From €600 excluding VAT for a restaurant food photography shoot. Above that floor, what makes a quote is almost never the number of dishes: it is the duration and scope of the licence, whether a food stylist is on set, how many output ratios are required, and whether the shoot happens during a live service.
The floor is €600 excluding VAT for a restaurant. That covers a shoot on location, the menu and the room, and a licence for the venue’s own website and social channels. It is the most common format and the simplest to quote, because the use of the images is known in advance and does not change.
Above that there is no grid, and a grid would be dishonest. A hotel commission feeds three image banks that follow different rules, and a brand commission is priced from the licence, not from time spent. In both cases the quote is written for you and built on what the images will do, not on how many hours they took.
What the floor does not cover, and I would rather say it here than on the phone: an out-of-home campaign, a production with a hired stage, or an event covered across several days do not fit inside €600, and nobody in this trade makes them fit.
The most frequent brief. A menu is photographed at the tempo of service, not against it: a work station out of the way, a running order for the dishes decided the day before, the room shot before opening while it is still intact. That protocol, agreed beforehand, is what makes a half day hold.
A hotel shoot feeds three uses with different demands: the website and booking platforms, press, social. Framing them separately from the shot list on avoids paying twice for the same slot, and that is where the budget is decided.
Here the price does not come from shooting time, it comes from the licence: a visual that ends up in out-of-home, DOOH or on packaging is worth what its exposure is worth. That conversation belongs in the first exchange, not at delivery.
Five variables make the gap, and they do not weigh the same at all. In order: the duration and scope of the licence, whether a food stylist is on set, the number of output ratios required, whether the shoot happens during a live service or a running event, and only then the time on location.
The first crushes the others. The same photograph, on a restaurant website for two years in France, or in out-of-home plus DOOH for five years, is not the same price, and it is not a question of work delivered: it is a question of exposure granted. A client who understands that line understands the whole quote.
The second often surprises. A food stylist is not decorative overhead, it is what lets a dish hold for twenty minutes under built light without collapsing. Across a fifteen-dish menu, a stylist saves half a day, and costs less than the half day saved.
A photograph is not bought, it is licensed for a defined use, duration and territory. That is French law, and it also protects the client: a licence written down beats a tacit understanding on the day the brand wants to bring an image back three years later.
The classic trap is not the price, it is the duration. A two-year licence that expires precisely when the campaign starts to work forces you to pay again at the worst moment. Better to discuss five years on the quote, and pay for them straight away, than to rediscover the question under pressure.
What is granted, how, and for how long is set out on the image licensing page. Nothing there hides behind a request to get in touch.
The number of dishes matters far less than people think. Once the light is set and the protocol agreed, the tenth dish does not cost ten times the first: it costs the time to plate it and place it. That is why a per-image quote, common as it is, almost always means paying too much for a short series and too little for a long one.
The number of retouches changes it no more. What costs time is never the retouching, it is the decision: what stays, what gets redone, what gets dropped. A selection gallery settled in one pass beats three rounds.
And travel changes nothing at all, because it is not billed. Marseille, the French Riviera, Paris three hours away by train: transport and accommodation included, with no extra line on the quote. Billing a return trip turns a creative decision into an accounting one, and the client ends up splitting into two days what should have been one.
A brief is answered within twenty-four working hours. A selection gallery follows within five working days of the shoot, and final delivery within ten days, in 16:9, 4:5, 1:1 and 9:16 from the same capture. For an opening or a press launch, a tighter schedule is agreed on the quote.
Four ratios from one capture is not a sales line, it follows from how the frame is built: the room for the crop is planned at the moment of shooting, not afterwards. A visual composed in 16:9 and cropped later to 9:16 loses its subject, and has to be made again.
What is not included is said in advance: the food stylist where one is needed, a hired stage where the production calls for one, and props bought for the series. Those are quoted separately and decided with you, never after the fact.
A range over the phone serves nobody. The three questions that decide a quote are always the same: where the images will live, for how long, and on which channels. Without those three answers a figure is a politeness; with them, it is a commitment.
That is exactly what the brief form asks, and it takes three minutes. The projects published on this site give, for each one, the real brief, the constraint on the day and the scope of the licence granted: the best way to see what a commission looks like before asking for one.
A food selection. The full gallery also covers hospitality, beverage, cocktails and events.
Three ways in, and what separates them. Prices exclude VAT.
from €600 excl. VAT
A shoot on location, the menu and the room, licensed for the venue’s own website and social channels.
on quote
Three image banks framed separately: website and booking platforms, press, social.
on quote
The licence drives the price: use, duration and territory are priced from the first exchange.
Travel, transport and accommodation included, with no extra line. Food stylist, stage hire and props are quoted separately and decided with you. A written quote follows the brief form.
Reviews published on Ahoueke Hilaire’s Google listing, reproduced here word for word.
J’ai eu l’occasion de collaborer avec Hilaire sur plusieurs projets différents et j’ai particulièrement apprécié son approche du métier. Au-delà de la qualité technique des photos, il sait réellement comprendre un plat, mettre en valeur les détails et retranscrire l’intention, l’humain. Les échanges sont simples, professionnels et agréables, avec une vraie capacité à s’adapter aux contraintes d’une cuisine professionnelle. Un travail précis, créatif et toujours réalisé avec beaucoup de sérieux. Je le recommande vivement pour tout projet de photographie culinaire.
Nous cherchions un photographe capable de shooter à la fois nos chambres, notre spa et la carte du restaurant sur trois jours, sans mobiliser une équipe entière. Hilaire est arrivé seul, a travaillé en lumière naturelle le matin et au flash pour les ambiances du soir, et nous a livré 180 images retouchées en dix jours. Nous les utilisons depuis sur notre site, nos réseaux et nos supports de vente
« Nous avions besoin de packshots et de visuels d'ambiance cocktail pour un lancement national. Hilaire a construit les recettes visuelles avec notre ambassadeur, géré les fonds, les glaçons, la condensation, tout ce qui fait qu'un cocktail tient à l'image. Les visuels sont partis en PLV et en digital sans retouche supplémentaire. »
Je recommande fortement Hilaire. Nous avions un enjeu de cohérence : cinq adresses, cinq styles photo différents. Hilaire a proposé une direction visuelle unique et l'a tenue d'un établissement à l'autre. Il comprend vite les contraintes d'un groupe, il est autonome sur place et il ne perturbe pas l'exploitation.
Nous souhaitions des Reels de préparation, pas seulement des photos. Hilaire filme et photographie sur la même session, ce qui nous évite de bloquer le bar deux fois. Les vidéos de verse au ralenti tournent encore un an après et on grandement contribué à la visibilité de l’établissement! Un prestataire fiable auquel nous ferons de nouveau appel sans la moindre reserve!
Nous sommes une petite affaire, on ne pouvait pas se permettre une production. Hilaire a proposé une demi-journée avec une sélection resserrée, au prix annoncé, sans extras surprises. C'était exactement le bon format pour nous.
J'ai été client d'Hilaire pour de la photographie culinaire, son talent et sa passion ont rendu grâce à nos plats ! Un véritable professionnel avec qui j'ai hâte de travailler à nouveau
Je recommande vivement! Hilaire est professionnel, disponible et à l’écoute. Il a su s’adapter à notre projet, budget et a fourni un travail irréprochable! 5*
The brief form takes three minutes and asks the questions that matter: where the images will live, for how long, and on which channels. That is what makes a real figure possible instead of a polite range.