Fast Food Photographer London: Shooting for McDonalds, Heinz, Popeyes and Other Big Brands…
I’ve been lucky enough to work with brands of all shapes and sizes - from familiar names like McDonald’s and Heinz to newer favourites like Popeyes and Costa Coffee. Over the years I’ve learned that fast food photography isn’t just about making food look tempting, it’s about creating images that really connect with people. From stills to motion (including stop-frame), I work across print, digital, packaging and social, and in this post I’ll share what really goes into a fast food shoot.
Is it any surprise I ended up shooting burgers? With a surname like Burger, maybe it was meant to be. Over the years I’ve worked with some of the biggest names in fast food - McDonald’s, Jollibee, Pizza Express and more. I’ve shot more than 30 campaigns for McDonald’s alone, along with countless others across the UK and beyond.
As a fast food photographer, I’ve covered just about everything: burgers, fried chicken, pizzas, fries, milkshakes, soft drinks, tacos, burritos, sandwiches, wraps, desserts… you name it. These shoots span digital menus, OOH campaigns, social ads and stop-frame animations. And while most foods behave well in front of the camera, one of the trickiest to get right is the humble McDonald’s Egg Muffin.
These are high-pressure shoots, often with tight timelines, messy ingredients and big expectations, but with the right lighting, styling and prep, even the messiest burger can become a hero shot. These aren’t solo jobs. They’re full-scale productions. A typical fast food shoot involves a food stylist (or two), prop stylist, assistants, lighting techs, creative directors, agency producers and client-side teams. It’s not unusual to have 15 to 20 people on set, all working together to get the perfect final shot.
That level of collaboration is one of the things I love most- it’s the team work. Every one has such an important role. Every detail matters and everyone’s input helps shape the final result.
Want to see how that all comes together on camera?
From the Egg Muffin challenge to glossy milkshake shots, there’s plenty more to explore in my fast food portfolio.
When Heinz asked me to bring their campaign to life, the challenge was clear: keep everything bold, consistent and instantly recognisable across digital, social and retail. We built a mix of stills, animation and tightly styled product shots to carry that look across every platform.
Lighting was controlled to stay clean and punchy. Every frame needed to feel polished - from the sauce ooze to the curve of the bun.
We ran two full sets side by side, one for stills and one for animation, and everything had to match seamlessly. The animation focused on appetite appeal, with just enough movement to catch the eye without losing Heinz’s graphic simplicity.
Getting that perfect sauce ooze was a challenge of its own. With a prop master and food stylist working together, we spent hours refining the moment. Add in remote sign-off from teams across Europe and the shoot became a careful balancing act.
That’s where a great producer really makes the difference - keeping things moving, managing expectations and making sure decisions happen while the cameras are rolling.
The food stylist on this one? Absolutely outstanding.
You can see more from the shoot, including a behind-the-scenes look at how we managed the stills and motion setups, here: malouburger.co.uk/heinz
Fast food shoots at this level aren’t just about getting a great shot. They’re structured, fast-moving productions with multiple moving parts sometimes two sets are running at once, working across both stills and motion, with different formats and deliverables in mind from the start.
PPMs (pre-production meetings) are key. They’re where the team aligns on what’s needed, how each asset will be used, and where potential challenges can be flagged early. A well-run PPM means fewer surprises on the day, especially when working with a new client or multiple teams, but most importantly the client has approved everything and feels confident and heard.
On set, communication is everything. The brief can shift. Priorities can change. Sometimes something just doesn't look how it should, and we need to be able to react quickly. It’s all about finding solutions, staying open, and making decisions that protect both the creative and the timeline.
Most fast food brands have detailed visual guidelines, and a big part of the job is interpreting those in a way that still feels fresh, appetising and on-brand. From digital menu screens and social ads to in-store POS and OOH, the assets have to hold up wherever they appear.
That means thinking about crops and layouts from the very beginning - composing with negative space for copy, allowing flexibility for square, vertical or wide formats, and making sure nothing critical gets lost when an image is re-used. It all takes a bit more time up front, but it adds real value to the client. One good shot can work hard across a whole campaign if it’s built with that in mind.
It’s not just about taking the shot. It’s about creating the conditions for the right shot to happen, and making sure the work does exactly what it needs to, wherever it ends up.
