Quote:
My old camera photographed purple perfectly well. It photographed everything beautifully. That camera couldn't take a bad picture. I paid about $1700 for it years ago. It was digital, but recorded on those little mini discs. I was advised by "an expert" that my new $200 camera would take even better pictures because of improved technology. He couldn't have been more wrong. So I have to assume one can still get a good digital camera that can photograph purple, but from what I've read on camera forums, you can definitely pay a whole lot for a high end camera and still not get purple
I got better photos with my film Nikon than I get with my digital SLR. I miss film 
My old camera photographed purple perfectly well. It photographed everything beautifully. That camera couldn't take a bad picture. I paid about $1700 for it years ago. ........"
On top of being fab professional cake decorators you guys are also expected to be experienced pro photographers with all of the expensive equipment it requires. Whew that's asking a lot !
A
Original message sent by howsweet
So I have to assume one can still get a good digital camera that can photograph purple, but from what I've read on camera forums, you can definitely pay a whole lot for a high end camera and still not get purple
My best friend is a videographer, who specializes in figure skating competitions. Over 20 years ago, I was working a video crew with him, at a skating competition in Palm Desert. He was using what is still, hands-down, the best standard definition video camera for "difficult" lighting situations ever made: an Ikegami HL-55 (he's only now retiring his HL-55s, as he transitions to HDTV). That camera sold, new, for $35,000. Not including the lens. Back in 1989 dollars. He bought his, used for $20,000 each. An irate mother came to us, as we were shutting down for the night: her daughter's two-tone blue-and-purple dress (which she'd designed and made) came out all royal blue, and she was livid (talk about misplaced priorities!). I went back to the U-Matic master tape, and I found that if I adjusted the color phase on the timebase corrector to the point where the kid almost looked jaundiced, you could see enough difference between the blue and the purple to tell that the dress was two-tone. So the mom was happy with a tape that sacrificed a healthy skintone (and was dubbed from the master, instead of recorded live), so long as that damn dress was visibly two-tone.
So don't be surprised at cakes that look purple to the human eye, and maybe even to film, yet look blue on video or digital. The technology of solid-state imaging sensors has come a long way, but both film and vacuum tube imaging sensors have had a big head-start.
Hmm... interesting - that camera was a Sony MVC CD 1000 which at the time was not known for making cameras, but they got it right. Maybe Nikon should take a lesson from them. I think I may get that camera fixed and just use it for purple cakes, assuming those mini discs are still available. That would be the easiest and least expensive route, wouldn't it? I'm sick of photoshopping purple.
A
Original message sent by howsweet
Hmm... interesting - that camera was a Sony MVC CD 1000 which at the time was not known for making cameras, but they got it right. Maybe Nikon should take a lesson from them. I think I may get that camera fixed and just use it for purple cakes, assuming those mini discs are still available. That would be the easiest and least expensive route, wouldn't it? I'm sick of photoshopping purple. [URL=http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3166636/width/200/height/400]
[/URL]
Interesting...I looked it up and it said that this camera wasn't a true digital camera, but it produced an analog video signal. I have 100% no knowledge of whether that makes a difference in recording purple or not, but it looks like that's a video camera that you can use for still photos? If that's right there must be a difference in how analog video and still digital record the color. They probably still make the discs so I'd just keep using that if it lets you skip the photoshopping.
Interesting...I looked it up and it said that this camera wasn't a true digital camera, but it produced an analog video signal. I have 100% no knowledge of whether that makes a difference in recording purple or not, but it looks like that's a video camera that you can use for still photos? If that's right there must be a difference in how analog video and still digital record the color. They probably still make the discs so I'd just keep using that if it lets you skip the photoshopping.
I found that, too and was really confused at first and thought the same thing. But it's easier for me to get to the bottom of that since I have the camera right here and was there when I bought it.
Anyway, they are talking about the original ones made in 1981. Mine has a digital screen and prints to a mini cd disc. You actually insert a mini cd, and it writes the photos to it and then you stick it in your cd drive on your computer. It seemed pretty cool at the time until the cards came out. It was the last of the line and I think came out in 2000.
I thought the price had to do with that technology, but apparently it has a decent lens and something else good about it that makes practically every photo come out true and wonderful.
Quote:
Ah, if it's a mix then it probably will come out that color because it's genetically engineered to come out that color (but I still think the pic was PS the heck out if it). Just look at the entire panel of "ingredients" that go into that tie dye cake on the box! So yeah, I guess you have no worries there.
