Is your brand leaking dollars on imagery? Good photography is essential for food brands. The eyes eat first. But let’s look at an easy way to stretch your marketing budget for images.
Cook once, shoot thrice (or more)
As a food photographer, my job is to cook or bake the food, style it, shoot it, and provide you with some awesome media assets. You as the brand are charged for ingredients, grocery store runs, and cooking/baking/styling/propping time before your product ever arrives under my lens. If we did a little planning together, we could accomplish more in one shooting session than in several separate shoots over time.
Let’s look at an example, using the chocolate cake recipe from my cookbook. I made a batch of cupcakes from the recipe one time. I frosted them all in white frosting, then shot them in different settings.
Evergreen vs. seasonal
I’m starting with an evergreen image, meaning you can use it any time of year. Probably even more than once! So here’s a scrummy cupcake decorated with chopped hazelnuts, and drizzled with salted caramel sauce.
Maybe you’d use a shot like this in autumn/winter, or when you want a cozy vibe. But let’s switch up the scene a bit.
Whoa. That’s a big difference! Now, we’re in spring/summer. Maybe this is a Mother’s Day shot, or tea time, or whatever.
Cool. We have all four seasons covered in just TWO sets. Wouldn’t it be great if we could work in a few holiday shots?
Boom. Different props and background, and suddenly ho ho ho and fa la la! Let’s switch it again!
Hey now. We’ve got a flirty little cupcake here, and it’s Valentine’s Day.
So now we have four images, all done with the same batch of cupcakes. Remember, I baked and frosted one time. If this had been client work, I would have given them a bit of a price break because my time to produce all these images was less – one trip to the grocery store, one set of ingredients, one session in the kitchen.
A little secret…
You might wonder how I’m able to do the seasonal stuff all at one time. Here’s a secret: food photographers have a repertoire of food props that they keep all year round. I have candy canes, sprinkles of many colors, conversation hearts, and even cranberries in the freezer for Thanksgiving shots!
With good planning and communication, your food photographer can be a valuable member of your marketing team, and even help you stretch your marketing budget.
Need my help? Reach out to me here.