, 100 × 130 cm, 1.3 m from the objects, beside the subject, at the camera’s left, 55 cm above the table.

To scale, from the render’s scene file. One way to get this light, not a record of how any photograph was lit.

Render of three objects on a table. Seen straight down, a large window to one side softened by a sheer, a white foam board opposite filling the shadows. — Rendered with this plan. Seen straight down, a large window to one side softened by a sheer, a white foam board opposite filling the shadows.

Render: objects on a table, in Blender Cycles, 60 mm, f/11.

Clothing flatlay, by NordWood Themes, 2016-11-13 — Clothing flatlay

NordWood Themes, Clothing flatlay, 2016. CC0, via Unsplash and Wikimedia Commons. Source: Clothing flatlay at Wikimedia Commons (from Unsplash)

Objects laid on a flat surface and photographed from directly above: an outfit with boots and a watch, a laptop with coffee and flowers, make-up, stationery, or tools knolled into parallel rows. The table becomes a flat plan, sharp in one plane, lit softly from a window to one side on white board, marble, pale wood or coloured paper, with empty space around a hero object and props cut by the edges. Grown from the knolling habit and the Things Organized Neatly blog, it became the stock look of Instagram lifestyle and brand feeds.

Shoot sheet for your kit The photographs

How the look is made

Shoot straight down at 90 degrees with the sensor parallel to the surface (a tripod with a horizontal arm, a copy stand, or a phone held level from a step stool), and straighten any leftover tilt so edges stay parallel to the frame.
Build the picture on the table: choose one hero object, add a few props that tell its story (coffee, flowers, a notebook, sunglasses, a hand reaching in), and leave empty space around them.
Decide on one order per picture: knoll everything parallel or at right angles in a clean grid, or scatter it on diagonals that overlap and run off the edges.
Light from one side with a large window softened by a sheer curtain or an overcast sky, never from directly overhead, and fill the opposite side with a white board so shadows stay short and soft.
Lay everything on a pale, plain or lightly textured ground (white board, marble, painted wood, linen or a single colour of paper) and keep the props to one colour scheme.
Stop down to about f/5.6 to f/8 so the whole plane is sharp, crop square or 4:5, and grade every post alike so the feed reads as one set.

Shoot sheet for your kit

Fill in your camera, lenses and lights, and the sheet says which light plays each part, what to work around and where to start on your camera. Without a kit it starts on a full-frame camera.

Step 1

Light

Key: the open sky, all around and above, soft.
Reflector: a white card or reflector, about 55° to the camera’s right, soft.

Daylight studio: a skylight, a glasshouse or a courtyard, with a backdrop behind the sitter.

Shadow edges: Shadows that fade gradually from light to dark, cast by a large or diffused light: a window, a softbox, a cloudy sky.
Shadow depth: Shadows kept light and full of detail by a reflector, a fill light, bounce or bright surroundings (a low lighting ratio, up to about 3:1: the shadow side at most a stop and a half darker).

How the style is lit

A large window to one side of the table (not directly above it), softened by a sheer curtain, tracing paper or an overcast sky, with a white foam board opposite to fill the shadows.
Soft, even daylight on a pale floor, bed or board for outfit and clothing layouts, the camera held level from a step stool.
When the window light falls short, light-coloured V-flat boards stood around the set and a flash bounced off them; for shadowless product shots on solid-colour paper, two matched lights at equal angles.

This plan is worked out from the style’s choices, so it is drawn as a schematic. The set-up at the top of the page is the one we rendered, to scale. One way to get the light, not a record of how any photograph was lit.

Step 2

Lens and settings

Start at

50 mmf/81/8 sISO 200

On a full-frame camera: the same depth of field and exposure as the style’s own numbers, in the same light. Then meter and adjust.

1/8 s: on a tripod.