I, yes, me, recently bought the zebra Duff mix because it was on sale for $2 at the store, I normally see it for $8+ and I'm a scratch baker so no way would I ever spend $8 on a mix let alone $2, but long story short I bought it and made it - my advice - make sure if you want a 3 layered cake like the photo you buy 3 mixes because my 1 mix barley made the suggested single pan of 9" round. And since I didn't read the instructions at the store I missed the part on the box saying it "makes 1 pan of 9" round". I guess you are just supposed to forget that the photo on the front shows 3 layers. HAHA anyway no way could this thing be torted to 3 layers. I tried to tort it to 2 like I always do with my cakes but because it's a mix (and I'm not used to that) it was really soft and totally crumbly.
So I revise my advice: if you want your cake to look like the photo on the box - you need 3 mixes perfectly baked, torted to 1" high with an abgay, a quick icer and a ruler to put exactly 1/4" of buttercream on it, a fondant sheeter to roll your fondant to the perfect thickness (using Duff fondant, of course haha) and a pasta roller to do the dots and roll them to the perfect exact same thickness. Then Photoshop the photos to clean up all the crumbs and uneven bits in the photo using at least a $2000 DSLR camera using a 50mm lens.
I am seriously only writing this because what is on the cover of the box of practically anything you buy is not what you are going to end up with at home.
I wish you the best of luck! Perfection is possible, but like I said you need patience and the right tools.
lol!!! love it!!
Quote:
What I now have, that I did not have in the past decades are the tools, you-tube videos, and CC.com university level tutorials and tips from the Master Decorators.
What I don't have is natural talent or artistic genes. And it's Ok. And I thought that I was the only one!! I look at my 2014 New Years Cake and I see something that was not even in the realm of possibility for me in 2013!
Then I look at JWinslows cake and I'm like a little kindergarden kid looking in the window of the local bakery. And I am in AWE of her talent. Just remembering our very first cakes is sure to give you a laugh. I'm soooo not at that level yet!!
The tools and gadgets do work, so if you can budget and afford them, keep shopping.
If I could buy the talent and natural design skills, I'd spend my whole savings account, guaranteed.
And you can be happy that you are intelligent enough to know the difference between fake & real. I had a hint that it wasn't but you PROS verified it!!
Quote:
Awe, come on, it's just cake, right :D
OK, here's the video in case you all want a laugh:
http://instagram.com/p/dpNoVGGxN2/
LOL
Pin = 0
Cake = 1
wish that I could see it, but I don't have an account.
I weight out how much batter I put in a pan using a scale so they are dead on the same height when baked. As for keeping the frosting lever I pip a dam with a piping bag and then just fill it to the top of the damn so again the filling thickness is the same.
Getting sidetracked on the type of camera, I had a nikon point and shoot, I don't remember the brand. I hardly used it although I am always the gal that RTFM, in this case for some reason I read it an nothing stuck in this brain of mine except "point + shoot = perfect photo" but rarely was that the case to I blamed the camera. This camera, which I paid around $500, became my nemesis and I HATED it. I was so irritated that I didn't save money more for a decent quality DSLR because I took photography in HS, so it was a world I thought (haha) I understood because my film photography actually won awards and were published and such, in fact one of my many dreams when growing up was to become a couture fashion photographer and fly all over the world - and this is WAY before stupid shows like they have on TV now. I even spent the first 2 years after high school collecting and spending every scrap dollar I earned buying a photo studio and majored in photography in collage. I had a complete developing studio. Yes, FILM and print developing studio with enlargers and chemicals and filters and so on. Yeah, then everything went digital, I dropped out of collage and I ended up donating my entire studio to a local high school that had it's photo department closed the following year. Anyway, back to ghe "future" of photography, I though the problem was the camera. So this last year, as one of the toys I bought myself for the business was a brand new Nikon 3200 and several lenses, along with my nifty 50. It's funny, had the manual for the point and shoot stuck in my brain I would have been taking wonderful photos, but whatever, I now have a very fancy camera that I LOVE. Except there's this... I never have it on me except when delivering cakes. They now say the future of DSLR photography is DEAD because of smart phones. And I now believe them because one of my close pals is a pro wedding photographer and takes the most amazing photos WITH HIS CAMERA PHONE. So don't worry, give it another year and you'll be using as fancy of camera as I have only it'll be in your phone.
I've never had problems shooting purple once I understood white balance and got this tool:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005MWKKPG/?tag=cakecentral-20+balance+card
As long as the stupid lighting jerks at the venue when I deliver my cakes don't have something pointing in my cake (like a stupid purple or orange spotlight) my photos turn out pretty darn good without having to have to spend a lot of time post processing in Lightroom and Photoshop to color correct.
thanks everyone!! As usual, I have learned from a lot of different perspectives!!
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%