Need help to enhance this

[bedum]

My cake really taste good.. But the outlook itself don really attractive enough tough...
I made a lightbox myself to produce this picture. As a poor newbie, I do not own a DSLR camera, but just a digital lense camera.

These are the pictures i took using the Nikon Digital camera + lightbox(1 bulb -15watt on top)
I used 2 nylon fabric on both side for the lightbox but was surprised to see why it is blue.. NOT WHITE

Could any expert show me some tips how to improve my skill or anyway to enhance the picture? Is it necessary to get DSLR for this cake photography?

 

[480sparky]

Learn to set your white balance.

 

[Kerbouchard]

Set your camera on a tripod, use a longer shutter speed, use a smaller aperture, use the lowest ISO possible, and set a custom white balance...Should get you pretty close to where you want to be.

 

[marmots]

any kind of serious , especially studio, photography requires an slr to do well

 

[bedum]

my camera is this http://thedigitalcameraexperts.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/4542215-Panasonic-Lumix-DMC-ZS3-Digital-Camera.jpg
Does this camera able to set the white balance? Yes i did use a tripod with timer set to 2 seconds to shoot that pictures. The longer shutter speed function which you referred to is from DSLR? I don think my camera has it

 

[412 Burgh]

Do you have any Post Production Software? Gimp, Photoshop?


bigger size

cake by ZDiB, on Flickr
cake-beforeafter by ZDiB, on Flickr

 

[bedum]

Yes i have GIMP. Did u just set the white balance that all?

 

[412 Burgh]

Yes i have GIMP. let me try it

Honestly, all I did was added two layers.
1. Layer I duplicated the first. Applied a "filter>high pass" then set the layer mode to overlay..

2. Soft Light Layer type, and added white brushing around the cake.

 

[Kerbouchard]

Yes i have GIMP. let me try it

Honestly, all I did was added two layers.
1. Layer I duplicated the first. Applied a "filter>high pass" then set the layer mode to overlay..

2. Soft Light Layer type, and added white brushing around the cake.

I'm not saying that your edits are bad...you did exactly what the OP asked and you did it well. I think the rest of us were trying to get the OP to understand a bit about why his shots weren't coming out the way he wanted them instead of just showing him how to fix them.

Oh, well.

 

[412 Burgh]

I know, I was just trying to help him out. I think he/she didn't PP them at all. So therefore if you show the difference and that is what they want.. Help them explain it to them. You can use those photos, it is just more PP for the photog.

 

[bedum]

I'm not saying that your edits are bad...you did exactly what the OP asked and you did it well. I think the rest of us were trying to get the OP to understand a bit about why his shots weren't coming out the way he wanted them instead of just showing him how to fix them.

Oh, well.

Thanks for the reply. I am fine with both ways as i think good photo (with macro + blur effect) only comes from DSLR.. I dont have it yet so i think it is good to learn the skill to touch up the picture Unless somebody can prove me wrong that my current camera is able to shoot a good picture with some tricks.

 

[Kerbouchard]

A P&S camera is generally very well suited for these types of shots. You have controlled lighting, a static subject, and a tripod. With those three things, the type of camera you use is almost a non-factor.

In all honesty, I thought the blur was actually too much in the photo that you posted which was why I recommended a longer shutter speed and a smaller aperture, to increase the depth of field so that all of your subject would be in focus. A DSLR would actually complicate that because you would have a longer minimal focus distance(have to shoot further away) and you would have a shallower depth of field(less in focus).

Looking at some of the reviews on the Lumix DMC-ZS3, it says one of the cons is very few manual controls, so you may not have an option as to how you shoot, in which case you are correct, processing it to fix it or upgrading to a better camera with more controls seems to be the way to go if you want to do these types of shots a lot.