Pro edition
Shoot Day Plan.
The demo argues the day is built backwards from the shortest window. This is that plan as an instrument — the running order, what the kitchen needs ready, and the five things that each cost a dish.
Running order
| Time | What | Who | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 08:00 | Load in, set the first surface | Photographer | Before anyone cooks. A kitchen watching a tripod go up is a kitchen not prepping. |
| 08:45 | Light the longest-window dish | Photographer | Braises and stews. They sit while the light gets trimmed, which is what they are for. |
| 09:30 | First dish to the pass | Kitchen | Duplicate plate prepped alongside it. The second plate is the one that gets shot. |
| 12:30 | Break, set held | Everyone | Nothing is struck. Rebuilding a set after lunch costs a dish. |
| 13:15 | Mid-window dishes | Kitchen + stylist | Pasta, pizza, anything with a sheen that goes. |
| 15:30 | Short-window dishes | All hands | Everything else finished. Light locked, focus set on a stand-in. |
| 16:15 | Frozen and iced last | All hands | Ninety seconds each. Three rehearsals, then the real plate. |
| 17:00 | Load out | Photographer | Files backed up twice before the van doors close. |
What the kitchen needs ready
- A duplicate of every garnish
- The first plate is a rehearsal. Shooting it wastes the good one.
- One person for the whole day
- Not the head chef mid-service. Continuity matters more than seniority.
- Dishes plated cold where possible
- Anything that can be assembled cold buys the set ten minutes.
- The real crockery
- Photographing a dish on a plate you do not serve it on is a picture of a dish you do not sell.
- A power outlet that is not the kitchen ring
- Tripping the kitchen mid-shoot is the fastest way to lose a friend.
- Somewhere to put finished plates
- Twelve shot dishes need to go somewhere that is not the set.
Five things that cost a dish
- A dish arriving without its duplicate. There is no second attempt and the first attempt is always the rehearsal.
- Changing the surface for one dish and not changing it back.
- A dish nobody decided the front of. Ten minutes disappear into rotating a plate.
- Approvals by someone who is not in the room. Every remote round costs a slot.
- Frozen anything before the light is locked. It will melt while a stand is being moved.
Afterwards
- A first selection within three days: one frame per dish, our pick, so you can see the shape of the set.
- Full delivery in two weeks, colour-matched across the day so the tenth dish and the first look like the same restaurant.
- Files sized for menu, web and social separately. A 40MB file on a menu PDF helps nobody.
- The dish list comes back annotated with what worked, which is worth reading before the next shoot.
Times assume a seven-hour shooting day in one location. A second location costs roughly two dishes in load-out and load-in.