Flat lay
Objects arranged on a flat surface and shot straight down, so the whole composition reads like a graphic layout.
See it
What it is
A flat lay is objects arranged on a flat surface and shot straight down, sensor parallel to the table. Because every item sits at the same distance from the lens, the picture stops behaving like a photograph of a space and starts behaving like a graphic layout: it lives on spacing, alignment, color, and shape. The rigid variant where everything is squared to 90 degrees is called knolling, popularized by artist Tom Sachs.
Reach for it for product sets, ingredients, tools, unboxings, and any hero image that needs to hold text. Standard recipe: one hero object off-center, supporting props in odd numbers, a textured backdrop (paper, linen, stone), and one big soft light source from a single side so shadows all fall the same way. Leave a clear corner for the headline.
Gotcha: the camera has to be genuinely square to the surface. A few degrees of tilt sends rectangles keystoning and the shot instantly reads as amateur, so use a tripod arm or the phone's level. Second trap: flat light kills a flat lay dead. With no depth to work with, the shadows are the only thing giving the objects volume.
Ask AI for it
Shoot a flat lay: camera perfectly perpendicular above a linen-textured surface, objects arranged in a loose grid with even spacing and consistent margins, one hero product off-center on a third line, supporting props in odd-numbered clusters. Single large soft light from the upper left so every shadow falls the same direction, no keystoning, no perspective on the edges, and one empty corner left clear for text.