Food and Drink Photography UK

Real food, cooked by your kitchen

Food photography for a restaurant or café works best when your own chef plates the dishes exactly as customers receive them. We set up in a quiet corner of your dining room or near a window, the kitchen sends dishes out one at a time, and each is photographed within a few minutes while it still looks fresh. Hot food loses its shine quickly, salad wilts under lights and ice cream will not wait, so the running order matters.

It also helps to have the chef or a senior cook free for the session. They know how each dish should look, can fix a sauce that has split or a garnish that has slipped, and can tell us which dishes are best sellers and deserve the most attention.

We plan the order with you beforehand: cold dishes and desserts that hold well first or last, hot mains timed with the pass, and drinks whenever the bar is free. Most venues book a shoot in the morning before service, or on a closed day, so the kitchen is not split between customers and camera.

Honest portions and the advertising rules

Food images are advertising, and the Advertising Standards Authority treats them that way. The ASA's guidance is that images which give an inaccurate impression of the product, for example by showing the wrong item, adding extras or exaggerating quality or size, are likely to mislead. It upheld a complaint against Birds Eye for a TV ad in which the portions on screen were larger than the ready meals in the packet.

So we photograph the portion you actually serve, with the garnish you actually use. Props and side dishes that are not included should be obvious or clearly marked, which is why packaging often carries the words "serving suggestion". For food brands, this matters even more on packaging, where the image sits right next to the product it describes.

Angles, light and styling

Different dishes suit different angles:

• Overhead (flat lay): pizzas, bowls, sharing platters, breakfasts and anything best understood from above.
• 45 degrees: the way a diner sees a plate. Good for mains, salads and most plated dishes.
• Straight on: burgers, stacked cakes, sandwiches and drinks, where height and layers are the point.

Soft side light from a window or a diffused lamp shows texture without harsh shadows. We bring lighting to control it when daylight is poor. Styling is simple: clean plates, a few props in your venue's own style, and a drop of oil or water where it helps. Nothing is inedible or faked, because the food on the plate is what customers will get.

One shoot, many uses

Plan every use before the day. A printed menu may need cut-out dishes or wide images with space for text. Delivery apps each publish their own image size and crop rules, so we export to the specification your partner account asks for. Instagram posts work best as 4:5 portrait, stories and Reels as 9:16 vertical, and website banners as wide landscape. Shooting each hero dish both ways covers all of them.

Food and drink brands usually also need packshots: the product on pure white for retailer and wholesaler listings, and in-context images for their own site and social posts. Those are priced like product photography, from £25 + VAT per image.

Booking a food shoot

A half day from £295 + VAT suits a focused set of hero dishes and a few venue shots. A full new menu, drinks list and atmosphere shots usually needs a full day from £495 + VAT. Outside Mansfield and Nottinghamshire, travel is included in the fixed quote. Send us your menu with the dishes you want, highlighted, and where the images will be used. For hospitality branding, menus and signage together, see design for restaurants and cafés, or ask for a quote.

What you get

• Edited JPEGs of each dish, in sRGB
• Square and landscape crops for delivery apps and websites
• 4:5 portrait and 9:16 vertical crops for Instagram and stories
• High-resolution files for printed menus and posters
• White-background shots of packaged products for retailers
• Atmosphere shots of your venue, bar and team at work

How it works and what it costs

Logos from £150, brochures from £295, photography from £295 a half day and CAD at £45 an hour, all + VAT. You get a fixed price before we start.

1. Tell us the brief

   What it is for, who will see it, where it will be used and any examples you like. Rough is fine.

2. Fixed price

   We confirm the price and what you get, in writing, before any work starts.

3. First designs

   We design, shoot or model it and share the first version for your comments.

4. Refine

   We make the changes, check every detail, and prepare the files properly for print, web or manufacture.

5. Final files

   You get the finished files in the formats you need, ready for your printer, website, social channels or manufacturer.

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