Advice for 1 year old cake portrait

[GerryDavid]

I havent done one of these before and I want to give it a try and I found a volunteer. I know this is going to be messy, so I was hoping there was some good advice for this, something that I didnt think of.

I want a white background/foreground. I could use a white bed sheet but I hate wrinkles and folds, no matter how hard to try, as soon as the kid thinks it will get wrinkled. I do have a white pannel from lowes that is 8'x4' that cost about $42 but im afraid of it getting stained.

Also, who usually provides the cake? the mom or the photographer?

[gonzogolf]

Pick up a roll of white background paper. Its easy to cut off the stained part and toss it.

[GerryDavid]

hmm, so obvious but I missed it.

got any suggestions for where to buy it for a good price?

[gonzogolf]

Originally Posted by GerryDavid

hmm, so obvious but I missed it.

got any suggestions for where to buy it for a good price?

Do you live anywhere near a full service photo store? This is one of the few items where it may be easier to pick up in person, especially if you get a 9ft roll, which I would recommend. Otherwise the shipping costs for an oversized parcel may not make it a cost effective option.

[GerryDavid]

no real photo store, there might be a ritz or something like that but never been inside.

amazon prime! sucks to be the fedex delivery guy in this case.

how heavy are these? how do you keep the paper from unrolling like a tube of toilet paper? seems once they start, they keep on going.

[gonzogolf]

Originally Posted by GerryDavid

no real photo store, there might be a ritz or something like that but never been inside.

amazon prime! sucks to be the fedex delivery guy in this case.

how heavy are these? how do you keep the paper from unrolling like a tube of toilet paper? seems once they start, they keep on going.

See if the ritz folks can get it for you. I dont know the weight but probably in the 20lbs range. I've never really had much trouble with the roll unrolling as long as you have the bar level, but if you are concerned cheap alligator clips applied to one or both ends should hold it.

[rat-man]

I bought my background paper from B&H and got a plastic drop cloth and spring clips from Home Depot. I paid for everything because it was completely my idea and I wanted to try it. If I was to do it again as part of a paid session, I'd include the price of the cake in my fee.

You can see the results from the links in my sig.

[GerryDavid]

rat, did you get any additional sales? I got a customer lined up for a free session, she gets 8 wallets of her favorite pose for a signed model release. she is getting and I quote "an amateur photographer" to do the regular pictures for her, so I am hoping to get some outstanding pictures and hopefully sell her a storyboard of 4 pictures from the series.

[rat-man]

This one was pro bono...but I need to work on marketing myself for future jobs

[sma1mom]

Check in your city and see if there is a theather supply company. They ususally sell paper rolls, around $50 here in STL. As for the messy, put down a white disposable table cloth, just wad up and toss at the end.

[GerryDavid]

The pics turned out ok, but I messed up on the lighting, I didnt put enough light on the background and the mother was blocking the one light so one side is darker than the other, and with the outfit its hard to mask around it to get it to look natural and make the background pure white, so im going to have to settle for a gray background. But this was practice and a good learning experience.

My boy is turning 1 year in a couple of days so we'll be doing his cake portrait soon and hopefully it will turn out better knowing what I did wrong last time.