How-to Guide – DIY Cake Smash Photoshoot

What could be better than celebrating your baby’s first birthday than by taking some fun cake smash photos!

You’ve got all excited about the idea but then hit a brick wall when you realised the cost of a professional photography session. Between the current energy crisis with sky high bills AND all the money you’ve probably already spent during the first 12 months, you may be looking for a cheaper alternative.

With these easy to follow tips, I’ll show you how to DIY your very own cake smash photos – on a budget!

1. Colour scheme

The first thing to decide on when doing a DIY cake smash is a colour scheme. You might want to keep with the traditional yet simple baby blues and pinks, or, perhaps you want to go for some muted greens to create a safari or woodland theme for your shoot. The options are endless.

For our DIY shoot I opted for a jungle safari balloon arch kit from amazon.

Cost: £13.49

2. Props

Between balloons, props, the cake and your baby, there will be A LOT going on in the photo. The key to remember is less is more.

I kept it simple and used the following items, most of which I already owned:

• Number 1 balloon and star streamer from Paperchase: £5 (I couldn’t find this exact one online but here’s a similar one from Amazon)
• H&M Toy Giraffe: pre-owned
• IKEA Fejka artificial plant: pre-owned
• IKEA ALSEDA stool: pre-owned

Cost: £5

Running total: £18.49

3. Clothing

Of course the easiest thing to shoot a cake smash in would be just a nappy. It means less mess to clean up, but also it’s super simple and will fit with any theme.

You may however still choose to have an outfit for the occasion, perhaps a simple bodysuit with the word ‘One’ on it. Or maybe you want to pop them in something fancy! Personally I love a baby in a suit and I thought it gave the photos an additional element of humour.

You could even do as I did and have more than one outfit, although it all depends on just how messy your cake smash turns out to be!

• NEXT 4 piece suit: Pre owned (similar suit)
• Jungle theme birthday outfit: £18.85

Cost: £18.85

Running total: £37.34

4. Flooring

A cake smash can be a messy affair! When doing a shoot at home make sure you don’t set up on a floor that will be hard to clean. Tiles or floorboards work well, or if you own a large wipeable playmat thats even better. Depending on your playmat this may also work to add to your theme as well. I used our Munchkin & Bear playmat and flipped it over to the sage speckled side which worked well for our set up.

• Munchkin and Bear playmat: preowned

Cost: £0

Running total: £37.34

5. Backdrop

The easiest backdrop is… you guessed it … a plain light coloured wall.

If however you don’t have a plain wall, thats got good, natural light, then you can either purchase a vinyl backdrop for the shoot, or if you want to DIY like I did, just grab a clothes rail and hang a large white sheet over it – just make sure you iron it first!*

*This is one area I definitely messed up with as I didn’t iron the sheet beforehand – however a little facetune blurred out most of the wrinkles.

• IKEA clothes rail: Preowned
• White sheet: Preowned

Cost: £0

Running total: £37.34

6. Lighting

Before you set up you want to find an area that has good natural light. You could even shoot outdoors if you wanted, or pick a spot indoors near large windows to get maximum lighting potential.

I also used an additional ring light on the opposite end of the set up – just don’t point it directly at your subject or it will look too harsh. Again though you don’t need this if you’ve got good natural lighting available.

• Ring light: Preowned

Cost: £0

Running total: £37.34

8. Test shots

OK you’ve got your set up ready, it’s time to shoot right? Wrong! Before you bring a baby and a cake into the mix take some test shots. Figure out what angles you will shoot from, what height. Will you be taking any video or just photographs? Perhaps you might have a device recording the full event while you take photos on another. Preparation is key. You don’t want to waste time trying to find the good angles when baby is getting stuck in or you might miss the perfect shot opportunity!

If you’re not sure on what to do google image search “baby cake smash” or search the hashtag #cakesmash on instagram to get some ideas.

Cost: £0

Running total: £37.34

9. Cake!

A cake smash requires cake!

We bought ours from Tesco but you if you fancy yourself as a baker you could save even more ££ and bake your own.

Cost: £15

Running total: £52.34

10. Camera

If you have a proper camera you are going to use make sure you’ve got all the settings adjusted so you are ready to shoot. Otherwise if you are using your phone camera like me it’s really just a case of point and shoot.

I took all the photos on my iPhone 11 and flicked between video, portrait mode and normal photo (with live capture turned on).

Cost: £0

Running total: £52.34

11. Timing

Your baby probably won’t be too interested in participating if you plop them in front of a cake just before they are due for their nap. Pick a time that you know they will be happy, content, and not overly hungry, tired or overstimulated! The added benefit of doing it at home means you can be pretty flexible about this. Once you have your backdrop set up it’s just about picking your perfect moment.

12. Photo Edits

When the cake smash is over and you’ve cleaned up the mess, I’m sure you are going to be buzzing to share your photos with family and friends. Before you click send however have a look and see if you can make any tweaks to enhance the look of your photos and make them look even better.

I used Lightroom to edit my photos with a preset pack I had previously purchased from Haylsa & Kyle. If you find doing manual edits of photos too time consuming these presets are a great low cost option.

Use the slider below to see the before and after edits

• Lightroom app: Free version
• Presets: Preowned

Cost: £0

Running total: £52.34

13. Keepsakes

Thats it! Your photos are ready, it’s time to share them!

Don’t forget to get some prints to show off all your hard work. I used Snapfish to have two of my favourite shots printed on coasters. I absolutely love them!

• Snapfish coasters x 2: £5 (Snapfish had a 50% off sale plus free delivery when I ordered so keep an eye out for other deals!)

Cost: £5

Total Cost: £57.34

So there you have it! A DIY cake smash photo shoot AND a physical keepsake all for under £60!

With the average professional shoot costing around £300 thats a saving of almost £243. An absolute bargain!

Will you be trying your own? Tag me on instagram if you do, I’d love to see the results.

Thanks for reading!

Jess x

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