Hi everyone I hope you’re keeping well and keeping yourself and you’re little ones entertained during this interesting time. As most of you know I have had to cancel/postpone a lot of my sessions, including Cake Smashes. Cancelling Cake Smashes is particularly upsetting as I know how important it is for you to have memories of this occasion to mark your little one’s first Birthday, so I thought I’d try and come up with a little guide on how to photograph a Cake Smash at home.
To start with I would recommend finding a place in your home that is well lit at as this will allow you to capture better photographs of your son/daughter. I would also recommend choosing a plain coloured wall if you have one preferably with wipeable flooring for your baby to sit on as cake smashes tend to be very messy, so I definitely don’t recommend doing one of these on the carpet, or if you do make sure you have some kind of mess proof mat down. Also think about making sure there’s no unwanted items in the background as these could distract from your gorgeous baby, and we don’t want that!
You could decorate your plain wall with a simple One birthday banner, these are really inexpensive off eBay, but will add that milestone feel to your birthday images., you can also buy personalised versions of these too, to make it that extra bit more special. You could also have other balloons and paper pom poms, that you have to unfurl, enjoy doing these, they take patience, believe me. ;) Just try to remember less is more and simplistic backgrounds often look better than overcrowded ones.
It’s best to photograph the Cake Smash when your baby is usually at their happiest, and a little bit hungry so they are interested in the Cake. From experience, I have found that it can take a bit of time for the baby to become interested in the Cake, and usually takes a bit of encouragement from either Mum or Dad, you can do this by breaking a small bit of the Cake off and feeding it to them, or giving them a little bit of icing, as this reassures them they can eat it. Also, I have found that some babies don’t like the texture of the Cake on their hands, so sometimes giving them a wooden spoon or the spoon they eat with everyday to eat the Cake sometimes helps. Once the baby is interested in the cake you can start demonstrating to them to tap the cake with the spoon/their hand and eventually leads to them smashing it. Don’t be worried if your baby isn’t interested at all in smashing/eating the Cake sometimes this does happen as it’s a completely new experience so it takes a lot of perseverance and encouragement. As a Cake smash is often the first time your baby has tried cake, you could introduce them with a cupcake a week before the session so they have experienced the taste and texture of it, meaning they won’t be so surprised by the cake when it comes to their cake smash.
If you can I would suggest one of you takes the photos and one of you is in charge of getting your baby to smile and make sure they don’t crawl away, as the last thing you want is those cakey hands going everywhere. The person incharge of getting the babies attention should stand behind the ‘photographer’ as then your baby is more likely to be looking into the camera, and not off to one side.
If you’re taking photos on a phone I would suggest taking them on burst mode and making sure to focus on your baby, this would mean you can look back at them after and you’ll have more to choose from, it’s better to have more photos than have not taken enough and missed some of lovely moments, after you can use apps to edit your photos, I recommend Ps Express. If you are taking them on a camera and are relatively new to this, I would recommend using S mode in Nikon and Tv in Canon which is ShutterSpeed/TimeValue, this means you set the speed at 1/200 minimum and the camera works out the rest of the settings for you. I always think it’s better to shoot in one of the program modes rather than auto. If you are in a well-lit place this should work well for you.
You could also set up a little metal bathtub to fill with a small amount of water, and bubble bath, believe me a small amount is enough as ones you’ve put your baby in it the water rises and this still creates a mess when they splash about! :) You could use a bubble machine to really get engaged, smiley cleanup photos, as most babies love bubbles, you could also do this part in your bath if easier, again make sure it’s well lit, if you choose to do this.
Alternatively, instead of doing the Cake Smash inside your house you could do it outside in your garden, and then you don’t have to worry about the mess so much, just try not to do it at peak sunshine as you’re baby will be squinting, and your pictures are likely to be overexposed, which is something you don’t want as it’s harder to rectify when editing, in this case it would be better to under expose your pictures slightly and then brighten them in post production after. Again if you do it outside think carefully about your background, considering moving any clutter that stands out in the photographs. Sit your baby on a blanket or something soft so the grass doesn’t irritate them.
To Recap:
Choose a well lit place, with a plain wall
Make sure you put some kind of mess proof matt down to protect the carpet
Decorate with minimal banners and balloons, most of the time less is more
Give your baby a cupcake a week/a few days before, so they have experienced the taste/texture
Shoot the Cake Smash when your Baby is normally at their happiest, and when they are slightly hungry so they are more likely to interested in the Cake
Encourage them to get stuck in by feeding them a bit of Cake/Icing
If you’re baby doesn’t like the texture of the cake on their hands, give them a spoon to use
Demonstrate to them how to ‘smash’ the Cake, so they know it’s ok for them to have a go
Use Burst Mode on Phones, so you don’t miss a moment
Use S Mode/Tv on Cameras let the camera do the rest
Use editing software to enhance your photos
Most of all enjoy it and create some fantastic memories for your little one to cherish forever!
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this, if you have any more questions on how to get the best results from an at home Cake Smash please feel free to contact me on any of the below, I am also more than happy to take a look at a few of your best images, and edit them should you wish me too. I’d love to see your images!
If you would like a studio session too once this is all over please do contact me, it really doesn’t matter if your babies first birthday was a few weeks ago or months ago, we can still produce some lovely memories for you to keep. Your baby isn’t going to know it’s no longer their Birthday so do feel free to contact me regarding this too.
Best wishes and take care, Laura. x
