I know my skills are not wonderful, but when I take pictures my cakes look completely different. What am I doing wrong when taking pictures. I take about 50 pictures per cake and am lucky if I get one that looks like the cake in person. I need to take more elegant pictures, but am not sure how to do it. I want the pictures of my cakes to look like they came from a magazine. How do you guys do it? I see such wonderful pictures (YES, the cakes help alot), but my pictures "Suck".

I am posting this because I know the pictures of my cakes are horrible, and I need to be able to show brides the true quality of the cake, not a picture that doesn't look very good.

So, is it the camera or the operator?????

I dont know but I have the same problem .. of course, I dont doctor up my surroundings usually my cakes are taken right in my kitchen with a digital camera ... maybe if you put down some silk material? Perhaps mess with the lighting? Try to take pictures of the cakes in natural light if you are able to, I heard that really makes a difference ... sorry, thats all I got for now ..

I have no idea, but would love to know the answer to this!! I just got a better camera so I was hoping that would help, but I don't think it has. I thought I read that there are some programs that you can use to put backgrounds behind your cakes...but I'm not sure. Hopefully, someone else will help us out

tell me about this!!! i have the same problem!!!

Thank you for the responses. I have taken pictures with all the windows open. With the windows closed and flash on. Flash off. They never seem to look how they should. I am thinking now about buying some flood lights for outdoors and using those for taking pictures. I just can't justify buying flood lights for inside....

Look at my pics and go all the way down to the Dora the Explorer whimsy cake. It was taken outside and I love the way it looks exactly like the cake did. I think that the natural light really is the key.

I have the same problem. I have trouble with lighting, background and angle. A lot of my pics do not show how my cake looked in person. The pics just never seem to do the cake justice!

If you want to use a "backdrop", it will be easier on you if you use a non-reflective material. A good inexpensive option is to use polar fleece that you can purchase at any fabric store. A word of caution though if using white, you could get some shadows if your lighting is not in the right place. I suggest using black. And natural lighting is always best. Maybe put a table by a window and stand with the window to your side. In other words the light should be coming onto the side of your cake. To do this you might also need a reflector on the opposite side and you can use just a sheet of white poster board or large sheet of white foamcore propped up on a chair or have someone hold it.

And you may have to take a ton of photos to get one usable one. Even professional photographers take a lot of shots.

I shoot semi-professionally but you can't tell from my photos as I usually don't want to take the time to set everything up. I get lazy and use my little point-and-shoot digital instead. LOL

Hope this helps,

Yvette

Ok TPDC, I have to say, your pictures do NOT look hideous or whatever negative word you come up with!! I think they look really nice.

Having said that, I also have the problem that the pix NEVER do the cake justice. Unless you are a seasoned photog, or use a professional, they really aren't going to in my opinion. I have only recently stopped doing that 'snap a pic on the kitchen table' thing and have started using backdrops and the like. I guess as I become more professional I want my image to follow suit. What I would like to do, and what you may want to start trying, is using more of a staged area for pictures. I bought a few pieces of fabric in different colors and textures, just at WalMart, and will play around with using them. I use a chair (or two pushed together if it's a big cake) to stage the setting, then I try different angles. I am hoping that with a little more practice I will be able to start turning out some better looking pix!

As for the natural light... *sigh* when do I ever finish a cake while it's still light out? Hahahahahahah!

All those pictures in the magazines are touched up before they put them in there you can use a photo touch up program on your computer.

It's best to take picture in natural light. Where I am that's usually 2 pm-5pm. No shadows and the "magic light" is there during that time.

Also place the cake on a table with plain cloth and use a stepladder to get several different angles.

Good Luck.

All those pictures in the magazines are touched up before they put them in there you can use a photo touch up program on your computer. I don't like to touch up my pictures so brides can see what my work looks like.

I had the same problem with the photos of my cakes. Natural lighting is best if you have it, but if that is not possible you can check with a camera shop and get special light bulbs that mimic natural lighting. (I can't remember what their called and my husband is sleeping, so I can't ask him, sorry.)

I made sort of a light box with white foam board (back and both sides) and have 2 pole lights that I can adjust the direction of the lighting. (I put this together after the girl at the camera store told me that she thought I needed to purchase a professional light kit for around $2,000, yeah right. )

I have been using a white satin table cloth over the foam board and table, but today I decided to try black velvet. It made my pink cake really stand out.

Thanks everyone.....

Melvira - you make me laugh, but I agree with the natural light. I am usually done decorating at 2am.

A staged set-up is a nice idea. I am going to try that. This week, off to the fabric store.

I have a computer program, but I know I don't have time to master that with a cake business, 2 year old and a husband that works odd hours.

Ladder... Never thought of that. I think I am going to try that one on my next wedding cake.

Well, it is good to know that I am not the only one that feels this way.

You guys saved me money in two ways.
1. No flood lights
2. Not hiring a professional photographer for every cake... Yet.

Okay, I am done rambling. Wonderful support and new ideas to try, as always.

I've found that soft natural sunlight really makes a big difference.

Flashes either completely blow out the whites or light areas in the cake, makes these awful grease reflections, and/or highlights every tiny flaw that's there.

I have two full pieces of mat board, so it's white on one side, and dark blue on the other (I want to get black, but blue was free at the time!). So that way, it's easy to pick - white for darker cakes and black for lighter cakes.

However, Melvira's got it - it's always dark by the time I finish a cake too!

