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Media production

Food photography that matches what arrives at the table

The most expensive mistake in restaurant photography is a shot the kitchen cannot reproduce. It photographs beautifully, the customer orders it, what arrives looks different, and the review that follows costs more than the shoot did.

  • Reproducible what the kitchen plates
  • Platform specs Deliveroo, Talabat, menus
  • One day menu, delivery and social

Tell us what you need

A senior person reads this and replies within one working day. No call centre, no drip sequence.

Partners & recognition

The stack we work in, the clients we keep

The platforms we build and run campaigns in, and the clients whose numbers we publish with their names on. HubSpot is the one partnership we claim; the rest are tools we use, not badges.

  • German Medical Center
  • The Reformery Clinic
  • Alma Laser
  • Roxana Aesthetics Clinic
  • Lamel
  • Dotline Studios

The problem

A dish the kitchen cannot reproduce

Styled for two hours with tweezers, shot at an angle the plate never arrives at, with garnish that is not on the service version. The photograph is excellent and it is setting an expectation the kitchen will fail every time.

Where restaurant shoots go wrong

  1. The chef was not in the room

    A stylist plated it. The kitchen plates it differently, and now the menu photograph and the actual dish disagree. Having the chef plate on the day costs nothing and prevents it.

  2. Delivery platform specs were not checked

    Deliveroo, Talabat and Careem each have their own image requirements on crop, background and content. Shooting without them means recropping and, frequently, reshooting.

  3. Everything was shot the same way

    One angle, one light, forty dishes. A menu that looks consistent to the point of being monotonous, and no variation for social or campaigns from a day you already paid for.

  4. Nothing was shot vertically

    The entire shoot is landscape or square, and the restaurant's most active channel is Instagram Stories and Reels. Cropping in loses the plate.

What is included

What a food shoot covers here

Planned around where the images will be used, which is usually more places than the brief says.

Menu and in-house photography

Consistent across the range so a printed or digital menu reads as one restaurant. Shot to the plating the kitchen actually produces on service.

Delivery platform imagery

To the current specifications of the platforms you list on. Requirements on crop, background and what may appear differ between them and they change, so they get checked before the shoot.

Social and campaign imagery

Vertical, styled with more freedom, shot for atmosphere rather than for accuracy. The distinction from menu photography matters and both are worth having.

Ambience and venue

The room, the bar, the terrace, at the light it actually looks best in. Usually needs a separate time of day from the food.

Chef and team portraits

Increasingly what differentiates a restaurant's marketing, and quick to capture alongside a food day.

Process and behind the scenes

The kitchen working, prep, plating. Consistently the most engaging restaurant content on social and the most frequently forgotten in the brief.

Video from the same shoot

Short vertical clips of plating, pouring and finishing. The setup and food cost is already paid for, so adding capture is a fraction of a separate day.

Retouching to a consistent standard

Restrained, so the food still looks like food. Covered on our retouching page and applied consistently across the set.

Technology

What we shoot food with

Controlled light, and a workflow that keeps the kitchen involved.

Capture

Controlled and repeatable.

  • Studio and continuous lighting
  • Tethered capture for chef review
  • Macro and detail work
  • Vertical and landscape at every setup

On set

So it is reproducible.

  • Chef plating on the day
  • Service-standard portions
  • Real serviceware
  • Reference shots of the plated standard

Specification

Checked before the day.

  • Deliveroo, Talabat and Careem specs
  • Menu and print requirements
  • Website and social crops
  • Google Business Profile

Post

Restrained.

  • Colour accuracy to the real dish
  • Consistent retouching across the set
  • Platform-specific crops and sizes
  • Organised delivery by dish

How we work

How a food shoot runs

Check the specs, get the chef plating, shoot for every placement in one day.

All of them

Which dishes, for which uses: menu, delivery platforms, social, website. Each has different requirements and knowing them before the day is what makes one shoot cover everything.

  • Dish list agreed with the kitchen
  • Delivery platform specs confirmed current
  • Vertical and landscape needs identified
  • Shot order planned around kitchen service

Plating to service standard

The chef plates, not a stylist, at the portion the customer receives. Tethered so the chef can see and adjust, and a reference frame kept of the agreed standard.

  • Chef plates every dish
  • Service portions, not styled portions
  • Tethered review with the kitchen
  • Reference frames kept as the plating standard

In the same setup

Vertical and landscape at each dish, tight and wide, plus short video clips while the food is at its best. Food has a short window and planning is what makes the window count.

  • Both crops at every dish
  • Video captured alongside stills
  • Detail and hero framing per dish
  • Ambience shot at its best light

Per platform

Cropped and sized for each destination, named by dish so the team can find them, with the platform requirements already met.

  • Cropped per platform
  • Named by dish for easy retrieval
  • Platform specs verified before delivery
  • Reference plating frames included

Why us

Why these images will still be right in a year

Because they match what the kitchen actually does.

The chef plates every dish

At service portion, not styled by someone who will not be there at dinner. A photograph the kitchen cannot reproduce sets up a disappointment every time it is ordered.

Delivery platform specs checked first

Deliveroo, Talabat and Careem each have their own requirements and they change. Checking before the shoot avoids a recrop or a reshoot.

One day covers every placement

Menu, delivery, social and website, in both crops, plus video. The food and the setup are already paid for; not capturing everything is the waste.

Retouching stays restrained

The food still has to look like food. Over-retouched menu photography is obvious and it makes a customer trust the rest of the menu less.

Start a projectSend us your menu and tell us which delivery platforms you list on. We will come back with a shot plan and how many dishes a day realistically covers.

