When a brand tells me their food photography isn’t converting, the first thing I do is ask what they mean by that. I promise you I’m not trying to be difficult, but, to be helpful, I need to see the full picture: “it’s not converting” can mean at least half a dozen completely different things and each of them points to a completely different problem.
Do they mean they posted the photos on social media and got two likes and zero comments? Or they posted and got engagement, but no enquiries or website clicks? Or the website got updated with new images, but sales didn’t change? Or they expected PR opportunities to start coming in naturally and nothing happened? Or they get website traffic, but nobody buys?
All of these situations don’t have the same cause and they don’t have the same solution. The reason I ask is the same reason I’d ask questions before planning any project: you can’t fix something until you know what’s actually broken. And in almost every case, what brands think is broken isn’t what’s actually broken.
If you’ve ever found yourself saying “the photos aren’t working,” this post talks about what that usually means, what’s really going on, and what to do about it (all backed up by insights from nearly a decade of experience working in this industry).
The most common scenario: great photos, no strategy
The most frequent situation I encounter is a brand that invested in a photoshoot, received beautiful images, started posting them on social media and got crickets. So they concluded the photos didn’t work. And sometimes, after that experience, they conclude there’s no point in investing in professional photography again, which is how some brands end up going down the AI-generated content route: they don’t believe it’s better, but they’re convinced the professional photos didn’t deliver, and they’d rather save the money.
The photos almost certainly weren’t the problem. What was missing was everything that needs to be in place around the photos for them to actually perform. A social media strategy that defines who the content is for, what it needs to communicate, and what action it should drive. Captions written with the audience and a goal in mind, because sharing something totally random or a description of the image like it’s 2017 is not a strategy. A posting approach that considers format, timing, and how the image works within the feed rather than just uploading and hoping for the best. And let’s not forget the importance of a marketing approach that’s fully aware of what’s happening on social media in that specific moment, not 3 years earlier. An understanding of what “working” actually looks like for this business at this specific moment, which is rarely “people see the photo and immediately buy”.
Even the most strategically shot, perfectly styled, beautifully lit food photography needs more than itself to produce results on social media. The photo stops the scroll, then everything else (the caption, the strategy, the consistency, the link, the landing page) converts. And if any of those elements are missing, the photos (and the photographer) take the blame for a problem that was never theirs to solve.
The website version of the same problem
The website scenario is slightly different, but the root cause is usually the same: a brand updates their site with new photography, waits for sales to increase, and nothing changes, so they say the photos didn’t work.
Except that if the user experience is confusing, the copy doesn’t match what brought someone to the website in the first place, the page loads slowly, the messaging is inconsistent, or the checkout process is messy — there is nothing photography can do to fix that. Beautiful images on a broken website are like a stunning shopfront with a locked door: people take a quick look, say “oh, that’s nice”, and leave.
Photography improves perception and builds trust, but it doesn’t fix structural problems with how a website communicates or functions. For example, if someone lands on your site from an ad that promised one thing and the page delivers something else, the photos on that page aren’t the issue. Or if someone can’t figure out where to go next after scrolling through your homepage, new photography won’t improve their experience.
Before concluding that photography isn’t converting on your website, be honest with yourself and ask whether anything else changed at the same time the photos did — and if not, whether the problem was ever really about the images.
When the colour palette becomes the enemy
One of the more consistent patterns I see in food and product photography is brands being so committed to their existing colour palette that the images stop working for the audience they’re trying to reach. This isn’t about the brand being wrong about their colours: the point they are missing is the difference between brand identity and content strategy, and what happens when those two things are treated as identical.
I’ve worked with brands that refused to introduce any colour not already on their palette, even when the palette itself was creating visual monotony, when the images were blending in with competitors, or when the audience’s preferences were pointing in a completely different direction. Some of these brands were also rigidly attached to rules about what certain colours communicate (like the classic “this one says luxury, that one says cheap”) without even considering if those rules applied to their market and target audience, or the specific moment in the category they were operating in.
The cost of that rigidity is usually subtle and cumulative, like images that are on-brand but not interesting, content that looks right but doesn’t stop anyone, and a consistent visual identity with zero personality. So the brand shines, but while blending in (which is not exactly what you should aim for).
A few years ago, a client came to me for a product launch with a very fixed idea of which colours should be included, as they were the ones they always used. Through the onboarding process and conversations that followed, I found myself more and more convinced that the original direction the client had in mind wasn’t going to serve them well for a competitive new product entering an already crowded category. After talking with them, they agreed to test something different — new colours, a new visual approach, and a deliberate choice to go in a direction their competitors didn’t explore yet. The launch went really well and the new colours became a permanent part of their visual identity. That client’s willingness to hear an outside perspective and trust the person they hired for the job made a real difference for the brand and the entire campaign.
