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

Plan your shooting around Vienna's daylight

Vienna sits at about 48 degrees north, so window light changes dramatically across the year. Around the June solstice you get roughly 15 hours 52 minutes of daylight and the noon sun stands about 65 degrees above the horizon. Around the December solstice that drops to about 8 hours 8 minutes, with the noon sun only about 18 degrees high.

That difference decides where you shoot. In summer the sun is steep, so light falls close to the window and a table set one meter back goes dim. In winter the sun is low, so light pushes deep into the room but arrives almost horizontally, casting long shadows across the plate and often hitting the lens directly.

A simple seasonal schedule for window-light shooting:

None of this needs a studio. A window, a white or neutral wall as a bounce, and a table cleared of clutter will do more than any filter.

• Late June to early July: shoot between 10:00 and 14:00, but keep the table 50 to 80 cm from the glass so the high sun does not blow out the top of the plate. Pull the table back rather than shading the window.
• Late December to early January: shoot between 11:00 and 13:30, when the low sun is at its highest. Position the camera so the window is to the side, not behind the plate, and use a white card on the shadow side to lift the dark half of the dish.
• March and September: light is moderate and the window is usable for most of the working day. This is the easiest window for a full menu reshoot.
• Overcast days: soft, even light with no hard shadows. Good for soups, stews and anything glossy where you want to avoid harsh reflections.
• Avoid the hour after sunrise and before sunset in winter: the sun is so low it shines straight into the room and creates flare and orange color casts on pale food.

Shoot for each channel, not one photo for all

A delivery app thumbnail, a Google Business Profile cover and a printed menu all crop differently. Shoot each signature dish in at least two framings: a tight overhead or 45-degree shot for square and portrait crops, and a wider three-quarter view that survives a 16:9 banner crop without cutting off the plate.

Delivery apps show small images on phones, so the dish should fill most of the frame with little empty table around it. Google Business Profile and your own website can take a wider shot that shows context: the plate on a set table, a hand pouring, the room behind. Printed menus usually need a clean, evenly lit image that reproduces well on uncoated paper, so avoid very dark backgrounds there.

Keep one visual style across the menu: same angle, same light direction, same background surface. Mixed styles make a menu look assembled from different sources, which is exactly the impression you want to avoid.

• Shoot square (1:1) first, then check the same frame at 16:9 and 4:5 before moving on.
• Leave a margin of about 10 percent around the plate so a crop does not clip the rim.
• Use the same surface and props for every dish in a section so the menu reads as one set.
• Photograph the dish as it actually leaves the kitchen, including the garnish and portion size.

Delivery apps in Austria: what to check before you upload

Restaurants in Vienna commonly list on Lieferando, foodora and Wolt. Each app sets its own image requirements, and those requirements change, so the upload screen is the authority. This site publishes a spec page for Wolt in Austria at /delivery-photo-specs/wolt/austria/, which covers the Wolt upload requirements for the Austrian market; check it before you prepare files for that platform.

Wolt does not accept AI-generated or altered images. If you list there, shoot your own real photo of the dish and upload that file. Do not describe an image as approved or ready for any platform before it has passed that platform's own upload process.

For Lieferando and foodora, check the current guidance in each partner dashboard or upload screen, since pixel dimensions and file rules are set by the platform and can differ by market. Prepare a master file at high resolution and export copies at the sizes the app asks for, rather than upscaling a small image.

Allergens, accuracy and what a photo may not imply

Under EU Regulation 1169/2011, allergen information for the 14 regulated allergens must be available for food sold without packaging, and for distance selling, including delivery apps, the mandatory information must be available before the purchase is concluded. A photo is not a substitute for that information, and it should not suggest ingredients the dish does not contain.

In practice this means the photo must match the recipe. If the kitchen sometimes finishes a dish with nuts, either photograph the version without them or make sure the allergen information covers what is shown. Do not style a dish with ingredients that are not in it, and do not use a garnish that could be mistaken for a declared allergen or for its absence.

Keep the written allergen information in German, the language menus are commonly written in nationally, and make sure it is reachable before checkout on every app you use.

Google Business Profile, website and social

Google Business Profile rewards recent, real photos. Add a few new dish photos each month rather than uploading a whole menu at once, and keep the cover image to a wide crop that still shows the food clearly on a phone. For the website and QR menu, use portrait or square images that load quickly and sit next to the dish name and price.

On Instagram, the same master photo can carry a square feed post and a 4:5 or 9:16 story crop. Shoot with the vertical crop in mind: a plate centered in a square frame often loses its edges in a story.

For print, export at the resolution your printer asks for and check a proof on the actual paper stock, since dark backgrounds and fine garnishes can disappear on uncoated paper.

A repeatable monthly routine

Pick one day a month, ideally a moderate-light day in spring or autumn, and photograph the dishes that changed or sell best. Shoot five to eight dishes in one session with the same setup so the set stays consistent, then file the originals by dish name and date.

FoodPhoto can help here for your own channels: it 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. For Wolt, upload your own real photo directly, since that platform does not accept AI-generated or altered images.