made a cake and been pretty proud of it, only to look at the picture a few days later and wonder what the heck you were thinking? I made a cake for my step-grandmother's 75th birthday. She seemed to really like it and I was pretty pleased with it myself until my sister emailed me the pictures today. YIKES! What was I thinking? Maybe it was my sleep-deprived brain or something. We were 600 miles from home and I had a tough time with the time crunch, but still. Oh, well. I'll do better next time.

LOL, I'm sure you are probably being too hard on yourself! Maybe her camera settings were off, and its just a bad picture?

Are you sure it's not the photography? There have been many times I've done really outstanding cakes, and I couldn't wait to get the pictures, only to be so disappointed. My pictures almost never do the cakes justice. You have to have a good camera and perfect backgound and lighting conditions, which almost never happens.

I agree with all these posts about the photography...it's probably the problem...my pictures always look horrible....so I just bought a camera for Christmas to help with that....It's very disappointing to spend so much time and be so happy with what you have created and then the pics look bad...been there many times

I agree...the a bad photograph can kill a beautifuk cake in just one second.
Edna

My cakes look so much better in person, too. It's rare to have a photo that captures the "wow!"

I did a cake for my daughter this past weekend and I was pround of how it turned out...but when I took the picture it looked fine on the camera..UNTIL I uploaded it onto the computer! It looks not-so-good. It's like my camera found EVERY imperfection on the cake and made them 10x's bigger.

With a few tricks you can make your cakes look great on camera!

If you want to make your cakes look better in pics, here's a few tips:

Purchase a couple of yards of thicker dark material (I found mine for $2/yd at WalMart).

Either drape the material over something taller & wider than your cake or have someone hold it up for you. I place it on my table & then drape the material over my plastic drawer I keep my decorating supplies in. You want extra material so that it has folds & wrinkles for depth.

I also borrow my husband's halogen work lamp and either have him hold it or I use a stool.

When you take the pic keep your camera level with your cake & make sure to only get the cake & material in the frame. A shot from above can sometimes distort the shape of your cake on camera.

This really only takes about 5 minutes to get a few good shots!

I'm such a newbie at cakes & have learned so much from so many here on CC I want to help whoever I can. Photography happens to be one of my other obsessions ;o)

Good Luck!

Every time I take a picture it's horrible. I even did one to where the flowers ending up looking neon on the pic. Yuck!

You can also use a white sheet. I put mine on my counter top with my turn table underneath. Then I hook the top of the sheet to my cabinet doors. (The sides of the sheets get closed in the door sides and it stays up perfect.)
You don't see anything but the sheet when you take a picture because you are usually taking a pic that is close enough. I happen to have two lights near my counter so it works out. They are not as good as a pro of course but they do look pretty good. If you want to see just click on my pictures.
Jen...

Yes, yes, yes!! Alvarezmom, you hit the spot!!
My cakes look acceptable in person...even the frosting looks smoother, everything looks centered etc, and then I see the pictures, yikes!! ....now you know why I don't bring all my cakes here ....
My lateste cake, for example...when I finished it I was, sort of, pleased with it for being my first fondant cake...my first even cake...my first smooth cake, etc. then I saw the picture!! the darn cake is not perfectly even, the letters are off, I see bulges!!! it's dissapointing really.

Thank you for reading my mind pictures do show every little detail that's why I don't take pictures of myself LOL

Yes pictures can be super depressing.

However the opposite is true too --Sometimes a stinky cake that I can't want for someone to take a chain saw to turns out really nice on film.

And back in the day of cameras you could afford and still buy groceries that week, the flash whited out the white cake so I got consistent shots of cake profiles. But I'm not bitther.

Oh and Tinker, thanks so much for the great tips

I am always disappointed with my cakes when I see the pictures because I am not a pro-photog and so the pictures NEVER do the cakes justice. Even if it looks pretty in the pic, it's still only 10% as pretty as how it looked in person. I just can't seem to capture the true beauty of my good cakes. (Let alone make the stinky ones look half way decent! Haha!)

I've found that it is best to use a neutral color background like grey or medium blue. Don't use super bright lights because they will wash out your color and details. I like to use a couple of work lights (The kind with a wide reflecting rim and clamps) and "daylight" bulbs. I clamp them to some old tripods I have. Don't use a really high wattage. You want to have a little shadowy contrast to show your details. I couldn't live without my digital camera to know if I got it right immediately.