Embodying the iconic Lurpak style through premium photography
Lurpak is a premium butter brand known for its rich, creamy texture and exceptional quality. Originating from Denmark, Lurpak has built a strong reputation over the years for delivering a high-end, versatile product that enhances cooking and baking experiences. Its distinctive flavour and smooth consistency have made it a favourite among chefs, home cooks, and food enthusiasts alike.
About this post
Published
Services
March 26, 2025
Production
The brief
Following the launch of Lurpak’s new global website, the brand wanted to establish itself as the go-to destination for butter-based recipe inspiration. While the core recipe library served a global audience, Lurpak recognised the need to create more locally relevant recipes tailored to specific markets – without compromising their distinctive brand look and feel.
Our partners at Zeal Creative tasked us with producing a suite of recipe photography that ticked all the boxes:
- Seamlessly matching their cinematic, TV-style aesthetic
- Capturing the real, imperfect beauty of home-cooked food
- Reflecting regional tastes while staying unmistakably Lurpak
But above all, it was about achieving the highest quality possible in our photography.
The challenges
We faced a number of challenges along the way:
- Lighting balance & consistency: As mentioned, achieving the right lighting was crucial. It had to match Lurpak’s signature cinematic style (dramatic but natural) without overpowering the food. Too bright, and the image felt artificial; too dark, and the ingredients lost vibrancy.
- Tight cropping & versatility: Capturing the same dish in both portrait and landscape formats, while maintaining visual impact and focus, was tricky. For recipe cards, we needed tight, intimate crops with the food as the hero. For web banners, a wider crop was essential without losing detail.
- Maintaining ‘imperfection’ without looking messy: Lurpak’s brief celebrated natural imperfections! But making something look beautifully imperfect (and not just sloppy) is a fine art.
- Prop sourcing & styling: Every prop needed to feel “lived in,” high quality but worn-in and loved, not showroom new. Finding and curating enough appropriate props that aligned with Lurpak’s guidelines and didn’t detract from the food was a time-intensive process.
- Food freshness: Timing had to be spot on to make sure every dish looked fresh, garnishes didn’t wilt, sauces didn’t split, and textures remained appealing. Coordinating kitchen prep, food styling, lighting tweaks and the perfect haze all in sync was key to keeping the pace while maintaining quality.
Our approach
To ensure visual continuity, we built a fully bespoke kitchen set, mirroring the natural, lived-in spaces seen in Lurpak’s previous campaigns. Careful attention was paid to selecting items that looked loved, not staged.
We brought to life a detailed lighting plan to replicate Lurpak’s cinematic TV aesthetic, using constant light (a staple in film, less common in stills), and 18 remote-controlled lights for seamless adjustments on a pretty packed set.
We shot approximately 2-3 recipes per day, capturing two variations per dish. Every shot had to embody Lurpak’s ethos; celebrating the kind of food you cook and eat with butter, unapologetically presented. We did prep work with the crew so that we could hit the ground running knowing that everything had been signed off.
Bringing this vision to life required an expert team. Our photographers worked hand-in-hand with the brand’s guidelines, focusing on angles that heroed the food while keeping props understated and secondary. Every dish was photographed to highlight texture, colour, and the natural beauty of the ingredients, always prioritising food you’d actually cook (and eat) with butter.
Our food stylist played a crucial role in this. Each dish was styled to feel home cooked yet appetising, leaning into natural imperfections like rough garnishes, oozing sauces, and generous finishing touches. It wasn’t about perfect plating; it was about making each recipe feel achievable, authentic, and deliciously indulgent.
Finally, we structured every setup to accommodate both portrait and landscape crops, ensuring assets were optimised for recipe cards, web banners, and wider campaign use. This versatile approach maximised the usability of each shot across Lurpak’s digital touchpoints.
Results
50+
recipe shots
10
shooting days
Who worked on this one
This project wouldn't have been possible without our awesome team!