Cake Smash - Chloe's first birthday

[Dave Humphries]

As in 2016, this is part of my contribution to 2017's P52 challenge, in the form of a series of odd threads from the Photo shoots I do with my grand-daughter Chloe, just they happen less regularly (but take more effort).

The brief for this shoot was Cake Smash, which seems to be popular on social media.

We (Chloe's Mum, Rebecca) and I did our research and the plan was a white background ("bg" hereafter) and some bg decoration, but not so bold as to compete with the subject, also; I'd use aperture/DoF and shooting/bg distances to keep the bg in fairly soft focus. I hope you'll agree this part of the plan worked well.

For the bg, I currently only have the sheet variety and these are notoriously prone to show creases, I think a seamless paper roll is going to be a necessary addition to my kit soon. Problem is; they seem to come in two widths; 5 ft (too narrow) and 11 ft. (too wide for our rooms), so I may have to get an 11 foot and cut it down a foot or two, but I digress...

Research suggested that an acrylic sheet under the cake would be a good idea and fortunately I managed to obtain one from a local hardware store, it measures 1.2m, or 4 feet, square. There are bg 'ripple creases' visible through the acrylic, but hopefully not enough to distract too much, I didn't even attempt to reduce these in PP.

Light was provided by 3 speedlights set on Manual, so I set and left camera settings also on Manual as follows: shutter speed 1/200 (below sync speed, so no HSS necessary), aperture f/4, for (hopefully) adequate, but not excessive, DoF using the Nikon 35mm, f1.8 lens on my D7100. ISO was 200 (base).

Flash powers were all controlled from the Godox X1T-N RF trigger on hotshoe for the three groups in use; A=main, B=fill and C=bg backlit.

The main and fill were Godox TT685N (built-in) RF triggered (gotta love this system!). The main was aimed in to a 36" white reflective umbrella, the fill was shot through a white 26" shoot-through umbrella. The flip down '14mm' WA diffuser and umbrella shaft distances were adjusted for good coverage of light in to umbrellas.

The bg was backlit by my single remaining flash, a Godox TT600, also RF controlled and triggered. After the first few shots, a large diffuser had to be introduced between the flash and the bg to soften the hotspot and its acrylic reflection. I was constrained by not much space behind the bg to increase distance and improve light spread.

Flash power was balanced by chimping for a good result, the majority of shots being with powers set as follows; A: 1/6, B: 1/25, C: 1/32. Interesting how much loss the reflective (main, camera left) had over the shoot through (fill, camera right), requiring much more power, they were at similar distances of say 1.2m or 4 feet at 45/45 to the cake. That said, I'm not sure I didn't over do the main flash power: Question; do the skin tones look a bit washed out from 4 onwards?


The weekend that Chloe and family came to stay with us for the shoot marked her transition from crawling to walking as her 'default mode' of movement, which caused a few issues for me shooting with a prime lens; one minute she's sitting down, the next moment, she was up and off
Unfortunately, the best expressions always seem to coincide with a cropped extremity

1. (448-6650)



2. (448-6653)



3. (448-6656)



4. (448-6713)



5. (448-6784)



6. (448-6800)



7. (448-6830)



8. (448-6845)



I used PS CC to process the images.
Due to the controlled conditions (and good exposures), I found I rarely needed to change much in ACR, histograms looked good SOOC. What I did was mainly to reduce crease visibility.
My camera's "Flash" WB setting seems to be 6300, -2, so I changed them all to a more standard 5500, +2 which looks better and matches eye dropper samples. This is something I won't bother to use in future, I should be shooting a WB reference and using that, I have a Whi-Bal card, just gotta remember to use it

What caused issues was removing the 'joins' between acrylic and bg sheet*, plus especially the creases in the latter, fortunately; the Content Aware Spot Healing tool proved quite good at this, but it still took time.

* I'd managed to light them to a reasonably similar brightness, which helped a lot.

