A restaurant photo shoot brief and shot list

Start with where each picture will run

A photographer arrives at two o'clock, the light is lovely, and for four hours every dish on the menu gets its portrait. The gallery that comes back is beautiful. It is also missing most of what the team needs: no vertical frame for stories, no wide frame with room for a headline across the website, no photo of the dining room with guests in it for the Business Profile, and nothing of the entrance, which is the picture a guest looks for while standing on the sidewalk wondering if this is the place.

What tends to happen is that a shoot gets planned around the food and then used everywhere. The fix is to reverse the order. List where pictures will run, then decide what to shoot for each place.

What goes on the shot list?

Build it in five groups, one for each job the pictures have to do.

• The dishes you will advertise. Not the whole menu. A handful that carry the campaign, plus one picture of a table sharing a meal, shot at the table in the room's own light. Skip anything about to leave the menu.
• The room in service. The dining room at the hour it earns its living, with guests in it. An empty room at 3 p.m. says something different from a full one at 7:30 on a Friday.
• The people. The kitchen at work, the bar, the host stand. Guests and staff who are recognizable need to have agreed to it.
• The details a guest notices. The menu in a hand, the pour, the dessert arriving. These are the pictures that make the others feel real.
• The way in. The entrance, the sign, the view from the street. Guests use it to confirm they have the right door.

Here is a made-up brief. Say a 60-seat room is launching a fall menu and plans ads, the website, the Business Profile and a month of social posts. The list might read: six dishes, each in a vertical and a wide frame; four room frames from a busy Friday service; two bar frames; one kitchen sequence; one entrance at dusk. That is a list a photographer can plan a day around, and every line has a place to run.

How do you frame for each channel?

Frame for where the picture will run, because cropping afterward usually costs you the best part of the image.

• Stories and reels: vertical, with the subject away from the edges where the app puts its own buttons.
• The feed: a portrait or square frame.
• The website and ads: wide, with empty space on one side where a headline or an offer can sit.
• The Business Profile: the room, the food and the entrance as a guest would actually see them, not only the most polished frames.

Check each placement's current size requirements before shoot day, since they change. And ask for short vertical clips of the same moments, such as a pour or a plate arriving, shot in the same session.

What should be settled before shoot day?

Most of the disputes after a shoot trace back to something nobody said in advance.

• Which service, and which dishes. Shoot what will still be on the menu when the campaign runs.
• Who will be in frame. Staff and guests who can be recognized need to agree, and the host stand needs to know the shoot is happening.
• Usage. Agree in writing where the images can run, for how long, who can edit them, and whether you can pass them to another agency. We are not lawyers, so have whoever reviews your contracts read this part.
• Delivery. Ask for files named by location and by use, in a folder structure the team can navigate without asking anyone. Pictures that can't be found don't get used.

How do you shoot a group without shooting every location twice?

Split the list in two. The dishes belong to the brand, so shoot them once and use them everywhere that serves them. The room, the people and the entrance belong to the location, so each location needs its own, even if it is a shorter session.

The temptation is to use one location's room photos on every page. A guest who arrives somewhere that looks nothing like the picture notices at the door. It also confuses the location pages in our local search audit, which should show the actual room.

How do you know the shoot worked?

Tag every image by its intended use when it is delivered. A month or two later, check which were used and where, and put the strongest candidates against each other in a simple test, one change at a time. Read the results by what guests paid, not by reactions, for the reasons in how to tell which restaurant ad actually sells meals. Then put what you learned into the brief for the next shoot.

Where restauWant comes in

Our Studio shoots restaurants this way: food, rooms and people, framed for the places the pictures will run. The restauWant app's advertising view reads results down to the individual creative, with estimates kept separate from the checks traced to the ad, so the next brief starts from what guests paid for.

Next step: Fill in the brief for your next shoot and share it with the photographer before the day is booked.

Photo shoot brief

1. List where each picture will run before you list what to shoot: website, ads, Business Profile, social, in-venue.
2. Pick the dishes you will advertise, and leave out anything about to leave the menu.
3. Shoot the room at the hour it earns its living, with guests in it.
4. Add the details and the way in: the pour, the menu in a hand, the entrance and the sign.
5. Ask for each key frame in vertical, portrait or square, and wide, with space for a headline on the wide ones.
6. Confirm who will be in frame and that they have agreed.
7. Agree usage in writing: where, how long, who can edit, and whether another agency can use the files.
8. Split the list: dishes shot once for the brand, room, people and entrance shot for each location.
9. Name the files by location and use, and tag each image when it arrives.
10. Review after a month or two by what guests paid, and put the result in the next brief.

How many photos should one shoot deliver?

Count the placements, not the pictures. Each place the images will run (the website, the Business Profile, ads, social, the room) needs enough variety that nothing is shown on repeat. Planning by use will tell you the number better than a target will.

Should we shoot during service or before opening?

Both can work. Dishes can be shot before service at a table in the room's light. The room itself is best shot during service, with guests, at the hours it earns its living. Let guests and staff know, and get agreement from anyone who can be recognized.

Who owns the photos?

It depends on the agreement, which is why it belongs in writing before the shoot. Cover where the images can run, for how long, who can edit them and whether another agency can use them. We are not lawyers, so have whoever reviews your contracts look at the terms.

Do we need video as well?

Short vertical clips of the same moments (a pour, a plate arriving) are useful for stories and reels, and they are easiest to capture in the same session. Decide when you plan the placements.

Does every location need its own shoot?

Not for the dishes, which belong to the brand. The room, the people and the entrance should be shot for each location, even in a shorter session, so the pictures match what a guest finds on arrival.

How do we know which photos worked?

Compare the images by what guests paid after seeing them, not by likes. A simple test with one change at a time, run long enough to tell the two apart, will show you which pictures to repeat.