Jenna Marie

How to Take Instagram Outfit Flatlay Photos


Instagram "flatlays" or "outfit layouts" are pictures of an outfit flat on the ground, usually folded in some way, rather than on a human being. Flatlays are also my most popular kind of instagram content, by a significant margin. One of the questions I get most often is how I take my flatlays, so today I'm spilling my secrets and sharing my flatlay methodology.

The 'Tools'


  • iPhone 6s (formerly a cruddy iPhone 5, all above photos were with an iPhone 5)
  • The biggest size matboard available at the craft store, I think mine is 32"x40"
  • Editing apps of choice



The Photography Process


I shoot all my outfit flatlays outside in natural light on my deck. I prefer to take them when it's overcast, dawn, or dusk, so the light is nicely diffused and there aren'y harsh shadows. Natural light makes a HUGE difference. Is it way more time consuming, and do I usually either freeze or break a sweat? Yup! But to me it's the difference between a 'meh' flatlay and a great one. If you have big windows, you may be able to take them indoors, but my house is a light sucking cave, so I don't have that luxury.

I arrange my outfit to fit within the constraints of the shorter side of the board, so I don't have to fuss with adding margins to make it a square. I typically take anywhere from 10-30 square photos of each outfit on my phone. I then go through and delete the obviously bad ones, and mark the best ones as favorites. Next, I swipe through my favorites and narrow it down to 1-3 options, and transfer those to an album I've created called 'To Be Edited'. That way I don't have to pick the picture I would like to edit from the tiny thumbnails usually provided by editing apps for selection. If for any reason I hate all of them, I'll rearrange the outfit and shoot start the process over. Yes, I am mildly compulsive and ridiculous.



The Editing Process


This is the part where you guys are gonna really judge me, if you haven't already. Flatlays are my insta-bread&butter though, I am very particular about them. Very. I use multiple apps, which I will detail in a future post, but what I do with them can be accomplished with nearly any standard editing app(s).
  1. Get the outfit to fit in a square. Technically, it should already be a square, but sometimes there is a little non-white background peaking in, or the white space isn't balanced. I use Photos on my iPhone just to straighten and crop the photo until it is satisfactory.
  2. Adjust any lighting or coloring issues. Since I shoot in natural light, I don't usually have to tweak this much. However, sometimes I shoot too close to dark and my photos are a little too cool, or it is just a particularly yellow light day. When this is the case, I first address the temperature and color balance of the photo. Having overly yellow or blue photos is just yucky, so to achieve a good balance I focus on a neutral gray or white area of the photo, and tweak the temperature until I am satisfied. Then I adjust the shadows and highlights so there is sufficient contrast, but the details are still crisp.
  3. Address flaws. Scratches in my matboard, wrinkles that went unnoticed in a blouse, and Sherlock hairs are all little details that I fix after the fact with a retouching app or blur tool.
I previously went into detail about what apps I use and how I use them in this post, but I've updated my process a little bit since. However if you just can't wait, it's still a good starting point :) Check it out here.
Below is a few more of my flatlays, or you can browse them all here. They were pretty rough at the beginning, but with time and practice I think I've refined them quite well.

If I haven't addressed things or if you have any more questions, leave them below :)

  • Love
  • Save
    5 loves 5 saves
    Add a blog to Bloglovin’
    Enter the full blog address (e.g. https://www.fashionsquad.com)
    We're working on your request. This will take just a minute...