HOW TO: Organically Style a Flatlay Story | Hope Johnson | Skillshare
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HOW TO: Organically Style a Flatlay Story

teacher avatar Hope Johnson, surface designer + printmaker + redhead

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Lessons in This Class

    • 1.

      Intro

      0:57

    • 2.

      Overview + Class Project

      1:11

    • 3.

      Planning + Creative Direction

      3:21

    • 4.

      Collecting Your Items

      3:00

    • 5.

      Repetition and Movement

      13:17

    • 6.

      White Space + Density

      12:23

    • 7.

      Color Story

      8:17

    • 8.

      Editing Tips + References

      1:27

    • 9.

      Final Thoughts

      0:28

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About This Class

This class is all about the tricks and tips to styling organically inspired flatlays that TELL A STORY. Using your camera or your iPhone, you’ll leave this class inspired to start collecting, work some magic, and capture some amazing shots to use for your marketing campaigns, social media, or any place you need pretty photos.

We’ll focus on three examples that you can apply to ANY flatlay story you want to tell:
> repetition and movement
> density
> color stories

Once you learn how to apply those three concepts, you’ll be inspired for endless creative direction when it comes to telling your flatlay story.


WHAT ARE FLATLAYS AND WHY DO YOU NEED THEM?
Flatlays are a fancy way of saying you took a photo of things placed on a flat surface. There are tips and tricks you will learn to capture all kinds of beautiful shots you can use for your marketing content, social media, or any place you need pretty photos. Styling takes practice but is thankfully an intuitive and therapeutic process.






THIS CLASS IS FOR:
Anyone who may need great photos for ...social media marketing, content creation, blog graphics, email marketing photos, product photography... seriously, just anywhere you need pretty photos. It’ll be great!



Meet Your Teacher

Teacher Profile Image

Hope Johnson

surface designer + printmaker + redhead

Teacher







WALLPAPER & TEXTILE DESIGNER + PRINTMAKER + REDHEAD
and I teach about all the things I've discovered along the way (except about being a redhead)


Welcome to the studio. My name is Hope Johnson. I am a Louisiana-based surface designer and printmaker. I am most in my element when I'm playing with patterns and paper. My courses here are a reflection of my love for styling, printmaking, patterns + licensing (more on that coming soon), and all things fine-art stationery.

If you stick around long enough, you might get some ink on your hands.


SEE YA ON THE 'GRAM
let's be friends

 

