Bogotá Restaurant Photography: A Practical Guide for Delivery Apps, Menus and Social

What Bogotá daylight means for food photos

Bogotá gets roughly 12 hours 16 minutes of daylight around the June solstice, with the noon sun about 71 degrees above the horizon. Around the December solstice it gets about 11 hours 44 minutes, with the noon sun at about 62 degrees. The day length is nearly constant, so the real variable is sun height, and that changes how light enters a window.

A high noon sun (June) throws a narrow, steep beam through a window and casts short, dark shadows under plates. A lower sun (December) sends light deeper into the room at a flatter angle, which usually wraps around food more gently. In both seasons, the two to three hours after sunrise and before sunset give the softest, most controllable light for a phone camera.

• June schedule: shoot between 7 and 9 a.m. or after 4 p.m., when the sun is lower and the window light is diffused.
• December schedule: the midday window is more forgiving, so 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. can work if you use a sheer curtain or white card to bounce light back onto the plate.
• Avoid direct sun on the plate at any time of year; move the table 1 to 2 meters back from the window and let the light fall across the food from the side.
• Overcast Bogotá afternoons are an asset: the whole sky becomes a softbox, so shoot near a window without any diffusion.

Setting up a repeatable shooting spot

Pick one table near a window and keep it there. Consistency matters more than perfection: if every dish is shot from the same angle and distance, your menu and delivery listings look deliberate rather than random. A side window (light coming from the left or right of the plate) at about 45 degrees to the camera gives shape and texture to soups, rice dishes and grilled meats.

Use a plain background that contrasts with the food. A dark wooden board under a light-colored dish, or a neutral cloth under a dark sauce, separates the subject. Keep the camera at a 30 to 45 degree angle for plated dishes so the diner sees the top and the side, and shoot straight down at 90 degrees for bowls, pizzas and shared platters. Fill the frame: the dish should take up most of the image, because delivery app thumbnails are small.

• Clean the rim of the plate before every shot; smudges read as sloppiness at thumbnail size.
• Use a white napkin or card opposite the window to bounce light into shadowed sides.
• Turn off overhead tungsten or fluorescent lights while shooting; mixed color casts are hard to fix later.
• Shoot three versions of each dish: one tight crop, one with a little table context, one straight-down.

Sizing photos for Rappi, DiDi Food and your own channels

Rappi and DiDi Food both operate in Colombia. This site publishes a Rappi photo spec page for Colombia at /delivery-photo-specs/rappi/colombia/, which covers the image requirements Rappi lists for that market. Check that page before you export, and confirm the current requirements on the Rappi upload screen, since platforms can change them.

For your own channels, a square 1:1 crop works for Instagram grid posts and QR menus, a 4:5 vertical suits Instagram feed and Stories, and a 16:9 landscape fits website headers and Google Business Profile cover images. Keep the dish centered with a little breathing room so a crop never cuts into the food.

If you deliver through Rappi, upload your own real photographs to Rappi directly. FoodPhoto can prepare versions for your website menu, Instagram, Google Business Profile, QR menu and print, but it does not guarantee approval by any platform.

• Export at least 1200 pixels on the long edge for delivery apps and Google.
• Keep file sizes reasonable; large PNGs slow down menu pages.
• Name files by dish, for example ajiaco-principal.jpg, so your team can find them later.
• Keep one master folder of originals so you can re-crop for a new format without reshooting.

What to shoot first in a Bogotá kitchen

Start with the dishes that carry your identity: soups and stews, arepas, grilled meats, rice plates and the breakfast items that sell in the morning. These are the dishes diners search for by name, and they photograph well when the light shows texture and steam. Shoot a soup within a minute of plating so it still looks hot, and wipe the bowl's edge.

Colombian menus are commonly written in Spanish, so keep dish names in Spanish on your own channels and add a short English line only if you serve international visitors. Photograph the dish as it is actually served: the same portion, the same sides, the same garnish. A photo that overpromises creates complaints and refund requests on delivery apps.

• Shoot your top sellers and any dish you plan to promote that week.
• Include one photo per combo or set meal showing everything the customer receives.
• Photograph drinks and desserts separately; they are often the highest-margin items.
• Refresh seasonal specials as soon as the menu changes.

A monthly photo routine that survives a busy service

Block 45 minutes once a month, before service, when the kitchen is calm and the window light is good. Shoot five to eight dishes, not the whole menu. Rotate through the menu over several months so every item is eventually updated without a single long, expensive shoot day.

Keep a simple shot list on the kitchen wall: dish name, angle, date shot, and where the photo is used. When a dish changes, the list tells you what to reshoot. This is also the moment to run real photos of your own dishes through FoodPhoto, which improves light, background and crop while keeping the food as it is, and returns every photo as a kit of sizes for menus, delivery apps and social.

• Schedule shoots in the morning window (7 to 9 a.m.) during June and in the wider midday window during December.
• Reshoot any dish whose portion or plating has changed.
• Archive old photos rather than deleting them, in case you bring a dish back.
• Review your delivery app listings and Google profile each month for outdated images.