Mouth-watering results

The indie Spotify playlist is on, ten types of biscuit and chocolate treats offer temptation on every surface, and a 6ft ‘door’ of painted wood is laying on a table edged up to the window – let the food photoshoot begin.

Recently LAW Creative was tasked with creating Mecca Bingo’s new Autumn/Winter menu, following the success of our previous Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter menus. These menus repositioned Mecca’s food offering and saw their new and strategically-placed ‘Chicken Shack’ meal become the only item ever to outsell that Great British favourite, Fish ‘n’ Chips. Time to take things up another notch!

Once our Art Director’s favoured menu design and photography style had been decided the next step was to get into the studio and shoot the dishes. When I first joined LAW a year ago, new to print marketing but a fully-fledged food fanatic, the first project I got involved in was the Mecca menu. I quickly heard from my new colleagues about all the tips and tricks sometimes used to make the food look perfect – from painting motor oil onto steaks to create ‘char’ to gluing individual sesame seeds onto burger buns – and was fascinated. Luckily, though the stylists do still have some intriguing tricks up their sleeve, the focus these days is on sticking as close to the actual meal as possible and getting the shots you need whilst the food is still fresh.

For our three-day shoot with Mecca, we found ourselves in a 600-year-old farm house with a specialist food photographer and stylist. The surface we’d be shooting on, a ‘door’ made up of painted wood, was on top of a table edged up to the window so we could shoot using natural light, and after a test shot on our carefully sourced hessian napkins we were ready to go.

The chef and stylist prepped the dishes one by one, carefully selecting and placing the best looking chips, tomato slices and waffles for the job. The food was then brought onto set, where the stylist carefully placed it down. Then, under the guidance of our Art Director, the stylist considered props and angles, judging whether this or that drip of sauce was just right. The Art Director checked that the styling was what she wanted for the shot she had in mind, then it was over to the photographer.

Everyone gathered around the screen, waiting patiently until the photographer was happy with what he saw through his lens, and then came the ‘click’. The image was instantly seen on the monitor screen for the Art Director to appraise. Then her tweaks began. Was that garlic bread at the right angle? Could we get some more light on the burger? Can you see the portion size properly? And on the art direction went, until the shot was perfect – at which point the food was given a final spritz of moisture so that everything looked as fresh as possible before the final ‘click’. The photographer changed the orientation so that we had shot the dish every which way, and the item was ticked off the shot list. Then it was on to the next, and the next, until we had a whole menu’s worth of beautiful shots, ready to show off Mecca’s fantastic food.

Here at LAW we believe shoots should be flexible and efficient, and result in outstanding shot quality, and we have the people and the expertise to make it happen every time. Look out for Mecca’s new menu, and get in touch if your company could benefit from our knowledge of menu science, innovative menu designers, experienced Art Directors, and photography that will have your customers’ mouths watering.

For more information on some of our recent work contact sarah.osborne@lawcreative.co.uk.