Photography tips to liven up your instagram feed — flowers in a vase or out

It is lovely to have fresh flowers in the house, they are so beautiful to look at and instantly brighten your day. The trouble is, at best they will last about 2 weeks before inevitably they start to wilt and no longer look their best, so I like to photograph them. Although I only use my iphone camera, with no special lighting or lenses, the effects that can be created can still be stunning.

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To capture them at their best, photographing them in their vase is an option, especially if photographed in a pretty setting with a prop or two.

However you can also go for a more casual picture, as if you’ve just returned from the flower market with large bunches of flowers and placed them down.

 

This picture was taken with the flowers carefully placed on a wooden board to create the illusion of a casual picture. Play around with the placing of each of the stems to give the correct effect.

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In this one, I changed the background and laid the tulips on a freshly ironed piece of grey fabric. This produces a very pleasing contrast, again lay the stems to achieve the desired look, moving them around until you like the result.

 

I also tried a more formal approach of singling out the stems and lining them up again with the grey background. I’ve been careful to leave the leaves and stems to be less formal to balance out the look.

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In this picture, I used the mirror to add background detail to make the flowers stand out.

Whichever look to choose in the end, they all have the effect of making your instagram feed look stunning.

Photography ideas to make your Instagram feed stand out -flat lay

I love order and symmetry, call me OCD or maybe it’s the mathematician inside me but either way, seeing pictures of these gorgeous flat lays really appeals to me. I’ve had a little dabble over the last few months and I really like the effect you can create using just a few of your favourite pieces

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I’m a fabric hoarder, I love to buy off cuts of pretty fabrics which I always think will make a fabulous creation of course most of the time they just end up in my fabric stash. However they come in really handy for the base of the flat lay. Gorgeous paper napkins are also great as a base.

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I’ve had a posy of spring flowers, tulips and hyacinth which are just coming to their last few days so a perfect time to trim them down and include them in my flat lay.

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Finally a vibrant coloured new notebook picked up last week from TKMaxx will form a beautiful centrepiece.

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Have a little play around with all the elements laying out a square of fabric and placing the pieces on in a symmetrical repetitive sequence. Play attention to the placing of objects of the same colour and keep moving bits around until it becomes pleasing to the eye.

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I’ve included a couple of props for effect, a moka pot, a birthday card, cut out 50s, but for each picture, keep the elements simple and uncluttered.

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You can rearrange and create 3 or 4 different pictures from the basic items giving completely differnt looks.