See full profile

Related Skills

Photography More Photography
Level: All Levels

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Transcripts

1. Intro: My name is Hope Johnson and I'm a Louisiana based surface designer and printmaker. I am most in my element when I'm in my studio or home designing or styling something that will cover a surface, whether that's a pattern repeat for wallpaper or my dinner plate or a flatly photo. In this class, I'm going to show you my process and tools I use to organically style of flatly story using items you probably already have. Styling a flatly is a fancy way of saying you took an overhead shot of a flat surface with some items on it. Together, we're going to get inspired work some magic and capture some beautifully stated flatly shots you can use for your brand, your client, your social media, or any place you need beautiful photos. We are all connected to story, and this is just one of the many mediums you can use to tell yours. 2. Overview + Class Project: Styling a flatly as a fancy way of saying you took an overhead shot of a flat surface with some items on it to tell a story. This may be to capture a product for sale, photos needed for your blog posts, graphics needed for marketing. There's are endless uses for photography. In this course, we're going to learn how to organically style of flatly using prompts you probably already have in order to create all different types of beautifully styled shots from your camera or your iPhone. For the course project, we are going to obviously style a few photos. I'm going to make a safe bet that you have way more props around you than you probably think you do. I have used pencil shavings, old coins, paperclips, books that look like they should have been tossed, book pages, candles, drifted table wears a tangled mess of twine vintage stamps and old crumpled up precedes a coffee stains napkin, you'd get it. But be sure to download the guide that will help you sort of map out your project. From this guide, you'll create a little supply list. And I don't mean from this store, I mean from around your home or your studio, but I will give you some tips on what you can sort of keep an eye out for that would be great for styling. Let's get to it. 3. Planning + Creative Direction: In this very first chapter, we're going to map out our planning and creative direction and how we can better understand the flatly at hand that we're wanting to style. Understanding your creative direction. We'll just make the process easier, but don't sweat these steps. It's all meant to be fun and this will become more intuitive with practice and things can change along the way. But there are four questions I asked myself when I start to plan a flatly project. Number one, intentions, what are you using these photos for? Is this for a website or social media? How will they be displayed horizontally or vertically while the camera need to be close up to the item are far away or both. For shot styled close up, you may need less props because there just won't be a lot of area to cover for shot styled further away, you may need more props. For this step, I actually write down a list of shots I know I need so I can make sure I get them. But take plenty of fun ones at different angles and perspectives along the way. For example, your email header, website headers, that nine to 16 ratio for Instagram story graphics, the one-to-one ratio of Instagram post. Write it down and check it off as you go. But having too many vs, not enough is always my thought. You can always call through them later. Number two, what are we styling? Are we setting the stage for a product that needs to remain the main focus of the shopped. Are we setting up what I like to call B-roll type of shots? This is sort of your secondary maybe mood board type of shots used for marketing and content creation. Always styling for a text overlays. This is all helpful to know as you plan your creative directions that you know how to feel your working space and what to add to your list of needed shots. Number three, your aesthetics. The aesthetics are simply the colors and textures you want to convey in your flatly story. Do you have a color palette you're aiming for? Do you want a variety of texture or to keep things clean? Cut? Remember, don't sweat these questions, these are things you can keep in mind as you begin or figure out along the way. Styling is fun and can be therapeutic even so, enjoy this process and it will all become more natural the more you do it. Question number four, lighting and location. Lighting will most likely play a leading role in where you set your location. You cannot be natural light, so find a space near a window or even outdoors for large areas, you can even use your floor or the ground outside. My bedroom floor at 4PM is the best light in the house, and I've used that area for flat lays a billion different times. For situations where a dim light is inevitable, don't be afraid to invest in some studio lights. But here are two basic lighting styles I like to consider when I'm setting things up. Diffuse light. Diffuse light is great for an even tone and minimal shadows across your flatly and overcast days are the best days for this direct light. Direct light is great for a contrasting layer of shadows that you intentionally want to include across your flatly story. On the next lesson we're gonna talk about all the things collecting and disclaimer, don't be mad if this chapter changes the way you look at everything. I have a mason jar full of pencil shavings, have a collection of vintage papers. I have a bed full of anticlockwise pins. Just so you know, you're new habits might be different, but I will see you in the next chapter and we'll dive in a little more on collecting. 