Cupcakes and skateboard wheels.

[_rebecca_]

Photographing inanimate objects that don't have boogers, nap times, or tantrums is how I relax. Any C&C is welcome and appreciated. I'm interested in expanding to more commercial product type photography, but realise I have a LOT to learn. My personal critique of the skate wheel pictures is that the blacks are probably too deep and I am losing detail. I can fix that with a bit more PP. Of the cupcakes: The backgrounds aren't perfectly consistent between each shot.

1.

2.

3.

4.

 

[Sleepy_Sentry]

The cupcakes look great. The skateboard wheel pictures feel very '70ish. The only thing I don't like is the Photoshop effect in #2 looks a bit fake. I've worked with disco lights before in Photoshop and they're hard to pull off.

 

[Al-Wazeer]

Love the cupcakes, and love the feeling in the skateboard wheels shot!

great job

 

[_rebecca_]

Thanks guys

Re: wheel photo #2

There is no effect involved in this shot. My set-up was the wheels on polka dot wrapping paper and natural window light coming from camera left as well as a bit of diffused window light from the top of the frame. I think the shallow DoF may be contributing to the "effect" look of it, as the polka dots were blurred? I am far too low-tech to have dreamed up making that effect in PS lol The other shots also involved wrapping or construction paper backgrounds and window light, sometimes reflected with another piece of white paper to make the patterns of light you see in picture #1 especially.

 

[Mersad]

Mmmmmmm....cupcakes....! Great work on them!

 

[_rebecca_]

Thanks! The one in the middle was the most delicious, but don't tell his friends.

Teeny tiny little bump... would love some more C&C on these.

 

[c.cloudwalker]

#1 Not crazy about the shadows. The black doesn't bother in this one but I don't know anything about skate wheels What details are missing?

#2 Definitely agree with you on the black here and I wish the writing on the wheel closest to the bottom was readable.

#3 is cool. Nothing to say really but I wonder how you got that purple shadow if you are only using sunlight and no PS.


Now the cupcakes are another story. You should have spend more time working on those. I guess you were in too much of a hurry to eat the little darlings :lmao:

But seriously. Were you changing the set up with each cupcake? Or was there enough time between each cupcake for the sun light to change? I really don't understand why the background is not consistent.

For this kind of photography, you may want to invest $2 into one of those:
Strobist

He uses a flash in his set up but you can use any lamp you want. Just watch that nothing catches on fire if the lamp gets too hot.

 

[_rebecca_]

#1 Not crazy about the shadows. The black doesn't bother in this one but I don't know anything about skate wheels What details are missing?

None in this particular shot. My reasoning for the shadows was that I thought they brought a little more interest to what might otherwise be a pretty boring straight on shot of wheels.

#2 Definitely agree with you on the black here and I wish the writing on the wheel closest to the bottom was readable.

#3 is cool. Nothing to say really but I wonder how you got that purple shadow if you are only using sunlight and no PS.

Oh, there's definitely PS work here. The paragraph above where I explained the set up and that it wasn't a photoshop effect was referring to picture 2. I had thought Sleepy_Sentry was referring to the polkadot background, which is just wrapping paper and window light. In #3 the shadow was achieved naturally with window light, the background is pink construction paper so that accounts for the... pinkness? LOL and then in PP I fiddled with the colours a bit more until it got a more 70's feel since these wheels are pretty old school and I wanted to reflect that. (They're 80s, not 70s, but I prefer 70s > 80s sooo... )

Now the cupcakes are another story. You should have spend more time working on those. I guess you were in too much of a hurry to eat the little darlings :lmao:

But seriously. Were you changing the set up with each cupcake? Or was there enough time between each cupcake for the sun light to change? I really don't understand why the background is not consistent.

That is exactly it. I took those over the course of an afternoon and the light had changed in between. I am planning to attempt that again and will shoot them closer together so the lighting doesn't change so drastically on me. And really, who can complain about having to bring more cupcakes into the house?

For this kind of photography, you may want to invest $2 into one of those:
Strobist

He uses a flash in his set up but you can use any lamp you want. Just watch that nothing catches on fire if the lamp gets too hot.

Thanks for the tip!

 

[i paolo]

I want cupcakes now.

 

[c.cloudwalker]

I understand what your saying about #1 but, unfortunately, most companies want their "catalog" like photos pretty boring so that was my reaction. Now, it mostly depends on why you are doing those shots.

And for the cupcakes, you may definitely want to build yourself one of those cheap tents. I sure wish I'd seen this guy's site before I paid $80 for mine. But at least I now know how to do one for my bigger stuff.


Now, totally off the subject of this thread but I just noticed your avatar (if that is what the picture under your name is called) and I love it. A couple days ago you were hiding behind a McD smile and today you are hiding behind a mug. Very cool. Are you doing a series of hiding photos? If not, you should think about it.

Still thinking about the smile thing. Probably will PM you tomorrow about it.

 

[TamiyaGuy]

Thanks! The one in the middle was the most delicious, but don't tell his friends.

Of course, it's chocolate! .

I really love those three cupcake photos, I reckon you could print that one out and sell it, it's just so perfect, each one is identical and they look brilliant.