How do I achieve this look? (Food Photography)

[LLCSCakes]

Hi everyone!

I hope someone can steer me in the right direction, as I'm a beginner to the world of photography.

I am a cake decorator and I am ready to take studio photographs of my cakes. I would like to achieve a look exactly like the cakes below:

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This seems to be a standard photography studio with some kind of gray backdrop. What I'm trying to achieve is that seamless appearance where you cannot distinguish between the background and the platform that the cake is sitting on. The backdrop seems to curve perfectly underneath and the lighting gives a nice glow to the cake.

I'd be grateful to anyone who can point out a product on Amazon that I can purchase to achieve this exact look as well as what lighting setups I need to learn. Also, is any touching up necessary in Photoshop to achieve this look, or can it all be done during shooting?

Thanks so much! I would appreciate any and all responses.

Edward

 

[Scatterbrained]

Welcome to TPF. If the images aren't yours, you can't post them here. You can however post links to them.

Beyond that, the background in these images isn't gray, it's a white sweep. It's just rendered gray in the final image because it's underexposed. The lighting here appears to be a single, large light source camera left.

This kind of shot can be done in camera with no post work. As far as buying a product on Amazon that will let you get this shot, you'd be looking at a full sized shooting table, which can get very expensive. You can build a shooting table for much, much less, then all you'd need would be a light, a large softbox or diffusion panel, a camera, and a tripod.


A shooting table like this would give you the seamless white background you're looking for and can be build for less than half what it would cost to buy a purpose built unit (the Manfrotto shooting table costs about $820 + shipping).

​

 

[tirediron]

...
I am a cake decorator and I am ready to take studio photographs of my cakes. ...

Hello Edward, I'm a photographer and I'm going make my nephew's birthday cake. Can you show me the item on Amazon that will allow me to do it just like you do?

Sarcastic? Well, yes, but to make a point. Both what you do and what I do take some degree of skill, and both have experience and knowledge behind them. If you really want the best end product, why not actually hire a professional who has that experience, knowledge, skill, and who has already made the investment in equipment?

 

[KmH]

The photos you posted were not very well done as product photos.

As mentioned the background was under exposed and more than 1 light was needed so the 1/2 of each cake opposite the light wasn't in shadow.

Photography is quite a bit more involved than those who don't do photography understand.
You'll need to learn about exposure, depth-of-field, and white balance.
Light power falls off with distance (Inverse Square Law), so backgrounds often need to be lit separately from the product because they are further from the light source.
Light Science and Magic: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting

For making product photos of cakes a roll of 53" wide by 12 yards long seamless paper would work - Savage Seamless Background Paper, 53" wide x 12 yards, Super White, #1
Since cakes don't move you can use constant lights instead of flash. but constant lights don't deliver as much light power as flash can so the camera shutter speed has to be longer. With longer shutter speeds the camera has to be on a good stable stand or tripod so camera shake doesn't blur the photos.

For lighting you might get by with an el cheapo constant light kit like this - Fancierstudio 3000 Watt Digital Video Continuous Softbox Lighting Kit 9026S3 Fancierstudio

 

[Designer]

Also, is any touching up necessary in Photoshop to achieve this look, or can it all be done during shooting?

I think all photos need some editing. Exactly how much and what kind will depend on how close the photographer can get it in camera.

A powerful software such as Photoshop takes time to learn and lots of time to learn it well. Many of us use lower-cost editing software that is somewhat easier to learn and does everything we need.

 

[Browncoat]

Hello Edward, I'm a photographer and I'm going make my nephew's birthday cake. Can you show me the item on Amazon that will allow me to do it just like you do?

Sarcastic? Well, yes, but to make a point. Both what you do and what I do take some degree of skill, and both have experience and knowledge behind them. If you really want the best end product, why not actually hire a professional who has that experience, knowledge, skill, and who has already made the investment in equipment?

This argument is old and tired.

Does it really make sense for a cake shop to hire a local pro to do their product photography? To transport perishable and fragile food products across town on a regular basis? Will a local pro have the flexibility in their schedule for this, especially last minute rush orders? How about that 2am cake that is due out for a wedding the next morning? Or would a local pro be willing to travel to the cake shop on a regular basis to do it on location...and at what expense? No. None of the stars align. It makes more sense to do the photography in-house.

