San Antonio Restaurant Photography: A Practical Guide for Owners

Use San Antonio daylight instead of guessing

Around the June solstice San Antonio gets about 13 h 53 min of daylight, and the noon sun sits about 84 degrees above the horizon. That steep angle means direct midday sun pours almost straight down, so a dish shot by a north or south window at noon gets hard top light and short shadows. Around the December solstice you get about 10 h 07 min of daylight and the noon sun is only about 37 degrees up, so the light comes in low and long and reaches deeper into the room.

That difference is your shooting calendar. In summer, shoot near a window between roughly 8 and 10 a.m. or after 4 p.m., when the sun is lower and the light is softer. In winter, the low midday sun can be used directly from about 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., but it throws long shadows, so put a white foam board opposite the window to bounce light back onto the plate.

• June: avoid window seats facing the sun from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.; the light is too hard and too vertical.
• December: the low sun reaches far into the dining room, so a table 2 to 3 meters from the glass can still be a good spot.
• Shoot tethered or on a tripod so you can compare the same dish at two times of day before committing.
• Overcast days in either season give even light all day, which is the easiest condition for reflective dishes like enchiladas covered in sauce.

A seasonal shooting schedule for window light

Treat the window as your only light source and plan around it. In summer, the usable window is short: set up at 7:30 a.m., shoot your brightest dishes first, and finish before the sun climbs. In winter, the usable window is longer and centered on midday, so a lunch service gap works well for a batch of 10 to 15 dishes.

For each dish, place the plate so the window is at roughly 45 degrees to the camera, not directly behind it. That gives shape and texture without flat light. If the sun is too strong, hang a thin white curtain or tape a sheet of diffusion paper to the glass; if it is too weak, move the table closer to the window rather than raising ISO, which adds noise that shows up badly on delivery app thumbnails.

• Summer morning slot: 7:30 to 9:30 a.m., window at 45 degrees, diffusion ready.
• Summer evening slot: after 4:30 p.m., good for darker dishes like barbacoa and grilled meats.
• Winter midday slot: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., white bounce board on the shadow side.
• Keep a fixed camera height, around 30 to 45 degrees above the plate for most dishes, and a straight overhead shot at 90 degrees for flat items like tacos on a tray.

Delivery apps: what to check before you upload

DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub each handle image uploads differently, and their published guidance changes. This site has spec pages for each of these apps in the United States, plus BentoBox for restaurant websites, but you should still confirm the current requirements on the upload screen itself. Where a platform does not publish pixel specs, the upload screen is the only reliable place to check.

The practical approach is to shoot one clean, well-lit photo of each dish and export it at several sizes: a square 1:1 crop for menu grids, a 16:9 crop for hero banners, and a portrait crop for social. Keep the food centered and leave a margin so the app's own cropping does not cut off the plate.

• Uber Eats specs: /delivery-photo-specs/uber-eats/united-states/ and /delivery-photo-specs/uber-eats/usa/
• DoorDash specs: /delivery-photo-specs/doordash/united-states/ and /delivery-photo-specs/doordash/usa/
• Grubhub specs: /delivery-photo-specs/grubhub/united-states/ and /delivery-photo-specs/grubhub/usa/
• BentoBox website specs: /delivery-photo-specs/bentobox/united-states/ and /delivery-photo-specs/bentobox/usa/
• If a spec page does not list pixel dimensions for an app, check the upload screen in that app's merchant portal before you export.

Google Business Profile, menus and social

Google Business Profile photos show up in search results and Maps, often cropped to a wide format on desktop and a square on mobile, so upload a version with the dish centered and the background simple. For printed menus and QR menus, a 1:1 or 4:5 crop works better than a wide banner because it fits a column layout without squeezing the food.

For social, shoot a few dishes in a vertical 9:16 frame with the plate in the lower third and space above for text. This is also where San Antonio's bilingual menu culture matters: if your menu is in English and Spanish, shoot each dish once and use the same photo for both language versions so the item looks identical whichever menu a guest reads.

• Google Business Profile: upload a square and a wide version of your best three or four dishes.
• QR menu: use 1:1 crops at a size that stays sharp on a phone screen, and test by scanning your own code.
• Instagram: 4:5 for feed, 9:16 for stories, with the dish low in the frame.
• Keep one master file per dish and export from it so every channel shows the same plate.

Calorie rules and photo accuracy

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. The rule that matters for photography is simple: a photo must match the item the calories describe. If your photo shows extra cheese, a side that is not included, or a larger portion than the standard item, the image no longer matches the number next to it.

Before a shoot, agree with your kitchen on the exact standard portion for each item and photograph that portion only. Avoid stacking or adding garnish that is not served. If a dish changes seasonally, reshoot it rather than reusing an old photo that no longer matches the current recipe or calorie listing.

• Photograph the standard portion, not a larger display version.
• Do not add ingredients that are not part of the item as sold.
• Reshoot when a recipe, portion size or calorie count changes.
• Keep a written note of which photo matches which menu item and calorie figure.

Working with a phone or a local photographer

A recent phone on a tripod, shot in the window light described above, is enough for most delivery and menu photos if you keep the lens clean, tap to focus on the food, and avoid digital zoom. A local photographer is worth it for hero images and print, but you still need a consistent set of dish photos for the apps, and those can be shot in-house on a fixed schedule.

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 own channels such as your website menu, Instagram, Google Business Profile, QR menu and print, and always upload your own real photos directly to any delivery platform.