Eight questions to ask a food photographer before you book

I've been on the answering end of these questions for years, and the clients who ask them are the ones the job goes smoothly for. None of them are rude. A professional expects all eight.

The eight questions

• ◆1. What exactly is included — how many finished, retouched images, and what does one more cost?
• ◆2. Where may I use the images? Menu and social are standard; paid ads and billboards are usually a bigger license.
• ◆3. Is retouching included, and how many revision rounds?
• ◆4. Who styles the food — you, my kitchen, or a stylist I'm paying for?
• ◆5. What's the turnaround for final images?
• ◆6. What happens if a dish photographs badly — is a partial reshoot covered?
• ◆7. What's the deposit, and what does cancellation cost if my chef falls ill?
• ◆8. Do I get the raw files? (Usually no — finished images are the product. A 'no' here is normal, not a red flag.)

Licensing: the one that actually bites

This is the gotcha that turns a fair €500 quote into a €1,200 argument. Photographers price by usage: an image licensed for your menu isn't automatically licensed for a paid Facebook campaign or a bus stop poster. Neither side is wrong — it just has to be said out loud. Decide where the images might realistically go in the next two years, ask for that scope, and get it in the quote in writing.

What a fair quote looks like

Itemised: shoot time, number of final images, retouching, licensing scope, delivery date, cancellation terms. A suspiciously cheap quote is usually just a quote with those lines missing — you'll meet them again later as extras.

And plan for after: photos age, menus change. For everything between real shoots, PlateRefresh relights your own phone photos to studio quality — so you book photographers for the work that needs one, on your schedule instead of your menu's.