The Halloween baking ideas were photographed at different times the white ghost cakes were photographed a couple of years ago, the pumpkin inspired cakes I photographed this Halloween and I tried to match the style.
The Ghost cakes are made from a frangipane base dipped in chocolate then shaped with buttercream with a piece of marzipan draped over it, shaped and then decorated with more chocolate. Photography wise I wanted to create a darker scene. To achieve this with the cakes I laid them out onto a dark background and then highlighted them with an overhead gridded spot with a small amount of fill light to knock back some of the harsh spotlight effect. In Photoshop I did not do much, just a little bit of contrast adjustment and I added a dark vignette to emphasize the spotlight effect I had captured in-camera.
The Pumpkin cakes have the same base but obviously with a food dyed piece of marzipan placed on top. I tried to replicate the lighting on this set of pictures, difficult, as I don’t keep records of my lighting setups, tut tut, another New Years Resolution I must make then break almost instantly!
I digress again, the lighting was different with a Broncolor Pulso head with a 80cm gridded Octabox on it with a white piece of card bouncing some light in from the right. In Photoshop just my usual adjustments for color and contrast, some blemish removal from the Pumpkins and a bit of reconstructive surgery on the leaves!
Overall I was pretty happy with my Halloween baking ideas and I have even sold a few!
Photographed with a Nikon D800 with a 105mm micro-nikkor at F3.2
