Food Photography in Zurich, Switzerland

A seasonal window-light schedule for Zurich kitchens

Zurich sits at about 47.4 degrees north, so the sun never gets close to overhead. In June the noon sun is around 66 degrees up, which means light comes down steeply and a north-facing window gives you soft, even fill for most of the day. In December the noon sun is only about 19 degrees above the horizon, so low light rakes almost horizontally through south-facing windows and throws long, hard shadows across the plate.

Build your shooting around that. The table below is a starting point you can adjust to your own window orientation.

• Late May to late July: shoot between 10:00 and 15:00 at a north or east window for soft fill, or use a south window in the same window with a thin white curtain to diffuse the steep sun.
• March and September (equinox): the sun sits around 47 degrees at noon, close to Zurich's latitude. Shoot 09:00 to 11:00 or 15:00 to 17:00 and avoid the two hours around noon, when shadows fall straight down and look flat and dark under the rim.
• November to early February: daylight is short, so plan shoots between 10:00 and 14:00. Use a west or south window for the low sun, but stand the plate back from the glass so the light is soft rather than a hard stripe.
• Any month, overcast day: this is the easiest light in Zurich. Shoot near a large window, turn off overhead ceiling lights, and you get even, color-accurate photos without buying anything.
• After dark or in a windowless kitchen: use one diffused light at roughly 45 degrees to the side and slightly above the plate, plus a white card on the opposite side to bounce light back into the shadow.

What to shoot first, and how to plate it

Start with the dishes that carry your identity and that travel well: the ones you would recommend to a first-time guest. Zurich menus commonly run in German, French and Italian, and a photo has to work without any of those languages, so the plate itself must read clearly at thumbnail size.

Shoot from two angles for each dish. A 45-degree angle shows layers and height and suits burgers, tarts, salads and anything stacked. A straight overhead 90-degree shot works for flat plates, pizza, bowls and sharing boards, and crops cleanly to a square. Keep the background plain: a wooden board, a stone surface or a linen cloth in one consistent tone across the whole menu looks deliberate rather than accidental.

Watch the details that make a photo look wrong. Wipe the rim of the plate. Do not let sauce run into the rim. Pick the best-looking piece of each garnish. Photograph the dish within a couple of minutes of plating, before steam fogs the lens and before greens wilt. If you serve fondue, raclette or anything with melted cheese, shoot it while it is still glossy and moving, not after it sets.

Delivery apps: crops, framing and what the platforms actually publish

Delivery apps show your photo small, in a list next to competitors, so the dish has to be recognizable in a square thumbnail. Frame tight, fill most of the square with food, and avoid wide table scenes with cutlery and drinks that shrink the dish. Shoot in the highest resolution your phone allows and keep the original file; you can always crop down, never up.

For Switzerland, this site has dedicated spec pages for Uber Eats (/delivery-photo-specs/uber-eats/switzerland/) and Just Eat (/delivery-photo-specs/just-eat/switzerland/). Check those pages for the current requirements, and then check the upload screen in the restaurant dashboard, because platforms change their guidance without notice and the uploader is the final word. Where a platform does not publish pixel specs, treat the upload screen as the source of truth rather than a blog post.

If a platform states that it bans AI-generated images, take it at its word: photograph your own dish and upload that real photo to that platform. Do not send a synthesized image and do not assume any edited file will be approved.

Google Business Profile, your own website and printed menus

Google Business Profile photos are seen by people deciding where to eat tonight, often on a phone while walking. Upload real photos of your dishes, your dining room and your entrance, and refresh them when the menu changes. A photo of a dish you no longer serve is worse than no photo.

For your website and QR menu, shoot in landscape 16:9 for hero banners and square 1:1 for menu grids, and keep the same dish photographed once rather than three slightly different versions. For print, shoot at the largest size you can and keep the file, because a menu reprinted at A4 needs more resolution than a phone screen.

Zurich's menus often appear in German, French and Italian, so keep the photo free of text, price tags and hands holding the plate. A neutral image can be reused across all three language versions without reshooting.

Social and the limits of editing

For Instagram and other social channels, shoot vertical 4:5 or 9:16 for stories and reels covers, and keep a square version for grid posts. Natural window light on an overcast Zurich afternoon is usually better than a flash, and a short clip of the dish being finished or plated travels further than a static shot.

Editing should fix light, background and crop, not the food. Do not add dishes that were not on the plate, do not enlarge portions, and do not change the color of a sauce until it no longer matches what arrives at the table. Guests notice, and in Switzerland misleading food images can create problems under unfair competition rules, so keep the photo honest.

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. Use it for your own channels: website menu, Instagram, Google Business Profile, QR menu and print.

A practical shooting day in Zurich

Pick one day, shoot ten to fifteen dishes, and keep the setup identical so the menu looks like one body of work. Check the weather the day before: an overcast forecast is an advantage, not a reason to cancel. If you shoot in winter, book the window table from 10:00 to 14:00 and have the dishes plated in the order you will photograph them, so nothing sits under a lamp waiting.

Assign one person to plate and one to shoot. Keep a notebook or phone list of which dish was shot from which angle, and name the files by dish, not by date, so you can find them when the menu changes.

• Clean the window glass the morning of the shoot.
• Turn off mixed overhead lighting; one light source keeps colors true.
• Shoot each dish at 45 degrees and at 90 degrees overhead.
• Keep the original files and export square, 4:5 and 16:9 versions.
• Note the dish name in the filename.

Checklist