Then: 28–80 mm · f/5.6–f/11 · 1/125–1 s · ISO 100–400 on full frame, documented. Format and Phototrend advise 35–50 mm equivalent, f/5.6–f/8 and ISO 100–400 on a tripod or copy stand; phones shoot at about 28 mm and their fixed f/1.8–2.4 still gives deep focus. Specimen EXIF: 47–80 mm eq., f/8–11, 1/60–0.8 s.
White balance: Window daylight with whites kept neutral on white grounds; room lights switched off so they add no cast, though a feed preset may then warm or cool the set.

Focal length: Roughly the eye’s own perspective; no visible distortion.
Focus: Everything sharp from the nearest stone to the horizon.
Rendering: Verticals kept vertical with camera movements or correction.
Angle: Straight down onto a table, floor or ground.
Balance: The subject faces the lens; planes run parallel to the picture.
Crop & fill: A small subject in a large empty field. The edges cut into the subject: heads, limbs or objects run out of frame.
Depth: Depth collapsed into pattern and flat shapes.
Duration: An unmoving scene, exposed slowly and carefully.

Step 3

Direct

People rarely appear; when they do, it is a hand reaching in to hold a cup, write or move a prop, or feet and shoes seen from above, cropped at the wrist or ankle.

Without a pose: No people at all, or people so small or far off that their pose does not read (hands alone are Hands alone).
The set-up: Sets, models and miniatures built to be photographed.

Step 4

Style the set

Everything is placed by hand: one hero object with a few props that tell its story (coffee, flowers, a notebook, sunglasses) on white board, marble, pale wood, linen or one colour of paper, kept to one colour scheme, knolled square in rows or scattered on diagonals with space around.

Set & props: A painted, cloth, paper or seamless backdrop behind the subject. Props chosen and placed for colour, texture and story: linen, ceramics, cutlery, flowers, scattered ingredients.
Food & things: Objects set in rows, grids or neat patterns, squared up and evenly spaced (knolling).
Look of the styling: Few, simple elements on clean surfaces, with space around them. Clothes, props and set kept to a few chosen colours that work together.

Step 5

Finish

Colour: Pale, light colours. White balanced to the light, so whites stay white and skin, food and products keep their real colour, with no overall cast.
Digital & other: A phone camera and its processing: deep focus, bright shadows, synthetic blur. A modern digital camera: clean, detailed, neutral.
Texture: Smooth tones with no visible grain.
Post-production: A ready-made grade laid over the whole image.
Shown in: Pictures made for a scrolling feed. Pictures made to sell, shown large.
Frame: A square frame.

Stay away from eye level, low angle, tilted angle, fisheye, selective plane, layered depth, horizon as divider, direct on-camera flash, coloured gels, motion blur, hdr & tone-mapped, unstyled, as found, deep shadows, black shadows and warm against cool.

Photographs that define it

From open collections, shown whole with their credits. Later photographs are linked, not shown, while they are in copyright.

Stationery and flowers flatlay, by Jazmin Quaynor, 2016-05-31 — Stationery and flowers flatlay

Jazmin Quaynor, Stationery and flowers flatlay, 2016. CC0, via Unsplash and Wikimedia Commons. Source: Stationery and flowers flatlay at Wikimedia Commons (from Unsplash)

Untitled (shirt, camera, wallet, keys and boat shoes on floorboards), by Angelina Litvin, 2015-08-31 — Untitled (shirt, camera, wallet, keys and boat shoes on floorboards)

Angelina Litvin, untitled flat lay, 2015. CC0, via Unsplash and Wikimedia Commons. Source: Untitled (shirt, camera, wallet, keys and boat shoes on floorboards) at Wikimedia Commons (from Unsplash)

Flat Lay Clapham Studios, by Stefan Bookblock (Clapham Studios), 2016-08-15 — Flat Lay Clapham Studios

Stefan Bookblock, Flat Lay Clapham Studios, 2016. CC0, via Unsplash and Wikimedia Commons. Source: Flat Lay Clapham Studios at Wikimedia Commons (from Unsplash)