Other lessons learnt (not mentioned above):

1. I paid attention to focus as I'd had to cull far too many frames from the Xmas shoot due to 'missing the eye', in general, this shoot was much better, with far less culled due to bad focus.
2. Framing failed several times due to the subject suddenly advancing beyond my ability to scoot backwards quickly enough to avoid clipping toes, hat/head, or both - I'm thinking a fast, constant aperture zoom would be nice, but I'd possibly have been able to maintain aperture at f/4 even if I'd used the 18-200mm (f/3.5-f/5.6) between say 25 and 35mm, but that might have changed aperture, hence exposure, but then again, moving forward out of the 'light pool' did that anyway!
3. BG illumination wasn't even at transition from horiz to vertical, but I couldn't front light it as I only had one spare flash, so that had to be centrally placed behind. This restriction has since been remedied by buying another TT600
4. I did need to do a lot of levelling of the shots, the reflected points of the bunting proved useful aid for this, often this led to needing to 'clone fill' some empty corners.
5. I think I might have achieved a slightly better balance of lights by reducing the main a tad, say 1/8 or 1/10 from 1/6 and increasing the bg backlight power a bit too. The aim be to maintain a constant white bg, but reduce skin tone exposure somewhat.

Unlike the Xmas shoot, there was no single standout image this time, which left me (at least) feeling a bit deflated. I've seen worse (and better) results shot by professional togs, but for a 'first time' effort, not too bad I suppose. Perhaps next year she'll be more in to smashing the cake, I think it was all a bit of an unknown experience for her. Mind you, training her to 'play with food' could have unwanted repercussions - just as well it wasn't done in her high chair, as some are shot.

The cake survived quite well I thought
(it was soft icing too)

Thanks for looking and hopefully commenting, Dave

Any questions; do ask.

[NorthernFocus]

You did well, Dave. Lovely set. I like the first shot best for the child's expression.

[Donald]

Question; do the skin tones look a bit washed out from 4 onwards?

I don't think so. I like it.

What caused issues was removing the 'joins' between acrylic and bg sheet*, plus especially the creases in the latter, fortunately; the Content Aware Spot Healing tool proved quite good at this, but it still took time.

But it's been very well done

6 (448-6800)

Saying one image is 'better' than another is not what this set should be about. What this one does and therefore grabs my attention and makes me want to keep looking at it, is capture the very essence of what, I think, it is to be 1 year old. It's joyful; it's comfortable; it's about having fun and it's about a child feeling safe and relaxed.

[Manfred M]

Dave - you have produced another very nice series. I've been back in Bangalore for almost 10 days and still have not been able to get an image of my grandson that I am happy with. The little guy seems to be 100% perpetual motion and neither his mother or grandmother have managed to keep him still enough to shoot.

I'm envious of the control your wife and daughter seem to have on Chloe.

[rpcrowe]

When I am shooting dog portraits (sorry for the analogy) I also want to keep my focus on the eye or eyes. When shooting with my 5D2 I will select an upper focus point; red circle for horizontal shot or one of the blue circles for a vertical shot.



The circle selected would depend on which way the camera is held for the vertical configuration. This will set my focus point somewhere near the eye or eyes. I have less movement to focus and reframe using the op points...

BTW: I use my 5D2 for dog portraits since the focal length of my 70-200mm lens is perfect on a full frame camera for the area (distance) I have to work with...

Using my 7D2 (which has a much more sophisticated auto focus system, I will most often set the top cluster of points. The camera will automatically shift the points to the top areas of the frame whenever I switch from horizontal to vertical...

[bnnrcn]

All lovely Dave , my fav is #4

[Dave Humphries]

Thanks Dan and Binnur,

[Dave Humphries]

Thanks for the additional feedback Donald.

In hindsight, we didn't need to take off her T-shirt as she didn't get anywhere near as messy as we thought she would.

[Dave Humphries]

Thanks Manfred,

I guess I must be lucky

It was actually her Mum and Dad that were on hand to attract her attention, keep her happy and bring her back when she escaped, this time.

Hope you get something soon, Dave

[Dave Humphries]

Thanks Richard,

Sometimes I focus and shoot as you outline, other times I find the AF is too slow (using the peripheral fps) in the dim light I often seem to work in, so it has to be the central point, which is a stop more sensitive. If I had studio strobes with modelling lights, or continuous lights, it would be less of a problem. Although I don't think you do either.