4. Collecting Your Items: As I've mentioned, you probably have so much more than you think you do as far as pro scope. But on this lesson we're gonna talk about all things collecting, collecting for flatly is one now officially be a thing that you do. You won't be able to help yourself. I once picked up a grocery list from a parking lot. It was not my grocery list, but it just had really nice handwriting and it eventually found its way into a flatly of mine. But to make it easy, let's start with what's probably right under your nose. Greenery. This can be from your backyard. This can be store bought greenery, even flower petals and wilting leaves make the prettiest of shots. Stationary accessories. This can be cooled pins, old stamps, blank papers, books, old books or book pages. Lynn, really well to flat lays coffee table style books, new org, vintage magazines, neat sheet music. I have a collection of papers from this online shop called St. sick Nora, great online shop of papers written in French just because they're just, they're just so pretty. Coins and medals. Coins and metals give a really great reflective layer to your overall mood and pallet and makes the shuttling row clean cut and sophisticated. You can find this in paperclips, in cool coins, gold pins, a pair of scissors, even your surface can be reflective like a marble surface. I use vintage Silver Platter is allowed. Anything that seems Shiny gives you that extra layer of texture that the AI loves. Ribbons and courts. So ribbons and chords and even textiles give fantastic texture and movement to your flatly story. Chords and ribbons can dance around the shot, wrap around a bundle of pencils, ribbons of course, or display. So let's talk foundation. You can use just about anything for your foundation. You can use a Raul table, you can use a sheet, you can use a cutting board. You can create your own foundation by layering papers, which is a favorite, a foundation method of mine. You can use met boards. I've done all of these things and what I use is dependent on the creative direction. I am taking a have a slab of marble that I got from this old contractor, friend of mine from a healthy was building. The friend is my husband and I have a textured campus board that I made from a $5 canvas, a jar of drywall patch and some of my kids craft being the main question here is to ask whether you need a solid background or a textured background and get inspired from there. Keeping an eye out for items that speak to your brand or the brand you're styling for and collecting will become a more natural habit for you. Alright folks, the upcoming examples are all going to be derived from different muses and example projects and maybe some actual projects I have going on. They will all teach us something though that we can apply to our own 5A is and I'm super excited to see what you do with it politely, as can be super simple or super complex, but it's all fun and games. You can fill the space, you can leave lots of breathing room. You can get that mood board look or have that perfectly scattered look. And you can have a monochromatic color scheme or a fun palette to showcase. There are really no hard and set rules here, just that you can play until you're eyes are happy. So join me and the upcoming chapters as I quite candidly show you the three concepts that you can apply it to an array of work. 5. Repetition and Movement: All right, friends, we're going to start super assemble. This chapter is all about repetition and movement. And for this example, I'm gonna show you how to use repetition to movement with just a small handful of objects. This is a super-fast way to capture shots with just one or a few props, your iPhone or camera and a quick edit. So I'm actually going to set these aside. I'm just going to use these pretty dried flowers. So repetition can be subjective or objective. It can be literal, it could be not so literal. I'll show you a couple of ways throughout this chapter, in the upcoming chapters. More what I mean by that. So this repetition example is going to be pretty literal. This just looks like a row of flowers in a repeating format. And it absolutely is. But let's think about the Instagram nine to 16 ratio of stories. Let's think about the horizontal ratio of what a website header might be. If I cropped this with that in mind, it would create some really interesting shots and with enough whitespace captured, you could even overlay text. So repetition of the same item or similar items as a quick way to grab someone's attention. Attention, you can use repetition to showcase products. You can use repetition of the same item like we've done here. You can use repetition of the same items mixed in with other complimentary items, which I'll show you coming up. Repetition is easy and fun and it gives you some great dynamic photos. So if I were to crop this right kind of sort of down the middle right here, just what my eye is seeing and come up. That would be a really great template for that Instagram nine to 16 ratio, like we talked about. You can crop this horizontally and uses as a website photo, photo header. You can also tightly cropped this to where it's just the forums, but you leaving whitespace gives you the opportunity