In this age of social media, online marketing and web design, the flat lay shot has become an incredibly popular style. Arguably, stock photography has gained a new purpose with the advent of ecommerce, and online advertising; the appetite for image content bound for web page headers, blog posts, social media marketing campaigns and newsletters seems insatiable. The top-down perspective image fits these uses perfectly for several reasons.
Firstly, the lack of depth is un distracting, allowing the image and written content to work seamlessly together without either overpowering the other. Secondly, any objects placed in the shot are all equally visible, which is ideal for product-based scenes. Shots can also be quite conceptual in nature, meaning they are generally interchangeable between pages, posts and stories. Finally, they can be easily adapted for purpose, through the addition of other graphics or copy.