ChowNow Food Photography: Specs, Angles and Upload Rules

What ChowNow actually publishes

ChowNow does publish file specs, but they are deliberately loose. Accepted formats are JPEG, PNG or HEIC, and the file must stay under 10 MB. ChowNow asks for high-resolution images but lists no pixel minimum, so there is no official number to design around. If a client or an agency tells you a specific pixel size is required by ChowNow, that number did not come from ChowNow's support documentation.

The rules that matter are visual. Images must be clear, crisp and well lit, with natural-colored backgrounds and no extreme filters. One photo per item, no collages. The single dish must appear in its entirety. No text, no watermarks, no third-party trademarks. No people unless you have written permission, though your own restaurant name and logo are fine. Camera position can be overhead, straight-on or low, but you should not tilt the camera, and the item should sit centered with empty space around the borders so the platform can crop it.

Because there is no pixel minimum, the practical target is the largest, sharpest file your phone or camera produces, exported just under the size cap. A 12-megapixel phone photo downsized to a few megabytes is more than enough detail; a screenshot of a photo, or an image pulled from an old social post, usually is not.

• Formats: JPEG, PNG or HEIC
• Size: under 10 MB per image
• Resolution: high-resolution requested, no pixel minimum published
• Composition: one whole dish, centered, untilted, border space for cropping
• Content: no text, watermarks, third-party logos or people without written permission

Shooting a menu set that holds together

ChowNow's guidance points toward brand consistency, which is easier to achieve in one shooting session than across months of ad hoc photos. Pick a single background that suits your food and your room: a pale wood board for a bakery or sandwich shop, a matte dark slate for a steakhouse or ramen counter, a plain white or light gray surface for salads and bowls where color accuracy matters most. Shoot every dish on that same surface under the same light so the menu reads as one set rather than a scrapbook.

Work near a large window with indirect daylight, or use one diffused light placed at roughly 45 degrees to the side and slightly above the plate. A side light shows texture in crusts, grill marks and glazed surfaces; flat frontal light flattens everything. Keep a white napkin or a sheet of white paper just outside the frame on the shadow side to bounce a little light back, and check the result on the phone screen at full brightness before moving on.

For the camera position, all three ChowNow-accepted angles work, but they suit different dishes. A straight-on angle at plate level flatters burgers, layer cakes, tall drinks and anything with height. An overhead shot at 90 degrees works for pizzas, bowls, shared platters and full place settings where the arrangement is the point. A low angle, roughly 20 to 30 degrees above the table, is the safest general choice for plated entrees because it shows both the surface of the food and its height. Whatever you choose, keep the phone parallel to the surface you are shooting against and resist the urge to tilt for drama.

Fill the frame but not the edges. ChowNow asks for space around the item so it can be cropped, so leave a margin of background on all four sides instead of letting the plate touch the frame. Style lightly: a fork, a small ramekin of sauce, a scattered herb. Anything that is not part of the dish you sell can confuse the item photo.

• One background, one light setup, one session for the whole menu
• Side light at about 45 degrees for texture; bounce card on the shadow side
• Straight-on for burgers and cakes, 90-degree overhead for pizza and bowls, 20 to 30 degrees for plated entrees
• Leave background margin on all four sides for cropping
• No tilt, no filters, no heavy saturation

Crops and file prep before upload

ChowNow does not publish a pixel size or aspect ratio, so build your master files so they crop cleanly into whatever shape the upload screen and your own menu use. A square 1:1 master is the most flexible: it fits menu grids, QR menus and most app tiles. Keep the dish centered in that square, then export a 16:9 or 4:5 version from the same master for your website banner or Instagram feed without reshooting.

Export at the highest quality your tool allows and check the file size against the 10 MB ceiling. If a photo lands over the limit, reduce it in small steps rather than dropping quality hard in one go. Strip anything the camera or editing app added automatically, including location tags and any text stamp. If you shoot in HEIC on an iPhone, ChowNow accepts it, but converting to JPEG avoids surprises when the same file goes to your printer or a second platform.

• Keep a square 1:1 master, then derive 4:5 and 16:9 versions
• Export near the top of the quality range, under 10 MB
• Remove text stamps, date stamps and location metadata
• HEIC is accepted, but JPEG is the safer universal copy

Where ChowNow reviews go wrong

The most common problem is a dish that is not fully in frame. A pizza shot so close the crust disappears at the top, or a sandwich board cut off at the bottom, fails the "single item in its entirety" rule even if the photo looks appetizing. Step back, shoot wider, and crop later.

The second is text. Promotional banners, price tags, "new" badges and restaurant watermarks are all disallowed, and they also look dated the moment a price changes. Keep the image clean and put the price in the menu field where it belongs. Third is the tilted camera: a slight Dutch angle that feels dynamic on Instagram reads as sloppy on an ordering menu.

People are a quiet trap. A hand pouring sauce or a server in the background counts as a person in the frame, and ChowNow asks for written permission. Unless you have that on file, shoot hands-free. Finally, watch for third-party trademarks: a branded soda can, a condiment bottle with a visible label or a supplier's logo on packaging should be turned away or replaced with an unbranded container.

None of this is a guarantee of approval. ChowNow reviews images against its own guidelines, and the final call is theirs, so keep your original files and be ready to reshoot a dish if a reviewer asks.

One photo set for every channel you own

Once a dish is shot cleanly, the same master serves your website menu, Instagram, Google Business Profile, a printed menu and a QR menu, each with its own crop. That is the workflow FoodPhoto is built for: it takes a real photo of your own dish and improves light, background and crop for menus, delivery apps and social while keeping the food as it is, and every photo comes back as a kit of sizes. It cannot guarantee approval by any platform, so treat the ChowNow upload itself as your own step, using the original files.