Wedding Photo – Taking the Cake
There is considerable time, money and effort spent on the wedding cake. Though it is not quite the main item a cake will be part of the wedding photography. A Wedding photographer cannot afford to overlook this.
Professional Wedding Photography
The standards for the professional wedding photographer are fairly high. Top wedding photography should be of magazine quality. There are plenty of magazine images of fancy cakes and cuisine. A little study of these might prove helpful.
For a cake
- Use a long lens – 100 to 200mm. This will help keep the cake focused and the background suitably blurred. Avoid using a wide lens as this will distort the cake’s proportions.
- Find the best angle for the cake.
- Try using natural light. Try positioning yourself 90 degrees for the light source. The cake will look better if the light and shadows bring out the details.
- Use artificial light if natural light isn’t working. Start by placing it 90 degrees to the side, but experiment to find a pleasant graduation. Soft light, bounced off a left wall, is usually better than direct, but intense lighting might work well for some cakes.
- If the cake has a lot of detail, texture rather than flat images, try taking a few close shots. Use light to capture the detail.
- Traditional cakes are white, which causes the same problem as traditional white wedding dresses – The large white cake/dress can appear bright compared to the background, so the photo can easily become too dark when the white object seems right, or the white object ends up appearing too bright. Automatic camera settings will rarely get this right.
- Accessories around the cake can work, but the cake will always be the main focus.
The Sydney Wedding Cake Snap Shot
Every guest with a camera or mobile phone will probably take a photo or two of the cake. If they use a digital camera they might have a setting for ‘cuisine’, which should be tried.
Digital cameras and phones will usually take a reasonable image of a cake of the light is good. The automatic adjustments will allow an acceptable, if generic, result. Make sure the cake is the focus of the image, and avoid any background distractions.
Compare a good professional image of the cake with most mobile phone snapshots, and appreciate the art of the top wedding photographer.