Food photography portfolio examples

Ideas

Food photography portfolio ideas worth stealing

Seven things that separate a food portfolio that books work from one that just looks nice.

• 1

  Show fewer pieces than you want to

  Every extra frame lowers the average. A buyer forms a judgement inside the first six images and spends the rest of the visit confirming it.

• 2

  Lead with one strong image, not a menu

  A full-bleed opener asks nothing of the visitor. A grid of thumbnails asks them to choose before they know what they are choosing between.

• 3

  Put contact one click from everywhere

  Contact belongs in the top-level navigation and again at the foot of every gallery. Nobody scrolls back up to hire you.

• 4

  Own the domain

  A custom domain carrying your own name is the one asset no platform can take back. Point it at whatever you build on.

• 5

  Split the navigation by who hires you

  Editorial, brands, restaurants. An art buyer and a restaurant owner are looking for different proof, and one navigation that tries to serve both serves neither.

• 6

  Put commissioned work ahead of personal recipe shoots

  Anyone can style their own plate. Shooting to someone else's product, brief and deadline is the harder sell, and it is the one that gets you booked again.

• 7

  Show sets, not singles

  Food work is judged on whether the light and the colour hold across twelve frames, not on one perfect plate. One lighting story per gallery.