for texts I relays as well. This is just all dependent on what you might need these photos for. So repetition does not always have to be the same item either. I'm going to show you another example... So here are some tools that we're right behind me on my desk. Repetition does not have to be the same item over and over again. It's just something your eye sees in a way that just really bring some attention to it. Talked about metallics being a great way to bring in interest as well. That has some metallics here. Might even through some florals in their. So in the same way that we talked about cropping for whatever use UC fit. It does not have to be repetition of the same item. So this would, this would just really provide some really interesting footer graphics for any use. I'm, I'm picturing this is maybe the bottom of a footer email. A blog post really any place that you need pretty photos. I like to kind of spend some time, maybe a whole photo session, a whole day, capturing a ton of what I like to call filler photos. So this example in the example before, are both great filler photos just for when you need something pretty to maybe post on social media or just a pretty app, your graphics on your website or any marketing material or content creation that she would need it for. But it's not it's not literal. It's not like we're showcasing our product, but you can create repetition in anything that you do. And again, we'll talk more about that later. But now I want to show you how to use movement to get that perfectly scattered look, break this down and grabbed my next my next project. Okay. So when I scatter objects across my surface, I like to pick two opposite corners to sort of anchor, which is usually the bottom left and the top right. For me, this is just the natural way to i move so it's wet. I gravitate towards. For this example, I'm actually going to use some fabric swatches. These textiles are from my first fabric collection. I launched with Cotton and Steel, and I'm going to step up our prop count here as well. The last example showed some more filler photos with just a few items. So this example will show what it looks like to use a few more, a few more items. So I'm just going to spend some time anchoring my corners. And I have grabbed, grabbed props that that sort of support the story. A lot of my artwork starts out as paintings or drawings. And so I've grabbed just painting tools and things that might help support this story. I like to kind of start from a clean surface store and I went to Grab stuff initially to grab my attention. Alright, so this is an example of what sort of scattered, quickly scattered look, might feel like. There is an actual, There is an actual art to it. Alright. I left that I can see the Cotton and Steel logo. Depending on your project, you may need to show that logo or you may be required to. I know a lot of say like Instagram, influencers and ads like that, they are required to show what that that brand name is all about. So on the last example, I talked about using repetition in a more subjective way. And this is a great example of that. We have repetition of the same pattern right here. We have repetition of the same pattern over here. We may bring in a similar color, color palettes here as well. So repetition can be pretty literal, like the repetition of the fluorophores that we just used. And it can also be used in a more subjective way. Repetition is just something the eye naturally gravitates towards. Or eyes like order. Gonna grab two little blocks. I like to create some height by raising some pieces up. And you can do this with just about anything. Stack of cookies make great little risers. So I'm just going to work on now that I have my corners anchored and I've already started a little bit filling in those gaps. And what I am focusing wine when I want to get that sort of intentionally scattered block without it looking messy, are a balance of horizontal and vertical lines as well as diagonal lines. So like I said, our eyes like order. So we'll have a good amount of these straight horizontal and vertical lines going on. But I am also pairing with vertical lines. And what this, what this will do is kinda create like an arrow to the next, to the next thing you're, I wants to visually land on and there's never a negative resting place for your eye. Everything that your eye is looking at is sort of in this circle swirl motion. And they continue to move and continue to just look at all the pretty things. So like I said, we talk a lot about storytelling. I have collected items that just support this story. You know, have this embroidery rain makes sense. I have sewing fabric right here. This little piece. This, this painting was something my son did as I was working on some of the artwork here. So just kind of always loved including it. When I look at this, I, it makes me think of this collection. So I'm kinda focusing on bringing in some more of those angled lines with more of my pieces. What you collect and use for your flatly should help tell your story by keeping mind. Like we talked about when you're selling a product, you don't want anything to take away from your main progress. So if this was a product for sale, I might want to get a shot of just the one product and then also have this complimentary shot with all the other items that, that are in the shot. Alright, I'll stop here. This is something I can play with for a long time, but I love the way this looks. And what I am focusing on here are