A friend who does freelance photog. took the pic of my coffe/tea cake, in just a few shapshots with what we had laying around the office on a cloudy day, with a fancy camera. She also knows what to do as far as manually setting the camera though, and I wish all my pics could come out like those!

Oooo that reminds me of something I was intending to post the other night.... I made a discovery on my camera - a setting for Nighttime Shots ... it does this crazy thing where the flash goes off like 10 times in a second and snaps right after it stops the flash. Pics came out soooo much better, in the middle of the night, in my kitchen. That's the most recent pic I added, with all the green on top. Yeah, still not perfect, but soooo much better than the flash ... so check your digital camera to see if you have that option. I wonder if the red-eye reduction option might work similar?

Another word of advice. I too stand on something (a chair, ladder) to take photos of the top of cakes but if you have two or more tiers, shooting from a higher angle will make your cake look flatter/shorter. Look at the violet wedding cake photo in my album. I took that after I set it up and was in a huge hurry to get out of the customers house. There were too many people in the room and frankly I didn't have enough room to back up or set up properly to get a good angle. Each of the tiers was four inches tall but they look much shorter in the photos. Best of all just keep practicing. Maybe even get some cake dummies to practice your photography on.


And MelZ, your cakes are beautiful and your pink cake does really stand out against the black fabric. Velvet works wonderfully as it does not reflect light back to the camera. I didn't suggest it because it's much more expensive than fleece. I like all the focus to be on my cakes too if I'm going to go through the trouble of setting everything up and black backgrounds keep all the focus on the cake.

I have to agree with the natural lighting. The pictures of our cakes that look the best were taken in my dining room that faces west with a north south exposure at around 9 - 10am. Natural light, but not direct. You could also prop up a piece of white foam to redirect the light to brighten up the shadowed areas of the cake.

WOW! Who needs a class for photography with all this great information I am getting here. Ladders, redirecting light, black fleece and velvet. With all this knowledge I wish I had a cake laying around. I feel like an expert already and I haven't even taken a picture yet

(Now, we'll see how they really turn out when I try all this stuff.) It can only get better, right?

If you go to my website on the cake gallery page you will see a small calla lily cake with a green satin background -- I bought a cheap remnant at a fabric store and put some pins in my door to hang the fabric like a drape. Then I put the cake on a TV stand and put the fabric over it and shot the picture. Turned out okay but dark green satin played havoc with the lighting I was told by a professional photographer friend of mine to have it evenly lighted next time.

Ditto on the natural light, but for me it is rare that I have a cake done during daylight!

I try to photograph all my cakes the same way so they look consistent. I see really pretty cakes here on CC but get distracted w/ all the background stuff I see. To me nothing says 'homemade' like seeing the kitchen in the background!

I take almost all my cake pics in my kitchen, but remove the turntable and clutter so you see the cake and the cakeboard only. I put a white tablecloth under the cake and drape it over something tall behind it so all you see is white.

I take a bunch of pictures, then pick the best one(s). That's my two cents!

Many many moons ago I took some photography classes at a special college. Never finished to get my degree though. Anyhow, most food items are either not real food, or sprayed/brushed with extras to make the color come out better in the photo. For example: most roasted turkeys actually have coffee brushed on to them to get the rich brown coloring.
That being said, I take mine on the table next to the window, for a natural look. I have a board covered in foil set off to the side, which helps fill in light on the back side. Another way I shoot pics is from straight above the cake, but only on sheet cakes.
Using a sheet, or drape underneath is a great idea, just as long as it isn't fuzzy (problems with lint). I have just been too lazy in the past to do this, but now that I am a business, I guess I should try harder.
Hope all of this helps.

I think draping like this is nice

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_184183.html

sometimes the background or the table a cake sits on is distracting

I always use a black single cotton sheet. I cover the kitchen table with it and have a small tv table that you eat meals in front of the TV (I know bad idea!) off and place the black sheet over this. This seems to work well for me. I always stand well back to take the picture, doesn't matter if you have background things at the side because you can crop and clone the photo. Sometimes we try to take the photos too close thinking that is better but my son who is into photography told me to stand well back and it does work. There is a free photo editing programme that you can download and is easy to use. "PhotoFiltre". Have a look at my website and see what you think. I have never had photography lessons and as my son lives in Australia I can't ask him all the time. Hope this helps.

I like to use a black background - I think it really helps the cake to be the centre of attention! Because I use lots of disco glitter that shows up best under artificial light, I tend not to use natural light, but I would for a non-glittery cake (and I rarely do one of those! Hope that helps a bit!

There is a cheaper light bulb call Reveal That is suppose to be a more natural light. Its more natural than a soft white light.

Im getting lots of good tips off of this thread.
I recently took a picture of my scientist cake with a blue polar fleece and it turned the whole thing a blue cast. I ended up not using the picture.( if anyone knows why this happened I would welcome there imput.)
Thats my goal for the year getting better at digital cameras. I love the instant picture.

hint for those how's on camera flash "blows" out the whites and highlights.

cut a small piece of regular printer paper and tape over the flash...

viola! you have just created a mini-softbox light.

much much more pleasing.

I haven't taken many pics of cakes (as I haven't decorated many yet) but do take alot of pics of other subjects (family, food, etc) and have found that having all of the lights on in the room, using those natural light light bulbs in all fixtures and not having anything reflective nearby really make indoor photos turn out well.