Composing Sweets and Parfaits That Pop — Showing Height and Gloss

Cakes and parfaits are easy subjects for “delicious,” but depending on how you shoot, they can look flat or pick up everyday clutter. Sweets photos mostly fall short on angle, subject size, brightness and background.

Shoot tall ones from an angle

Shoot a tall sweet — a parfait, soft serve — from straight overhead and the layers and volume vanish, looking flat. Aim from a 45° angle to slightly side-on for tall ones to bring out layers and dimension. Flat-arranged baked goods or plates, on the other hand, look tidy from overhead.

Take a step in to make it big

Pull back too far and it’s unclear what the subject is. Take a step in and put the sweet large in the frame to convey its texture and gloss. It’s fine to move in close enough to crop the rim of the dish a little.

Raise the brightness a notch

Café interiors are surprisingly dark, and darkness sinks the gloss of cream and fruit. Tap the subject and swipe up to set it a touch brighter, bringing out the gloss and freshness (→ Exposure compensation basics).

Composition tips

A “diagonal composition” that crops the cake or parfait on a slant lets the lines of a fork, spoon or straw come alive with movement (→ Diagonal composition). Place the subject on an intersection and leave a little of the café’s mood on the open side for a relaxed shot (→ Rule of thirds). When seasonal decorations are in the frame, keeping to a single subject stops it turning cluttered (→ Photographing Halloween).

Composition guideDiagonal compositionSee the full guide for this composition → Composition guideRule of thirdsSee the full guide for this composition →

BeforeAfter

Start with just this

Tall sweets from an angle, flat ones from overhead. Take a step in to make it big, raise the brightness a notch. Crop with a slanted line in mind. That flow cuts down a lot of “kind of plain” in sweets.