Louisville Restaurant Photography: A Practical Guide for Menus, Delivery Apps and Google

Plan your shoots around Louisville's daylight

Around the June solstice Louisville gets about 14 hours 40 minutes of daylight, and the noon sun stands about 75 degrees above the horizon. High summer sun means short shadows and a bright, even sky, so a north-facing window gives soft light for most of the working day. Around the December solstice daylight drops to about 9 hours 20 minutes and the noon sun is only about 28 degrees above the horizon, so the light comes in low and long. In winter, a south or west window delivers a strong, raking beam in the late morning and early afternoon, which is good for texture on grilled or roasted dishes but harsh on anything glossy.

Build a seasonal calendar instead of shooting whenever there is time. In summer, shoot between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. near a north window, or use a south window early and shade it with a diffusion sheet once the sun climbs. In winter, use the low sun deliberately: a table 1 to 2 meters back from a south window between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. gives warm side light that suits barbecue, braises and baked goods. In spring and fall the sun sits between those two extremes, so a window that faces east or west is often the most reliable all-day option.

If your dining room has no usable window, shoot in the quiet hour after service prep and before the doors open, and use a single diffused light at about 45 degrees to the dish. Keep the camera at roughly 45 degrees for plated entrees, straight down at 90 degrees for pizzas and flatbreads, and at plate level for burgers and sandwiches where the layers matter.

• June: north window, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., soft even light
• December: south or west window, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., low warm side light
• Spring and fall: east or west window, mid-morning or mid-afternoon
• No window: one diffused light at 45 degrees, shot before service

Match the photo to the app and the channel

The same dish usually needs more than one crop. A square 1:1 frame works for a menu grid and many social placements, while a 16:9 landscape suits a website hero banner and some app listing cards. Delivery apps show thumbnails on small phone screens, so the food should fill most of the frame and the background should stay plain. Google Business Profile photos are seen in a carousel, so a slightly wider shot that shows the plate and part of the table reads better than a tight crop.

This site publishes photo spec pages for Uber Eats, DoorDash, Grubhub and BentoBox, each in a United States and a USA version. Where a platform does not publish pixel specs, we say so on that page. Always open the upload screen in your own account before a shoot, because the crop or minimum size shown there is the one that applies to you. If a spec page and your upload screen disagree, follow the upload screen.

• 1:1 square for menu grids and social feeds
• 16:9 landscape for website heroes and some listing cards
• 4:5 vertical for Instagram feed posts
• Plain background for delivery thumbnails, wider frame for Google Business Profile

Kentucky menu rules and why the photo has to match

In the United States, restaurant chains with 20 or more locations must show calorie counts for standard menu items, and FDA guidance covers online menus as well as menu boards. A photo must match the item the calories describe. That means a photo of a doubled portion, an extra side or a different preparation cannot sit next to a calorie figure for the standard item.

Even if your restaurant is not covered by the chain rule, the same discipline saves trouble. Shoot the exact build that the kitchen sends out, weigh or portion it the way the line cooks do, and keep a note of what was in the frame. If you change a recipe, reshoot rather than reuse the old image. Louisville menus often serve both English and Spanish readers, so keep the photo and the item name consistent across both versions of the menu.

Shoot Louisville dishes so they travel well

Louisville cooking draws on Southern, barbecue and German-influenced traditions, and those dishes behave differently in front of a lens. Smoked and glazed meats look best with low side light that picks up the bark and the shine; a hard overhead light flattens them. Fried items lose their texture within minutes, so plate, shoot and discard rather than holding a basket under lights. Bourbon-based sauces and glazes are dark and reflective, so angle the light from behind at about 45 degrees and use a white card on the opposite side to lift the shadow.

Bowls, salads and layered plates need a slightly higher angle, around 60 degrees, so the viewer can see the components. Drinks, especially anything served over ice, should be shot fast in a chilled glass, with the light behind the glass rather than in front of it. Keep backgrounds simple: a bare wood board, a plain linen or the restaurant's own counter surface. Props that suggest a dish you do not serve cause mismatches on delivery apps.

• Barbecue and glazed meats: low side light, white card for fill
• Fried food: shoot within minutes of plating
• Bowls and salads: 60 degree angle to show layers
• Drinks: backlight the glass, shoot immediately

A repeatable shoot day for a busy kitchen

Pick a day when the kitchen can spare 90 minutes before service. Write a shot list in menu order, starting with the bestsellers, because those are the images that appear first on delivery apps and Google. Set up one table near the best window, put a clean surface down, and keep a spray bottle, paper towels and a pair of tweezers within reach. Shoot each dish in three frames: a 45 degree hero, a 90 degree overhead and a close detail of the key ingredient.

Review the frames on a laptop, not the phone screen, before the food is cleared. Check that the color of the sauce and the greens is accurate, that no steam has fogged the lens, and that the crop leaves room for a square and a 16:9 version. Name the files by dish and date so a reshoot later is easy to compare. If you run a delivery-first kitchen, shoot the packaged version too, because the container is what the customer actually receives.

Where FoodPhoto fits in a Louisville workflow

Once you have real photographs of your own dishes, FoodPhoto can improve the light, background and crop for your menus, delivery apps and social, keeping the food as it is, and every photo comes as a kit of sizes for a hero image, delivery-app sizes, Instagram formats and Google Business Profile. It does not generate a different dish and cannot guarantee approval by any platform, so treat the upload screen as the final check. Use it for your own channels such as your website menu, Instagram, Google Business Profile, a QR menu and print, and shoot and upload your own real photos wherever a platform requires them.