Cookbook Photographer
Cookbook photography and food styling from a photographer with 18 published cookbooks. Full shoots from concept to delivery, in studio or on location.
By the book.
Cookbook photography.
Nineteen published books so far: eighteen cookbooks and one wine and travel title. I photograph complete books for authors, chefs and publishers, from the cover to every recipe.
Cookbooks & publishing
From cover to every recipe.
A consistent look. Every recipe shot with the same style, light and mood, so the whole book feels like one story.
Styled for the page. Food, props and backgrounds chosen to fit your book design, with space for type where you need it.
Experience that shows. Twenty years of photographing food and nineteen published books with authors, chefs and publishers.
Love at first page.
A cookbook sells on its photos. Beautiful, honest images make readers want to cook every recipe.
Cookbook photography
I'm Alan De Herrera, a cookbook photographer with 18 published cookbooks, and cookbooks are where I learned to shoot a lot of dishes to one standard, on a schedule, with someone else's art direction sitting on my shoulder. The published list is below — Jack Daniel's, Terranea Resort, San Antonio Winery, Brightline Eating and a long run of independent titles.
A cookbook is essentially a menu shoot that lasts weeks. That changes almost everything about how the job is run.
How a cookbook shoot runs
Consistency is the whole job
On a menu shoot you hold a look for a day. On a cookbook you hold it across dozens of sessions, often months apart, so that page ninety looks like it belongs to the same book as page four. That means measured colour, recorded lighting set-ups, and a prop and surface library that stays available for the whole project.
It also means shooting to a designed page rather than to a nice frame. If a recipe opener is a full bleed with type across the top third, I shoot for that space. If the book uses step images, those get their own pass with the hands and the pans in frame.
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Cookbook work is the one place where a food stylist is almost always worth it. Recipes have to be cooked as written, repeatedly, and held long enough to be lit properly — and the finished plate has to match what a reader will actually produce at home. Recipe testing and development can run alongside the shoot when a project needs it.
Art direction, set design and prop sourcing are all part of the conversation before the first session. So is the shot list: how many recipes, how many openers, how many step sequences, and how many sessions it will take. Getting that document right is the difference between a project that lands on schedule and one that drifts.
Publishers and self-publishing
Either works
With a publisher, I work to the designer's layout and the editor's schedule, deliver in the colour space and resolution the printer needs, and keep a version history so a late swap doesn't break the book.
Self-publishing is a different conversation. There's usually no art director, which means I'm doing more of that job, and the budget has to cover a realistic number of sessions rather than an optimistic one. I'll be straight with you about how many days a book of that length actually takes.
Published titles
Booking
Getting a number
Cookbooks are quoted per project rather than per day, against the recipe count, the number of openers and step sequences, and how much styling and prop work the book needs. Send me the manuscript or the recipe list and roughly when the book has to be at the printer.
I'm based in Orange County and shoot across Los Angeles, San Diego and Riverside, and I travel for book projects.
— Alan De Herrera, Plate to Pixel
Cookbook photography questions
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It's quoted per project rather than per day, because a book isn't a shoot — it's a series of them. The number moves with the recipe count, how many full-page openers and step sequences the design calls for, and how much food styling and prop work the book needs.
Send me the recipe list and the page count and I'll come back with a realistic number of sessions and a price.
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For a typical hundred-recipe book, think in terms of six to twelve shooting days spread over weeks, not a single week of heroics. Recipes have to be cooked as written and the kitchen can only produce so many finished dishes in a day.
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Almost always, yes — this is the one kind of project where I'd argue for it rather than talk you out of it. Recipes have to be cooked to the written method, repeated, and held long enough to light properly, and the finished plate has to look like something a reader could actually produce.
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Both. With a publisher I work to the designer's layout and the editor's schedule and deliver in the colour space and resolution the printer needs. Self-published authors usually need more art direction from me, and a budget built around a realistic number of sessions.
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Yes, and it's much better if you have one. If a recipe opener is a full bleed with type across the top third, I frame for that space rather than cropping into a finished image later. Send me the grid or a sample spread before we start.
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Measured colour rather than eyeballed, lighting set-ups recorded so they can be rebuilt weeks later, and a prop and surface library held for the duration of the project. Page ninety has to look like it belongs to the same book as page four, and that only happens if it's designed in from the start.
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It can run alongside the shoot when a project needs it. It's quoted separately, like styling, so it's only on the bill if you're using it.
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Usage is agreed up front, per project, and written into the quote so there are no surprises when the publisher asks about territories or a second edition. There are no per-image fees and no renewal charges on the work.
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Yes. I'm based in Orange County and shoot across Southern California, and I've worked internationally for years. Book projects are exactly the kind of work worth getting on a plane for.
Cookbook projects
Published
Moorish Fusion Cuisine - 2011
The Ruby - 2012
Salsas - 2017
The Gold Edition - 2014
Nabati - Vegetarian Vegan -2012
Homegrown Herbs - 2015
Pomegranates & Saffron - 2014
West Coast Prime Meats - Cooks - 2015
Smart Mexican Food Diet - 2015
Farm to Table Desserts - 2017
Sweet Without Sugar - 2017
Whole Pregnancy Book - 2018
Jack Daniel's "Black Book" - 2017
The Tequila Diet (cocktails) - 2022
Terranea Resort - 2019
Brightline Eating - 2019
San Antonio Winery - 2022
A World of Tiramisu - 2026, Italy
Wine & Travel Latin America - 2026
Explore more.
