Restaurant Photography in Hanoi: A Practical Guide for Menu, Delivery and Social Photos

Plan your shooting around Hanoi's daylight

Hanoi sits at about 21 degrees north, so the sun's height changes a lot across the year. Around the June solstice you get roughly 13 hours 17 minutes of daylight and the noon sun is about 88 degrees above the horizon, almost straight overhead. Around the December solstice daylight drops to about 10 hours 43 minutes and the noon sun is only about 46 degrees up.

That difference decides which window works. In summer the sun is so high that a north-facing window gets soft, indirect light most of the day, which is ideal for dishes with sauces, broths and glossy surfaces. In winter the sun stays lower and reaches deeper into rooms, so south and west windows pick up strong direct light in the afternoon and you need to shoot earlier or diffuse it.

A workable seasonal schedule for window light: in June and July, shoot between 9:00 and 11:00 or after 15:00 at a north or east window. In December and January, shoot between 10:00 and 14:00 at a south or east window, and avoid the low afternoon sun that throws hard shadows across the plate. In the shoulder months, test each window once with a phone at the same time of day and keep the one that gives even light with no bright patch on the table.

• June: north or east window, mid-morning or mid-afternoon, avoid direct overhead sun on glossy dishes.
• December: south or east window, late morning to early afternoon, watch for long shadows from low sun.
• Any month: put the dish about one meter from the window, not against it, so light wraps the food.
• Turn off ceiling lights and phone flash; mixed color makes broth and greens look wrong.

Shoot the dishes Hanoi customers actually order

Hanoi's food culture is built on broths, grilled meats, fresh herbs and rice and noodle dishes, much of it eaten at small street-side and family-run places. Those dishes are hard to photograph well: clear broth reflects the window, herbs wilt under warm light, and grilled items look dry if shot from too far away.

Shoot from about 45 degrees above the table for noodles and rice plates so you see both the surface and the depth of the bowl. For bowls of broth, drop to about 20 to 30 degrees so the camera looks into the bowl rather than at the reflection on the surface. For grilled skewers and banh mi style sandwiches, a straight-on side view at plate height shows the char and the filling.

Photograph the exact portion you serve, on the exact plate or bowl it leaves the kitchen in. Delivery customers compare what arrives with what they saw, and a photo of a larger portion than you send causes complaints that no lighting fix can solve.

• Wipe the rim of the bowl and remove stray herbs or drips before shooting.
• Shoot broth dishes within a minute of plating; steam fogs the lens and herbs darken.
• Include one wide shot of the full table set and one close shot of the signature element, such as the grilled meat or the herbs.
• Keep the same background surface for every dish so your menu and app listings look consistent.

Crop for each place the photo appears

One photo rarely fits everywhere. A square 1:1 crop suits Instagram grid posts and many menu thumbnails. A vertical 4:5 or 9:16 crop suits stories and reels. A wide 16:9 or similar landscape crop suits website headers and some app banners. Google Business Profile photos appear in several shapes, so keep the dish centered with space around it so any crop still works.

Delivery apps are stricter and less predictable. Before uploading, check the current image requirements on each app's merchant upload screen or help center, because sizes and aspect ratios change and are set by the platform, not by you. If a platform does not publish pixel specifications, do not guess: open the upload screen, read what it asks for, and crop to that.

Keep a master file of each dish at the largest size you have, then export smaller versions from it. Never upscale a small crop to fill a large slot; it will look soft on a phone screen.

Write listings and menus that match the photos

Photos only convert when the text beside them is accurate. Name dishes the way your customers say them, including the Vietnamese name and a short English description if you serve visitors. State the main ingredients and the portion size, and mark dishes that are spicy or contain peanuts or shellfish, since these are common in Hanoi cooking and customers check before ordering.

On delivery apps, put your best-selling and highest-margin dishes first with a photo each, and leave the long tail of rarely ordered items without photos rather than using a poor shot. On your printed menu, use the same photos as the app so a customer who orders once recognizes the dish when they visit.

Keep prices and availability current across every channel. A photo of a dish that is no longer served, or a price that differs between the app and the printed menu, creates disputes that hurt ratings.

Keep every channel consistent

Use the same set of dish photos on your website menu, your Google Business Profile, your social accounts, your QR menu and any printed material. Consistency makes a small restaurant look organized and makes it easier for customers to recognize a dish they saw on an app.

Update photos when the dish changes: a new garnish, a different bowl, a seasonal ingredient. Refresh your Google Business Profile photos periodically, since customers use them to judge whether the place is still active and well kept.

If you use FoodPhoto, it takes a real photo of your own dish and improves the light, background and crop for menus, delivery apps and social while keeping the food as it is, and every photo comes as a kit of sizes. It cannot guarantee approval by any platform, so always check each app's current rules before uploading, and never describe an image as approved by a platform before it is live.