How I photograph flat-lays to post to Instagram (or my blog) in 30 steps

1. Have an idea of something to photograph (craft project, work in progress, cool subscription box to share)
2. Gather all the items to be photographed and bring them up to my bedroom with the camera
3. Timing is everything. It has to be in the late morning because the sun will be on that side of the house and I only use natural lighting. And it has to be at nap time or I can just forget it.
   
   • If it's cloudy, you can brighten the image up in Photoshop
   • If it's too sunny, you can lower the sheer shades, which act as a filter and actually help brighten up the image naturally
   • If it's too late in the day, just forget it. Evening sun is too yellow-y orange. Try again tomorrow
4. Lay items out strategically on natural wood-printed canvas backdrop bought off of Etsy
   
   • Did you think I actually have a perfect white table like that? I wish.
5. Once items look right, take a look through the camera. The items usually appear too far apart. Smoosh them together more.
6. Hover over the flat-lay and shoot
7. Look at the images you just took
8. You see that your camera's strap fell into view
9. Reshoot the images
10. Look at the images you just took
11. You see that your hair fell into view
12. Reshoot the images and just tie your damn hair back and grip the camera strap in your hand or throw it around your neck like you should've just done in the first place
13. Look at the images you just took
14. Ehh, they'll do
15. Search the house for the camera cable
16. Nap time is almost over so start to hurry because time is precious
17. Text your husband angrily asking where the fucking camera cable is
18. Read his text 20 minutes later saying, look on the shelf, which I did DUH but it isn't there so fuck
19. Locate camera cable in completely different location than it should be and curse whoever put it there because it couldn't possibly have been me
20. Upload images to computer
21. Go through all images to delete ones that are just no good, blurry, at a bad angle, etc.
22. Edit chosen images in Photoshop (lighten, brighten, watermark, resize) and save
23. Upload those images to Google Drive so I can access them on my tablet or cell phone where Instagram is
24. Download images from Google Drive onto my tablet or cell phone
25. Open Instagram and upload image
26. Choose my go-to filters Clarendon (20ish% + Walden 20ish%)
27. Type the perfect caption
28. Type in hashtags
29. Type in the IFTTT (If This Than That) hashtag (#hh) so my Instagram post will post automatically to my Twitter
30. Watch the likes and comments appear and feel loved