Los Angeles Food Photographer

Menus, dishes and dining rooms — photographed for Los Angeles restaurants and food brands for twenty years.

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I’ve been photographing food in Los Angeles for twenty years, in kitchens of every size — from a national chain’s controlled set to a hot afternoon shooting shaved ice on the street. I bring the lighting, work fast enough to keep a service running, and shoot stills and vertical video in the same visit.

From the blog: Tel Aviv Grill and Cha Cha Cha, two recent Los Angeles shoots.

Los Angeles food photography.
Restaurants, menus and reels.

Food photography and restaurant video for restaurants, cafes and food brands in Los Angeles. Flat rates from $495 with unlimited images, delivered in three business days.

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A person pouring caramel sauce from a white pitcher onto a layered chocolate and vanilla cake decorated with white chocolate shards, with mango pieces and dollops of cream on a white plate.
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Close-up view of a bowl of risotto with seared scallops, an egg yolk, pickled onions, microgreens, and sprinkled herbs and seeds.
Two steamed Chinese pork buns, one whole and one cut in half to reveal the meat filling, on a rectangular black and brown plate. A small dish of soy sauce with sesame seeds and chopped chilies, with a pair of chopsticks on a wooden table.
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Serving Los Angeles

I come to your kitchen.

On location in Los Angeles. I bring a full lighting setup to your restaurant, so there is nothing for you to move and no studio to book.

Photos and video, one visit. Still photos for menus and websites plus short vertical reels, captured on the same shoot day.

Unlimited images. Flat rates from $495 include every usable image from the shoot, delivered in three business days.

Hungry for better photos?

Tell me how many dishes and when you need them. I will come back with a straight number within one business day.

Get a quote

 

Food photography in Los Angeles

I'm Alan De Herrera, and I've been photographing food in Los Angeles for twenty years, in kitchens of every size. Clients here include Universal Studios, Chili's, Zankou Chicken, Holiday Burger, La Nena Cantina, Perse, Habibi's, Knafeh Cafe, Horchateria, Navis Bakery, Buena Vista Foods, SnoCorner and Happy Ice.

That range is the point. A controlled shoot for a national chain and a hot afternoon shooting shaved ice on the street are not the same job, and Los Angeles asks for both in the same week.

Recent Los Angeles restaurant shoots

Some of my recent Los Angeles work is written up on the blog: a moody restaurant video and stills for Azabu, rooftop food and cocktails at Cha Cha Cha, and a full Mediterranean menu for Tel Aviv Grill.

I work as a food photographer and a food videographer in Los Angeles, so one visit can cover your menu, your room and your social video. See restaurant photography, restaurant video production and delivery app photos for how each part works.

What I shoot here

Menus, rooms, delivery apps and video

Most LA shoots are a mix: tight menu images that have to sell a dish in a two-inch tile on an ordering app, lifestyle frames that put the room and the people back in the picture, and vertical video cut from the same visit for Instagram and TikTok.

The practical constraint here is traffic and service windows. I arrive early, build one lighting set-up that will carry the whole menu, and work around your service rather than through it — so the shoot doesn't cost you a lunch.

  • We agree a shot list before the date, grouped by where the images are going — menu, website, ordering app, social. On the day I build one lighting set-up that carries the whole list, so the last dish looks like the first, and you watch every frame full size on a tethered monitor next to me. Anything you don't like gets fixed while the food is still in front of us.

    A full day is thirty to forty-five dishes plus room and detail shots; a half day is fifteen to twenty. We work around service, so closing is almost never necessary.

Indian restaurant owner in turban smiling in front of neon sign - restaurant lifestyle portrait photography

Lifestyle, lit rather than found

Booking

Rates, turnaround and coverage

Flat rates start at $495 and include unlimited images from the shoot — no per-image fees, no licensing tiers. Hourly is available for smaller jobs. Photos are delivered within three business days, fully edited.

I shoot across Los Angeles County — Downtown, Hollywood, West Hollywood, Silver Lake, Koreatown, Santa Monica, Culver City, Pasadena, Glendale, Burbank, the San Fernando Valley and the South Bay — and I'm regularly in Orange County, San Diego and Riverside.

Send me your menu and roughly when you need the images, and I'll come back with a straight number.

— Alan De Herrera, Plate to Pixel

What I shoot in Los Angeles

Restaurant photography · Food photography · Delivery app and menu photos · Restaurant video and reels · Beverage and cocktails · Pastry and desserts · Commercial and product photography · Chef portraits · Pricing

Los Angeles food photography questions

  • My flat rates start at $495 and include unlimited images from the shoot, editing and delivery within three business days. Hourly is available for smaller jobs. The number moves with how many dishes you need, whether we add video, and whether any dish needs a food stylist.

    No per-image fees and no licensing tiers — the images are yours for anything, forever.

  • Yes. Nearly all of my work happens on location, in your kitchen and dining room, because the food is freshest where it's cooked and your room gives the lifestyle shots somewhere real to live. I bring all the lighting, so a windowless corner works as well as a bright patio.

  • Thirty to forty-five on a full day, plus room and detail shots. Fifteen to twenty on a half day. The limiting factor is usually how fast the kitchen can plate, not the camera, which is why we agree a shot list in advance.

  • Sometimes. Ice cream, melting cheese, foam and any hero item that has to hold for hours really benefit from one. For most plated restaurant menus your own kitchen team can plate for camera with me directing, and you save the cost.

    I'll tell you honestly which of your dishes need one before we book, and styling is quoted separately so you're never paying for it by default.

  • Yes, usually in the same visit. Vertical reels for Instagram and TikTok, hero footage for your website, and full restaurant video production when you want something with a story. The lights are already up and the food is already styled, which makes it the cheapest video you'll ever buy.

  • Almost never. I work around service, usually setting up between lunch and dinner or in a corner of the dining room. If a specific shot needs the room empty we schedule that part around your quietest hour.

  • Within three business days of the shoot, fully edited, in web-ready and full-resolution versions. Where you need images clipped to white for delivery apps or print, those come with a real shadow under the food rather than a floating cut-out.

  • Yes — and on your menu, website, social, paid ads, print and packaging. I shoot delivery-app images to the crops and sizes each platform asks for, named so your manager can drop them straight into the merchant portal.

  • All of Los Angeles County. Downtown, Hollywood, West Hollywood, Silver Lake, Koreatown, Santa Monica, Culver City, Pasadena, Glendale, Burbank, the San Fernando Valley and the South Bay are all routine bookings. Orange County, San Diego and Riverside are on the calendar most weeks too.