cake smash aaaarrrrggghhhhh!!!!!!!

[RockstarPhotography]

I'm having some problem with lighting for an upcoming cake smash. Its for my son and we will be doing it here in our apartment leaving me very little room. Its going to be kinda a harsh light rock and roll theme so i'm using speedlights with no major modifiers. I have a snooted one coming in from behind stage right, and one with a just a diffuser comming in from the front stage left. because we are doing this on the ground i'm getting some pretty wicked shadows from both lights. any suggestions? I would rather not use umbrella's or softboxes because we want that hard light with shadows on the face, but them damn ground shadows just look funny.

edit: oh, and i'm letting the background fall to black....

 

[~Stella~]

Um...what's a cake smash?

 

[RockstarPhotography]

Um...what's a cake smash?

for little kids on there birthday, you put a little cake in front of them and they pretty much smash it up trying to eat it.....pretty messy.

 

[~Stella~]

Oh...we just call that a birthday party, lol.

 

[laurabnt]

Do you really like cake smash? I mean you are right kinda messy.

 

[RockstarPhotography]

If he wasn't my son, and my wife wasn't insisting, i would never do a cake smash, but since he is, and my wife won't let it go..........

 

[RockstarPhotography]

played around some more and got it figured out. still going to be a shadow, but its not nearly as bad now.

by using a white sheet for him to sit on I was able to bring my main light higher up decreasing the shadow and use that sheet as a reflector to bring back the shadows in the face caused by my high light.....

 

[cabrosh]

Your wife is right. We turned our twins lose with two mini cakes for their first birthday. It was a mess, but thirty years later the pictures are a treasure. Just make sure everything is washable and have fun.

 

[ababysean]

Why not just bounce the lights?

and who doesnt LOVE a cake smash!

 

[MCPorche]

A friend of the family did something several years ago along these lines.....

Had a child dressed in a white t-shirt and white shorts. Put him in front of a white background. Gave him an open jar of peanut butter, and open jar of jelly, and a loaf of bread...and told him to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Some outstanding photos came from that...

 

[RJT]

It sounds like you have an interesting shoot. I like bold shadows, just play into them with fill flash and an exposure adjustment.I dont know what software you are using ,but post edit can fix issues , cropping and converting some to gray scale can make really cool shots too.
Post some pics , this should be good.

 

[tirediron]

If you're going to smash something, do a liver and onion smash! Send the cake to me!

 

[MegR]

Why not just bounce the lights?

and who doesnt LOVE a cake smash!

(I had to remove the original picture to post this comment)

Those pictures are super adorable.

A friend of the family did something several years ago along these lines.....

Had a child dressed in a white t-shirt and white shorts. Put him in front of a white background. Gave him an open jar of peanut butter, and open jar of jelly, and a loaf of bread...and told him to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Some outstanding photos came from that...

I wouldn't mind seeing pictures from that session. It is a very interesting concept. Did your friend say how he came up with that idea? =)

 

[mwcfarms]

Thats a great idea. I would love to let my two year old loose and do that. Hmmmm weekend project maybe.

 

[MCPorche]

A friend of the family did something several years ago along these lines.....

Had a child dressed in a white t-shirt and white shorts. Put him in front of a white background. Gave him an open jar of peanut butter, and open jar of jelly, and a loaf of bread...and told him to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Some outstanding photos came from that...

I wouldn't mind seeing pictures from that session. It is a very interesting concept. Did your friend say how he came up with that idea? =)

Sadly I don't recall. This was probably done 10 to 20 years ago. I'll email him and ask if he still has any images from it...