For this recent shoot in Phnom Penh, I created a series of food images for a Chinese New Year advertising campaign, alongside clean menu photography for the restaurant’s regular use.
The shoot required two distinct styles: rich red and gold campaign imagery designed to feel festive and eye-catching, and simple white-background photographs where the food remained the focus.
The main part of the shoot was designed specifically for the restaurant’s Chinese New Year promotion. We built the look around warm gold tones, deep reds and traditional details, creating a setting that could work across advertising, social media and other promotional material.
Each dish was photographed within the same visual style, giving the restaurant a consistent collection of images to use throughout the campaign.
Rather than simply photographing each dish as it arrived, the compositions were built with their final use in mind. Some images leave more space around the food for headlines, promotional text or graphic design, while others work as stronger standalone photographs.
This gives the restaurant more flexibility when using the photographs across different formats and marketing materials.
Alongside the campaign images, we also photographed selected dishes against a simple white background.
These photographs serve a different purpose. With no decorative styling competing for attention, customers can immediately see the dish itself, making them well suited to menus, ordering platforms and the restaurant’s website.
I also filmed part of the shoot and put together a short behind-the-scenes video showing how the images were created, including the set, lighting and some of the decisions made during the photography.
Good restaurant photography often needs to do more than simply make food look appealing. Advertising, menus, websites and social media can all require different types of images, even when they are being created during the same shoot.
Planning those uses beforehand means a single photography session can produce a much more versatile library of content.
I work with restaurants, hotels and hospitality businesses to create photography for menus, websites and advertising campaigns.
