For those of you who take display photos of your cake that look professional, what type of lighting and display kit do you have and where do you find it or make it?

thank you

good question....some photos look very professional...I have trouble getting the lighting right.

would love to know that as well thanks

i have a friend who is a photographer, and he told me recently (after looking at my poor cake photos!) that if you do it in the daytime in an area with natural light on one side (a window) and a lamp on the other (not in the photograph, just shining on the object) it will come out better. also, in a digital camara, the thing to look for is optical zoom, not digital zoom. i have yet to try it, but it sounds better than what i've been doing. my lesson, never take pictures at night!!!

I agree, my cake pictures taken at night have been awful...

I am a freelance photographer. I'm a huge fan of ambient/natural lighting. When I photograph a cake I try to use natural light with fill flash as often as possible. The "fill" flash is just a LITTLE flash to brighten the shadowed spots. For backgrounds, I might use a piece of solid fabric or painted wall. You could use a tri-fold tabletop display unit (like for trade shows or science fairs....) White is good because it throws light back onto your subject. Sometimes you're stuck with depending on total flash alone to light your cake. The less "stuff" in the background, the better. You can give a pro appearance with very little equipment. Digital is the way to go because you can practice and SEE what you're getting. A simple photo manipulation program helps with cropping and adding a vignetted border too. GOOD LUCK!

I also do photography as a sideline. I recently purchased professional studio lights but have not made the time to figure out how to use them. That being said, I set up a backdrop behind my kitchen island and drape it over the island so it will hang over the front. I then set up my cake and shoot. I have a lot of window light coming in the kitchen so most times I shoot during the day. I use an external flash unit on my camera and make the necessary manual adjustments. I also use a tripod.

Let me also note that the photos in my gallery are not shot with the above set up. I just used my point and shoot camera because I was too lazy to set everything up.

Before I bought backdrops and such, I purchased black fleece and it works extremely well. It is not reflective and gives a nice, even color in the background. If you are so inclined, you can also take beautiful photos in your garage with the garage door open. The light this produces will work just fine. You need to be standing looking into the garage to shoot in this manner.

Please feel free to ask more questions if this does not help you. I'm by no means an expert but have learned a lot through trial and error.

Yvette

Thanks for the suggestions!!! I always take photos at night because that is usually when I'm doing cakes...that's probably why I can't get it right!!

I have a problem with too much light bouncing off my cake and washing out the colors. Any suggestions to correct this one??

If you can set your camera manually, then close the apature down a stop or two. If you are shooting on auto mode....try backing further away from the cake and zooming in...in other words, get the flash farther from the cake itself. You could try shooting in natural light on auto mode and letting the camera adjust to the available light. Set the cake near a window or glass door.