Food photography · 2026-10-09
Choose someone who has shot the plate, the room and the team in one report, not three separate jobs. At tuinsta.design, Cristina Osuna photographs inside the restaurant, in Madrid and the sierra, so the menu, Google and social tell the same story. A portfolio of plates on a plain background does not cover the venue.
Cristina Osuna, Design and photography
Ask for a whole job, not the ten best frames. A report that a restaurant can actually use mixes the dish people order, a set table, the light in the room and the people who serve it. If those frames look like three different photographers, the feed and the menu will clash.
On the plate, look for texture, colour and the real size of the portion. In the room, look for materials, tables and an atmosphere a guest would recognise at the door, not a furniture catalogue. On the team, look for real work: the pass, plating, the bar. A stiff template portrait is not a picture of service.
Ask whether they have worked a place like yours. A neighbourhood dining room, a pizza counter and a clothed restaurant are not the same job. The kitchen’s pace changes, and the shoot has to fit that pace.
Ask how they run the day. Who sets the order of dishes, how long the kitchen stops, and whether the team appears with image permission. Ask about light too: whether the colour of the stew and of the room stays honest, or everything gets the same grade.
Send the same short brief to three people: kind of venue, uses (menu, Google, social) and whether you need the room and the team. The clarity of the reply is already part of the work. Someone who never asks about the menu or service usually delivers a product set.
The most spectacular plate does not win if the room and the people are weak. You are left with menu photos and no picture of the business. At tuinsta.design the session starts in the venue. We have worked that way in houses such as Botequim, Volver and Rifugio, with plate and interior on one line.
| What you look at | Weight |
|---|---|
| Plates that look like what leaves the kitchen | 30 |
| Room, materials and real light | 20 |
| The team at work, not posed | 20 |
| One visual line across the whole report | 15 |
| Delivery, formats and usage rights in writing | 15 |
Ask for a list, not an adjective. A rough count of edited photos, horizontal and vertical versions, a deadline, and uses: web, social, Google Business, press and ads. If commercial use is not written down, it is not agreed.
Ask whether the day includes travel inside the Community of Madrid, retouching and a short video pass. Video is not required on day one, but you should know if it can be recorded on the same visit. Styling as a separate cost belongs in the proposal, not in the invoice afterwards.
Cristina Osuna runs the session in the restaurant. With the kitchen we pick the dishes that have to be seen, we shoot when the pass is ready, and we edit the frames that open the menu, the Google listing and an ad. Carlota Fermín uses that bank later on social, so it does not sit in a folder.
We work from Collado Villalba and Malasaña, in the venue, and remotely when the piece is not a photograph. If you want to see whether it fits, send the kind of house, the neighbourhood and what the photos are for on WhatsApp. We reply with a concrete scope, not a generic moodboard.
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