Postmates Food Photography: What to Shoot and How to Upload

Where Postmates photo specs actually live

Postmates does not publish pixel specs, file-size limits or format rules of its own. Any number you see online presented as a Postmates requirement, including 1000x1000 pixels, 1:1 square or a 5MB cap, is not an official Postmates figure. Treat the upload screen in the Uber Eats merchant tools as the source of truth, because that is where the system tells you what it will accept.

In practice this changes your workflow. Instead of shooting to one fixed spec, shoot a clean image with room to crop, then export two or three sizes and try the largest first. If the uploader rejects a file, step down in resolution or switch from PNG to JPG rather than reshooting the dish.

Because Postmates merchants are served by Uber Eats' merchant tools, the menu item photo you set there is the one customers see. Keep one master file per dish, named clearly (for example, pad-thai-hero.jpg), so you can re-export it when a platform changes its uploader.

• Confirm format, size and crop on the upload screen, not on a blog post
• Keep a high-resolution master of every dish before you crop
• Export JPG for photos with lots of detail, PNG only if you need lossless edges
• Re-check the uploader after any menu update, since requirements can change without notice

A shooting plan built for delivery thumbnails

Delivery customers usually see your dish small, on a phone, next to several competitors. Shoot for that view first. A 45-degree angle shows both the surface of the food and its height, which works for bowls, burgers, sandwiches and plated mains. A straight overhead shot at 90 degrees works better for pizzas, flatbreads, salads spread wide and shared platters, where the pattern of toppings is the selling point.

Put the camera roughly 30 to 45 cm from the plate for a single dish so the food fills most of the frame without wide-angle distortion. Use the main rear camera on a phone, not the front camera, and tap to focus on the front edge of the food, the part closest to the viewer. Lock exposure on the brightest part of the dish so highlights on sauce or cheese do not blow out.

Light the dish with soft, indirect daylight from a window at about 45 degrees to the plate, and place a white napkin or sheet of paper opposite the window to bounce light back into the shadows. Avoid overhead ceiling lights directly above the plate, which cast a hard shadow under the rim and make stews and curries look flat. Shoot on a plain surface: a wooden board, a dark slate tile or a clean white cloth, and keep the background free of packaging, cables and other plates.

• 45-degree angle for burgers, bowls and plated mains
• 90-degree overhead for pizza, flatbreads and shared platters
• Camera 30 to 45 cm from a single dish
• Window light at 45 degrees with a white bounce card
• One dish per frame, no hands, no extra props

Cropping for square and wide placements

Most delivery menus and social feeds display food in a square or near-square frame, so compose with a 1:1 crop in mind even if you shoot wider. Leave a small margin around the plate so the crop does not cut the rim, and keep the tallest part of the dish, such as a burger stack or a garnish, inside the safe area. If you also need a wide image for a website banner or Google Business Profile, shoot a second frame at 16:9 with the dish slightly off-center so text can sit beside it.

When you crop, keep the food occupying roughly 70 to 80 percent of the frame. Smaller than that and the dish disappears in a thumbnail; larger and the crop feels cramped. Do not add text, logos, watermarks or price tags to the image itself. Keep the portion shown honest: if a dish ships with two sides, show both, because a photo that overstates the portion leads to complaints and refunds.

• Compose for a 1:1 crop, then export additional sizes from the same master
• Keep the dish at 70 to 80 percent of the frame
• Shoot a separate 16:9 frame if you need a website banner
• No text, logos or watermarks inside the photo

Review pitfalls before you publish

The most common reason a dish photo gets flagged or replaced is that it does not match what arrives at the door. Check that the photo shows the actual portion, the actual sides and the actual packaging if the dish is served in a branded container. If your kitchen changes a recipe or a garnish, reshoot rather than editing the old file.

Look at the image on a phone at thumbnail size before you upload. If you cannot tell what the dish is in two seconds, the light is too flat or the crop is too wide. Also check for color casts from tungsten kitchen lighting, which turn white rice yellow and green herbs brown; correct white balance in your phone's editor rather than applying heavy saturation.

Keep a simple record of which photo is attached to which menu item and when it was last updated. When a new item launches, shoot it the same week, using the same angle and surface as the rest of the menu, so the listing looks consistent rather than a mix of styles.

• Photo must match the delivered portion, sides and packaging
• Check the image at thumbnail size on a phone
• Correct white balance before adding saturation
• Reshoot when a recipe changes, do not patch the old file

Using the same master photo on your own channels

The photo you shoot for delivery also serves your website menu, Instagram, Google Business Profile, a QR menu and printed menus. Export each placement from the same master so the dish looks identical everywhere a customer checks before ordering. For Instagram, a 4:5 portrait crop fills more of the feed; for a website hero, a 16:9 crop with space beside the dish works better; for print, keep the highest-resolution version and let the printer handle the conversion.

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 always confirm the final file on the upload screen.