Kyoto Menu Photography for Real Dishes

Plan the shot list before you cook

Build the list from the menu itself, not from what looks good on the pass. Export every orderable item from your POS or menu file into a spreadsheet with columns for dish name in Japanese, dish name in English if you print one, category, price tier, and photo status. Sort by category so the kitchen can produce items in groups: small plates and obanzai first, then rice and noodle dishes, then sweets. Grouping by texture and color also keeps the shoot efficient, because you reset the set once per group rather than once per dish.

Decide the surfaces each photo must serve before you shoot. A printed menu may need a landscape crop, a QR menu is read on a phone in portrait, and delivery listings are viewed as small thumbnails. Shoot each dish once at a wider framing that leaves breathing room on all sides, then crop down. If you frame tight in camera you cannot recover a square tile later without cutting the garnish that makes the dish recognizable.

• One row per orderable item, with Japanese and English names
• Mark best sellers and seasonal items so they get shot first
• Note which items appear in print, QR menu, and delivery listings
• Flag items that change plating seasonally so they get re-shot

A seasonal window-light schedule for Kyoto

Kyoto's daylight swing is large and it changes what window light can do for you. Around the June solstice the city gets about 14 h 21 min of daylight and the noon sun reaches about 78 degrees above the horizon. Around the December solstice it gets about 9 h 39 min and the noon sun reaches about 32 degrees. A high summer sun pours steeply through a window and casts short, hard shadows; a low winter sun rakes across the room and gives long, soft directional light. Plan sessions around that geometry rather than around a fixed clock time.

In summer, shoot in the early morning or late afternoon when the sun is lower and the light comes in at an angle instead of straight down. Midday in June is the worst window for a north- or south-facing table because the light is nearly overhead and flat on the plate. In winter, midday is your best window: the low sun gives soft side light that models the texture of tofu, grilled fish, and rice. Move the table so the light comes from one side at roughly 45 degrees to the plate, and use a white board or sheet of washi on the shadow side to bounce light back in.

Spring and autumn sit between these extremes, so treat them as flexible months for re-shoots of seasonal items. Keep a simple log of which session each dish was shot in, and check the log when the menu changes.

• June: shoot before 10 a.m. or after 3 p.m., avoid overhead midday sun
• December: midday is prime, low sun gives soft side light
• Place the key light at about 45 degrees to the plate
• Bounce fill from the shadow side with a white board

Batch shooting without losing consistency

Consistency comes from fixed variables. Lock the camera height, the distance to the plate, and the background before the first dish arrives. A height of about 45 degrees above the table gives a natural view of plated food that still shows the surface of the dish; a straight overhead 90 degree shot works for flat items like sushi platters or wagashi on a tray but flattens bowls of soup. Pick one angle per category and stay with it.

Shoot in batches of six to ten dishes, then review on a laptop before the kitchen produces the next batch. The most common failure in a full-menu shoot is drift: the background creeps in, the white balance shifts, the plate sits slightly off-center. Reviewing in batches catches drift while you can still correct it. Keep a reference shot of a neutral gray card at the start of each session so you can match color later.

Kyoto plating is often minimal, so the background matters more than usual. A plain dark wood surface, a neutral linen, or a matte ceramic tile reads cleanly at thumbnail size. Avoid busy patterns that compete with a single delicate garnish.

Naming files so the menu stays in sync

Adopt a naming convention before the shoot, not after. A workable pattern is category_dish-name_variant_date, using lowercase and hyphens, for example appetizer_yudofu-square_2025-03. Include the crop variant in the name so you can find the square tile and the landscape version without opening files. Keep the original wide frame as the master file and treat crops as derivatives.

Store the master files in one folder per menu season and keep a single spreadsheet that maps each dish to its master file and its crops. When a dish leaves the menu, move its files to an archive folder rather than deleting them; seasonal items often return. When a dish changes, add a new date to the filename rather than overwriting, so you can compare old and new plating side by side.

Delivery platforms and QR menu builders each have their own image handling. For Uber Eats, Square Online, and Yelp, this site has country-specific spec pages at /delivery-photo-specs/uber-eats/japan/, /delivery-photo-specs/square/japan/, and /delivery-photo-specs/yelp/japan/. Check those pages for what each platform publishes, and always confirm the current requirements on the upload screen itself, since platforms change them without notice.

Keeping photos in sync with menu changes

Set a review rhythm tied to your menu cycle. If your menu changes with the seasons, schedule a re-shoot window at the start of each season and a file audit at the end. During the audit, compare the spreadsheet against the live menu on every surface: printed menu, QR menu, delivery listings, and your own website. Any dish on the menu without a current photo goes on the next shoot list.

The most visible errors are mismatches: a photo of last season's garnish next to this season's description, or a photo of a dish that is no longer served. These are more damaging than a missing photo because they undermine trust in the whole menu. Keep the audit quick by working from the spreadsheet rather than clicking through every listing.

For your own channels, a photo kit helps keep sizes in sync. 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. Use it for your website menu, Instagram, Google Business Profile, QR menu, and print, and check each delivery platform's own upload screen for its current requirements.