I always have trouble getting a good picture of my cakes - a picture that shows the coloring really well and any luster dust, etc. Have you discovered that certain lighting works better...no flash, etc? It always seems like my cakes look better in person and a picture is all I have after it is eaten I'm sure the quality of the camera makes a difference too, but I feel I have a pretty good camera...not the cheapest by any means. Any advice you can provide would be appreciated.

I would be interested in this, as well. I would like to invest in a nice camera specifilcally for taking pictures of cupckakes, cookies and cakes.

I struggle with this too. The things I've found that work a bit better are:

lots of natural light (suplemented with as much artificial light you can manage)
a dark background for most cakes (unless they're dark of course)
use the 'macro' setting if your camera has one
take lots of pics with and without flash and see which ones come out best
don't take pics of the cake front-on or top-only, find an angle in-between

As I said, I struggle with this and am in no way a professional photographer. I hope others here have some more advice for you.

HTH

First you need a plain uncluttered background...you don't want anything distracting attention from your cake. I saw on here before that someone uses one of those tri-fold presentation boards that you can get at a craft store. Try taking several pictures some with a flash and some without. If you are still having problems with the color you can do editing. I use photoshop but you can use one of the free sites online and go in and saturate the color and fix any exposure problems. Good luck!

Editing can make a big difference. I use Paint Shop Pro but there are free sites you can use too.

Here's some examples for you, I edited the right half of the pictures, so you could see the difference right on your cakes

Texas Rose - wow those are excellent examples; thanks for posting. I bought a new camera when I couldn't fix all my blurred cake photos, unfortunately now realize that it wasn't the camera! I have a tremor and didn't know that was my problem. My new camera does have an anti-shake feature, and I will start using a tripod. A soon as I get a decent photo I will refer back to this thread to improve it.

Just a quick comment on capturing luster...I found that this was one of the few times that I actually did end up using a flash picture rather than natural light...it captured the shimmer much better!

Light it from the top if possible. That helps eliminate shadowing.

I know this will sound odd, but..... my camera will take great pictures in the dark. So, I make the room as dark as possible, getting my best pictures at night, with all the lights off. My camera will capture the color best this way and I don't have to worry about shadows, plus the flash highlights any sparkle. I don't always get that chance, like when a cake is being assembled onsite for the first time, but anything that can be completed before delivery, I turn out the lights and take my pictures. Also, I do use those tri-fold stands and have fabric in different colors that I drape over it and onto the table top so I have a color background that best suits the cake colors. And, I take a ton of photos and download them right away to be sure I have the best shots, that the camera didn't shake, etc.

They just had Paint Shop Pro Photox2 on Amazon for really cheap so I got it..haven't played with it yet.

I have problems taking photos too...and my brother is a freelance photographer! Unfortunately he lives in alaska and I'm in PA.

Gotta love Adobe Photoshop! and a photog hubby sometimes helps too- if I can pin him down! I am just trying to learn as much as I can on my own!

We invested in a really good 12 pixel digital camera, and I take literally 20 pictures of each wedding cake I set up, and I use all the different settings. I figure that I can get at least one decent picture. Then I take it to photoshop, crop it, lighten it, add a warming filter if necessary (especially if the picture looks stark), and adjust the saturation and color balance. It works pretty well. ALso, when I take pictures of the wedding cakes, sometimes I'll take it from the opposite side of the cake, where you can see how it fits into the "setting". It really works to photograph a cake along with the rest of the decorations in the hall.
For smaller cakes, I just either use a white or pink wall to photograph, and I make sure that I have tons of light. That makes such a difference.

Happy Snapping!

I always have to edit mine to make them smaller! They are huge and show WAY more detail than I want!! lol (all the tiny flaws!) I want them smaller so you get the picture of how they looked!

And for pretty good (practically free-if you upgrade-still cheap!!), try www.picnik.com. I use it on all my pics. Bleand, highlight, boost the color, watermark, frame, all sorts of great things!

A good backdrop is key! Nothing detracts from a cake faster than piles of icing bags and bowls in the background. A good camera also helps. Lots of lighting. To help with the flash shadow I use a piece of tissue (single ply) over my flash to diffuse it.

I also use Paint Shop Pro Photo X2. I've been using this program for about ten years (I think the first one I got was Paint Shop Pro 7) I think it's the best hing out there. It does everything that Photoshop does, only it's 1/10th the price and it's way more user friendly.

A good backdrop with no clutter, lots of natural lighting mixed with inside lighting and take several pics of each of your cakes from front, back and different angles to ensure you get something that looks good. Once I transfer to my computer, I edit somewhat and decide which is the best couple of photos and keep those. All others are then deleted.

(Of course, I have a daughter studying photography in college, so when she is done completing that, she will be my artist and photographer!! I feel so lucky!

Good luck!!

Thanks for all the good info!

Here's a cool idea posted by taria: http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-670882.html

I followed this blog post to make a DIY lightbox: http://www.strobist.blogspot.com/2006/07/how-to-diy-10-macro-photo-studio.html
You need to consider what size cardboard box to get to make sure your cakes fit in easily!
If you have a strong enough light (I use a spotlight designed for outdoors that you can pick up really cheap, I think its 500W) you will not need to use flash which can make your colours look funny. Depending on where you place the light, you can have more or less shadow.
I use a tripod and no flash and generally set the camera on macro. I was lucky to have a friend who showed me how to use the different settings on the camera, but for the life of me could not explain them properly to anyone else!
I use Lightroom on my Mac to adjust the photo - changing just 3 or so settings can really make your cake pop.

Macro setting, and edit the pictures helps a TON too! Picnik is a great photo editor! And a DSLR camera makes a huge differnence too. although they are quite expensive!