The room layout doesn't aid 'swapping ends' to let daylight in, so the curtains (drapes) behind the bg need to remain drawn and tungsten overhead lights off, for shooting.

Cheers, Dave

[Mike Buckley]

The consistent quality and consistent overall look of images throughout the set are especially attractive. This is a LOT easier said than done!

The double entendre of the shirt indicating that it is her first birthday and that she is #1 is really precious.

You mentioned that some of the best expressions are accompanied by chopped extremities. The solution for me in the first photo is to crop just above Chloe's knees. In the second photo, it would be reasonably easy, especially in the context of the time you spent acquiring and preparing the setup materials, to increase the size of the canvas and to include the entire foot by cloning.

I really like the reflection produced by the flooring material. Whether you controlled the horizon so nicely by using depth of field, lighting, post-processing or all of the above, you did it very well.

[Mike Buckley]

For the bg, I currently only have the sheet variety and these are notoriously prone to show creases, I think a seamless paper roll is going to be a necessary addition to my kit soon.

My experience using a paper roll in my makeshift studio purely for tabletop photography is that it creases really easily. That could say more about me being a klutz than the characteristic of the paper, but that's the case. I have read that velour fabric comes in all the basic colors, is relatively inexpensive and does not become wrinkled even when it is stored folded.

[Dave Humphries]

Thanks for the kind words Mike,

Yes, I guess I could crop #1, although for the family and it being her first weekend with significant walking, I didn't think of it.

I briefly considered cloning some toes from another shot, but I don't know how to do it quickly and was working to a deadline for processing the series and preferred to do them as a batch for the consistency.

I tried to keep the framing loose, but occasionally I got it wrong.

Cheers, Dave

PS
I'll have to look for some velour, thanks for that idea.
As to paper, not having tried it, I may find the same as you have.
If I give it a try, perhaps I'll start with a 5 foot wide roll to save the effort of mangling the edges trying to cut it and see how it goes.

[Mike Buckley]

Dave,

When I mentioned expanding the canvas and cloning to complete Chloe's foot, I accidentally referred to the second photo when I meant the fourth photo. My guess is that you thought I meant the third photo. The task will be a lot easier in the fourth photo than in the third photo.

By the way, cropping above the knees in the third photo will not only solve the problem with the chopped toes but will also create a more traditional aspect ratio.

[bje07]

The best for me Dave: # 4; Good lighting on all (of course).

[Dave Humphries]

Thanks Jean,

Yes Mike, those ideas could be worth a try on #3 and #4, may give that a go in a day or so.

[Shadowman]

Nice series, surprised none wowed you; quite a few didn't have the dreaded cropped limb.

[IzzieK]

It is too late in the morning to make a comment or two here but suffice to say, I will be back later on during the day to look at these again. These kind of shots makes me smile. That did not take long at all from birth to ONE. Have you ever tried to look at the year that passed while you photographed her growing up? Wow! I just felt I aged a year more -- your Chloe is one year older and my Anika called me up while I was jumping up and down with my nerve prod tests yesterday.

[Dave Humphries]

Thanks John, perhaps I'm too hard on myself ...

Although I can almost hear Izzie screaming "NOOOOO", after all the "harsh" critique I gave her in first half of last year

That did not take long at all from birth to ONE. Have you ever tried to look at the year that passed while you photographed her growing up?

Yes, the first year is all in my PBase Chloe album here

Doesn't time fly?

I was jumping up and down with my nerve prod tests yesterday

Now that's something I've never done to you

Cheers, Dave

[skitterbug]

Thanks for the additional feedback Donald.

In hindsight, we didn't need to take off her T-shirt as she didn't get anywhere near as messy as we thought she would.

Better to be safe than sorry and have to wash our lots of cake! The series is perfect in my estimation! My Grandkids caused me to get the camera out and begin to hone my skills. There is something about their happiness that I want to catch and keep for memories! They grow up so fast!

Thanks for sharing your lovely granddaughter's pics!