How much does food photography cost?

Professional food photography can vary in price depending on the photographer’s experience, the time it will take to complete the shoot, equipment needed for the assignment, and the complexity of the assignment, and how many items are there to be photographed. During a photo shoot, problems come up that need to be taken care of on location. An inexperienced photographer  may not have all the knowledge to execute the assignment in a professional and timely manner. 

Shoot Time 

There are lots of variables that affect the price of food photography. The number of dishes/products, the type of food, the number of images and the set requirements shooting surfaces, backgrounds, props, set size, lighting requirements, crew size, location) etc.

Generally, the more complex, the longer it takes and therefore the more it costs.

Postproduction Time

Another charge that must be factored   into the cost of the assignment is the postproduction & editing time which is an  additional time the photographer spends. This entails looking through each image, and  picking the best ones, this includes  white balance, color correcting, correcting the exposure of an image, correcting highlights, and other technical aspect of the image that  may need retouching; for example,  retouching imperfections, cropping an image to specification, color profiling, and exporting media to client. This can take from a few minutes per image to a few hours depending on the requirements of each assignment.

Food Styling 

A Food Stylist can make a major impact on set, their job is to add life to each food item and bring the dishes character out by properly position and addingprops to the photoshoot. A food stylist implements each food item on the menu to look as realistic as possible. Food looks  different in a picture, and it needs to be prepared differently to how you would normally cook it. For example, when photographing Chicken, it’s important to make sure the meat is not fully cooked because it will continue to cook after it’s pulled off the pan. When a food stylist works their magic, they can make small adjustment to the dish and get it corrected for camera.