Fighting it Out With Cake Shots

by Skip Cohen

Over the years at dozens of workshops, I've always done my own survey asking for a show of hands of how many photographers I have in the room from each specialty. Since most of the programs I've done have normally been to wedding and portrait photographers those have been the most number of hands. I'll then ask how many table top shooters are in the audience and typically no hands are raised.

My response is always the same, "Really, how many of you have had to do a cake shot at a wedding? It's the toughest shot and you do it at every wedding you photograph, yet NONE of you shoot tabletop!" There are at this point a lot of painful expressions as everyone thinks back to some of the previous images.

Seriously, it really is one of the toughest shots to get. Lighting is terrible, the cake is typically on a corner with little or no backdrop and every now and then a bride wants to see the engraving on the cake knife she's using that belonged to her grandmother. But, nobody shoots tabletop! LOL

This video from Bob Davis might be two years old and from his old educational series "I Can Light That", but it's loaded with great content to help you through the next time you're dealing with the cake shot from hell! Even with a few changes in technology, it's still got so much that's relevant to help you next time.

Looking for more help in lighting?Check out Bob's video training the WTF series.