Menu Photography in Hanoi: Batch Shooting a Full Menu

Plan the shoot around Hanoi's daylight

Hanoi's sun sits almost overhead in summer and much lower in winter, and that changes what window light can do for you. Around the June solstice you get roughly 13 h 17 min of daylight with the noon sun about 88 degrees above the horizon, so direct sun through a window is harsh and short-lived; around the December solstice daylight drops to about 10 h 43 min with the noon sun about 46 degrees, which throws long, low light deep into a room.

That gives you two different shooting windows. In summer, shoot mid-morning or mid-afternoon when the sun is off the window, or use a north-facing window that never receives direct sun. In winter, the low sun can be used deliberately: a west or south window in late morning gives soft, angled light that flatters grilled meats and glossy sauces, but it moves fast, so work in short bursts and re-check the frame every few dishes.

Keep a simple schedule: shoot broths and noodle bowls first thing in the morning when the light is even and the kitchen is calm, grilled and fried items in the softer late-morning or late-afternoon window, and drinks and desserts last, since coffee and cold drinks hold up under almost any daylight. Never shoot a full menu in one continuous sitting without checking the first five frames against the last five.

• Summer (May to August): avoid 10:00 to 14:00 direct sun; use indirect window light or shade the window with a white sheet.
• Winter (November to February): the low sun reaches far into the room; use it between roughly 9:00 and 11:00 and again after 15:00.
• Equinox months: light is closest to neutral; good time to reshoot anything that looked wrong in the previous batch.
• Overcast days are your friend: soft, even light with no moving hotspot, ideal for a whole-menu batch.

Build a repeatable tabletop setup

Consistency comes from a fixed setup, not from a good camera. Pick one table near your best window, mark the table edge with tape, and shoot every dish from the same position. A phone on a small tripod or a stack of stable boxes at roughly 45 degrees above the plate gives a natural view that shows both the surface of the dish and its depth; a straight-down 90-degree shot works better for flat items like bánh mì or a composed rice plate.

Use one background for the whole menu: a plain wooden board, a dark slate tile or a clean white cloth. Hanoi dishes often come with a lot of garnish and side herbs, so leave a margin around the bowl and keep the frame tight enough that the food fills about 70 to 80 percent of the image. Set white balance manually if your phone allows it, or tap the same white napkin in every shot so the broth, greens and sauces stay the same color across the set.

Shoot each dish in two versions: a hero frame for print and website headers, and a tighter frame that survives a square 1:1 or 16:9 crop on a phone screen. Take three to five frames per dish, no more, and move on. A full menu of 30 dishes is a two-hour job when the setup never changes.

• One table, one background, one camera height for the whole batch.
• Tap-to-focus on the main ingredient, not the rim of the bowl.
• Wipe the plate rim and the table between every dish.
• Shoot the dish as it is served; do not add props that are not part of the order.

Shooting dishes that are hard to photograph

Broth-based dishes like phở or bún are the toughest: a flat, reflective surface with noodles hidden underneath. Lift a few noodles and a slice of meat to the top with chopsticks right before the shot, and shoot slightly from the side so the bowl's depth shows. Steam reads as grey haze on a phone, so let the bowl settle for a few seconds or shoot just after the steam thins.

Grilled items and fried rolls look best with a little side light, which the winter window gives you naturally; in summer, angle the plate so the window is at about 45 degrees to the side rather than behind it. Egg coffee and other layered drinks need a clean glass and a lower camera angle to show the layers. Bánh mì and other assembled items should be shot cut open, filling facing the camera.

Name, sort and store files so the menu stays in sync

A menu photo is only useful if you can find it the day a price changes. Adopt one naming pattern and never break it: a two-digit category number, the dish name without diacritics for safe file handling, and a version date, for example 03_pho-bo_2025-03. Keep the original full-resolution file and export separate crops for print, QR menu and app uploads into clearly labeled folders.

Keep a simple spreadsheet that lists every dish, its photo file name, the date it was shot and where it is currently used: printed menu, QR menu, delivery app listing, website. When a dish changes recipe, portion or plating, bump the version date and reshoot only that dish against the same background and setup so it still matches the rest of the set.

Printed menus are the slowest to update, so print in small runs or use a menu that allows inserts. QR menus and delivery listings can be updated the same day. Before any reprint, open the spreadsheet and compare it against the current printed menu line by line.

• Category number + dish name + version date in every file name.
• One folder for originals, one for print crops, one per app or channel.
• Log every reshoot in the spreadsheet with the date.
• Delete nothing; archive old versions so you can compare and revert.

Sizes for print, QR menus and delivery apps

One photo rarely fits everywhere. A printed menu wants a high-resolution image at 300 dpi at the size it will be printed, often a small rectangle or circle. A QR menu and a website menu want a square 1:1 crop that stays readable at thumbnail size. Delivery app listings use their own crops and their own upload rules, and this site does not publish pixel specifications for those apps; check the upload screen of each platform you use for its current requirements before you export.

Some platforms have rules about what kind of images they accept, including bans on AI-generated food images. Where that applies, shoot and upload your own real photo of the dish directly to that platform. Never assume an edited image will be approved; approval is always the platform's decision.

For the restaurant's own channels, a consistent set matters more than a perfect single shot. FoodPhoto 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. That is most useful for your website menu, Instagram, Google Business Profile, QR menu and print pieces, where you control the look across the whole set.

• Print: export at 300 dpi at final print size, keep the original file.
• QR menu and website: square 1:1 crop, dish readable at small size.
• Social: keep a 4:5 or 1:1 version of each hero dish.
• Delivery apps: follow the platform's own upload screen and rules.