Chopping Ingredients, by Katie Smith, 2016-06-22 — Chopping Ingredients

Katie Smith, Chopping Ingredients, 2016. CC0, via Unsplash and Wikimedia Commons. Source: Chopping Ingredients at Wikimedia Commons (from Unsplash)

RisoArrangement (a knolling of the Print Gocco B6 set), by Chive Cream Cheese (Wikimedia Commons user), 2023-07-01 — RisoArrangement (a knolling of the Print Gocco B6 set)

Chive Cream Cheese, RisoArrangement, 2023. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Source: RisoArrangement (a knolling of the Print Gocco B6 set) at Wikimedia Commons

Make Up Flat Lay for Background, by geehairimages (geehair.com), 2021-02-10 — Make Up Flat Lay for Background

geehairimages, Make Up Flat Lay for Background, 2021 (https://www.geehair.com). CC BY 2.0, via Flickr and Wikimedia Commons. Source: Make Up Flat Lay for Background at Wikimedia Commons (from Flickr)

With other styles

Pairs with E-commerce packshot on white. Give the listing its packshot on white and use a flat lay of the same product with its props for the secondary images and social posts, shot on the same day with the same colour check.

The opposite: Dark and moody food photography. Both often look down on food, but dark and moody pulls the light to one raking window over weathered dark boards; keep flat lays bright and evenly lit on pale grounds, or switch to it for autumnal recipes.

Pairs with Light and airy. Borrow its pale, slightly overexposed pastel edit so a brand's flat lays sit comfortably beside its wedding or lifestyle portraits in one feed.

Pairs with VSCO film-preset look. One restrained film preset across every post unifies a grid of flat lays; lift the blacks only a little so the white grounds stay white.

Pairs with New Objectivity photography. For a strict knolled inventory of tools or a collection, borrow its frontal, even, sharp-to-the-edges description of each thing and show the pictures as a comparative series.

