Excellent shot! There's a lot to like about it - the composition is very pleasing, I love the vivid colors, and I like how you've lit the model's hair and her clothing.

My only nit would be that while I realize the intent of the shot is to showcase the food (which I think you have done nicely), I think the model's face could have used a bit more light and perhaps it would work better if she were looking at the cakes instead of the photographer.

Hey Greg, I appreciate your comments but feel I need to tell you that I specialize in low light photography. I very rarely use more than one head but instead elect to use 2 or more reflectors. My father always used to tell me 'There's more than one way to skin a cat!'. Now I understand that to mean 'there's more than one way to light your subject'. I understand the reason my image doesn't tick all the boxes for you but I have no interest in glamour photography. I have the utmost respect for the co creators of my work and tend to lean towards showing the good work they do and beauty lighting doesn't always achieve that. I think you should experiment a little more with your lighting techniques you'll find that you can say more with your compositions.
Please don't feel offended, as well as being a photographer, I also teach and lecture. Please free to check the following links:
http://www.photographycourselondon.com/Studio_portrait_course.html
www.clevelandaaron.com

Cleveland Aaron wrote:
> Hey Greg, I appreciate your comments but feel I need to tell you that I specialize in low
> light photography. I very rarely use more than one head but instead elect to use 2 or more
> reflectors. My father always used to tell me 'There's more than one way to skin a cat!'. Now
> I understand that to mean 'there's more than one way to light your subject'. I understand
> the reason my image doesn't tick all the boxes for you but I have no interest in glamour photography.
> I have the utmost respect for the co creators of my work and tend to lean towards showing
> the good work they do and beauty lighting doesn't always achieve that. I think you should
> experiment a little more with your lighting techniques you'll find that you can say more with
> your compositions.
> Please don't feel offended, as well as being a photographer, I also teach and lecture. Please
> free to check the following links:
> http://www.photographycourselondon.com/Studio_portrait_course.html
> www.clevelandaaron.com
>
No offense taken! I do a lot of one light and low light photography also and I took a look at some of your other work after I left my comment. You obviously know what you're doing and I assume that you achieved YOUR desired intent, which is all that really matters in the end.

Best wishes,

Greg

actually I love the way the model is looking "at me".
There is some pleasing ambiguity about the pose - is she taking the cake or offering it to me?
There is a three-dimensional triangle between the girl, the cake and me (if you understand what I mean? I'm not sure I have said that very well!)
Mike