all the different areas that I can zoom in on. This is really great as a whole. I love that. I have my anchored corners and I have that sort of flow, that swirl that we talked about. But I also love the other shots that I'm seeing. I can crop this in that nine to 16 ratio of Instagram stories. I can crop this in any vertical use. Say I had a portfolio to design. I know my portfolios are your typical 8.5 by 11 letter size, letter sized format. So I could crop that knowing, knowing I will have that vertical aspect going on and this actually, I kind of have some white space up here. I can use, I can move some things around from this center and really use this center as a whitespace, a whitespace opportunity as well. So I'm seeing lots of different areas that I can zoom in on and get some really great shots and don't feel obligated to, to keep your flatly shots completely overhead because I love capturing shots at an angle. And it just gives you, gives you a lot of variety. So I see at least five or six different shots I know I can get. And I will share more at the end of this chapter, I'll share all the shots that I get from all of the flatlands that I'm using as an example and showcasing here as well as some additional ones that I've captured just over the years. Alright. I am just going to call through some of the photos that I've taken here, all with the theme of repetition and movement in mind. So this is the floral photo that we first started out with. And as you can see, it gave a really great place for text overlays. It would be gorgeous on its own. So these would be great for I use these a lot for like footer images and email headers and things like that. Okay, so using the same object, just like we did with the floral, there's a scattered content version and awaited content version. And these are just fun. These are filler photos. It's not focused on individual products. It's not focused on a really dense mood board or anything like that. It's just fun filler photos with the idea of movement and repetition. So here is another example from our demonstration of movement. We have those mix of diagonal in horizontal and vertical lines that all kind of trick the eye into just a balance of order and movement as well. So here's another example, and I love this example because for one it's just a couple of objects. It's vintage stamps and a ribbon sort of in the background where the stamps are in the foreground. But the image on the right, I mentioned that I often like to get photographs at an angle because yes, we are talking about flat lays, but the photo doesn't always have to be from that flat perspective. So especially when you have a marble background like this, this is a great way to sort of get that get that reflection off of those shiny surfaces. Alright, so this is borderline talking about more of that didn't City chapter that we're about to head towards. However, there is a lot of repetition going on here as well, with both the horizontal and vertical lines. And it everything sort of in this grid format and grids can give you that feel of repetition. So I thought I would show it as an example. So here's another example of a stationary shut. I love including hands, especially when the work that you're showcasing is such a hands-on medium. So that's always super fine. But showcasing the same items like I've done here is just another great way to show both repetition and movement in your shot. Again, here's another example of repetition. So I've kind of waited this in that top right hand corner intentionally to give whitespace for that text or really you see there. So I can show you a million different examples like this, but this gives you a good feel of ways you can incorporate repetition and movement, both for your more filler photos as well as product. In the next chapter we are going to talk about density. So we talked a little bit about whitespace and what rights-based can do for you. You'll want to think about as you set things up, how much whitespace you'll want to incorporate in your photo or in your shot. A less than shut gives you the opportunity to incorporate that whitespace or breathing room. So I'm going to clean my project and move on to the next example. 6. White Space + Density: In this chapter we're going to talk about density. You'll want to think about how much or how little whitespace you want to incorporate in your shop. A less dense shot gives you the opportunity to incorporate whitespace or breathing room. And your photo where a more dead shot gives you lots of texture and very little whitespace. The shots we just captured on the last chapter, we're less dense. They had lots of breathing room and gave his opportunity for potential texts are released. On the upcoming example, I'm going to build up a mood board in two ways. One shot that encourages whitespace and a super dense mood board inspired shot in my mu's here is inspired by the printmaker. I'll be using tools of the trade that I've gathered from my studio for this project. Alright, so we are just going to dive right in, actually going to use a different foundation. And this is just a mat board from a local craft store. And I love layering paper. I feel like it just gives me this texture underneath all the other texture that I'm going to put on top. So just another, another way you can set up a foundation. So I'm just going to work on this first. And then we'll set up our mood boards are style boards. All right, I can sit here and tamper with this a lot. So I