Client Brief Template for Restaurant Photo Shoots

What a restaurant photo brief must contain

A brief is not a mood board. It is a short working document that a photographer, a prep cook and a marketing manager can all read and act on. Keep it to two or three pages and write it in plain language, because the people plating the food may not be the people approving the images.

Start with the business objective. A brief that says 'better photos' produces vague results. A brief that says 'replace the twelve delivery-app images for the lunch menu before the new printed menu goes to press' gives everyone a finish line. Different channels demand different crops and different levels of polish, so name the primary channel first and treat the others as secondary.

• Primary channel and secondary channels (delivery app, website menu, Google Business Profile, Instagram, printed menu, QR menu)
• The one metric that tells you the shoot worked, such as fewer menu questions at the counter or a cleaner website menu page
• Launch date and the date final files must be delivered, working backward from print deadlines
• Decision maker: one named person with final approval
• Menu scope: exact dish names, not categories

Document the food rules that must never be broken

The most useful part of any restaurant brief is the list of what cannot change. Diners compare the photo to the plate in front of them, and a mismatch costs trust. Write down the non-negotiables for each dish: the number of pieces, the garnish, the sauce on the side, the bread that comes with it.

If retouching or AI-assisted editing is part of the workflow, state the boundary in the brief. Light, background and crop can be improved. Ingredients, portion size and plating cannot be invented or rearranged. A brief that says this plainly protects the restaurant from publishing a photo of a dish it does not actually serve.

• Do not add, remove or substitute ingredients
• Do not change portion size or the number of items on the plate
• Keep plating and garnish realistic and repeatable on a busy service
• Approved backgrounds and surfaces, for example a specific wood board or the restaurant's own tabletop
• Brand mood and lighting direction: bright and clean, warm and moody, or neutral for delivery apps
• Any dishes that must not be photographed, such as seasonal items about to leave the menu

Build the shot list dish by dish

A shot list turns the brief into a schedule. For each dish, note the angle, the surface, the props and whether a hand or a pour is involved. A 45-degree angle suits most plated main courses because it shows both the surface and the height. A straight-on 90-degree view works for burgers and layered desserts where the cross-section is the story. An overhead 0-degree shot suits flat dishes, pizza and table spreads.

Decide the aspect ratios before the shoot, not after. A 1:1 square is safe for most social grids and menu tiles. A 16:9 horizontal suits website banners and some delivery-app headers. A 4:5 vertical fills more of a phone screen on Instagram. Shooting slightly wider than needed gives room to crop later without cutting into the plate.

Add practical notes that change from city to city and dish to dish. A pho or ramen shoot needs steam and a dark broth contrast, so plan a dark surface and shoot within seconds of the bowl being filled. An ice cream or salad shoot needs cold plates and a chilled room. A seafood shoot in a hot climate may need the whole session moved to the morning.

• Dish name, angle in degrees, surface, props and styling notes
• Required aspect ratios per channel (1:1, 4:5, 16:9)
• Number of frames per dish, including one safety frame
• Order of shooting so hot dishes are photographed last and cold dishes first
• Who plates each dish and who is available for a re-plate if a frame fails

Specify exports, file naming and delivery

Photo projects fail at the handoff more often than at the shoot. State the file formats, the sizes and the naming convention in the brief. A simple convention such as dish-name_channel_ratio_version keeps a folder of two hundred files usable without opening each one.

Be explicit about platform requirements. Some delivery platforms publish image guidelines and some do not publish pixel specs at all, so the brief should say that the person uploading will check the upload screen for the current requirements rather than guessing. Where a platform bans AI-generated images, the brief should state that the restaurant will shoot and upload its own real photographs there, and that any editing for those channels stays within what the platform allows.

Ask for a small set of final files per dish rather than every frame from the session. A hero image, a square crop, a vertical crop and a wide crop cover most needs.

• File formats: full-resolution master plus web-sized exports
• Aspect ratios and pixel dimensions per channel, confirmed on the upload screen
• Naming convention with dish, channel, ratio and version
• Delivery method and folder structure
• Which files are approved for public use and which are for internal review only

Set the approval process before the shoot day

Name the approver and the review steps. A common pattern is a contact sheet review within a day of the shoot, a single round of comments, then final exports. Two rounds of feedback is usually enough; more rounds mean the brief was unclear.

Include a short sign-off block at the end of the brief: objective confirmed, dish list confirmed, food rules confirmed, exports confirmed, approver named and dated. It takes two minutes to complete and prevents most late-stage disagreements.

For the restaurant's own channels, such as the website menu, Instagram, Google Business Profile, a QR menu or printed material, FoodPhoto can take a real photo of the restaurant's own dish and improve light, background and crop while keeping the food as it is, and every photo comes as a kit of sizes. It does not generate a different dish and cannot guarantee approval by any platform, so the brief should still name a human approver for every image.