Bolt Food Food Photography: What the Platform Actually Requires

What Bolt Food actually publishes about photos

Bolt Food is an active delivery marketplace, but its public materials do not include published pixel specifications or official photo rules. That means there is no verified 1200x1200 minimum, no confirmed 1:1 requirement, and no confirmed file-size or format limit to quote. Treat any blog post or tool that lists those numbers as unofficial.

The reliable source is the upload screen itself. When you add or replace a dish photo in the Bolt Food merchant portal or partner app, the interface will show a crop frame, a recommended ratio, and an error message if a file is too large or the wrong type. Take a screenshot of that screen the first time you upload, and keep it as your reference for the next dishes. If the screen shows nothing, upload a square JPEG at a sensible size and check how it displays in the customer app on a phone before you add the rest of the menu.

• Do not copy pixel numbers from third-party articles; they are not verified.
• Capture the upload screen on your first photo and use it as your internal spec.
• Test one dish on a phone in the customer app before uploading the full menu.

A shooting plan built around the dish, not the platform

Because Bolt Food does not publish framing rules, your job is to make the photo survive whatever crop the app applies. Shoot slightly wider than you think you need, with space around the plate, so a square or rectangular crop does not cut into the food. A plate that fills 60 to 70 percent of the frame leaves room for cropping without losing the edges of the dish.

Shoot from a 30 to 45 degree angle for most plates, which shows both the surface and the height of the food. Use a straight overhead shot for bowls, pizzas, and flat lays where the topping pattern is the selling point. Keep the camera 30 to 50 cm from the plate on a phone to avoid the wide-angle distortion that makes a burger look stretched at the corners.

Light the dish with daylight from a window to one side, or a single diffused lamp at 45 degrees, and turn off the phone flash. Flash flattens texture and creates a hot spot on sauces. Set white balance manually if your phone allows it, or shoot in a room with neutral walls so the auto white balance does not turn a white plate blue or orange. Take one photo of the dish as it is served, with the same portion and the same garnish the customer will receive, because the photo's job is to describe the order accurately.

• Shoot 10 to 20 percent wider than the final crop so edges survive.
• Use 30 to 45 degrees for plated dishes, overhead for bowls and pizzas.
• Keep the phone 30 to 50 cm away to limit wide-angle distortion.
• Turn off flash; use one window or one diffused lamp.
• Photograph the actual served portion, not a styled-up version.

Crops and file choices when the platform gives no numbers

Without published specs, prepare a square master and let the upload screen tell you the rest. A square source crops cleanly to most delivery-app layouts, and it also works on your own website, Instagram grid, Google Business Profile, and QR menu without re-shooting. Export at a size that looks sharp on a phone screen, typically 1600 pixels on the long edge, and keep the file under a few megabytes so uploads do not stall on a restaurant connection. Use JPEG for photographs and reserve PNG for images with flat graphics or transparency, which a dish photo rarely needs.

Check the crop in the upload preview at thumbnail size, not full screen. If the dish is unrecognizable at 100 pixels wide, the composition is too loose or the background is too busy. Re-crop tighter around the plate, keeping a small margin so the food does not touch the frame edge.

• Keep a square master file for every dish.
• Export around 1600 pixels on the long edge for phone screens.
• Use JPEG for photos; avoid PNG unless you need transparency.
• Judge the crop at thumbnail size, not zoomed in.

Backgrounds, props, and honest representation

A delivery listing is a menu, not a magazine spread. Use a plain surface, a wooden board, or a neutral tablecloth, and remove clutter such as receipts, bottles, and cables from the frame. One or two props that belong to the dish, like the sauce ramekin or the bread that comes with it, help the customer understand the order; a styling spoon or a scattering of raw ingredients that are not served does not.

Keep the food as it is served. Do not add extra cheese, stack a burger taller than it arrives, or swap a side that is not included. A photo that overpromises leads to complaints and refunds, and it also makes your menu harder to trust. If a dish looks pale under your kitchen lights, fix the light, not the food.

• Clear the frame of receipts, bottles, and packaging.
• Use props only if they are part of the served order.
• Do not restyle the portion or add ingredients that are not included.

Where delivery listings go wrong, and how to check yours

The most common problems in delivery photos are practical, not technical: a dark image shot under warm kitchen bulbs, a plate cropped so tightly the dish is unrecognizable, a background of stainless steel that reflects the photographer, or a photo of a different dish left over from an old menu. None of these require a platform rulebook to fix. Review your menu photos on a phone, in daylight, at the size a customer sees them, and replace any image where you cannot tell what the dish is within two seconds.

After you upload, order the dish yourself or check the customer app view on a colleague's phone. Confirm the photo matches the current menu item, the crop has not cut off the food, and the colors look like the food you serve. Update the photo whenever the recipe, portion, or presentation changes, and remove old images rather than leaving them to be reused by mistake.

• Check every photo on a phone at customer-app size.
• Replace any image where the dish is unclear within two seconds.
• Remove photos of discontinued or changed dishes.

Keeping photos consistent across Bolt Food and your own channels

Your Bolt Food listing is one place customers meet your food, and the same dish photo often appears on your website, Instagram, Google Business Profile, and printed QR menu. Shoot once, keep the square master, and export the sizes each channel needs. For your own channels, FoodPhoto takes a real photo of your own dish and improves the light, background, and crop while keeping the food as it is, and delivers each photo as a kit of sizes for menus, delivery apps, and social. It does not generate a different dish and cannot guarantee approval by any platform, so always upload your own real photo to Bolt Food and check the result in the app.