actually loved the way this looks. Quite often. I will layer up paper to give me sort of this nothing but whitespace area, so it's textured and there's some interesting things going on, but it's still, it's still it's still considered a blank canvas to me. I can overlay text or this. I can bring in a really nice like plants to create a shadow effect over this. Lots of cool things going on. Because that can tamper with this for a while, but I'm going to bring in and all this can change along the way. If I say that the line is just aren't working, okay, I am going to start bringing in my tools. And these are again just tools inspired by the printmaker. So I'm going to work on a shot that is dense but still leaves me plenty of whitespace. And me personally, I really like the mixture of horizontal and vertical lines versus the scattered look. I use both depending on my creative direction. And you will learn what your signature style is and thinks it will just become more natural and more intuitive as you practice. Alright. Alright, I am going to stop right here. Like I've mentioned, I typically loved to work pretty densely. And this is pretty dense. And my whole intention was to create some white space which we still have plenty of. I could have kept as simple, I could've taken away some of these smaller pieces. I love the super textured, super layered look and that's just my style. However, on the same subject of density, even though this is pretty layered and pretty dense, there are still opportunities for whitespace. So I wanna talk about some of the decisions I made as I was setting things up. So this is a chase and it's called a chase. It goes into a letterpress and hold in any set type or plates and things like that. So I know that I want to use this setup for the cover of this class. So I intentionally set this first and I kept the center of this empty because I feel like this would be sort of like a happy little surprise in a place for texts. So looking for those happy surprises are often, are often pretty fun. The example I showed with the fabric, I had an embroidery ring and I thought even inside of that importer, a ring would be a really interesting, surprise, little happy place for text. So that's what I'll do here. I'll overlay some text inside the screen, but I also have some white space up here. And depending on how this is cropped, I can I can create more or less breathing room as well. So the same thing with the other examples. I can crop this vertically. If I need something vertically, vertically, I can prop this horizontally. I do wanna make a suggestion, and I'll talk more about this in the editing as well. Number one, Keep your scenes set up, get as many shots along the way as well. Like I said in the beginning of this chapter, I love the way this looked before anything was on it. I loved the layer paper, so I would have captured a shot of just that. I actually loved the way this looked prior to setting up sort of my more accessory pieces as well. So get a shot of that. And when you do take your shots, get as many close-ups as you want, but be sure to get your edges as well. I know for me, I use Squarespace for my web site. And when I use their header templates, it crops the image pretty tightly depending on the template. So I always like to get one super far backs are, can have a little bit more control on how How that has cropped. So just food for thought. Another, another thing I want to talk about are how I use some of the things that we already learned. So there is a lot of movement going on, and although I have mostly vertical and horizontal lines, I have a couple of angled pieces and this ribbon that kinda create some movement that sort of give me that same little swirled action like we talked about. A lot of horizontal and horizontal and vertical lines. And also on an editing and capturing tip. You'll wanna make sure too that your dad on in the center so there aren't any skewed lines. If you're done at an angle, your horizontal and vertical lines are just going to look a little wonky unless your straight line. So I always like to make sure that my horizontals, verticals are, are perfectly lined up unless they're intentionally diagonal. So another thing that we talked about earlier on our use of metallic, I have intentionally sort of set things up where I have this repetition of metallic. Like I said, all of these lessons go hand in hand and you can incorporate them all together this way, the more dynamic your shots get. So I have some metallic three here. I have some metallic sphere here, I have some Shen near objects over here as well. Although these are pretty muted, they're still metals. So I love the repetition of that. And for whatever reason I feel like groups of three work really well or odd numbers. So I have these group of three smaller objects and then these two make five another odd number. And I just feel like groups of three work really well together. My mom always said supplant your flower bed plants in groups of 3... So maybe I'm just a sucker for odd numbers. But I'm just kind of checking my lines here before I continue on to really fill this up. Okay, so, uh, love, I love the way this looks and I also like using, using items with text. And I'm sort of staggering where I'm placing the items that have text on them as well. So I'm just going to continue to work at this and really create a more mood board feel where everything in this surface is covered. So I'm just going to keep adding pieces in layers until I am