How Do You Get Clean Crisp Clear Pictures?
Decorating By sfandm Updated 13 Jul 2012 , 10:05pm by DeniseNH
I AM IN NEED OF A GOOD CAMERA, AND SOME INFO ON HOW TO TAKE GREAT PICTURES, LIKE ALOT OF THE ONES POSTED OM THIS GREAT FORUM.
SOME ???'S FOR ANYONE WHO MIGHT KNOW...
1. WHAT TYPE OF CAMERA WORKS BEST FOR YOU?
2. WHAT TYPE OF LIGHTING SHOULD I USE?
3. IS THERE A CERTAIN AREA SPECIFIC ONLY TO YOUR PIX TAKING?
4. DOES ANYONE USE A PHOTO BOX? HOMEMADE? STORE BOUGHT?
ANYTHING ELSE YOU WISH TO SHARE IS REALLY APPRECIATED. I HAVE A CRAPPY CAMERA, ALTHO I WANT TO STICK WITH DIGITAL.
TYVMIA
SONYA
I AM IN NEED OF A GOOD CAMERA, AND SOME INFO ON HOW TO TAKE GREAT PICTURES, LIKE ALOT OF THE ONES POSTED OM THIS GREAT FORUM.
SOME ???'S FOR ANYONE WHO MIGHT KNOW...
1. WHAT TYPE OF CAMERA WORKS BEST FOR YOU?
2. WHAT TYPE OF LIGHTING SHOULD I USE?
3. IS THERE A CERTAIN AREA SPECIFIC ONLY TO YOUR PIX TAKING?
4. DOES ANYONE USE A PHOTO BOX? HOMEMADE? STORE BOUGHT?
ANYTHING ELSE YOU WISH TO SHARE IS REALLY APPRECIATED. I HAVE A CRAPPY CAMERA, ALTHO I WANT TO STICK WITH DIGITAL.
TYVMIA
SONYA
Are you sure it's the camera that is causing problems?? Which it very well could be. From personal experience; I thought I had a crappy camera once...not the case. I learned that the card was the problem. The more pictures the card holds, the pictures are lower quality. Now granted, there's a setting for the choice (on many/most digital cameras) for the card memory quantity (can't recall what the setting is called....sorry!). I bought a new card with less memory for what I thought was a crappy camera and it was night & day difference in the picture quality. If you haven't tried other cards, I would ask to borrow someone elses that has less memory and see how your pictures turn out. If it doesn't do the trick that you're out nothing, but if it does...well, then, you go out and buy that new card 
Worth checking out before you go out for a new camera!
I use a sony exlim s-10 I think.. lol. I have found that my camera is okay for now I just use the camera's food setting and take pictures using natural day light. I rarely take pics at night the flash is horrible and you don't get the true colors of the food imo. Try different lighting before you buy a new camera. Good luck!
The more pictures the card holds, the pictures are lower quality. Now granted, there's a setting for the choice (on many/most digital cameras) for the card memory quantity (can't recall what the setting is called....sorry!).
The size of the memory card has no bearing on the resolution of the picture, that's controlled by the camera, and you should take pictures in the highest resolution possible. Unless a memory card is defective it should not be impacting picture quality at all, so there's no reason not to get the biggest memory card you can afford.
In my experience Canon digital cameras have the best image quality. Read your camera's manual so you understand the different photo settings and make sure to select the one that works with the type of picture you are taking, set the focus correctly, and use a tripod.
a good primer on digital cameras can be found at kenrockwell.com and know that there will always be a debate until the end of time between Nikon and Cannon supremacy 
it really comes down to the operator, use, and lens.
learning to the basics of photography and understanding how to use adjustments is what will give you great photos. A fancy camera will do no more to further your photography than a deluxe Wolf oven is giving you a better cake than a GE. It really depends on what you put in to the craft of it.
google 'food blog photography' or just 'how to photograph food' to get some ideas on how to set your camera and how to set a photo booth with natural light.
you also need to learn some basic photo editing tricks like working with color balances, sharpness and cropping. Very rarely will you see an awesome photo that is SOOC (straight out of camera)--almost everything is cropped and adjusted to make up for lighting and sharpness.
I recently started playing with the manual setting on my camera and boy oh boy, there's a huge difference of effects with different settings. Before you waste money on a new camera, you might want to google basic camera settings and beginner's guides. For all you know you may be a few buttons away from getting great pics with what you already have.
RE: the memory card, I think what she means is that on her camera, the standard setting will let her card store 200 pictures while the high quality setting will only store 60 pictures on the same card. Granted, it's a camera setting and not a card setting, but I think I get the gist of what she's saying.
I think light is the biggest issue. Don't be afraid to get those cakes outside, cakes look great against a green grass background. But I did notice that my pictures did get better when I purchased an entry level DSLR. As with anything, the more you can learn about something, the better you will be at it.
I built a photo booth in my shop that works well for any size cake and disappears easily when I'm not using it. Here's a shot of it from my blog:
I have a Canon PowerShot SX130IS and love it! I am by no means a great photographer, but I cheat a little with the following tips I've picked up:
I try to shoot in only natural sunlight, I never use the flash on my camera... Even at night I will grab a bunch of lamps to brighten up my photo area rather than use the flash.
Have a neutral background, right now I just use rolls of plain white wrapping paper from the dollar store, I just roll it down over a stack of boxes or a chair or something. I would like to work out some sort of lightbox though...
Play with your manual settings! All my life I've always used the automatic settings on my camera, but now I only use the manual settings and it makes a world of difference (the manual settings on my camera are represented by letters- P, TV, AV, M and I believe they are universal). I still play with it all the time to try and figure out what settings work best for what situation, I have lots of random pictures on my camera!
Finally, I take LOTS and LOTS of pictures of my cakes... like LOTS of them... I try for a couple of full on shots, landscape and portrait depending on the dimensions of the cake, as well as various close up detail shots. Then I take the best ones and edit them to correct the exposure, contrast and shadows (because I've invariably messed it up, lol). I use picmonkey.com.
don't forget that a great camera won't mean diddly if you have a shaky hand when you snap the shot. you can use a tripod or rest the camera on a flat surface. i typically take my photos without a tripod, but i always make sure i'm calm, cool, and slowly exhale ... SNAP!
I have two Nikon cameras and the settings work the same way. I use the "scene" setting on the dial to choose low light or close-up because then the camera really takes clear clean well lit images.
I'm so frazzled when it comes to correct settings so I set mine to automatic then I import the photos into Photoshop and tweak them from there then put a frame around them and save for the Web then put them on my web site. I just take two white foamcore boards - use one as the backdrop and one to put the cake on, simple, easy and cheap.
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