Short answer: at Sunday Gravy, a menu shoot is $500 for a half day or $950 for a full day. A dish drop is $250. Monthly content is $600 a month.

That's the whole list. Below is what each one gets you, and what pushes the price of any food shoot up or down, with me or anyone else.

What each package costs and what you get

Menu shoot, half day: $500. 20 finished photos. Good for a new menu, a seasonal change, or the dishes that sell the most.
Menu shoot, full day: $950. 45 finished photos. Enough for the whole menu, plus the room, the bar and the team.
Dish drop: $250. One hour, 6 photos. For a new special or a one-off you want to post this week.
Monthly content: $600 a month. One visit a month, 10 photos. For places that need something new on Instagram all the time.

"Finished" means picked, edited and ready to use. You don't get a folder of 400 raw files to sort through. The full breakdown is on the pricing page.

What makes a food shoot cost more

Most of the price is time. Time on set, and time editing after. A few things drive how much of it a shoot takes.

How many dishes

Every plate has to be cooked, plated, carried out and shot while it still looks right. Twenty dishes takes longer than eight. If you want two or three angles on each, that adds up too.

How much setup each shot needs

A burger in a basket on the bar is quick. A styled table with drinks, hands, props and six plates takes a while to build. Both are good photos. One just costs more to make.

Where the photos are going

Photos for your own menu, website and Instagram are the normal case. If you want them for a big ad campaign, packaging or a national chain, that's a different conversation. Tell me up front where they'll be used.

Extras

Things like a separate food stylist, rented props or a second location add cost. Most restaurants don't need any of that. Your kitchen already knows how to plate the food.

Which package makes sense for a restaurant

If you've never had real photos taken, start with a menu shoot. Half day if the menu is short or you only care about the best sellers. Full day if you want everything, or you're opening and need the room and the people too.

If you already have good photos and just added a couple of dishes, a dish drop covers it. It's one hour and it's in and out before service.

If you post a lot and keep running out of photos, monthly content is the one. One visit, ten new photos, every month.

I go into more detail on how the shoots run on the restaurant photography page.

Is it worth paying for, or can we just use phone photos?

Phone photos are fine for a quick story or a "we're open" post. I'd never tell anyone to stop taking them.

Where they fall short is anywhere people are deciding whether to eat with you. The delivery apps. Your Google listing. The menu on your website. Press. Those photos get looked at by people who don't know you yet, and the food is the only thing they have to go on.

A menu shoot gets you a set of photos that match and hold up everywhere. You use them for years, not days. Split across that, the cost per photo gets small fast.

Anything else that affects the price?

Not much. I'm in South Philly and shoot all over the city. If you're further out, like the Main Line, just mention it when you get in touch.

If what you need doesn't fit one of the four packages, tell me what it is and I'll price it.

Want a quote for your place? Send me a note with what you're working on.

How much does restaurant photography cost in Philadelphia?