Manchester Menu Photography for Print, QR Menus and Delivery Apps

Plan the shoot around Manchester's daylight

At the June solstice the noon sun sits about 60 degrees above the horizon in Manchester, so light through a south-facing window is high and hard, throwing short, dark shadows under plates and bowls. At the December solstice it reaches only about 13 degrees, so the same window gives a long, low, soft light that wraps around food but fades fast in the afternoon. Build a shooting calendar from those two extremes rather than shooting whenever there is a gap.

A practical seasonal schedule: in late spring and summer, shoot between 09:00 and 11:00 or after 16:00, when the sun angle drops and light is softer, and keep a north-facing window or a white foam board as a bounce. In late autumn and winter, shoot between 10:00 and 14:00, when the low sun is at its strongest; expect about 7 h 14 min of total daylight, so book the whole batch inside that window. Around the equinoxes, light is workable most of the working day.

For each session, put the camera at 45 degrees to the window so light rakes across the dish and gives texture, and use a second white board on the shadow side. Check exposure on a grey card or the back of a white plate, and keep the same ISO, aperture and distance for every dish in the batch so the finished set looks like one menu.

• June to August: shoot 09:00 to 11:00 or 16:00 onward, avoid the hard midday window light
• December to February: shoot 10:00 to 14:00, the only reliable window in a 7 h 14 min day
• March, April, September, October: most of the day is usable, still check the sun angle on the day
• Set the camera at 45 degrees to the window and bounce light back with a white board
• Lock focus distance and settings for the whole batch, change only the dish

Build a batch shooting list from the actual menu

Start from the live menu, not the kitchen's wish list. Export every item as a row, add a column for the dish's main color and texture, and group dishes that need the same setup: pale dishes such as rice, mash or white fish need a darker background; dark dishes such as curries, braises and chocolate desserts need a lighter one. Shooting in groups of similar tone cuts the number of background and lighting changes per session.

Manchester menus commonly mix South Asian cooking, modern British plates, Cantonese dishes and Italian pasta, and those categories photograph very differently. A curry in a dark bowl on a dark table loses its shape; the same dish on a mid-grey surface with a 45-degree light reads clearly at tile size. A pale plate of fish needs a wooden or slate surface for contrast. Note the surface and background for each group in the shooting list so the second session matches the first.

Shoot three frames per dish: a top-down at 90 degrees for flat items such as pizza, sharing platters and salads, a 45-degree hero angle for most plates, and a close 30-degree detail for texture. Shoot at least one frame with the full portion and garnish as served, because the delivery app image should match what leaves the kitchen.

• Group dishes by tone: pale food on dark surfaces, dark food on light surfaces
• Record the surface, background and angle for each group so later batches match
• Three frames per dish: 90 degrees top-down, 45 degrees hero, 30 degrees detail
• Shoot the garnish and portion exactly as it is served to the customer

Shoot once, export for print, QR menus and delivery apps

The same master frame has to work as a square thumbnail on a delivery app, a wide banner on a website and a small printed menu image. Frame with space around the plate so a 1:1 crop and a 16:9 crop both keep the whole dish; if the plate touches the frame edge, the square crop will cut it. Keep the dish centered and leave the garnish inside the safe area.

Delivery platforms in the UK each apply their own crops and image guidelines, and the exact pixel requirements can change. This site has photo spec pages for Uber Eats UK, Deliveroo UK, Just Eat UK and Square Online UK, and those pages are the place to check current guidance. Where a platform does not publish pixel specs openly, check the upload screen in the merchant portal, which usually states the recommended size and file type at the point of upload.

Deliveroo do not accept AI-generated or altered images. For Deliveroo, shoot and upload your own real photo of the dish. FoodPhoto is for the merchant's own channels such as the website menu, Instagram, Google Business Profile, QR menu and print, where it takes a real photo of your own dish and improves light, background and crop while keeping the food as it is, and returns a kit of sizes for those channels.

• Leave margin around the plate so 1:1 and 16:9 crops both hold the dish
• Check the Uber Eats, Deliveroo, Just Eat and Square Online spec pages on this site for current guidance
• If a platform publishes no pixel specs, read the upload screen in the merchant portal
• For Deliveroo, upload your own real, unaltered photo

Name and store files so the menu stays in sync

Use a fixed file name pattern: category, dish name, version and date, for example starters-pakora-v03-2025-03. Lowercase, hyphens, no spaces. Keep the uncropped master in an archive folder and export the sized versions into folders named for each channel: print, qr, web, instagram. When a dish changes, the new version number tells you at a glance which image is live.

Keep a simple image register in a spreadsheet with one row per dish: file name, version, date shot, channels where it is used and a status column. When the kitchen changes a recipe, a portion size or a price, the row is flagged and the image is reshot in the next batch. This is what stops a QR menu showing last season's plate while the delivery listing shows the new one.

Batch reshoots quarterly and after any menu change, using the same surfaces and the same 45-degree setup. If a dish is seasonal, shoot it in the month it launches so the photo matches the produce customers will actually receive.

• File names: category-dish-vNN-YYYY-MM, lowercase and hyphenated
• Keep masters separate from channel exports
• One spreadsheet row per dish with version, date and channels
• Reshoot in the next batch whenever recipe, portion or price changes

Keep menus compliant while you update photos

UK rules require allergen information for the 14 regulated allergens to be available for food sold without packaging, including 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. When you replace a dish photo, check the allergen and calorie text on the same listing at the same time, since a reshoot often follows a recipe change.

Menus in the UK are commonly written in English, so keep dish names and descriptions in English on every channel and match the wording to the photo. A photo of a dish with a garnish the description does not mention is a mismatch customers notice.