Creative direction: the gap nobody talks about
This is something that people rarely mention: knowing your brand is not the same as knowing how to direct a photoshoot. These are entirely different skill sets, but they are often seen as interchangeable, and the mix-up leads to a significant proportion of photography that doesn’t deliver.
When a founder or marketing manager (or someone else on the client’s team) steps into the creative direction role on a shoot (because they feel they should, because they’re present, or because they’re in a position of authority and feel the need to use it), there is a set of things that are bound to happen (and I say this from experience): the planning stage that takes longer and goes through more revisions because nobody is quite sure what they want or need, decisions made on the day of the shoot that change multiple times because the direction is unclear, and details that seemed fine on paper become confusing in practice. This happens because the person directing the project lacks the experience to know what they’re looking at until they see the final result — by which point it’s often too late to fix without starting again.
Don’t get me wrong, this is not related to the fact that these people aren’t capable in their own roles. It’s that food photography direction is a specific skill developed through years of working on set, understanding how light, composition, and styling translate to camera, and knowing what the image needs to do in the context it will be used in. A founder who knows their brand inside out still doesn’t have that skill. A marketing manager who is excellent at strategy doesn’t have it either. And trying to acquire it in real time during a shoot (while the clock is running and the produce is wilting) will for sure lead to outcomes that nobody is entirely happy with.
The alternative is trusting the people you hired for the job, contributing what’s actually yours to contribute (brand knowledge, audience understanding, marketing context, etc.), and letting the photographer, stylist, and creative director do theirs. I offer photography, styling, and creative direction all together for most of the projects I work on (but I know when it’s time to hire additional help), and that combination is part of what I bring to every job. For brands working with a photographer who doesn’t offer this, it’s important to factor it in from the start — either by hiring a creative director separately or by being very clear about who has decision-making power on the day and knowing well in advance what the brand needs.
Something I hear fairly often from clients who have come to me after a difficult experience elsewhere is that they weren’t expected to be asked many questions before the shoot. They anticipated a conversation about timelines and number of images delivered, and they got instead a conversation about their audience, their goals, what “not working” meant for them, and what they wanted the images to achieve (like “how does success look like?”). That’s the difference between planning a photoshoot and planning a creative project, and it’s a distinction that changes what the photography can do for the brand.
The website-to-social assumption
There’s a widely repeated rule in marketing that website photography and social media photography are completely different and should never be mixed. Like most of these generic “rules”, this one is partially true and mostly oversimplified.
Plain white background product photography (the kind built for ecommerce pages, designed to show the product in its cleanest and most accurate form) doesn’t translate well to social media. It was designed to do a specific job and of course you can use the product photo with no background to make graphic design assets for your feed or Stories, but that’s it. These images have no personality, context, or visual interest beyond the product itself. Posting it on social media without significant adaptation is a surefire way to produce content that will disappear into the feed.
But most food and product photography isn’t plain white background ecommerce work. And for the rest (imagery shot with intention, thorough styling, and a considered aesthetic), the question is not the simple “is this just for website or just for social?”, but “was this shot in a way that gives it flexibility?”.
This is something I think about in pre-production. Over the past years, I had at least three clients whose budgets made a full separate social-first shoot impractical, so I introduced backdrops from my collection (like a light-toned hand-painted marble and concrete finish in one case, a similar concrete-effect backdrop with cool blue tones in the other situations) — that gave the images enough visual interest and versatility to be used with success on both the website and social media without feeling out of place in either (they were also used in printed promotional material and PR content, so that’s an extra win). The photography served both purposes without requiring two separate investments. When the timing and budget allowed, more social-first content was added alongside, but the foundational photography was built to be flexible from the start.
If you now find yourself hoping I’ll share the magic formula that makes a website image translate reasonably well to social media, I’m afraid I need to tell you there isn’t such a thing. It’s a combination of storytelling, styling, background choice, textures, the presence or absence of human elements, and whether the image has enough visual personality to stop someone mid-scroll, which is a very different brief from “we need photos that show our products clearly on a neutral surface”.
Before you commission new photography
If your food photography isn’t converting and you’re considering a new shoot, the most useful thing you can do before briefing anyone is to look critically at what happened last time.
