Food & Drink

Beverage and food photography can be commissioned more efficiently and costs minimised if the following aspects of the shoot are considered well in advance. Shooting food can be an eye opener for clients who are new to this and good planning is the key to a successful shoot day:

• Props – all props required should be sourced in time for the shoot and where possible some spares included in case defects are detected or breakages occur. I have lots of items in the studio but it is a mistake to assume this will include everything you want to use on the day so we need to have a clear understanding of what I will provide and what you need to bring.
• Styling – In some cases the client and photographer will be able to present the food as required for photography but in the case of more complex dishes a food stylist may be needed. If there are a number of dishes to be shot the addition of a professional stylist can speed the process up considerably and enable more shots to be accomplished in a single session. I recommend Sally Dunne�?based on previous work we have done together, I am also happy to liaise with Sally if you are booking a shoot. Naturally the choice of stylist is the client’s decision.
• Kitchen Facilities – I have a large kitchen beside my studio with plenty of room for a team to work and a good range of equipment, including a deep fat fryer for which you will need to supply oil because it is stored empty. If you require any specialist equipment we need to discuss this in advance.
• Set Building – If the brief requires a set build this needs to be considered well in advance of the shoot day in order to get all the materials and have any advance work completed.
• Studio or Location – I can shoot food wherever the commission requires, the studio is usually faster to set up and of course avoids travelling costs but this is a choice we can discuss if you want to arrange a food or beverage shoot.
• Bottles – I have shot a lot of bottles in my 30+ year career, over this time I have seen a lot of time wasted fixing defective bottles to enable them to be photographed. This had included damaged labels, uneven fill levels and ‘use by’ date stamps in very inconvenient locations. My best advice here is that the better the condition of the bottles the faster (and cheaper) we will get your shots!