Simple product photography is not rocket science. DIY projects with $10 Home Depot shop lights and 5500K bulbs will work just fine.

 

[Braineack]

yes it makes a lot of sense; I've seen cake decorators take pictures...

To transport perishable and fragile food products across town on a regular basis?

This one made me laugh--isn't that their job?

you also assume cake decorators are making the cake the night before a wedding, this is also not the case.

 

[Derrel]

I saw the pics yesterday, but had to head out to a shoot, so did not reply, just saw Scatterbrain's BTS shot of his shooting area's table...

Cakes can be rather big, so half-width seamless paper rolls would be kind of a PITA. I've shot small product stuff for websites and catalogs in the past. There are a few issues beginning shooters might miss.

What you want is a WIDE background. 9-foot wide seamless makes even a wedding cake easy; half-width paper means the background behind is NOT wide enough unless you have a long length lens, which has a narrow angle of view BEHIND the focused plane!!! A 50mm lens on a wedding cake, on half-width paper? Your lens's angle of view will tend to "see wide" behind the subject, and you will "shoot off the paper", thus requiring Photoshop work on the edges. You do not want to be right up on top of the cake either, or the lens will cause odd distortion; a 90mm macro lens from 10,12,15 feet away would be a good general idea for a tall wedding cake.

If you wanna try this, you want a white sweep of paper and a table, as shown. And for the noob, I'd say buy Superwhite paper. To keep the BG more or less white, for a single-light source setup, you'd want a LARGE light source that is positioned at least 10 feet away--to keep the rate of light fall-off fairly low. And by large, I mean a 6x6 foot diffusion panel, or a wall where three lights are bounced off of the wall to create a very BIG light source. the BIG source that is not too close keeps the rate of light falloff very low.

If the light is close, a white cake will be white, and the background, even if it is white paper, will rapidly drop off to gray; the closer the light is to the cake, the more-rapidly the light will fall off in intensity. Once the light is backed well away from the subject, then the light falls off very,very little with each increase in distance.

The diffusing panel, made of wood or PVC pipes and elbows, and covered with a thin, semi-transparent material, is a classic way to make a big light source for still life and other commercial shots, but you CAN use say electronic flash units and a white wall to bounce off of.

 

[tirediron]

Hello Edward, I'm a photographer and I'm going make my nephew's birthday cake. Can you show me the item on Amazon that will allow me to do it just like you do?

Sarcastic? Well, yes, but to make a point. Both what you do and what I do take some degree of skill, and both have experience and knowledge behind them. If you really want the best end product, why not actually hire a professional who has that experience, knowledge, skill, and who has already made the investment in equipment?

This argument is old and tired.

Does it really make sense for a cake shop to hire a local pro to do their product photography? To transport perishable and fragile food products across town on a regular basis? Will a local pro have the flexibility in their schedule for this, especially last minute rush orders? How about that 2am cake that is due out for a wedding the next morning? Or would a local pro be willing to travel to the cake shop on a regular basis to do it on location...and at what expense? No. None of the stars align. It makes more sense to do the photography in-house.

Simple product photography is not rocket science. DIY projects with $10 Home Depot shop lights and 5500K bulbs will work just fine.

Nooooooooooo.... I'm old and tired, but that's a discussion for another time! It depends; how much value does the OP place on the images? Both my mother and sister-in-law were/are very accomplished cake decorators, and I've watched many cakes being decorated, so I'm guessing I understand the basic theory okay. Could I decorate a cake? Sure. Would the result be a professional product that I'd use in advertising? Unlikely. Product photography is not a 'grab a camera and shoot' undertaking, at least not if you want a quality result, and IMO, food photography is one of the most challenging types of product photography.

I certainly wouldn't expect the cakes to come to me, and nor would I expect that the OP is going to want to photograph every cake. I would however be very interested to see the 'after' shot of the cake that has baked under $10 Home Depot shop lights for a half-hour or so.

