Planet Hollywood Times Square Food Shoot, Manhattan
When people think about food photography, they usually imagine a fully stocked prop closet, a stylist, an art director, and a team making tiny adjustments between shots. Sometimes it's more like showing up, seeing what's actually available, and figuring out how to make it work.
This was a two-hour food photography shoot for Planet Hollywood in Times Square, focused on their America 250 menu celebrating the upcoming 250th anniversary of the United States. The menu featured themed cocktails alongside classic American barbecue dishes, designed as a limited-time promotion tied to the nationwide celebration. This was my second shoot for Planet Hollywood, and I've since returned for another assignment as well.
One thing that doesn't get talked about much is how often restaurant photography requires improvisation. The original plan called for considerably more props and styling elements than were ultimately available, so I handled the styling myself using a fairly minimal setup. That's a pretty common reality of commercial food photography. You work with what's actually in front of you, not what was promised in the planning emails. If you're a restaurant, hospitality group, or marketing team looking for food photography that doesn't fall apart when conditions aren't perfect, that's exactly the kind of problem-solving experience you're hiring for.
Read more: https://planethollywoodnyc.com/america-250/
Here are some of my favorite images from this shoot (click/tap to view full size and un-cropped):
To see more examples of this style of photography, visit my food gallery >>
All images in this blog post were shot on a Nikon D850, using a variety of lenses, and all individually post-processed in Adobe Lightroom using custom-built presets.
Jinnifer Douglass is a full-time freelance photographer based in NYC, shooting for both individuals and brands such as Google, Sotheby’s, Uber, Make Up For Ever, Squarespace, and more! Specializing in portraits, food, and special events, she works to make every piece of your social and website content ‘Insta-worthy’ with high resolution, full-frame DSLR photography and expert Lightroom editing. Interested in chatting? Leave a comment below, or send an email to info@jinyc-photo.com!