Learning to use new light kit

[sweetsbynataliekay]

I recently got a new camera and lighting kit, primarily for the purpose of taking good photos for my cake/treat baking Web site. Any advice on light placement, exposure and even composition would be great!

[Benji]

Originally Posted by sweetsbynataliekay

I recently got a new camera and lighting kit, primarily for the purpose of taking good photos for my cake/treat baking Web site. Any advice on light placement, exposure and even composition would be great!

There are several things that I don't like. The plate is crooked. The stack of cookies has a dark shadow that is unappealing (IMHO) and the composition isn't all that great. Lastly there is a crumb on the plate at camera left rear.

Benji

[sweetsbynataliekay]

Originally Posted by Benji

The stack of cookies has a dark shadow that is unappealing (IMHO)
Benji

Can you offer any tips for setting up the lights. I have 2 lights on tripod-type stands. Thanks!

[Dami]

Explaining more what your light kit contains would help. How many lights? Any diffusers? What's your camera capable of? What settings did you use on this?

[Dennismc]

Originally Posted by Dami

Explaining more what your light kit contains would help. How many lights? Any diffusers? What's your camera capable of? What settings did you use on this?

More importantly though, What kind of cookies are they? and can I have one?

[MikeM]

I think the composition is fine. Crooked works for me. You could definitely use some light on the stack of cookies though.

If you've got two lights you could place them on either side at 45 degrees and shoot one at higher power than the other to get a bit of a ratio on the light to give texture. You didn't say if they're strobes or continous lights though. Or you may use one light to blow out the background and get it white with the other one at 45 degrees or so to you and use a reflector of some sort to fill in.

[sweetsbynataliekay]

Originally Posted by sweetsbynataliekay

I recently got a new camera and lighting kit, primarily for the purpose of taking good photos for my cake/treat baking Web site. Any advice on light placement, exposure and even composition would be great!

For this photo:

Aperture 4.0
ISO: 200
Shutter Speed: 1/50

My lighting kit include a pop-up tent/light box and two lights, set on either side of the tent.

Amazon.com: PBL PHOTO STUDIO TENT 30" COMPLETE WITH LIGHTS PLUS 6' STANDS by PBL: Camera & Photo

[sweetsbynataliekay]

Thanks; I'll have to give this light setup a try.

[Samanax]

You might want to make sure the seemless or whatever paper you're using for the background doesn't have any creases in it.

You might want to try placing the lights closer to the front of the tent and have them aim towards the rear corners. Or, if possible, try having one light shine down from the top while the other is positioned where it'll help with the shadows.

The image looks a little underexposed. It looks as if those constant lights instead of strobes. How far were the lights from the tent? Can you adjust the power?

You might want to place the stack of cookies behind and the lay one cookie on top of the other instead of leaning against the stack.

[Benji]

If I were hired to do this shot I think I would put a red and white checkered table cloth under the plate and loosely arrange the cookies on the plate in an eye appealing arrangement and then put a tall glass of milk off to one side My DOF would be enough to get the cookies, milk and plate in focus but not the background. The plate and glass would be level. The background would be either an out of focus over, out of focus enough that we recognize it is an oven but not sharp enough to draw our eyes away from the cookies, or maybe some bowls, a wooden spoon glass measuring cups and so forth to make us aware that these cookies were not made at Wal-Mart but instead in grandma's kitchen where she put some of her love into them. Again these items would be out of focus like the oven was.

Lighting would be more flat but not 1 to 1. The last shot or two I think I would mist some water on the cookies to make them glisten, and perhaps blow some smoke through a straw under the cookies to simulate they are still hot.

Benji