Pittsburgh Menu Photography for Real Dishes

Build the shot list from the menu, not from the plates

Start by exporting your current menu as a spreadsheet with one row per orderable item and a column for photo status. Every item that can be ordered alone needs its own photo: a pierogi plate, a sandwich, a side of fries, a salad, a slice of cake. Items that only exist as modifiers, like a sauce choice or an extra topping, do not need separate tiles.

Group the list by station so you shoot in batches that make sense in the kitchen. Fried items together, cold plates together, desserts together. This keeps the fryer at temperature for one block of time and stops a cook from plating a single dish every hour while you reset lights.

Decide the order of work by menu position. Best sellers and anything in the top third of the delivery menu get shot first, because those tiles are seen most. Specials and seasonal items go last, since they will be replaced soon.

• One row per orderable item, with a photo status column
• Shoot by station: fried, cold, grilled, dessert
• Best sellers and top-of-menu items first

A seasonal window-light schedule for Pittsburgh

Around the June solstice Pittsburgh gets about 14 h 53 min of daylight and the noon sun reaches about 73 degrees above the horizon. That high sun means a north-facing window gives soft, even light for most of the day, while a south or west window throws hard light and long shadows from late morning onward. In summer, schedule shooting between 9 and 11 a.m. or after 4 p.m. on a north or east window, and use a white foam board opposite the window to bounce light back into the shadow side of the plate.

Around the December solstice Pittsburgh gets about 9 h 07 min of daylight and the noon sun reaches only about 26 degrees above the horizon. Low winter sun comes in almost horizontally, so a south window that was unusable in June becomes a good soft source in the middle of the day. Book winter shoots between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., and move the table back from the glass if the light turns harsh.

In both seasons, turn off overhead tungsten and fluorescent lights during the shot. Mixed color temperature is the most common reason a batch of menu photos looks inconsistent when placed side by side on a printed menu.

• June: north or east window, 9 to 11 a.m. or after 4 p.m.
• December: south window, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
• Kill overhead lights, bounce with a white board

Shooting a full menu in batches

Set one camera position and one lens for the whole batch. A 50mm equivalent lens at about 45 degrees above the plate reads as a natural diner's view and keeps portions looking honest. For sandwiches and layered dishes, drop to about 20 to 30 degrees so you see the cross-section, which matters for a Pittsburgh sandwich with fries built inside, where the fries and slaw are the point.

Use a tripod and mark the floor with tape so every plate lands in the same spot. Keep a small notebook or phone note with the settings for each station, and shoot a plain reference frame at the start of each batch so you can match exposure later.

Shoot each dish at three crops in camera or by reframing: a square for delivery thumbnails, a 4:5 for social, and a wider 16:9 for a website banner or a printed menu strip. That saves a second session later when a platform or printer asks for a different shape.

• 50mm equivalent, 45 degrees for plates
• 20 to 30 degrees for sandwiches and layered dishes
• Tape marks on the floor, same plate position every time
• Capture square, 4:5 and 16:9 of each dish

Naming files so the menu and the photos stay in sync

Name every file with the menu item and a version, for example `pierogi-plate_v2.jpg` or `sandwich-fries_v1.jpg`. Avoid camera defaults like IMG_2043, because nobody in the kitchen can match those to a menu line six months later. Keep the item name in the file identical to the name on the printed menu and the delivery listing.

Store the master files in one folder per menu section, and keep a single tracking sheet that lists item name, file name, date shot and where the photo is used. When a price change or a recipe change happens, the sheet tells you which photo needs a reshoot and which is still accurate.

This matters for calorie labeling. 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. A photo must match the item the calories describe, so if a portion or recipe changes, the photo and the calorie figure have to be updated together.

Sizes for print, QR menus and delivery apps

Printed menus and QR menus need the highest resolution, since a QR menu is often viewed on a phone at full screen. Delivery apps compress thumbnails heavily, so a tight crop with the dish filling most of the frame reads better than a wide table shot. Website banners and social posts need the widest crops.

This site publishes platform spec pages for Uber Eats, DoorDash, Grubhub and BentoBox for the United States. Open the page for the platform you use and check the current requirements there. Where a platform does not publish pixel specs, the upload screen itself is the source of truth, so check it before you export a batch.

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. It cannot guarantee approval by any platform, so for the merchant's own channels such as the website menu, Instagram, Google Business Profile, QR menu and print, it can save a second shoot when a new size is needed.