Pre-Shoot Food Photo Checklist

Lock the dish list and the order of shooting

A shoot fails fastest when the list changes mid-session. Before anything is bought or prepped, write the final dish names exactly as they will appear on the menu, in the order they will be photographed. That order should follow the menu structure, not the kitchen's convenience: starters, mains, sides, desserts, drinks. If a dish is being renamed, settle the new name first, because the name decides the props, the garnish and the crop.

Group dishes by what they share, not by menu section alone. All the burgers together, all the salads together, all the cocktails together. Shared prep means one batch of pickled onions, one bowl of chopped parsley, one set of linens. It also means the camera stays in one place longer, which is where you save the most time.

Mark each dish with what it needs: a specific plate, a specific glass, a sauce poured at the last second, a garnish that wilts. Anything that cannot sit for five minutes gets flagged now and scheduled into the fastest part of the day.

• Final dish names written down, spelled as on the menu
• Shooting order grouped by shared prep and shared props
• Each dish tagged with its plate, glass and last-second steps
• Any dish that cannot wait five minutes flagged and scheduled early

Choose plates, surfaces and backgrounds before cooking starts

Decide the surfaces while the kitchen is still cold. For most restaurant menus, two or three backgrounds are enough: one neutral matte surface for savory dishes, one lighter surface for desserts and drinks, one textured wood or stone for dishes that suit a rustic look. Too many surfaces makes a menu look assembled from different restaurants.

Match the plate to the dish and to the background. A white dish on a white surface disappears; a dark glaze on a dark slate does the same. Keep a small set of plates in different tones so you can swap when a combination goes flat. Check every plate for chips, fingerprints and dried water spots under a raking light before it goes near food.

Think about the final crop, not just the frame. Menus often use a square 1:1 crop, delivery listings usually want a wider landscape image, and social needs a vertical 4:5 or 9:16. Leave space around the plate so those crops are possible later. If you plan to shoot a wide 16:9 hero of the full table, set that up as its own shot rather than hoping to crop it out of a single plate.

Plan portions, backups and timing

Photograph the portion the guest actually receives, then decide whether it needs help. A dish that looks sparse on camera can be built with the same ingredients arranged more deliberately: sauce underneath rather than pooled on top, the protein turned to show its best side, garnish placed where it reads at thumbnail size. Do not add ingredients the dish does not contain.

Fragile items need a backup portion and a slot at the end of the session or right before service. Ice cream, whipped cream, fries, tacos, ramen and anything with a melted topping collapse in minutes. Sturdy items such as boxed meals, baked goods, bread baskets and cocktails without ice can be shot earlier and will hold.

Write a simple timing plan: prep time per dish, minutes on set, and a hard stop. A realistic allowance is a few minutes per dish for a simple plate and longer for anything that needs building, saucing or a second attempt. Build in a buffer for the dish that inevitably looks wrong on the first try.

Cold dishes should be assembled on set, not in the kitchen, when the recipe allows. Keep dressings, sauces and garnishes in small containers beside the camera so the plate is finished in front of the lens.

• One backup portion for every fragile dish
• Sauces, dressings and garnishes held back and added on set
• Realistic minutes per dish, plus a buffer
• A hard stop time so service is not disrupted

Build a small styling kit and check the light

You do not need a prop cupboard. A useful kit fits in one crate: paper towels, a spray bottle of water, a small brush, tweezers, a palette knife, clean cloths in two colors, a few neutral napkins, a couple of boards and a set of cutlery with no fingerprints. Add a small squeeze bottle for oil or sauce so you can place a controlled drizzle instead of pouring from a jug.

Check the light before the first plate. Window light is the easiest to work with: put the dish between the window and the camera at roughly 45 degrees, and use a white board or a sheet of foam board on the opposite side to bounce light back into the shadows. Avoid direct midday sun, which makes highlights on sauce and glass blow out. If you are shooting under restaurant lighting, check for color casts from mixed bulbs and set white balance manually rather than relying on auto.

Clean the lens, and shoot at a slightly lower angle than eye level for plated food, closer to 30 to 45 degrees, so the diner sees the top of the plate and the height of the food. Reserve a straight overhead 90 degree angle for flat dishes like pizza, sharing boards and bowls where the pattern matters.

Agree who approves, and what happens after the shoot

Name one person from the restaurant who approves every final image and every crop. Not a committee. Multiple approvers produce a menu that looks like it was shot on different days, because each one prefers a different plate. That person should be present or reachable during the shoot, and should sign off on the back of the camera before the dish is cleared.

Decide the output list in advance: which dishes need a square menu image, which need a landscape version for listings, which need a vertical for social, and which need a wide hero for the website header or a QR menu. Knowing the sizes now prevents a reshoot later.

File and back up the same day. Name files by dish and angle so the kitchen can find them, and keep the originals untouched. If you are refreshing photos of your own dishes for your website, Instagram, Google Business Profile, QR menu or print, FoodPhoto takes a real photo of your dish and improves light, background and crop while keeping the food as it is, and returns each photo as a kit of sizes. It cannot guarantee approval by any platform, so check each platform's own upload screen for its current image requirements.