Restaurant Photography in Montreal: A Practical Menu and Delivery Guide

Where Montreal restaurant photos actually end up

A single dish usually needs to appear in four or five places, each with its own constraints. Delivery app listings crop to small squares and are browsed on phones. Google Business Profile shows photos in a carousel next to your hours. A printed or PDF menu may be read at arm's length in a dining room. Instagram needs vertical and square versions. Shooting once and cropping for each channel is far more efficient than reshooting per platform.

In Canada, the apps most Montreal operators deal with are Uber Eats, DoorDash, Skip and SkipTheDishes. This site publishes photo spec pages for Uber Eats, DoorDash, BentoBox, Olo, Ritual, Square Online, Toast and Yelp, all under the Canada path. For apps without a spec page here, check the upload screen in the merchant portal, since pixel requirements change and are often shown only at upload time.

• Delivery app tile: shoot a centered square so the dish survives a 1:1 crop.
• Google Business Profile: include one wide 16:9 shot of the dish in context.
• Print menu: keep a high-resolution file with the plate filling most of the frame.
• Instagram: export a 4:5 vertical crop from the same original.

A Montreal daylight shooting schedule for window light

Montreal sits at about 45.5 degrees north, so the sun's height changes dramatically. Around the June solstice there are roughly 15 hours 29 minutes of daylight and the noon sun is about 68 degrees above the horizon. Around the December solstice there are about 8 hours 31 minutes and the noon sun is only about 21 degrees. High summer sun comes down steeply and throws short, hard shadows; low winter sun rakes across the room and creates long shadows and warm color.

Use that to plan shoots rather than fight it. In summer, shoot near a north-facing window in mid-morning or late afternoon, when the sun is lower and the light is softer. Avoid the noon window entirely for glossy sauces, which will show a hard highlight. In winter, the low sun can reach deep into a room, so a west or south window at midday gives bright, angled light that works well for soups, stews and braises. Move the table, not the sun.

• June and July: shoot 9 to 11 a.m. or after 5 p.m. at a north window; noon light is too steep.
• December and January: use midday sun through a south or west window; it is low and soft.
• Equinox months: light changes fastest; shoot within a two-hour window and check every plate.
• Overcast days: the best diffuse light of the year for dairy, seafood and pale sauces.

Shooting dishes that define Montreal menus

Montreal menus commonly appear in English and French, and many kitchens serve a mix of Quebec comfort food, French bistro plates, Italian, Middle Eastern and East Asian dishes. Each brings a different photographic problem. Smoked meat sandwiches and poutine need side light to show texture in the meat and the gloss of gravy without turning it into a white glare. Bagels and pastries benefit from a slightly higher camera angle, around 45 degrees, to show the crust and the interior crumb.

For stacked sandwiches and burgers, shoot at eye level, roughly 0 to 10 degrees above the plate, so the layers read. For bowls, curries and pasta, a 45 to 60 degree angle shows both the surface and the depth. For flat plates such as tartares or pizzas, go steeper, near 75 to 90 degrees, straight down. Keep the camera at least 40 to 50 cm from the plate with a phone to avoid the wide-angle distortion that makes the nearest edge of a dish look swollen.

Keep backgrounds simple and consistent across the menu. A neutral wooden board, a plain linen or a matte tile reads well on a phone screen. Remove clutter from the frame before you shoot rather than cropping it out later, because delivery apps often crop tighter than you expect.

Getting exposure and color right in mixed restaurant light

Most Montreal restaurants shoot between services, when dining room lights, kitchen pass lights and window light all mix. That combination produces color casts that make a green salad look gray. Turn off overhead fluorescents if you can, or move the table closer to the window and let daylight dominate. On a phone, tap and hold on the brightest part of the plate to lock exposure, then drag the slider down slightly so white plates keep detail.

Use a white napkin or a sheet of white paper as a reference in the first frame of each setup. If the napkin looks blue or orange on screen, adjust white balance before continuing. For dark dishes such as braised meats or chocolate desserts, add a white plate or a light-colored board to keep the image from turning into a dark blob on a small delivery tile.

Menus, labels and the rules that affect photos

Quebec has its own language expectations for commercial signage and menus, and many operators publish bilingual menus as a matter of course. Whatever the language, keep dish names and photos matched exactly, since a photo of the wrong dish is the fastest way to get a complaint or a refund request on a delivery order.

Calorie labeling rules differ by province. In Ontario, food service businesses with 20 or more locations must display calories for standard menu items under the Healthy Menu Choices Act, 2015. Montreal is in Quebec, so that specific rule does not apply here, but chains operating in both provinces should check what their Ontario locations must display before reusing a menu layout.

Keeping the set consistent and up to date

A menu photo set ages quickly. Seasonal specials, price changes and new dishes all require fresh images. The practical approach is to shoot a batch every season, using the same board, the same angle family and the same window, so new photos sit naturally next to old ones. Keep the original files, not just the cropped exports, so you can re-crop for a new app or a new format without reshooting.

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. It cannot guarantee approval by any platform, so always check the upload screen in each merchant portal after exporting.