Food and drink photography and video for brands
Tabletop photography and video for food and drink brands, from campaign to pack.
A liquid pour rarely lands the same way twice. Chocolate melts faster than the camera catches. Ice has opinions. Half the work is technical preparation. The other half is recognising the shot when it happens. Studio Ballena does food photography and video in its studio in Welle, Belgium, for campaigns, packaging, editorial, social and broadcast.
The work below is a selection from fifteen years of food and drink projects for Neuhaus, Barry Callebaut, Guylian and other food and beverage brands across Belgium and Europe.
Chocolate and confectionery photography
Pralines, truffles, pâtes de fruits and cuberdons, shot for packaging, posters and campaigns. Often the product sits next to what goes into it: the fruit, the nuts, the caramel.
For the agency Absintt, we shot a series of chocolate covered macadamias for Maison Macolat, each flavour with its own ingredients.
Drink photography
Beer, soft drinks, cocktails and coffee: bubbles rising in a glass, ice on a cold bottle, milk folding into coffee. The drinks work runs from tight close ups of bubbles and ice to themed sets, like the airline cocktails in the gallery.
Food and drink video
Some of it only works moving: a pour folding into a glass, a splash, ice dropping into a drink. We film those in slow motion, to show what the eye misses. When a move has to repeat exactly, take after take, it runs on our motion control robot. Stills and video can come from the same shoot, with the same products and set. See the food and drink video work.
Real food, shot for real
We shoot the real product. The way a sauce falls, the crumb of a cake and the beads on a cold bottle are the details rendered food still gets slightly wrong, and viewers notice even when they can't say why. Our view on where AI fits in commercial photography, and where it doesn't opens with a real burger shoot.
Why a food image works on the viewer is the subject of our post on advertising photography and the emotional connection with your audience.
Need clean catalogue shots of the same products on white? Those are on our packshots page. How a project runs, from brief to delivery, is on our photo and video production page.
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Food and drink photography and video questions
Do you shoot food and drink in the studio or on location?
Mostly in our studio in Welle, where the prep area, the light and the time on set are under control. A delivery truck can pull up on the driveway and unload straight into the studio. Location is possible when the brief needs it, but for food and drink the studio is what we recommend.
Do you work with a food stylist?
Yes. Food styling is a service of its own, added whenever the brief needs it, we have a range of specialised food stylist depending on the type of product.
Can one shoot cover campaign, packaging and social images?
Yes, when it's planned that way. The same products, set and styling can serve a campaign, a pack and social, with each image made for where it will run.
Want to talk through a project?
Tell us the product, the brief as it stands and when you need the images. We'll come back with how we'd plan the shoot.