Pictures of my cake can be a real downfall for me

I try to always ask to buy one from their photographer but that does not always work and mine are less than perfect

How do you get a good picture especially with a white cake mine the details are often washed out.

It has helped using a digital camera as I can change the highlight but there must be some good hints out there...PLEASE

Meg

Have the cake against a darker background.

I noticed that Lisa did a few pictures with a black background...WOW! were they beautiful. It just made the cakes jump out at you!

Thanks MrsMissey! Those are my beautiful black countertops that do nothing but collect powdered sugar dust. It's a love/hate relationship . Although I don't do this, I like staged photos that are taken up against a backdrop of some sort. Digital pics also seem to come out better if you take them in natural light like a sunlit room. I usually take two--one with the flash and one without. Usually without the flash comes out better but not always.

I agree with Lisa, the lighting is a tricky issue. It always seems like I finish at night so I don't have a lot of sunlight to work with . I'd also suggest if you are using a digital to try a bunch of differnet angles. The when you are ready to transfer them to your computer you can pick and chose which ones have the best lighting, details etc. I like the idea of a dark backdrop or background, I bet that would work well.

My last cake didnt photograph well I had little time after finishing before it went to work with my wife. What I have found from dabbling in photography is the light used to photograph your cakes needs to be diffused. A dark background make the cake stand out more however if too much of the background absorbs the surrounding light and your camera is not aimed perfectly the flash will reflect back greatly due to the camera auto exposure settings. Increasing the amount of soft ambient light available to your subject (cake). And obtaining a angle that reduces glare (usually parallel to the light or behind if possible) will result in better pictures. If you have a higher end digital camera that has different lens attachments a polarizing filter helps greatly. I generally try to photograph all of my cakes with my old reliable 35mm Nikkormat, I take several pictures with and without flash and because I can adjust my exposure settings and shutter speed, a luxury generally available on the much higher end digital cameras (you know those the price of 5 or six KA mixers) those photos are them either put on to disk when I get the film developed or they get scanned in. I will take a few digital photos with the camera I got for free with my laptop, sometimes those make it to web type posting but they usually require a few minutes of manipulating before they are just right. 1 definite advantage to using a digital camera is you can take lots of photos and junk the ones you dont like and it wont cost you a dime. I do recommend that you download all of the pictures you take onto you computer to see how they all look one that may not look good on the little LCD display on the camera may be the perfect picture. The last thing that I have for consideration is if adding light with lamps ect watch for shadows either from yourself or your decorations. It may take multiple lights to prevent some shadows, use caution with added light though, more light = more heat which may have a negative effect on the icing.

When I have taken pics lately, I have to turn off the lights in the room so that the flash is the only thing lighting up the cake...it seems to be working ok....thats a good thing about a digital, you can erase it....

One cheap way I add extra light is to borrow my husband's halogen shop light. There are two lights on the stand and the stand is adjustable, as out the lights for angles and I can also have one or both of them on at a time. We use it alot for pictures that we take at home.