Great food photography does more than make a dish look appealing. It helps restaurants attract customers, gives food and beverage brands compelling visuals for their campaigns, and brings products to life across websites, packaging, and advertising.
San Francisco and the broader Bay Area are home to talented commercial food photographers, each bringing a different creative approach and area of expertise. Some specialize in restaurant and hospitality photography, while others work with national food brands, wineries, and consumer packaged goods companies.
We’ve selected seven food photographers and studios serving the San Francisco Bay Area to help you find the right fit for your next project.
Finding the Right Food Photographer for Your Brand
The right photographer depends on what you’re creating. A restaurant updating its menu needs a different approach than a beverage company launching a national advertising campaign or a winery developing its brand imagery.
Beyond reviewing portfolios, consider the photographer’s experience with similar projects, access to professional studio facilities, food styling capabilities, and ability to produce both photography and video. These factors can influence the creative outcome, production timeline, and overall budget.
Below, we explore seven photographers and studios, highlighting their specialties, experience, and the types of projects they’re best suited for:
1. Christina Schmidhofer Photography
- Location: San Francisco, CA (Mission District); serves Bay Area
- Specialty: Commercial food, beverage, product, and lifestyle photography; in-house video production including cinemagraphs and stop-motion
- Best for: Food, beverage, and CPG brands that want stills and video produced by one team in a single shoot day
- Pricing: Quote-based
Christina Schmidhofer Photography is a San Francisco-based commercial photography studio specializing in food, beverage, product, and lifestyle imagery. Led by a photographer and director, Christina Schmidhofer, an American Photographic Artists (APA) member with decades of industry experience, the studio works with brands ranging from established retailers to wineries and consumer packaged goods companies.
Christina’s commercial portfolio includes work for recognizable brands such as Williams Sonoma, Nespresso, Breville, Pyrex, and Walmart. Her experience also extends to wine and beverage photography, with projects for Beringer Winery, Robert Hall, Folktale, and Niner Wines. Beyond still photography, the studio produces food and product videos, stop-motion content, cinemagraphs, and lifestyle visuals for advertising and digital campaigns.
For brands planning campaigns across multiple channels, the combination of commercial photography experience, dedicated studio facilities, and video production capabilities makes Christina Schmidhofer Photography a versatile option in the San Francisco Bay Area.
2. Eva Kolenko
- Location: Sonoma County, CA
- Specialty: Food, beverage, and lifestyle photography; cookbook and editorial work
- Best for: Brands and publishers needing editorial-grade food and beverage imagery with a proven cookbook track record
- Pricing: Not published
Eva Kolenko graduated valedictorian from the Academy of Arts University in San Francisco with a BA in Advertising Photography. Over 12-plus years she’s photographed more than 50 cookbooks, including Gisele Bündchen’s Nourish, Love & Lemons, and Pizza Night. Her editorial credits include the cover of Food & Wine Magazine in 2023. Brand clients have included Mars M&M’s, Fast Company Magazine, and Metropolitan Home.
Her portfolio spans food, beverage, lifestyle, travel, and motion content, with dedicated cookbook production and restaurant and chef photography alongside. She’s also an Art Directors Club Young Guns recipient. For brands whose work needs to read at both an advertising and editorial scale, Kolenko’s background covers both ends.
3. A Few Good Clicks
- Location: Hawaii (Kauai, Maui) and San Francisco Bay Area
- Specialty: Food photography alongside wedding, portrait, and lifestyle work
- Best for: Clients in Hawaii or the Bay Area needing food photography bundled with other service types
- Pricing: Customizable packages by service category; specific rates not publicly listed
A Few Good Clicks describes its visual style as “Arty Moody Edgy Timeless” and offers food photography as one category within a broader service menu that includes weddings, engagements, newborn, maternity, family, and portrait work. The dual-market setup – Hawaii locations (Kauai and Maui) and the San Francisco Bay Area – is practical for clients who operate in both regions.
Food photography here is one line among several, which sets it apart from studios that focus exclusively on commercial food and brand work. Brands needing stand-alone food campaign imagery may want to review the studio’s commercial food portfolio before booking. Packages are customized per service type and location; pricing requires a direct inquiry.
4. Nicole Morrison
- Location: San Francisco Bay Area
- Specialty: Food and drink photography, product and still life, people photography, motion and GIF content
- Best for: Bay Area brands needing food and beverage photography alongside motion and GIF content
- Pricing: Not published
Nicole Morrison is a Bay Area-based commercial photographer whose work covers food and drink, product and still life, people, and motion including GIFs. That range across food, product, and motion formats works well for brands that need variety from a single photographer. Static hero shots, product stills, and short-form motion can all come from the same engagement.