Below shows the shoot in full flow…
All burgers – but each one lit and styled to feel completely different. That’s the power of food styling and lighting. Same subject, new story.
These campaigns all featured burgers, but each came with a totally different brief, creative direction and brand identity.
Once we’ve got the crew, the plan and the timings in place, it’s all about bringing the brief to life - and that changes every time. Different clients, different needs, different stories. These four burger shots were all created for different campaigns, with distinct brand identities and creative directions.
Some came from long-established fast food giants like McDonald’s, others from newer, fast-growing brands. Each required its own approach - from lighting and lensing to the styling of buns, sauces and salad. Some briefs were incredibly detailed (which I love) - shaped by the season, the menu, or the exact mood of the campaign.
Rich textures, moody lighting
Bold and indulgent - lit for drama with rich textures and moody shadows to turn up the appetite.
Bright and graphic
Colourful to grab the viewers attention Punchy colours designed to stop the scroll.
Clean and minimal
Stacked and unapologetically meaty. Sharp structure and balanced light
Fresh and natural
Styled to feel inviting, with daylight tones and a lifestyle feel to highlight variety.
So many things can be done to help the shot! A quick spray of glycerin for perfect water droplets or using acrylic cubes, because real ice melts in seconds under the lights
This milkshake is another good one. Real cream looks great to the eye, but the moment it hits the lights, it collapses. Even if you get the swirl spot on, you’ve only got seconds before it starts to slide. That’s where the food stylist comes in with magic incredients and create a version that holds its shape long enough for us to light, compose and fine-tune the shot. Even then, the swirl can take a few goes. Right nozzle, right speed, right direction. Even a slight tilt to camera can make it read bigger. We always start with a real milkshake to build and light the shot, then swap in the final version when everything’s ready.
And the Oreos on the side? They were real… but didn’t last long. 😋Beautifully styled by Kostas Stavrinos.
After showing how fast food shoots come together behind the scenes, here’s one out in the wild - part of a campaign I shot for Jollibee.
A bold, colourful brief for a global fast food brand with Filipino roots and a name that means “jolly bee” - how could I not love it? We shot their hero products right in the heart of Leicester Square. Full kit, torrential rain, broken lift, film premiere outside - the usual mayhem that comes with fast food advertising photography.
Like most high street campaigns, every detail mattered. Crisp textures, sauce gloss, food styling, lighting. Even the angle of the hand had to feel just right. The shots had to be joyful, bold, and instantly craveable - whether they were ending up in digital menus, stop-frame animations, or high-res OOH posters.
There’s something brilliant about seeing your work out in the real world – a giant fried chicken wrap on a bus stop, a cold Coke dripping with condensation, golden chips covered in sauce. Love seeing these out and about – especially when I’m with the kids.
Fast food photography might look simple, but behind every clean, craveable image is hours of planning, prep and precision. The Jollibee campaign was a perfect example of what really goes on behind the scenes.
It’s a lot of fun, and it’s a lot of work. My biggest advice? Work with the best people, and with people you genuinely enjoy being around. Shoots are long days, and you’re in it together, so you might as well make it a good time.
By the time I came on board, the client had already done a huge amount of groundwork, from the creative deck to early sketches. The brief made it clear the images needed to feel joyful, human and full of appetite.
On set, the behind-the-scenes reality looked very different to the final polished images: fried chicken angled with tweezers so the light hit the crumb just right, sauce glossed until it caught the camera perfectly, buns nudged by a few millimetres to balance the frame. Every detail was adjusted with precision so the visuals would hold up everywhere from digital menus to billboards.
Lighting played its part too. Side or backlighting brings out crunch and texture, especially with fried food, and every shot was composed with both small mobile screens and giant OOH sites in mind.
🍔 What It’s Really Like on Set
It’s not just burgers and buns - it’s sauce oozes, ripped paper, getting the bun angle just right and chasing those perfectly imperfect moments.
These shoots are fun and full-on, thanks to the brilliant stylists, assistants and producers who bring the energy (and the tweezers). They run on caffeine, great playlists and expert bun-wrangling – and I’m lucky to work with a solid team who make it all happen.
And the hats? Not part of the brief – just a good laugh at the end of a long, brilliant day.
“Thrilled with how it turned out. Always a pleasure…” Jollibee team