Restaurant Photography in New York City: Delivery Apps, Menus and Google

Plan your shoots around New York's daylight

New York City's light changes a lot across the year. Around the June solstice you get about 14 h 55 min of daylight and the noon sun reaches about 73 degrees above the horizon, which means harsh, high light through a south-facing window at midday but long, usable soft light early and late. Around the December solstice daylight drops to about 9 h 05 min and the noon sun sits only about 26 degrees up, so window light comes in low and flat and you need to shoot closer to the glass.

Book window-side shoots for mid-morning or mid-afternoon in summer and for late morning in winter, when the low sun is at its most usable. If your dining room faces north, you get steady, soft light all day and can shoot whenever the room is empty.

• June: shoot 9 to 11 a.m. or 3 to 5 p.m. to avoid the 73-degree midday sun
• December: shoot 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. while the 26-degree sun still reaches the window
• North-facing windows: any quiet hour works, light stays soft
• South-facing windows: diffuse with a sheer curtain or shoot off to the side of the beam

Shoot for the delivery app first, then everything else

Delivery apps show dish photos small and often cropped to a square or a wide card, so shoot tight on the plate and leave breathing room around the food. A 45-degree angle reads well for bowls, pasta and plated entrees; a straight overhead shot at 90 degrees suits pizza, shared plates and anything with a wide footprint. Keep the camera about 30 to 45 cm from the plate so the food fills most of the frame without a wide-angle lens stretching the edges.

Our spec pages cover Uber Eats, DoorDash, Grubhub and BentoBox for the United States, including the /usa/ versions of each. Where a platform does not publish pixel specs, check the upload screen in your merchant dashboard, since requirements can change without notice.

Accuracy matters more than styling. The photo must show the dish a customer will actually receive, with the same sides and portion, because that is what the calorie figure and the menu description refer to.

Match photos to calorie labels on online menus

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. If you swap a side or change a portion, reshoot rather than reuse the old image.

For independent restaurants the rule may not apply, but the habit is worth keeping: one photo per standard item, labeled with the same name used in the calorie listing, so the delivery app listing and your own menu agree. If your menu runs in English and Spanish, keep the dish name consistent across both so the photo is easy to match to either version.

Build one kit that covers every surface

A single shoot should give you a hero image for your website, a square crop for Instagram, a wider crop for Google Business Profile and a set of delivery-app sizes. Shoot each dish once, cleanly lit, then crop rather than reshoot. Keep the background plain: a wooden board, a linen napkin or the bare table surface reads better at small sizes than a busy dining room.

For Google Business Profile, upload real photos of the room and the dishes, since customers use them to decide whether to walk in. For print and QR menus, keep a high-resolution version of each dish so the image holds up at larger sizes.

A realistic shooting routine for a busy kitchen

Pick one quiet service block a week and shoot three to five dishes, not the whole menu at once. Prep the dish exactly as it goes out, wipe the rim of the plate, and shoot within a minute or two before sauces dull and greens wilt. Use natural window light where you can, turn off overhead spotlights that cast hard shadows, and avoid mixing daylight with warm kitchen bulbs in the same frame.

Shoot a plain background plate first to check exposure, then work through the menu. Name files by dish so the delivery app, website and print menu all pull the right image.

FoodPhoto takes a real photo of your 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 website, Instagram, Google Business Profile, QR menu and print, and always upload your own real photos to the delivery platforms themselves.

What to shoot for New York diners

New York diners know the city's staples well, so a slice, a bagel with lox or a pastrami sandwich has to look like the version you actually serve, not a styled stand-in. Shoot those items from the side to show height and layers, and shoot a full portion rather than a single bite.

For takeout and delivery, shoot the dish in the container it ships in at least once, so customers see the real portion. Keep a second, plated version for your website and social.