Jakarta Restaurant Photography: Delivery Apps, Menus and Google

A daylight shooting schedule for Jakarta

At the December solstice Jakarta gets roughly 12 h 22 min of daylight and the noon sun stands about 73 degrees above the horizon. At the June solstice it gets about 11 h 38 min and the noon sun reaches about 60 degrees. The practical difference is small: the sun is high most of the year, so direct sun through a window lands steeply on the table and casts short, hard shadows rather than long ones.

That means the middle of the day is the worst time to shoot beside a window facing the sun, and the best time is when the sun is lower and the light comes in at a shallower angle. Build two shooting windows into your week: one in the morning between about 8 and 10, and one in the late afternoon from about 4 until the light fades. In June the afternoon window runs a little longer because the sun is lower at noon and sets earlier relative to the December pattern; in December the morning window stays usable slightly later.

For a window that faces east, shoot in the morning; for one that faces west, shoot in the afternoon. A south or north facing window in Jakarta gets indirect light most of the day, which is softer and easier to work with, so use it for glossy dishes such as rendang, grilled fish or anything with a sauce that throws highlights. Diffuse direct sun with a white curtain or a sheet of tracing paper taped to the frame, and put a white board or a sheet of foam board on the opposite side of the dish to bounce light back into the shadow side.

• Morning window: about 8 to 10, good for east-facing windows and rice, noodle and soup dishes.
• Late afternoon window: about 4 until the light fades, good for west-facing windows and grilled or sauced dishes.
• Midday: avoid direct sun on the table; move two to three meters back from the window or use a diffuser.
• Overcast days: the most even light of the year in Jakarta, use them for full menu reshoots.

Shooting dishes for GoFood, GrabFood and ShopeeFood

The delivery apps that operate in Indonesia and are listed here are GoFood, GrabFood and ShopeeFood. None of them publishes fixed pixel or file-size specs on a public page that you can rely on, so check the upload screen in each merchant app or portal before you export a batch. The safest habit is to shoot and export a square 1:1 crop at a generous size, then let each app's uploader crop further if it needs to.

Shoot each dish from a 45-degree angle for the main thumbnail, because that angle shows both the surface and the depth of the portion, and add one straight-down 90-degree top shot for dishes served in a bowl or a banana leaf where the pattern matters. Keep the camera about 30 to 45 cm from the plate, fill the frame with the food and leave a small margin so a square crop does not cut the edge of the plate.

Delivery customers judge the portion, not the styling. Show the actual serving, including the rice, the sambal and the garnish that arrives in the box. Do not pad the container or use a larger plate than the one you send out. A photo that overstates the portion leads to complaints that no lighting fix will solve.

• One 45-degree hero shot plus one 90-degree top shot per dish.
• Square 1:1 crops for app thumbnails; keep a wider 16:9 version for your own website banner.
• Shoot in the container you deliver in for at least one frame per dish.
• Check each merchant upload screen for its current size and format rules before exporting.

Google Business Profile and your own menu

Google Business Profile photos are seen by people deciding where to eat, often before they open a delivery app. Upload a cover photo of a signature dish shot in landscape 16:9, plus a few square shots of the dining room and the food as served. Keep the food photos consistent in angle and background so the profile reads as one restaurant rather than a scrapbook.

For a printed or QR menu, the constraint is the crop, not the screen. A dish photo placed in a narrow column needs a vertical or square crop with the food centered, and the same dish should appear at the same angle on every page. Photograph each dish once, then export a square, a 4:5 portrait and a 16:9 landscape from the same frame so the menu designer has options without a reshoot.

Write the menu in Indonesian, which is the language menus are commonly written in nationally, and keep dish names consistent between the printed menu, the delivery app listing and Google. A dish called one thing on the menu and another in the app confuses returning customers and makes your own photos harder to match to the right listing.

Light and color problems specific to Jakarta dishes

Many Jakarta dishes are wet or glossy: coconut milk curries, fried rice with egg, grilled chicken with sweet soy glaze, iced drinks in condensation-covered glasses. Highlights on sauce and plastic cups blow out easily in strong daylight. Underexpose by about one third of a stop and let the bounce board fill the shadows, rather than letting the camera expose for the brightest highlight.

Color accuracy matters more than mood. White rice should look white, not blue or yellow, and sambal should look red, not orange. Set white balance manually against a white napkin or a sheet of paper in the same light, and avoid mixing daylight with overhead tungsten or fluorescent tubes. If the dining room lights are on, turn them off for the shot or move the table closer to the window.

Iced drinks and salads wilt or sweat within minutes. Stage one plate at a time, shoot it immediately, and keep the next dish in the kitchen until the previous one is done. For drinks, wipe the glass, pour fresh and shoot within a minute or two before the condensation runs.

• Underexpose glossy dishes by about 1/3 stop and bounce light back in.
• Set white balance manually on a white napkin in the same light.
• Turn off mixed room lighting; use one light source, the window.
• Shoot one dish at a time so nothing sits and sweats.

Keeping one dish consistent across every channel

A Jakarta restaurant usually appears in several places at once: the delivery app listing, Google Business Profile, the website, Instagram and a QR menu at the table. If each channel uses a different photo of the same dish, customers cannot tell whether they are looking at the same portion. Pick one hero frame per signature dish and export it in every format you need from that single frame.

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 own channels, such as the website menu, Instagram, Google Business Profile, a QR menu and print, and upload your own real photos directly to each delivery app.