happy. Okay. Like I said, I can tamper with this all day long, but I will stop here to talk more about some other decisions that I have made. A lot of what we've already talked about those. So I wanted to go for a very dense mood board field and we have a lot of repetition.... And even though they're not in our repeating row, there's still repeated throughout the shots. Same with these same with these letterpress, these letter press type, this letterpress type, I have a lot of similar items here and they all have a theme. So I feel like this could be used in so many different ways. And yes, I did take away all of the whitespace opportunity. But I still love that. It feels like a mood board. I create visual mood boards. It's basically pinterest came to life. So I create visual mood boards for all kinds of projects just to get my, just to get my creative juices flowing. And nonetheless, it's just beautiful, right? Just like the first chapter, I'm just gonna show you a couple of the images I continue to play with and captured. So this is a pretty didn't setup and I love it and there's a lot going one. But I intentionally kept that frame open for whitespace. I knew I was going to use this for the cover of this class actually. So I placed that frame knowing I was going to put text in it. So even though you have a dent setup does not mean that you don't have room for whitespace. And don't forget to get up close and personal to your shot. There's a lot of interesting things going on when you have a pretty dense setup and when using them pretty close your eyes can capture some pretty interesting opportunities and jumps. I also want to make a note that some of my favorite shots that I have, especially for text overlays, are pretty, pretty light and airy still. So this is a great example of that. So I can lay a sketchbook out. I can sort of use this for all kinds of different mock-ups and texts are relays. So even though you're dead shot might have a lot going on. It can still be lightened, airy. Okay, so those first few examples were very mood board inspired. But this example is a great demonstration of more whitespace incorporated. So it's still pretty dense. There's a lot of horizontal and vertical lines going on. But especially at the example on the right, it's actually that was actually a product. So don't feel like your dense layouts have to be more on that mood board side. They could absolutely be showcased. And the form of a product display as well. As we've seen from the very first floral example to this, you can do a lot with just a few pieces to a super layered setup. You are the creative director here, so have fun with this. And although I clearly love my neutrals, color is another really great thing to incorporate more intentionally, which is going to be what the next example is all about. 7. Color Story: Alright, so one of the last examples I'm going to show you is all about color. Although I do love my monochromatic color stories within your shop can create some real magic. The example I'll be showing you as actually for a project I have coming up as a fabric designer, I often need to pull together look books for my collections. And these look books typically showcase, of course, the patterns, but I also love supporting that story with photography as well. And this may be a shot of the original artwork that maybe started as a painting. This may be a mood board like we just created to help tell that story. So I'm going to use this project to showcase how you can use color to you. Alright, so a little bit about the actual project that I'm doing for myself. So the collection I'm conjuring up is inspired by a summertime flower, warm colors and just that feel good, easy summer, right? So I am going to start by showing you a couple of things I've collected with both the idea of a warm color palette as well as just that Summertime by I have, you know, just little doodles I painted. I feel like I could make this into a pattern. Repeat that might look really nice. And this doesn't have to be literal. These are just things that just, I don't know or speaking to me that feel like they support the theme of summertime. So this sheet music, it's springtime. These are some CNO types My children have created that I just I love different printmaker tools that we've already used and some really great colorful books. So I am going to set all this aside and get to work. What I'm gonna do first is use the concept of just building up the flatly. So I'm gonna start with some shots. And again, this is all in inspiration of what I feel like could go into a look book. So I already know that my look book is size like a magazine would be so 8.5 by 11. So I know that the majority of my shots would need to be vertical, but I'm I could have some that span across, but the left and right side of the page. So all things I'm keeping in mind as I set up, but I know I'm going to want some shots with just a few items though I can overlay texts. So I'm going to start with that idea. Okay, you know what? This may not look like much, but I'll show you at the end of this chapter all the different shots that I've gotten, that sort of feudal isis color story. I love the way this looks. I see some opportunities for text overlays. I have sort of that scattered that scattered look going a mix of horizontal and vertical lines. And I like it. So what I can do from here is kind of like we did on the last example. I can build up. I can add layers and layers and layers until I get to that dense