Culinary photography
A menu or cookbook only sells when the photos make your mouth water. Culinary photography captures dishes, their context and the atmosphere of a kitchen in such a way that a reader or guest immediately wants to taste them. District 10 makes this work for restaurants, publishers and culinary magazines, with the same precision with which we also photograph for major food brands.
Show off your kitchen with culinary photography that fits
Culinary photography is more than a pretty plate
Culinary photography is as much about the story behind the dish as it is about the dish itself. A cookbook should exude a style that is consistent from start to finish, a menu should characterize the kitchen of a restaurant at a glance. This requires more than a sharp photo: the styling, the props, the light and the composition together have to tell a story that fits the kitchen or the book. Does the story go beyond the plate, for example the atmosphere of the business or the people who work there? Then we are happy to combine this with our lifestyle photography.
From cookbook to menu
We tackle each assignment at the rhythm that the project requires. With a cookbook, we maintain a consistent style over sometimes a hundred recipes, spread over several shoot days, always maintaining the same lighting and composition line so that the book looks like a whole. With a menu or magazine, we often work with a smaller number of dishes, but we pay just as much attention to each photo: that dish should represent the entire kitchen in one image. Timing plays a major role in both cases. A dish only has a small window in which it looks its best, so we coordinate the planning with the kitchen so that every dish is fresh in front of the lens. Restaurants are increasingly using the same dishes on social media, something we pick up through our social media photography. For larger, long-term projects such as a cookbook, we deploy a permanent team that monitors planning and consistency from the first to the last recipe.
IN BETWEEN THE CLICKS
OUR
WORKFLOW
Precise
Execution
With years of experience in packaging photography and post-production, we know how to get every detail just right. From lighting to retouching, we make sure your packaging looks exactly as intended.
Fast
Turn-around
We work efficiently to deliver high-quality images on time, even on short notice. Our flexible team can scale up when needed, ensuring a smooth process without compromising on quality.
Project
Management
For every project, big or small, we create a clear overview of all deliverables and track the process from start to finish. We keep you updated and can also coordinate directly with suppliers to make sure everything runs smoothly.
In the studio or in the kitchen
Some dishes are best photographed in our own studio, where we can fully control light and background. Other dishes belong in the kitchen where they are created, with the stove, the tiles and the atmosphere of the place itself in the background. We determine what works best for each project, and where necessary we will join you at your location. If it's mainly about brand-oriented food photography, apart from a restaurant or cookbook, our food photographer is a better match.
This is how we tackle a culinary project
A project starts with a conversation about the style: rustic and warm, or sleek and modern. With a cookbook, we often first put together a mood board, so that author and publisher can see early on which direction we are going. Then we plan the shoot days, photographing a number of dishes per day as soon as they are at their best. After the shoot, the post-processing follows, in which we sharpen color and detail until every dish convinces.
BRANDS & CLIENTS
We are proud to have completed several impressive projects for our trusted clients
