I am thinking of setting up a website but as I am quite new I don't have a wide range of photo's to show. Are you able to show other cake designers pictures or is there a law against it? There are alot of other peoples cakes that I have saved and use as inspiration but I don't know who they are as I didn't note the names down.

Hi there,

I'm in the UK too (surrey area).

Putting other people's cake pictures on your site is usually frowned upon - it's not very good ettiquette.

It could also infringe the owner's copywrite, and could be a case for trading standards (ie, someone orders a cake from a picture on your website, and you don't supply one the same in quality etc, they could make waves).

Everyone has to start somewhere, my site only has a few pictures on it, but they're all my work.

Best of luck, I'm sure you'll do well

Hiya,

Yes, there would be a copywrite infringement if you posted pics from other decorators on your site. Even if you had their names and credited them. You would need permission from each person, for each cake.
I believe that you can only recreate copies from (most) decorating books if you are not selling them too. It's best just to use dummies and take your own photos if you want to build your portfolio quickly.

Good Luck, It takes time, but is also good practice!

Thanks for your advice. I will try to have the photo's taken professionally, but it all depends on if my friend (who has the special camera) can make time to come. Therefore only some may be taken proffesionally and others with my digital camera. I am worried that the pictures that I take won't do justice to my cakes and may make it look more tacky when placing in a website. Am I more likely to lose customers with these pictures from the digital camera?

Just invest in some fabric to use as a back drop. Drape & staple it to a big bit of card. You can pick up some cheap lights on ebay or just use natural light if it's a nice sunny day.
We have a digital SLR, but to be honest if the pics are just for the web, you can use a point and shoot type of camera. If you want to get something printed on a flyer you would need a higher resolution vector image (around 300 dpi)

HTH!

Trust me... word gets around the cake-making community pretty fast if someone's photo is discovered on someone else's website! It's really not on, I'm afraid. To me, it's fine if someone copies a cake on my site... but to actually use my photo? No!

All of my photos are taken at home with a normal digital camera. I bought a couple of metres of black fabric and I peg it to a clothes' horse to use as a backdrop! I take the photos in the front lounge if I'm photographing during the morning, or in the dining room if I'm photographing in the afternoon, as that's the way the sunlight comes in!

Good luck.

Suzanne x