London Hotel Photographer
Hotel and hospitality photography from a South Hampstead base: guest rooms, lobbies and lounges, restaurants and bars, and the campaigns that sell them. Brent Herrig works with hotel groups, independent operators, and agencies, on site across the capital.
The London Approach
Period Rooms, Modern Brands, One Visit.
Few London hotels are purpose-built boxes. Many sit in Georgian terraces, Victorian station buildings, or converted offices, with tall sash windows, high ceilings, and rooms that change shape from floor to floor. The job is to make that building read as one confident property, so the visit is planned room by room and lit to a single standard rather than improvised as the corridor changes.
Hotel groups, chains, and the agencies running their rebrands hire Brent Herrig Creative for multi-property programmes, worked from South Hampstead with a second base in New York. The first property fixes the look, from light to grade, and every later opening is shot to match, so a refurbishment or a re-shoot two years on still sits in the same library.
For the dining room and the bar programme, see the London food photography page. For properties further afield, see hospitality and hotels, and for New York properties, the New York hotel page. Studio details are on the London studio page.
See the work
Guest Rooms, Bars, and Tables, Lit for the Hour.
A cross-section of the hotel portfolio: guest rooms and suites, the pass and the plate, pool decks, a spa treatment room, and the close detail that ties a hotel brand together on a feed. Tap or click any frame to open it full screen.
On location
Shooting a Period Building Well.
Panelled bars, plaster cornices, and sash windows photograph beautifully when the light is controlled and badly when it is left to chance. Daylight, tungsten lamps, and LED cove lighting all sit at different colour temperatures, so each room is balanced on its own, and the verticals are kept true so a tall window or a Georgian facade does not lean.
Rooms in older buildings run compact, so the day starts with a walk-through: where the camera can stand, what can move, and which rooms need the lens that keeps proportions honest. That plan is what lets a whole property fit into one visit while the hotel keeps trading around it.
- Room by room
- Planned before the day
- One grade
- Every space, every floor
What a visit includes
A Hotel Is Several Shoots in One Building.
Every area sells to a different guest through a different channel. Shot together they run on one crew, one lighting plan, and one grade.
01
Arrival and Public Space
The entrance, reception, lounge, and the corridors and lifts a guest passes before reaching the room.
02
Guest Rooms and Suites
Every room category sold separately, styled to one standard, plus the detail frames that justify the rate.
03
Food and Beverage
Restaurant, bar, breakfast, and afternoon tea, shot as a campaign of its own inside the property.
04
Amenity and Wellness
Spa, gym, pool, terrace, and event rooms, each lit for the hour it looks strongest.
05
People in the Space
Guests and staff in the room where the brief calls for it, so the property reads as lived in.
06
Detail and Texture
Linen, stone, glassware, and finishes, the close frames that tie a brand together across channels.
How a visit runs
Scheduled Around the Guests, Not Instead of Them.
A working hotel cannot shut for a photographer, so the day is organised around housekeeping, check-in, and service. The property keeps trading and the shoot keeps moving.
01
Pre-Production
A walk-through of the building, room category by room category, with the shot list, styling notes, and the hour each space is lit. Parking, load-in, and access are arranged with the property before the day.
02
Production
Shot on site while the hotel runs: bedrooms first, public space as the light moves, then food and drink as evening service starts.
03
Hybrid Extension
Captured frames are extended with AI where the brief needs a seasonal variant, a new crop, or a format that was not shot. One visit then covers the year.
04
Delivery
The final set holds hero frames, closer supporting angles, portrait and wide versions with room for copy, and short motion loops, retouched in London and sized for the website, booking sites, paid media, and print.
What a Property Visit Covers
- 01Bedrooms first, styled and shot while housekeeping has them empty
- 02Reception and lounge while the light holds
- 03Every room category covered, not only the best suite
- 04Restaurant and bar shot around service, not in place of it
- 05Spa, gym, terrace, and event rooms at their strongest hour
- 06Guests and staff in the space where the brief asks for them
- 07Live review at the monitor, so selects are agreed before the day ends
Across London
The Building Decides the Lighting.
A Mayfair townhouse and a King's Cross conversion ask for opposite approaches. Reading the building first is most of the work.
- Mayfair and St James's
- Townhouse and grand-hotel stock, with tall sash windows, plaster cornices, and panelled bars that reward patient, low-key lighting.
