How Restaurant Owners Should Prepare Before a Food Photography Session

Summary

John lays out how restaurant and bar owners should prepare for a food photography session. His number one request is simple: have the door unlocked and be there at the scheduled time. He notes he has shown up on a restaurant’s closed day, which is often when these sessions happen, only to find the door locked and no one around, which is frustrating. His second piece of advice is to have a clear idea of exactly what you want photographed, focusing on your best items, your highest-ticket dishes, and the things you make the most profit on, and to have that food ready. If something cannot be prepared in advance because it melts or spoils quickly, he works around it on the schedule. In short, show up and have at least a rough plan, and the shoot goes smoothly.

Answer

How should bars or restaurants prepare when a photographer or videographer like me is coming in to do a session? The number one thing is have the door unlocked when the session is scheduled. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve gone to a place on their closed day to do the session, because that’s a lot of times when we do them, and the door is locked and nobody’s there. That’s pretty aggravating. So be there. Number two, have a general idea of exactly what it is you want photographed or videoed. Pick your best stuff, your highest-ticket items, the things you make the most profit on, and have some of that ready. If there’s anything that can’t be prepared in advance because it melts or goes bad real quick, then obviously we keep that in mind and work around the schedule. But ultimately the number one thing is be there, that would really be appreciated, and two, have at least some sort of rough plan on exactly what you want to cover, and then that makes my life a lot easier.