Industries

Proven results across sectors

Every number below is the count of case studies we have actually published in that sector, and the best result among them. Nothing is a counter.

Selected work

Production work we have shipped

Where this sits

The rest of media production

Food work sits with the rest of the photography and film practice.

Client stories

What clients say

On camera and in writing — swipe through the founders and teams we’ve helped design, build and grow.

In their words

★★★★★
GMC is thrilled to extend our heartfelt appreciation to Adnika! Collaborating with Ehsan and his team has consistently been an absolute delight. Ehsan's dedication and commitment have ensured that German Medical Center remains an exceedingly satisfied and happy client, especially regarding their Hubspot Onboarding, Digital Marketing, Website Development, Content Creation and Social Media Marketing. Adnika is indeed the Best Digital and Growth Marketing Agency in UAE!
German Medical CenterDubai, UAE
★★★★★
Adnika provided us with their Inbound Sales and Marketing solutions through Hubspot. They helped us generate more qualified leads for our sales team, drive website traffic, increase customer engagement, and grow our customer base. Adnika is a reliable partner that has always taken our specific goals and needs seriously.
Ómar Thor ÓmarssonCMO, Meniga
★★★★★
Adnika has helped us plan, implement and optimize ad campaigns on Facebook and Instagram. Adnika is truly committed to Performance Marketing. They provided us with a fantastic dashboard with detailed KPIs that helped us track the campaigns’ performance in real time. Adnika also gave us helpful and dedicated support during the whole project, and the campaigns turned out to be a great success. We highly recommend working with Adnika's growth experts.
Christer PihlqvistKapi Marketing
★★★★★
We really enjoyed working with Adnika’s team. Not only are they talented, but they all take the time to understand whom they're working with, what they're trying to accomplish, and how to help the business achieve its goals. The quality of work we've experienced has made a huge difference for us and helped drive new business.
Ola BringleMarketing Advertising
★★★★★
Adnika helped Sea Technology with setting up new digital channels, such as Google Search Ads, to attract more customers and leverage our brand. We are very satisfied with the results and we will continue with the implementation of lead generation, marketing automation, and performance marketing.
Bengt LundquistSeatech
★★★★★
Working with the Adnika team has been a real pleasure! Extremely friendly, Ehsan and Elin are always available with prompt replies, valuable insights, patience, a problem-solving attitude, and high knowledge. Super easy to work with them. I highly recommend the Adnika team to help your business!
Magnus BruhnPharmaceuticals
★★★★★
I am an artist, but I also manage a collective of DJs. In order to promote our services to our clients, we needed Inbound solutions that could attract the right traffic and promote the brand. Adnika built and designed our Inbound processes as well as create and manage campaigns on social media and Google Ads which helped us attract many more customers. I’m very happy!
Denise LopezXOXO Agency
★★★★★
We've been using Adnika growth marketing solutions only for a few months. They are highly professional, competent, experienced, and creative. Get ready to get to work with this agency. They will come alongside you as a business owner and feel your pain and joy! Get ready to transform your business.
Pierre-Alexande RauxTelecommunications

Questions

Food photography, answered plainly

Including how many dishes a day actually covers.

AED 4,500 to AED 25,000 covers most of what we are asked to build. The number moves on how many dishes, whether a stylist is needed, whether video and venue photography are included, and whether the shoot is in your kitchen or a studio. Anything quoted before those are known is a guess. We scope first, then price, and the scope document is yours whether or not you proceed. These are market ranges rather than a fixed rate card — the proposal carries the real figure.

Between fifteen and thirty for a straightforward menu shoot with the kitchen supporting, and considerably fewer if each dish needs individual styling or the kitchen is also running service. The constraint is almost always the kitchen's capacity to plate rather than the shooting.

At the restaurant, usually. The food is fresh, the chef is there to plate, and you get the venue and ambience images from the same day. A studio makes sense for packaged products or where the restaurant has no space to work.

Between services, usually mid-morning through early afternoon, so the kitchen can plate without competing with orders. Ambience shots often need a different time entirely — usually late afternoon or evening — so a full day may split.

For menu and delivery photography, generally no, and having the chef plate is better because it stays reproducible. For campaign and hero imagery where the standard is higher than service plating, a stylist earns their cost. It is worth deciding which you are shooting before the day.

Yes, to their current specifications. Each platform has its own requirements on crop, background and what may appear in the image, and they change periodically. We confirm the current specs before the shoot rather than after a rejection.

Yes, and it is good value. The food, the setup and the chef's time are already committed, so short vertical clips of plating and finishing cost a fraction of a separate day. It needs planning into the schedule because food has a short window at its best.

Yes, and it usually needs a different time of day from the food. Worth planning as part of the same booking rather than a second visit.

Different discipline and worth flagging. Drinks need different lighting, condensation and ice have very short windows, and glassware reflects everything in the room. We allow more time per drink than per dish.

Restrained. Colour corrected to match the real dish, distractions removed, and that is largely it. Heavily retouched food photography is recognisable and it undermines trust in the menu rather than building appetite.

You do, with full usage rights across menus, delivery platforms, social, print and paid. We will ask separately if we want to include anything in our own portfolio.

Yes, send them over. The two things worth checking are whether they meet your delivery platforms' current specifications and whether the plating matches what the kitchen actually sends out. Both are common problems and both are cheap to establish.

No questions match — try another search.

Next step

Which delivery platforms do you list on?

Send us that and your menu. We will come back with a shot plan, the current platform specs, and how many dishes a day realistically covers.

Get a quote