Flat lay styling and detailed shots are one of the most popular types of wedding photography. These are photos that do not involve people, but unique wedding details. Flat lay styling is a collection of subjects that are carefully composed to create a stylised photo. It is a goal to create beautifully detailed photos of wedding elements for many wedding photographers and wedding decorators and it’s a beautiful memory to put into your wedding album. Flat lay styling can be placed on a flat surface, such as a floor, table, piece of fabric or decorative styling mat. If you’ve ever seen flat lay styling wedding details, you definitely know that the final result can be a really wonderful artistic idea to capture the details of the wedding day.
Flat lay styling is one of my beloved parts of work and that’s why I’m sharing with you some tips to level up your flat lay styling.
Invest in a quality styling mat
Not always you’ll be able to find a beautiful surface to style your detailed shots and because it’s such an important element of a photo, you need to invest in a styling mat. The whole background under the stationery gives the character and feeling to the final photo and you don’t have to invest in buying a hundred mats, but choose one or two in neutral colours and it will help your flat lay styling a lot. I personally love to use mats by an amazing vendor Locust collection, but I also recommend you Olive and Oak mats, Marry and Lilo mats or Bella Nela styling mats.
Be organized
Every little detail of the wedding day deserves to be captured. Lead your clients to have all the details collected in a bag or box before the wedding day and stored in one place so that when you come, you can start working on capturing them first! The more lead your clients to be organized, the more time you as a photographer will have to create beautiful and meaningful images with carefully selected details. I recommend 45 minutes to an hour for detailed shots in the wedding timeline.
Colour palette
When styling the details of the wedding day, I recommend following the color palette of the wedding to keep things in line. Neutral and metallic tones look good with most palettes and can be great accents!
Find your style
Luxurialist
You create flat lays in a big luxury style with a lot of flowers and details.
Minimalist
You love to keep a simple picture of the photographed object.
Whoever you feel to be, always remember to let the purpose of the subject pop up in the photo so your client can feel the memory of the detail. Do not overwhelm your styling, be mindful and carefully think about where to place your subjects.
Styling kit
A styling kit is something that every flat lay stylist should have and it doesn’t have to be enormous. You can own two mats, two ring boxes or a dish, some stamps and blocks, find some flowers and that’s all enough. Everything else you need to add to your photo your client already has. But my big recommendation is to keep your styling kit in one style – decide If you love vintage or a modern style and collect props in that one style so your own signature styling is truly yours.
Plan your light
Light is everything in photography and styling a flat lay is such hard work. You don’t want to style it and then find out that it’s laying in the wrong light. So take your time and before you start everything, find the spot with the light you love.
Communication is the key
It’s very different If you’re shooting for a client or for a stationer. For your client, it’s more like heirloom photography, they want to remember every single detail, but for stationer, it’s kinda like product photography and these photos have to show the main work and sell it. Keep this in your mind when photographing flat lays and always communicate with your client. Find out what is important to them, what they love, what they want to capture and what is their style.
Never mix and match
I’m sure you don’t want to someone mix your work with another gallery or someone’s work. Remember that this same everywhere. Wedding details, especially wedding suits, come in a set, it belongs together and you can’t match it to another subject.
Thank you so much for your precious time.
spring 2023
Flat lay styling workshop
Join the waiting list and be the first one to know about news, registration and special offers. Learn how to achieve refined flat lay styling of wedding stationery, invitations and little details.
