You’re on Pinterest or Instagram and you see these amazing photos of these styled fashion or beauty products? You click like or pin it to one of your boards. Raise your hand if thats you. Well that’s definitely me! Two of my favorite social media platforms is Pinterest and Instagram. I love photography and fashion and today I decided to do a flay lay photography session using my own clothes, shoes and accessories.

Since I’m working from home now, I don’t really go out much and don’t know what to do with my nice clothes and shoes, so I came up with the idea to make use of them by taking photos.

I am more of behind the lens type, so you will hardly see any photos of me  on my site. I was already on Pinterest savings those images on my fashion boards so why not be on those bloggers who takes photos of them.

I first started out doing flat lay with my food photos. Food photos gets a lot of views and likes so if you’re into food, that category will do well on a lot of social media platforms especially on Instagram.

Here are my steps to take a flat lay photo.

Step 1: Prepare the table for your outfits and find a spot in your home with lots of lighting. In this photo session I used my ottoman and chair to layout my clothes and shoes. I love modern decor so I bought these faux fur blankets in an off white color at Ross as the backdrop for less than $15.00. You can buy them anywhere online and in store. I chose to do faux fur blanket instead of a white board because I see a lot of Pinterest images with that faux fur blanket and those photos get a ton of repins.

Step 2: Look into your closet and prepare your outfits. you could do more or less, i picked 7 because theres an outfit for each day of the week. i recently did a home project in October and reorganized my closet. currently i share my closet with my husband so therefore i had to store some in boxes and drawers. A girl can never have too many clothes or shoes.my closet is organized by colors so it is easier for me to choose what i want to create an outfit.

For the outfit I choose is an outwear such as a coat, jacket or vest, blouse or shirt for the top, jeans or leggings for the bottoms. You can always add accessories like some jewelry, a bag or scarf to your flat lay. I wanted to keep it simple for now since I had my two little children in my living room while I did my flat lay photography. Also the weather in Las Vegas have always been cloudy and gray so I need to work with the lighting so that part was challenging. You would definitely like to take the photo where there is a lot of natural light.

Step 3: Start shooting from above with your dslr or smartphone. i stepped on my couches while i did the photos. you could use a tripod but i choose not to. you will also want take more shots not just 1 or 2 photos. 5 or more of the same shots is good.

Step 4: Photo editing. i like to edit with apps using Vsco and Canva and these are free to download. they do have a paid version which is awesome if you’ll use it a lot.

I use the presets in VSCO and then I would adjust here and there. You also want to know what look you’re going for. I like white, pink, black and white so those are the filters i go for.

There are filter examples you can find on google and Pinterest. i do a keyword search “ vsco filters “or “how to make your photos brighter”. I go on Canva (I have the pro version which i pay $12/m). I highly recommend this app for all business owners and influencers including bloggers. It is very well worth it since I use it everyday to build my online business.

Tip: People respond to brighter photos more than dark ones and when you create a nice photo collage.

Step 5: Posting on social media. Once you have your favorites edited, its time to post. If you’re using Instagram, use all 30 popular hashtags (I like to look for 500k to 1M+ hashtags) as well as using my own hashtags that are relevant  in each post, if you’re on pinterest, know who who you’re target audience is and write a catchy title and description.

Tip: If you need help coming up with title and description, one of the best ways is to search on pinterest and see what others type in for their flat lay photos. The best thing about pinterest is you can direct link to any website, affiliate link, blog, Instagram profile, Facebook page or Youtube channel.

Flat lay photography is also one of the best ways to build your brand or blog, grow your social media following, become an influencer without you or other people having to be in the photos.

This type of photography does well in social media, so why not try it and see how it will work for your brand or business.

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