Menu Photography in Belo Horizonte: Full-Menu, Batch-Shoot Workflow

Plan the shoot around Belo Horizonte's daylight

Belo Horizonte sits at about 19.9 degrees south, so the sun is high overhead for much of the year. Around the December solstice the city gets about 13 h 12 min of daylight and the noon sun reaches about 86 degrees above the horizon; around the June solstice it gets about 10 h 48 min and the noon sun reaches about 47 degrees. That difference matters if you shoot near a window: in December the light arrives almost vertically and barely reaches into the room, while in June it comes in at a lower angle and travels much further across a table.

A practical schedule: in the December-to-February stretch, shoot between roughly 9:00 and 10:30 or after 15:30, when the sun is lower and light falls more sideways through the window. In June and July, the low midday sun can throw a bright patch deep into the room, so either shoot earlier in the morning or move the table back from the glass. Whatever the season, place the dish so the window is to one side (around 45 degrees to the camera) rather than directly behind it, and put a white card or a sheet of baking paper on the opposite side to lift the shadows.

• December solstice: about 13 h 12 min of daylight, noon sun about 86 degrees. Shoot early morning or late afternoon; midday light barely enters a window.
• June solstice: about 10 h 48 min of daylight, noon sun about 47 degrees. Expect a long bright patch on the floor and table; move back from the glass or shoot before 10:00.
• Overcast days are the easiest: soft, even light with no hard shadows, good for glossy sauces and drinks.
• Turn off overhead tungsten and fluorescent lights during the shoot so you do not mix color temperatures with daylight.

Batch shooting a full menu in one session

Book one block of time per menu section rather than shooting dish by dish across weeks. A workable order is: boteco snacks and small plates first, then main plates such as feijão tropeiro or frango com quiabo, then desserts, then drinks. Grouping by section lets you keep the same plate, background and camera position for several shots before changing anything, which is what makes a menu look consistent.

Fix the camera before the first dish. Use one lens (a 50mm equivalent is a safe standard), one tripod position, and one height: straight-on at about 0 degrees for layered plates and drinks, and about 45 degrees for flat plates and bowls. Keep the same distance so portions look comparable. Shoot each dish in two framings: a square 1:1 for delivery-app tiles and QR menus, and a wider 16:9 or 4:5 for a printed menu or website banner. Take one clean shot and one with a slight variation (a cut, a spoon, a pour) and stop there; more variations slow the edit and rarely help.

For Minas Gerais home-style cooking, the food is often brown and beige: tropeiro, rice, beans, fried snacks. A mid-tone background (slate, dark wood, a plain cloth) separates those tones better than a white table, and a small green garnish or a piece of lime adds a color anchor without changing the dish.

• One lens, one tripod, one table position for the whole session.
• Two framings per dish: 1:1 and 16:9 (or 4:5 for print).
• Shoot sections in menu order so the final gallery matches the printed layout.
• Wipe plates and refresh garnishes between shots; small plates go cold and greasy fast.

Naming files so photos stay in sync with menu changes

Set a naming rule before the shoot and stick to it. A pattern that works is: section-number_dish-name_version_date, for example 03_feijao-tropeiro_v2_2025-06. Lowercase, hyphens instead of spaces, no accents in file names. This keeps files sortable in a folder and readable in a spreadsheet.

Keep a simple menu-photo list: one row per dish with its name, price line, section, the file name of the current approved photo, and the date it was shot. When a dish changes (new portion, new plate, seasonal ingredient), update the version number and date rather than overwriting the old file, so you can roll back if the new shot is worse. When a dish leaves the menu, archive its folder instead of deleting it; it often returns.

The same master file then feeds every surface: the print menu, the QR menu PDF, the website and the delivery apps. Because the delivery app crops are made from the master, a single reshoot updates every channel once you re-export.

Printed menus, QR menus and delivery apps need different crops

A printed menu usually holds a small image next to text, so a tight 1:1 or 4:5 crop with the dish centered works best. A QR menu is read on a phone, often at arm's length, so the same 1:1 crop should be sharp at small size and free of tiny garnishes that turn to mush. A website banner or Google Business Profile cover needs a wider 16:9 crop with breathing room around the plate.

Delivery apps are the strictest surface. For Brazil, this site has photo spec pages for iFood (/delivery-photo-specs/ifood/brazil/) and Rappi (/delivery-photo-specs/rappi/brazil/); check those before exporting. 99Food also operates in Brazil, but if no spec page is listed for it here, check the upload screen in the merchant app for its current requirements, since platforms change them without notice. Upload the real photo of the dish you actually serve: a photo of a different portion or a borrowed image creates complaints and refunds that cost more than a reshoot.

• 1:1 for delivery tiles and QR menus.
• 4:5 or 3:4 for printed menus and Instagram feed.
• 16:9 for website banners and Google Business Profile covers.
• Export each crop from the same master file so colors match across channels.

Keeping photos current when the menu changes

Review the photo list at the same time you review prices. If a dish's price changes but the photo still matches the plate, no reshoot is needed; if the portion, plate or recipe changes, schedule a short reshoot of just that section. A 20-minute window-light session can cover three or four changed dishes.

For seasonal specials, shoot them in the same setup as the core menu so they do not look like a different restaurant. When the special ends, archive the photo and remove it from the delivery app listing the same day, so customers do not order something they saw and cannot get.

On the merchant's own channels, FoodPhoto can help: it takes a real photo of the restaurant's own dish and improves light, background and crop for menus, delivery apps and social, keeping the food as it is, and every photo comes as a kit of sizes. It cannot guarantee approval by any platform, so always check each app's upload screen before publishing.