The point of all this rambling is this: IMO, when you are a professional, dealing with professional products, and you need a service, the long term benefits of investing money in a professional to provide those services outweigh the short term cost of his/her bill.

 

[Browncoat]

you also assume cake decorators are making the cake the night before a wedding, this is also not the case.

No, I didn't assume that. You read it wrong. I very clearly said "last minute rush orders", because they do happen. Or those "2am cakes" because something tragic happened, like the cake fell in the oven. My sister makes cakes, and she's had to deal with mishaps on more than one occasion.

The point of all this rambling is this: IMO, when you are a professional, dealing with professional products, and you need a service, the long term benefits of investing money in a professional to provide those services outweigh the short term cost of his/her bill.

I won't debate that. If you want the best, then you pay for the best. I'm not trying to say that pro level results can be achieved with makeshift equipment and inexperience. I'm not trying to discredit the images produced on a professional level. But there is a flip-side. Not everyone can afford it, and it's not always practical. This is a first-time poster looking for advice about how to do it themselves. We can't just throw it back in their face. Do they have any idea how much equipment investment is needed for pro-level results? Probably not. I'm sure they didn't mean to insult anyone by insinuating that a quick Amazon shopping spree would turn them into a pro product photographer overnight. But at the same time, I don't think we need to play the only-pros-can-do-this card, either.

 

[tirediron]

I won't debate that. If you want the best, then you pay for the best. I'm not trying to say that pro level results can be achieved with makeshift equipment and inexperience. I'm not trying to discredit the images produced on a professional level. But there is a flip-side. Not everyone can afford it, and it's not always practical. This is a first-time poster looking for advice about how to do it themselves. We can't just throw it back in their face. Do they have any idea how much equipment investment is needed for pro-level results? Probably not. I'm sure they didn't mean to insult anyone by insinuating that a quick Amazon shopping spree would turn them into a pro product photographer overnight. But at the same time, I don't think we need to play the only-pros-can-do-this card, either.

Fair comment! My experience here has shown me that a LOT of people don't fully understand what is required to get the results that they want, and they wind up spending a bunch of money, getting frustrated and still not acheiving what they want. I also know from personal experience with things such as home renovation that while yes, I can lay flooring or finish dry-wall, the time, effort and emotion I saved by hiring a pro to do it is well worth it.

 

[JoeW]

Hello Edward, I'm a photographer and I'm going make my nephew's birthday cake. Can you show me the item on Amazon that will allow me to do it just like you do?

Sarcastic? Well, yes, but to make a point. Both what you do and what I do take some degree of skill, and both have experience and knowledge behind them. If you really want the best end product, why not actually hire a professional who has that experience, knowledge, skill, and who has already made the investment in equipment?

This argument is old and tired.

Does it really make sense for a cake shop to hire a local pro to do their product photography? To transport perishable and fragile food products across town on a regular basis? Will a local pro have the flexibility in their schedule for this, especially last minute rush orders? How about that 2am cake that is due out for a wedding the next morning? Or would a local pro be willing to travel to the cake shop on a regular basis to do it on location...and at what expense? No. None of the stars align. It makes more sense to do the photography in-house.

Simple product photography is not rocket science. DIY projects with $10 Home Depot shop lights and 5500K bulbs will work just fine.

Does it make sense for someone to get a professional to make their wedding cake? Or go to the store, buy a really good mix? That depends on the circumstances.

I think the original response is just indicating that if you want a professional looking photo, then you need some serious skills. FWIW, most of the food photography I've done professionally has been done ON the client site...they didn't bring anything across town.

I've seen real estate agents take photos of properties with a simple point and shoot. I've seen cooks and food bloggers take pictures with a camera phone. Sometimes that makes sense. No-one here is arguing that you should always use a professional baker or photographer for all of your cake or photo needs. But it's naive to argue that if you set up a cyc background and buy an expensive camera then you're going to get professional looking results. For instance, I'd argue that what the OP (Edward) is really after can pretty much be achieved without buying anything on Amazon...if you know how to use aperture and you can pick the correct light. And that's about being a decent photographer.