How To Shoot Flatlays With A Color Palette

A lot goes behind creating a good aesthetic flatlay that’ll capture the attention of the viewer instantly. When you’re thinking about how to shoot flatlays, it is important to take your colors into account.

If you’re new to this topic, let’s first clear out what I mean by a color palette in Flatlay Photography.

A color palette is simply the set of colors that will be portrayed in your picture. The color of your backdrop, surface, and props.

So, how do you find a color palette that’ll look good?

For this, you’ll have to know a bit about color theory in photography.

Different color palettes can give off different emotions/feelings through them.

There are six color harmonies commonly used:

1. Complementary colors.
2. Split complementary colors.
3. Analogous colors.
4. Triadic harmonies.
5. Tetradic harmonies.
6. Monochromatic harmonies.

There are tools available online which have a color wheel and the color harmonies listed. You can choose a color and the rest of the colors in that palette will be recommended to you.

Here are some options:

1. Canva
2. Sessions
3. Adobe

Read more: Flatlay Photography Guide: LEVEL UP!

Chose the color palette for your flatlay? Here’s the next step

Get the props and backdrops for the flatlay. Make sure to choose the things that are of the same color.

And even if a prop that matches the theme of your flatlay isn’t of your color palette, use it.

Why?

Because you can change its color later in Photoshop in under 5 minutes. Change its color to match the color palette you’ve selected.

I wanted to shoot a flatlay on a beige surface and I wanted the color palette to follow complementary color harmony. So, I head to Canva, select complementary color harmony, select beige and check which is the second suggested color.

Here’s what I got:

And this is the setup I came up with. It took me solid 20 minutes to find the arrangement I liked the best. Take your time too.

Make sure no two objects cut each other and overlap in an odd way. Both sides of the picture should be balanced.

Also Read: Things You Need To Start A Small Business On Instagram | GarimaShares

Or you can also use negative space to direct more attention to your centerpiece (Ikigai) as I did in this shot:

Trying out different angles,

Find your own color palette or use this one! Don’t forget to use #garimashares in your posts on Instagram so that I can check them out. Can’t believe we already have 15.7K posts in the hashtag, keep ’em coming 🙂

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