concept that I know I'm after, but I like to do this and take shots along the way because it just gives me so many opportunities to capture just different compositions for things that I might move later on. So I'm going to capture this and I'll show you that at the end. But I'm just gonna keep moving. I'm gonna keep moving things around and sort of work towards that more dense mood board that you guys know I love about this point. Right? Okay. Alright, my eyes are so happy. So, you know, by now that I like to work densely, but creating that first shot to here, I really had a lot of opportunity to stop and take photos along the way. Some that incorporated whitespace, some that incorporated more mood boards. So what I would do is kind of working backwards as well. You can start with the dense layout and you can work your way back. So it's a really, really fun and almost therapeutic process to go through this. All right, so here are some examples of images that I got from that demonstration. So I started with a list in setup, which is the photo on the left that we captured and ended up with the photo on the right. So this is a pretty zoomed in shot, but we end up with a pretty dense mood boards. So when you build your set up along the way and take shots along the way, you end up with some really, really interesting shots that tell different stories, but they all support sort of a common thread and a common theme. So here's a great example of that. These are books and props that I used in that main mood board, but can really stand on its own as sort of a coordinating shot to that main mood board that I knew I was after. And this is another great example of just grabbing a few items that again compliment that main mood board or the main story that you're trying to tell, but still feel like they could stand on its own. So this has that Summertime vibe that I know I can use in that portfolio that I am after. And yet, just, this just really, really helps tell my story. So I know this chapter talked a lot about color stories and we had a pretty particular warm color palette that we were after. But don't forget about your neutrals. Neutrals totally count as color palettes and they're one of my favorite. I have a lot of wood tones, a lot of Metacyclics that I use. So those Absolutely count, mixed in with your existing color story if you're going for warm or cool color palette, but neutrals can also make a pretty, uh, pretty amazing monochromatic look as well, which is what we showcased in that density chapter. All monochromatic there. So have fun with color, have fun with neutrals, have fun mixing both. Then we have talked about three examples. We have talked about the concept of repetition movement. We have talked about the concept of density. And of course, this example showcases color story. The three examples showcase so many different things you can use subtly boldly on its own hand in hand with one another in your flatly story. Flat layers can serve many different purposes for many different things and I can't wait to see what you do with yours. I get so sad when we've inter towards the end of the final few lessons, but joined me in the next chapter, I'm gonna give you some editing tips and tricks. And remember, I am not a photographer and you don't have to be either. 8. Editing Tips + References: On this last little section, I wanna send you off with some quick editing references and notes. Number one, I am not a photographer. I love to style photographs and I have learned a lot of tips and tricks along the way, but I am not a photographer, I'm not a professional photographer. And you don't have to be either. Editing your photos does not have to be scary nine out of ten times, if not ten out of ten times, I use my phone. And in the course notes I have some of my favorite Lightroom Mobile presets I used to get different looks in aesthetics to my photo. Whether you like a more lightened, Brighten Every feel or sort of a warm and Moody feel. There are literally thousands of presets out there that you can use. So a quick tip on editing that keep your scenes set up. You might see something from your computer or your phone that bugs you that you did not see in person. And it's just, it's so much easier to go back and move that pair of scissors over an edge than to set up the whole scene. Again, like I said, I like to spend a whole day's dialing all kinds of shots I might need for the upcoming months. Having one big styling day gives you this batch of work and content at your fingertips to use when you need it. So be sure to check out those tips and tricks and those presets linked in the show notes. However, do not be afraid to hire a photographer. I have a couple of photography friends that have photographed work that I have styles, so I have the vision, but I wanted some really high-quality photos for a certain project and needed a better camera then I have. So I hired a photographer, I styled that work and it was lovely. 9. Final Thoughts: My final thought is a reminder that there are no hard and set rules here. Have fun with this. This is your story to tell. Thank you so much for watching this course. It brought me pure joy to bring it to life. Styling flatly is, has become like I've mentioned here, this sort of therapeutic process to me and I hope it does this mean for you? And please please share your flatly. I went to see it shared here on the project gallery or on Instagram and tag me so I can share it with the world, can be great, but until next time.