Sources

Knolling, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knolling (term first used in 1987 by Andrew Kromelow, a janitor in Frank Gehry's furniture shop, which was then designing chairs for Knoll; Tom Sachs's 2009 studio manual 10 Bullets with 'Always be Knolling'; Instagram users call a similar, looser and less formal style 'flatlay'; Gap and Sephora have used knolling in advertising)
Kat Bauman, Knoll Thy Enemy: Combatting Chaos with Carefully Arrayed Items, Core77, 10 January 2014: https://www.core77.com/posts/26237/Knoll-Thy-Enemy-Combatting-Chaos-with-Carefully-Arrayed-Items (knolling spreading into 'infographics, advertising, fashion blogs, cookbooks, whole dedicated tumblrs, merchandising, photography collections' and Pinterest; 'straight-on shots of objects in neat lines'; tools '90-degreed at the end of the day'; a link to Things Organized Neatly; the 'What's In My Bag' tag; Tom Sachs's 10 Bullets)
Kathy Schwartz, A Neat Life, CityBeat (Cincinnati), 9 March 2016: https://www.citybeat.com/arts/a-neat-life-12178274/ (Austin Radcliffe started the Tumblr Things Organized Neatly in April 2010 as a student at Herron School of Art and Design; Webby Winner and People's Voice for Best Personal Blog in 2015; mostly curated and submitted photographs; the book; knolling and Tom Sachs's 'Always be knolling')
Things Organised Neatly, AnOther Magazine, 23 September 2013: https://www.anothermag.com/design-living/3026/things-organised-neatly (images from the Tumblr created by Austin Radcliffe)
Things organized neatly, Open Library: https://openlibrary.org/isbn/9780789331137 (Austin Radcliffe, 2016)
Damien Roué, Mercredi Pratique #168: la tendance photo produit flat lay, Phototrend, 9 March 2016: https://phototrend.fr/2016/03/mp-168-tendance-photo-produit-flat-lay (objects arranged on a surface and shot from above, 'photo à plat'; knolling from Kromelow in 1987 and Tom Sachs; more than 690,000 #flatlay posts on Instagram; camera directly above; diffused daylight and a white card to fill; props, empty space, a hand or foot in the frame; a smartphone is enough; 35–50 mm equivalent; tripod; the SKRWT perspective app)
Sara Spruch-Feiner, Glossy Pop newsletter: the flat lay is back, Glossy, 31 May 2024: https://www.glossy.co/pop/glossy-pop-newsletter-the-flat-lay-is-back/ (Allure's 2016 story 'Flat lay your collection: the makeup trend blowing up on Reddit'; Dash Hudson data showing flat lays at about double the engagement of other beauty-brand posts in 2024; product-only flat lays on white used in ads)
Rebecca Farley, Reddit Challenges You: Can You Fit All Your Makeup In One Photo?, Refinery29, 24 October 2016: https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2016/10/127345/reddit-makeup-flat-lay (a thread on Reddit's MakeupAddiction prompted 'Flat-lay your collection!'; 'A good flat lay of your makeup is the best sort of beauty Instagram')
Format Team, Flat Lay Photography Tips: Styling and Composition Guide, Format Magazine, 9 June 2026: https://www.format.com/magazine/resources/photography/flat-lay-photography-guide (flat lay 'is sometimes called “bird's eye” or “overhead” photography'; a true 90-degree overhead angle; a large window to one side, not directly overhead; diffusion on sunny days; white foam board opposite; harsh shadows distract; two matched light sources at equal angles for shadowless product shots; tripod with a horizontal arm or copy stand; 35–50 mm equivalent at f/5.6–f/8, ISO 100–400; marble, wood, slate, linen and solid-colour paper ('graphic, bold, brand-aligned') grounds; a hero object; negative space for text overlays in marketing, social media or editorial layouts; how the image will appear in a grid)
Ana Linares, Tips for Flat Lay Photography, Adorama Learning Center, 3 November 2022: https://www.adorama.com/alc/flat-lay-photography-tips/ (a collection of objects around a theme such as a hobby, a lifestyle or a single colour; natural light, set up by a window; when natural light falls short, light-coloured V-flat boards stood around the composition 'and use a flash to light the setup'; a tripod that tilts the camera straight down; a simple single-colour background; 'nice, clean angles' or 'a messy, overlapping look')
Format Team, Flat Lay Photography Tips: Styling and Composition Guide, Format Magazine, 9 June 2026: https://www.format.com/magazine/resources/photography/flat-lay-photography-guide ('A focal length between 35mm and 50mm (full-frame equivalent)'; 'f/5.6 to f/8 for edge-to-edge sharpness'; ISO 'As low as possible (100 to 400)'; tripod and remote trigger for slower shutter speeds in natural light; tripod with a horizontal arm or a copy stand; most smartphones handle flat lays well)
Damien Roué, Mercredi Pratique #168: la tendance photo produit flat lay, Phototrend, 9 March 2016: https://phototrend.fr/2016/03/mp-168-tendance-photo-produit-flat-lay ('focales équivalentes à 35mm ou 50mm en 24×36' to limit distortion; a tripod helps; many Instagram flat lays made with smartphones)
Clothing flatlay (NordWood Themes), Angelina Litvin 2015-08-31, Flat Lay Clapham Studios and Chopping Ingredients (Katie Smith), Wikimedia Commons from Unsplash (EXIF): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flat_Lay_Clapham_Studios_(Unsplash).jpg (Canon 5D Mark III at 58 mm f/11, 0.8 s, ISO 100; Canon 600D 50 mm, 80 mm eq., f/1.4, 1/100 s, ISO 200; Canon 700D 135 mm, 216 mm eq., f/8, 1/60 s, ISO 400; iPhone 4S, 47 mm eq., f/2.4, 1/30 s, ISO 50)
Format Team, Flat Lay Photography Tips: Styling and Composition Guide, Format Magazine, 9 June 2026: https://www.format.com/magazine/resources/photography/flat-lay-photography-guide ('Ensure your whites are neutral, especially if you are shooting on a white background'; 'Mixing natural light with overhead room lights creates color casts and competing shadow directions'; 'Stick to one light source')