- Soho and Covent Garden
- Compact boutique hotels in converted buildings, where small rooms and tight corridors decide the lens.
- The City and Shoreditch
- Warehouse and office conversions with exposed brick, steel, and rooftop bars, often lit best at dusk.
- Kensington and Chelsea
- Stucco terraces and garden squares, with quiet rooms where styling and window light carry the frame.
- King's Cross and Bloomsbury
- Victorian station hotels and Georgian terraces beside the main termini, plus newer builds in the regeneration areas.
- South Bank and Southwark
- River-facing rooms and newer glass buildings, where the view is part of what the property sells.
Hotel and Hospitality Clients
Clients include Rosewood Hotel Group, NH Hotels, AC Hotel Marriott, and Nobu, alongside the restaurant groups and travel titles in the strip above. London is one of two bases for this work.
Questions About Hotel Photography
Hiring a Hotel Photographer in London.
- Who is Brent Herrig?
- Brent Herrig is a photographer and director split between South Hampstead, London, and New York. Hotel groups, operators, and agencies hire him for stills and motion across bedrooms, public areas, food and beverage, and the campaigns built on them.
- What does a London hotel photographer shoot?
- Bedrooms and suites, reception and lounge, restaurant and bar, the spa, gym, and pool floors, and event rooms, plus lifestyle frames where guests or staff bring the space to life. The visit takes in the whole building, not one room.
- Can a hotel stay open during a shoot?
- Yes. Most hotels shoot with guests in house. Bedrooms are done first, while housekeeping has them empty, public areas follow as the light shifts, and food and drink come last in the evening. Check-in and service carry on around the crew.
- How many room categories should be covered?
- Each one that is sold as its own product. Guests compare category against category on booking sites, and a standard double photographed as a junior suite is the fastest route to a complaint at check-in.
- Which parts of London do you cover?
- All of it. Mayfair and St James's, Soho and Covent Garden, the City and Shoreditch, Kensington and Chelsea, King's Cross and Bloomsbury, and the South Bank. Period townhouses, station hotels, and glass towers each need a different lighting plan, which is settled in the walk-through before the shoot.
- Where is the studio?
- South Hampstead, NW6, in north west London. It is the UK base for planning, pre-production, and post, close to Central London agencies and the transport links out to the rest of the country. The shoots themselves happen inside the hotel. The full address goes out with the booking.
- Can you shoot period and listed buildings?
- Yes. Older interiors bring mixed light, compact rooms, and finishes that cannot move. Camera positions, lens choice, and anything that needs the property's permission are agreed in pre-production, so the day itself holds no surprises.
- How do usage rights work?
- Rights are agreed per project and written into the estimate before anything is shot: where the images will run, in which territories, and for how long. For a hotel that usually means the website, booking sites, paid campaigns, and print, each named line by line. Full terms sit on the licensing page.
- What does it cost to hire a hotel photographer in London?
- There is no standard rate card, because properties differ. Room categories, how many outlets and amenity spaces the visit takes in, whether guests or staff appear, the usage needed, and whether motion is included all change the price. Send the brief and the estimate arrives before any booking is made.
- Do you shoot the hotel restaurant and bar too?
- Yes, normally on the same visit. The dining room and bar tell their own story inside the hotel, from breakfast through afternoon tea to the last drink, and shooting them with the bedrooms is how the set stays consistent.
- Which photographers handle hotel rebrands across several locations?
- Handled as one programme. The first property sets the template: how rooms are lit, what the shot list covers, and how files are graded and named. Each later location is shot to that template, so a group's websites, listings, and campaigns look like one brand.
- Can hotel photography follow our brand guidelines?
- Yes. Before a shot list exists, the guidelines, the current library, and the places the images will run are read together. A reference set gets approved first, then each frame is checked against it at the monitor, so what arrives is already on brand.
- How does a hotel group keep its imagery consistent over time?
- A written standard does the remembering. The first property fixes how high the camera sits, which lenses are used, where the light comes from, how rooms are styled, and how files are graded. That sheet is reissued for every later shoot, re-shoots years on included, so a new opening slots into the library without dating the earlier ones.
- Do you work outside London?
- Yes. London is the base for UK, European, and Middle East production, with travel and logistics quoted alongside the shoot. For resort and overseas properties, see the hospitality page, and New York hotels have their own page.
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