London restaurant photography: what to shoot, and when the light works

The photo set a London restaurant needs

Most London operators start with dish photos because delivery apps demand them, then discover the gaps later: a Google Business Profile with no exterior shot, a website with no room image, a press or recruitment page with no picture of the kitchen at work. Build the list once, in four groups, and shoot them in the same session so the look is consistent.

Dish photos are the core. Shoot each dish from directly above (90 degrees) for flat plates, and from about 45 degrees for anything with height: burgers, stacked pancakes, biryani, a Sunday roast on the plate. Keep one consistent angle per menu section so the grid reads as a set.

Room and exterior shots do different jobs. A wide room shot at eye level (camera roughly 1.5 m from the floor) shows scale and light. An exterior shot taken from across the street at the same height as the sign helps people find you, which matters on any street where frontages blur together.

Team-at-work shots are the ones owners skip and then need: hands plating, a pass during service, someone at the coffee machine. Shoot these at 35 to 50 mm from a respectful distance rather than leaning over the pass, and agree with staff beforehand which frames can be published.

• Every dish: one overhead, one 45-degree, one tight detail
• Room: one wide at eye level, one detail of tables or bar
• Exterior: sign legible, shot from the opposite pavement
• Team: hands and process, not posed portraits, unless you want those too
• One hero image per menu section, chosen after the edit, not on the day

Planning a shoot around London daylight

Window light changes more across a London year than most owners expect. At the June solstice the noon sun sits about 62 degrees above the horizon, so light falls steeply and a south-facing window throws a short, hard patch onto the table. At the December solstice the noon sun is only about 15 degrees up, so the same window gives a long, low, soft rake of light across the room for much of the day.

In practice that means summer window-light shoots work best early morning and late afternoon, when the sun is lower and the light is softer; midday in June is the hardest time to shoot near a window without harsh shadows. In winter, the low sun is your ally: late morning through early afternoon gives usable side light for hours, but the window of daylight is short, so shoot dishes first and room second.

Book around service, not around the clock. A lunch service typically occupies late morning to mid-afternoon, so a two-part day works: dishes and detail shots before prep gets busy, room and team shots in the quiet gap between services. Confirm with your team which gap is genuinely quiet that week, because it varies by day and by site.

Bring a plan for grey days. London overcast is soft, even light, which is excellent for dish photos near a window but flat for room shots. On those days, shoot dishes and details, and leave the wide room shot for a brighter day or for the evening with the room lit as guests see it.

Delivery apps, your own channels, and the AI question

Your own channels and the delivery platforms do not have the same rules. Deliveroo do not accept AI-generated or altered images; on that platform, shoot your own real photo of the dish and upload it yourself. The same principle applies anywhere a platform asks for an unedited photo of the food you actually serve.

For your own channels, the website menu, Instagram, a QR menu and print, the constraint is different: the photo must still be your dish, but you can improve the light, background and crop so it reads clearly at small sizes. That is where FoodPhoto fits: it takes a real photo of your own dish and improves light, background and crop for your website menu, Instagram, QR menu and print, keeping the food as it is, and returns a kit of sizes including a hero image, Instagram formats and a Google Business Profile version. It does not generate a different dish and cannot guarantee approval by any platform.

Before you shoot for a delivery app, check that platform's current upload requirements on its own upload screen or help pages rather than working from a remembered spec. This site keeps spec pages for Uber Eats, Deliveroo, Just Eat and Square Online, with UK and United Kingdom versions of each, but platform rules change and the upload screen is the final word.

Getting the listing photos right

Google Business Profile is the listing most London diners see before they decide, and it accepts more than food: exterior, interior, dishes, drinks, staff and menu photos. Upload a small, deliberate set rather than everything from the shoot. Two or three dish shots, one room shot, one exterior and one team photo tell a clearer story than twenty near-identical plates.

Keep the exterior photo current. If the frontage changes, the sign is repainted or scaffolding goes up, the old image misleads people arriving on foot. Re-shoot it when the street outside changes, not only when the menu does.

For menus and print, crop to the shape you will actually use: 1:1 for grid layouts and social tiles, 16:9 for website banners and screen menus, and portrait for print where the layout calls for it. Shoot slightly wider than the final crop so you have room to adjust without cutting into the plate.

Allergens, calories and what the photo must not imply

UK rules require allergen information for the 14 regulated allergens to be available for food sold without packaging, and that includes food ordered online. In England, businesses with 250 or more employees must also show calories on menus, including online menus and listings on delivery apps under the Calorie Labelling (Out of Home Sector) (England) Regulations 2021.

Photos should not contradict that information. If a dish is listed with a particular garnish or side, the photo should show the dish as served, not a styled version with extra elements that change what a customer expects. Where a dish is commonly ordered with modifications, shoot the standard version and describe variations in text, not in the picture.

Menus in London are commonly written in English, so keep image captions and alt text in English too, matching the dish name exactly as it appears on the menu to avoid confusion between similar items.

A practical shooting order for one London day

Start with dishes that hold badly: salads, cut fruit, ice cream, anything that wilts or melts. Shoot them first near the best window, then move to hot dishes, then to drinks. If you have a large menu, group by section so the angle and background stay consistent within each group.

Keep backgrounds simple and repeatable: a plain surface, a neutral cloth or the actual tabletop guests will see. Avoid cluttered pass surfaces, and wipe plates between frames. Shoot a couple of extra frames of each dish at a wider crop so you have room to reframe for 1:1 and 16:9 later.

Finish with room, exterior and team shots in the quiet gap, then review everything the same day while you still remember which dish is which. Name files by dish and section so the person uploading to the delivery apps, the website and Google Business Profile can find the right image without guessing.