Bolt Food Photo Specs in Azerbaijan: How to Prepare Menu Images

What Bolt Food actually publishes in Azerbaijan

Bolt Food's merchant documentation does not list pixel dimensions, aspect ratios, file size limits or accepted formats for menu images in Azerbaijan. There is no published spec sheet to check against, and no stated rule about how photos are resized in the app.

The practical consequence is that you should not trust any third-party page quoting an exact resolution for Bolt Food. Those numbers are guesses. Open your merchant dashboard, go to the menu item upload screen and look for the guidance shown there, or ask your Bolt Food account contact directly. The upload screen is the only authority.

Work to a spec that is safe under almost any rule: a large square JPEG, high quality, modest file size. If the platform later asks for something narrower, you can crop down from a good master. You cannot add detail back.

Build one master file that survives any crop

Shoot in landscape orientation even if you plan to publish square. Landscape gives you room to crop to 1:1, 4:3 or 16:9 later without losing the plate. Keep the entire dish, including the rim of the plate, inside a centered square drawn on your viewfinder or monitor. Anything outside that square is bonus width, not essential content.

Light the dish evenly from one side at roughly 45 degrees, with a white card or foam board on the opposite side to lift the shadows. Avoid direct overhead flash: it flattens texture and puts a hard shadow under the plate. A window with diffused daylight plus a reflector is enough for most dishes.

Export a JPEG at the largest size your editing tool allows, quality around 85 to 90 percent. That keeps detail in sauces and grill marks while keeping the file manageable. Keep the unedited raw file too, so you can re-export if Bolt Food's guidance changes.

• Shoot landscape, compose for a centered square
• Keep the whole plate inside the square with margin on all sides
• Light from one side at about 45 degrees, reflect on the other
• Export JPEG at quality 85 to 90, keep the raw file

Menu language and photo-description consistency

Bolt Food menus in Azerbaijan are written in Azerbaijani. That matters for photography because the photo has to match the name and description the customer reads, not the name you use internally. If the menu entry says the dish comes with lavash and pickles, those should be visible in the frame. If the description names a specific cut or cooking method, the photo should not contradict it.

Write the Azerbaijani menu name and a short description first, then shoot to that text. This order prevents the common problem of a beautiful photo of a dish that no longer matches what the kitchen serves. When a recipe or portion changes, reshoot rather than reuse the old image.

Keep garnish and props consistent across the menu. If one dish is shot on a dark slate and another on a white plate, the menu looks assembled from different restaurants.

Azerbaijani dishes that are hard to photograph

Several dishes common in Azerbaijan are genuinely difficult and need a specific approach rather than generic styling.

Plov and similar rice dishes look like a flat mound. Build height by spooning the rice into a small dome, place the meat or chestnuts on top where the light hits, and add a few visible strands of saffron rice for color contrast. Shoot slightly above eye level, around 30 to 40 degrees, so the dome reads.

Dolma and stuffed vegetables are pale and low contrast. Cut one piece open and place it cut side toward the camera so the filling is visible, and use a plate with a contrasting tone. Soups such as piti and bozbash photograph as a flat surface; shoot them with the bread or the meat lifted slightly above the broth on a spoon or at the edge of the bowl, and use side light to catch steam and surface texture.

Kebabs and grilled meats benefit from a low angle, around 20 to 30 degrees, to show char and thickness, but keep the whole skewer or plate inside your square. Breads and pastries look better with a torn edge facing the camera. Sauces and oily dishes need a matte surface underneath and a slightly lower exposure to avoid blown highlights.

Regulation and accuracy

There is no specific regulation recorded for food photography on delivery platforms in Azerbaijan. The general principle still applies: the photo must represent the dish the customer receives. Do not use a stock image of a similar dish, do not add portions that are not served, and do not photograph a larger plate than the one that leaves the kitchen.

If your kitchen uses variable ingredients by season, photograph the version you serve most of the year and note substitutions in the description rather than in the image.

Pre-upload checklist and one tool note

Run through the practical checks below before each upload, and re-check the Bolt Food upload screen whenever you add a new menu section in case guidance has appeared.

FoodPhoto 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 delivers every photo as a kit of sizes. It cannot guarantee approval by any platform, so always compare the result against Bolt Food's own upload screen.