San Francisco Menu Photography for Print, QR Menus and Delivery Apps

Why every item needs its own consistent photo

On delivery apps, diners scan a grid of small tiles before they read a single item name. A dish shot at a different angle, color temperature or crop from its neighbors looks like it came from a different restaurant. Consistency across the whole menu is what makes a listing look deliberate.

That means one decision per menu: the same camera height, the same light direction, the same background, and the same crop ratio for every dish. Write those decisions down before the first plate is plated, because a batch shoot that drifts halfway through is expensive to redo.

In San Francisco, menus mix cuisines that photograph very differently: dim sum baskets, Mission-style burritos, Italian-American pasta plates, and seasonal farm-to-table dishes with a lot of green garnish. Each needs a background and light setup that lets its actual colors read true, so plan a few setup groups rather than one blanket setup.

A seasonal window-light schedule for San Francisco

Around the June solstice San Francisco gets about 14 h 37 min of daylight and the noon sun reaches about 76 degrees above the horizon. Around the December solstice it gets about 9 h 23 min and the noon sun reaches about 29 degrees.

That difference changes where window light lands. In summer the sun is high, so indirect north-facing window light is soft and steady for most of the middle of the day. In winter the low sun throws long direct beams across the room, which creates hard shadows and hot highlights on glossy plates. Schedule winter shoots earlier or later, or diffuse the window with a scrim.

A practical schedule: in summer, shoot between mid-morning and mid-afternoon at a window that never receives direct sun. In winter, shoot in the two hours after opening or the two hours before sunset, or tape diffusion material over the glass. Keep a light meter or a test shot at the start and end of each session to catch the drift.

• Summer: indirect window, mid-morning to mid-afternoon, no scrim needed on a north-facing window.
• Winter: avoid the low direct beam, shoot early or late, or diffuse the glass.
• Check exposure at the start and end of each batch; daylight changes faster than a shoot feels like it does.
• Photograph a gray card or white napkin in the first frame of each session for consistent white balance across the batch.

Batch shooting a full menu

Batch shooting works when the kitchen can plate in groups of similar dishes. Group by setup: all bowls, then all plates, then all sandwiches, then all desserts. Each group gets one camera position and one light setup, which cuts reset time between items.

Shoot each item at three angles: a 45-degree hero, a straight-on 90-degree shot for tall items like burgers or layered desserts, and a top-down 90-degree overhead for flat items like pizzas or shared platters. Three angles cover most menu layouts and app tiles without reshooting later.

Keep a shot list on paper or a tablet, ticked off as plates come out. The most common failure in a batch shoot is a dish that gets missed because the kitchen sent it out of order. Also photograph each item with its sides and garnishes exactly as it will be served, since the photo has to match what the diner receives.

File naming and keeping photos in sync with menu changes

Name files by menu section and item, not by date or camera sequence. A format like section_item_angle_version works: starters_burrito_hero_v2. That way anyone on staff can find the right image without opening a folder of numbered files.

Every time a dish changes, the photo has to change with it. 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. If a portion size, recipe or garnish changes, the calorie figure and the photo both need updating.

Keep a single master folder with the current approved image for each item, and move replaced files into an archive folder rather than deleting them. When the menu changes seasonally, the archive lets you pull back last year's photo if the dish returns unchanged.

Sizing photos for print, QR menus and delivery apps

A printed menu needs high-resolution files at print size, while a QR menu and delivery apps need smaller, compressed versions. Shoot at the highest resolution you can and export down, never the reverse.

Delivery apps each have their own tile crops and image guidelines, and not every platform publishes pixel specs. Where a spec page exists on this site, check it before exporting: the site has spec pages for Uber Eats, DoorDash, Grubhub and BentoBox, each in a United States and a USA version. Where a platform does not publish pixel specs, check the upload screen for its current requirements.

For a QR menu, export at a square 1:1 ratio so the image holds up on a phone screen. For printed menus, a 4:5 or 3:2 ratio usually fits a two-column layout better. Keep one master per dish and export the ratios you need from it.

Getting the light and background right without a studio

Most San Francisco restaurants do not have room for a studio setup. A window, a clean background and a steady camera position are enough. Use a plain surface or a neutral wall behind the plate, and keep the same background for every dish in a group.

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. Every photo comes as a kit of sizes, which helps when the same dish needs to appear on a printed menu, a QR menu and your own website. It does not generate a different dish and cannot guarantee approval by any platform.