Detailed client information, awards, and pricing are not publicly available on the studio site. Brands interested in this studio would need to reach out directly to assess the portfolio depth for their specific category and request project-based pricing.
5. Erin Kunkel
- Location: San Francisco, CA (4000 Moraga St)
- Specialty: Lifestyle, food, travel, portrait, and interior photography; advertising and editorial commissions
- Best for: Food and lifestyle brands seeking award-winning editorial and advertising photography with a collaborative working style
- Pricing: Commission-based; rates available on request
Erin Kunkel is a San Francisco photographer and director – founded in 2015 – whose work spans lifestyle, food, travel, and interior photography across advertising, editorial, and book projects. Her client base runs across the lifestyle and food industries, and extends to artists and chefs. The studio operates as a one-person practice, and it’s positioned as collaborative and detail-oriented.
The commission-based model means pricing is scope-specific and discussed directly. For brands that want an established San Francisco editorial photographer who works across lifestyle and food categories, Kunkel’s background fits that brief.
6. LemonAD
- Location: San Francisco Bay Area
- Specialty: Food, beverage, and hospitality photography for restaurants and catering brands
- Best for: Bay Area restaurants and hospitality brands needing professional food and interior photography
- Pricing: Not published; clients submit an intake form and discuss scope on a consultation call
LemonAD Media Services is a husband-and-wife team based in the San Francisco Bay Area, focused on restaurant and hospitality photography. Services include food photography, cocktail and beverage photography, restaurant staff portraits, interior and exterior photography, recipe photography, and catering brand imagery. Portfolio clients include Sobre Mesa Restaurant, The Black Cat Bar & Lounge, and Sons of Liberty AleHouse.
Their four-step process – intake form, consultation call, shoot, and delivery via an online gallery with high-resolution and web-ready files – is clearly designed for restaurant operators who aren’t familiar with production logistics. The focus is tightly on hospitality, which is a strength for restaurant clients but means the studio may not be the right fit for packaged goods or retail product work.
7. Joseph Weaver
- Location: San Francisco Bay Area
- Specialty: Food and hospitality photography for restaurants and hotels
- Best for: Hospitality brands and upscale restaurant clients needing food and beverage imagery
- Pricing: Not published
Joseph Weaver Photography serves the restaurant and hotel sector in the San Francisco Bay Area. The client list includes Four Seasons Wailea, Bestia, The Harbor House Inn Restaurant, Arquet, Parachute Bakery, and Coconut Club Exuma, which signals comfort working with both independent fine-dining restaurants and larger hospitality groups.
The portfolio is organized by food and drinks categories. Beyond the hospitality client list, the founding year, team composition, and pricing structure aren’t publicly available. Like several studios on this list, a project inquiry is the only route to rates.
How We Selected These Photographers
To put together this list, we focused on photographers and studios serving San Francisco and the broader Bay Area with experience in commercial food, beverage, and brand photography.
We considered several factors, including:
- Portfolio relevance: Experience photographing food, beverages, restaurants, packaged goods, and lifestyle campaigns.
- Commercial experience: Previous work with restaurants, hospitality businesses, consumer brands, and publishers.
- Production capabilities: Access to studio facilities, food styling resources, professional equipment, and video production services.
- Specialization: The types of projects each photographer is best suited for, from restaurant menus and cookbooks to advertising campaigns.
- Publicly available information: Portfolio examples, client references, service descriptions, and pricing details published on studio websites.
What to Look for in a Commercial Food Photographer
Commercial food photography requires more than a strong Instagram feed. A few things are worth checking before you commit to a studio.
- Portfolio match. A photographer who shoots cookbooks may not have the right aesthetic for a CPG packaging campaign, and vice versa. Look for work that resembles your content type, not just beautiful food images.
- Production capability. Does the studio have an in-house kitchen and prop storage, or will you be renting those separately? Does video production happen under the same roof, or does that require a different vendor? These logistics affect both cost and your shoot day.
- Client scale. A photographer whose past clients are similar in scope and category to your brand is less likely to be surprised by your production requirements.
And location matters practically, not just geographically. A studio based in the Bay Area or Sonoma County may charge travel costs for shoots elsewhere; confirm service area before budgeting.
Bottom Line
For brands searching among food photographers for commercial food and brand photography, the best starting point is matching your deliverable type to a studio’s actual specialization.
Before making a decision, review each photographer’s portfolio, discuss your creative goals, and request a quote based on your specific deliverables. The right fit is a photographer who understands your brand and can create visuals that work across the channels where your customers will see them.