How was the photographer chosen — on portfolio aesthetic alone, on price, on a recommendation? How was the brief built, and by whom? How much did the photographer ask about your audience, your goals, and how the images would be used? Was there a structured planning process or did the shoot happen quickly with minimal pre-production? Did anyone with creative direction experience shape the visual approach, or did that default to whoever was most senior in the room? How were the images used after delivery — with a strategy or by posting and hoping?
The answers to those questions will tell you far more about why the photography didn’t convert than any technical analysis of the images themselves. In my experience, the gap is almost always in the planning and the strategy, not in the photography itself.
Working with a food photographer who asks more (and different) questions
I work with food, drink, and wellness brands on photography, styling, video, and social media marketing — and the first conversation we have is rarely about timelines or shot counts. We talk about what you’re trying to achieve, what hasn’t worked before and why, who you’re trying to reach, and what success looks like for this specific project.
Clients have told me “you get my brain” and “you immediately understood my rather brief, brief”. And that’s not a coincidence; that feedback comes from a structured onboarding process that asks the right questions before any planning begins, and a background that covers not just photography and styling but the marketing context that makes photography useful for your brand rather than just pretty.
If your food photography isn’t converting and you’re trying to figure out why, get in touch here. The first chat is always about understanding what’s actually going on and how I can help.
Should I hire a food stylist separately from a food photographer?
Not necessarily — it depends on the photographer. Some food photographers also handle styling as part of their service, which means they prepare and arrange the food, manage how it looks throughout the shoot, and bring their own props and surfaces (or help you find props to rent/purchase). Others work purely as photographers and either expect the brand to handle styling or work with a separate stylist. This is one of the most important things to clarify before booking anyone, because the answer changes the cost, the logistics, and what you need to prepare. I offer creative direction, photography and styling for most projects, which means the visual direction and the food preparation are part of the same process rather than separate conversations. There’s more on the difference between the two roles in this post.
How do I brief a food photographer?
A good brief covers where the images will be used, how many you need, what the brand needs to communicate, who the audience is, and what success looks like for this specific project. What most briefs leave out (and what tends to cause problems later) is the strategic context: why you need new photography, what didn’t work before, and how the images will be used after delivery. A photographer with a proper pre-production process will ask you these questions before planning begins. If they don’t, that’s what I would call a red flag. There’s a full guide to what a food photography brief should include here.
Why didn’t my food photography increase sales on my website?
Photography improves perception, increases brand awareness and builds trust, but it can’t fix a product or service and structural problems with how a website communicates or functions. If the user experience is confusing, the copy doesn’t match what brought someone to the site, the page loads slowly, or the messaging is inconsistent, new images won’t change the outcome. In the same way, if your marketing is promising something that doesn’t reflect what you sell, no amount of images will fix that. Before concluding the photography didn’t work, it’s worth checking whether anything else on the site or in your offering changed at the same time — and if not, whether the problem was ever really about the images.
Do I need a creative director for a food photography shoot?
For most commercial brand shoots, yes — someone needs to hold the visual direction together. That person needs to be someone with the experience to make informed decisions on set about what’s working and what isn’t. Founders and marketing managers who step into that role without the relevant background tend to create delays, endless revisions, and outcomes nobody is fully happy with (simply because directing a shoot is a specific skill that is outside of their role in the company). Some photographers, myself included, offer creative direction as part of their service. If yours doesn’t, factor it in separately from the start.
Can I use website food photography on social media?
It depends entirely on how the images were shot. Plain white background ecommerce photography (designed to show a product cleanly and accurately) is not made to be used on social media because it has no visual personality or context. But photography shot with intention and a considered aesthetic can work across both platforms if it was planned with that flexibility in mind. The key is thinking about this in pre-production, not after the delivery of the images. I’ve worked with clients on limited budgets where the photography was specifically planned to serve both the website and social media — the backdrop choices, styling approach, and overall aesthetic were built around that dual use from the start.
Why is my food photography not getting engagement on social media?
Almost always, the photography itself isn’t the issue. What’s missing is everything that needs to be in place around the photos for them to perform — a social media strategy, properly written captions, an approach that takes into account formats, trends, audience and platform updates, and a clear understanding of what the content needs to make someone do. Even the best food photography needs more than itself to convert on social media.
I’m Chiara — a food photographer and stylist, short-form video creator, recipe developer, and social media specialist based in Dublin. I work with food, drink, and wellness brands across Ireland, the UK, and internationally, and I’ve been running A Matter of Nourishment since 2017. My background includes an MSc in chemistry, a diploma in digital marketing, and certifications in nutrition and social media marketing: a combination that shapes everything from how I approach a shoot to how I think about content strategy.
A Matter of Nourishment 