Without all the techie stuff, i'd love to know what you guys do to take great pics of your cookies. All i have is a digital camera and when i try to take pictures, i do get a lot of glare.
What are your tips and tricks?

I use a digital camera, and whenever I photograph my cookies, I try to do it in direct sunlight, like next to a bright window or something. I don't ever use my flash, and if the light isn't too great, I try to get a lamp and position it so I don't get bad shadows. I typically put the cookies on a white foam core board so I have a nice background.

The person who wrote this gives some pretty good tips! It's not cookie-specific, but rather food photography for bloggers in general.

http://veganyumyum.com/2008/09/food-photography-for-bloggers/

I use a diffused, soft, natural light. I have a large window I shoot in front of and I wait until there is no direct light. With the look I do, the sun has to either be off to the side or a somewhat cloudy day works well as direct, harsh light is not ideal at least not for me. I also don't use flash so as to prevent glare. I use scrapbook paper as my background, putting incredibly clean coins under the cookies so as to prevent butter staining on the paper. Additionally, I shoot at a couple of different times of the day as the lighting can really make a difference in color tone. The camera I use is digital and I will put it in a three of different modes (portrait, etc.), which will also bring about different results, depending upon the lighting. I also play with using different colors for the background. After all of this (can you say 'Overkill"?), I narrow down those I like best (which is why I am so behind in posting ). Admittedly, I do overdo it a bit with the photographing, but my background is in Photojournalism, so it is hard not to and it is for my cookie portfolio, so I feel it is worth it. Out of all of these idea listed, I would say natural lighting is the most important thing for me.

Someone did a posting about making a lightbox, which sounds like a great idea. I havent had the time to play with the idea, but here is the link:

http://forum.cakecentral.com/santa-santa-i-want-this-ftopicp-6195242.html#6195242

KGif - I did a really quick peek at your link and I will need to study that! Thanks for posting it!

Also, take your pics before you bag your cookies.

Oh Gawd is that annoying!!! I just wrote out an entire answer in the quick reply box, only to have it not go through!! Okay, I'm over it now. Here's what I was saying: A while back on CC there was a thread on this very subject where I got this great idea. I cannot remember who came up with it but to them I am forever indebted!

Go to the quilting aisle at JoAnns and there they have a matte finish plastic sheet that has some use in quilting (don't know what, I don't quilt.) It's about 12 x 16 inches long or thereabouts. Then go to the scrapbooking aisle and find a fabulous piece of scrapbooking paper that will look great as your background. Now, go home with your new purchases and on a table place your scrapbooking paper down, then put the matte plastic on top and put your cookies on top of that. The plastic protects the paper from the cookie grease and provides a nonglare finish to the photograph. If you look at my pix, the mittens cookies and the red and white dress cookies were photographed that way. I think they turned out fabulous! Hope that helps!!

Great idea!!!! I will definitely do that!

Ditto on that Idea for the scrapbook backgrounds I have tons of that lying around and never even thought of using it!

Thanks for posting this topic and the great reply's!

Thanks for the idea, Bob! I tried that once and did not have much luck, but it worked out perfectly for you so I will have to give that one another whirl! That is a great way to do it! (P.S. - love those cookies!)

This thread has been great! I tried scrapbook paper once but the cookies stained the paper. Thanks for the tip about the clean coins under the cookies Tracy!

I also use natural light and then I use a reflector on the other side. I use the macro button a lot and no flash.

Both of those links are awesome btw! Thanks so much for sharing!

My photos aren't comparable to some here but they have gotten better over the last year. I also stopped using a flash and starting using the portrait setting on my digital. It makes a ton of difference.

Thanks for all your replies. I'm going to play around some more using all your ideas. It's seems as if there is a whole new art with photographing cookies.
I don't use the flash and try hard to remember to take pics before bagging. Direct light does cause a glare so i stay away from it.
Do you lay your cookies flat or lean them up against something?

My photos aren't comparable to some here but they have gotten better over the last year. I also stopped using a flash and starting using the portrait setting on my digital. It makes a ton of difference.