I am looking for ways to use lighting, backdrops, table settings/displays for taking a professional looking picture of my cakes. I generally put them on the dining room table and usually have chairs/furniture, clutter in the background that doesn't look professional. I upload these photos to my website so it's important to impress and improve. If you can share your technique of backdrops/picture taking for product photography I would love it.
I went out to a local office supply sotre and bought a table top presentation board.
It is made out of cardboard and is black in color. I put this on my dining room table when I want to take a picture and it provides a nice backdrop from all the clutter around my home.
I also use scrap book paper that I find at my local dollar store for back drops as well.
Light well thats another issue I am currently trying to figure out myself...
But what I find so far that has worked for me is to make sure I snap my pictures in a well lit room, sometikmes I use flash and sometimes not, but I always try taking pictures both with and with out to see which one I like the best and go from there.
Hope this helps 
I to have had a issue with this. Some of my pics aren't so good because I never considered the backgound and you can only crop so much out. What I have tried recently is a sheet or table cloth that I already had. But I like the display board idea. As for the lighting, for me it's trial and error.
I use a project board like the one mentioned above, draped with cheap black fabric I bought at the local fabric store. I set it up on a table that gets direct sunlight, and I take my pictures when it's nice and bright outside. Photoshop is also my best friend!
I've also been known to take pictures of dummies outside. Natural light is the best light.
Just some tips.... avoid a flash at all cost. Get as close as possible to the cake, fill up your screen.
Jen
The photographer for my daughter's wedding told me about the black backdrop feature. And also taking pictures from off center and above angles.
Now I bring my black fabric to my wedding cake drop offs. If the back ground isn't nice I just have my husband hold up the fabric. He's nice and tall so works perfect. However, I also tend to forget to take my camera and end up using my cell phone camera, which pretty much can cancel out any improvements to the pics.
After you get a few pics you think are good, upload them to www.picnik.com. You can soften the pic, airbrush blemishes, focus on one specific area of the cake, edit out things from the background, add borders, and most importantly....watermark your property!
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3219/3048831377_447331aebb_o.jpg
check this out!
So simple but looks so professional! I'll be using this trick from now on!
I went out to a local office supply sotre and bought a table top presentation board.
It is made out of cardboard and is black in color. I put this on my dining room table when I want to take a picture and it provides a nice backdrop from all the clutter around my home.
I also use scrap book paper that I find at my local dollar store for back drops as well.
Light well thats another issue I am currently trying to figure out myself...
But what I find so far that has worked for me is to make sure I snap my pictures in a well lit room, sometikmes I use flash and sometimes not, but I always try taking pictures both with and with out to see which one I like the best and go from there.
Hope this helps
I use a board like that too. Depending on where you set it up in your house, adjusting the direction of the board will help with lighting.
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