St. Louis Menu Photography for Real Dishes
A full menu needs one consistent look, not a handful of hero shots. In St. Louis that means planning around a wide swing in daylight, shooting in batches, and naming files so a photo can always be matched to the item it sells. This page covers how to do that for printed menus, QR menus and delivery apps.
Plan the shoot around St. Louis daylight
St. Louis sits at about 38.6 degrees north, and that latitude drives a big seasonal difference in window light. Around the June solstice the city gets roughly 14 hours 42 minutes of daylight and the noon sun stands about 75 degrees above the horizon. Around the December solstice it drops to about 9 hours 18 minutes, with the noon sun only about 28 degrees up.
That changes where light lands in your dining room. In summer the sun is high and short-lived at the window, so a north-facing window gives soft, even light for most of the day and a south or west window throws hard patches that move fast. In winter the low sun reaches deep into the room, so a south window becomes a usable light source for hours and a north window gets dim enough to need a reflector or a move closer to the glass.
A workable schedule: shoot between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. in winter at a south or east window, standing about 1 m back from the glass and turning the plate so the light comes from the side. In summer, shoot early morning or late afternoon at an east or west window, or use a north window all day. Avoid direct noon sun in June; at 75 degrees it comes in steep and creates short, harsh shadows under the plate rim.
- Winter (Nov to Feb): south or east window, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., reflector on the shadow side
- Summer (May to Aug): north window any time, or east/west window before 10 a.m. and after 4 p.m.
- Spring and fall: either setup works, but check the window an hour before you start
- Overcast days: the most consistent light of the year, shoot the largest batch then
Batch shooting a whole menu
Shoot by category, not by popularity. Set up one station, shoot every appetizer, then every sandwich, then every entree, then every dessert. Keeping the camera, the surface and the light in the same place for a whole category is what makes a printed menu look like one menu rather than a collage.
Keep a fixed camera height and angle per category. A 45-degree angle works for plated entrees and bowls because it shows both the surface and the depth. A straight overhead 90-degree shot suits flat items like a pizza, a sampler platter or a dessert plate. Pick one angle per category and do not change it mid-batch.
Work in a set order and write it down. Photograph the item, note the file number against the menu item name, then move on. Ten to fifteen items per session is realistic before the light shifts or the food cools. Shoot the plate within two minutes of plating; a rested sauce and a wilted garnish will not survive a close crop.
Keep a small kit: a neutral surface, one white foam board as a reflector, a spray bottle of water for greens, and paper towels. Clean the rim of every plate before the shot. At thumbnail size, a smear on the edge is more visible than the garnish.
Angles, crops and sizes for each channel
The same dish needs different crops depending on where it appears. A printed menu usually wants a square or a tall portrait tile. A QR menu on a phone wants a square that reads at 300 px wide or less. A delivery app tile is viewed small and compressed, so the food should fill most of the frame with very little empty surface around it. Social posts want 1:1 or 4:5, and a website hero wants 16:9.
Shoot slightly wider than you need and crop later. Leave a little space around the plate so a square, portrait and landscape crop can all come from the same frame. Keep the main subject centered; off-center compositions get cut awkwardly when a platform crops to a different ratio.
For delivery apps, this site keeps photo spec pages for Uber Eats, DoorDash, Grubhub and BentoBox, covering the United States. Where a platform does not publish pixel specs, check the upload screen in your merchant dashboard, since requirements can change without notice.
Name files so photos stay matched to the menu
A menu photo is only useful if you can find it again when a price changes or an item is renamed. Use a naming pattern that puts the item first: category_item-name_angle_date, for example entree_toasted-ravioli_45deg_2025-03. Sort by name and every version of one dish sits together.
Keep one master folder per menu version and one export folder per channel. When an item is removed, move its files to an archive folder rather than deleting them; seasonal specials often return. Keep a simple spreadsheet with columns for menu item, file name, date shot and which channels currently use it.
Update photos when the plate changes, not only when the dish changes. A new bowl, a smaller portion or a different garnish makes an old photo misleading, and in the US that matters beyond looks. 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 has to match the item those calories describe, so a photo of the previous version of a dish is a real problem, not a cosmetic one.
Local dishes and the light they need
St. Louis cooking is widely known for Italian-American plates, barbecue and its own dessert traditions. Those dishes share a photographic trait: they are often golden or brown and low in color contrast, which is exactly what flattens in a small thumbnail.
To keep texture visible, light from the side rather than straight on, and keep the background darker than the food so the edge of the plate separates. For a breaded item, a low side light at roughly 30 to 45 degrees to the plate rakes across the crust and shows the crumb. For a dark glazed or sauce-heavy plate, a small white card on the shadow side lifts the detail without blowing out the highlights.
Check every shot at thumbnail size on your phone before you move on. If you cannot tell what the dish is at 300 px, reshoot closer or from a higher angle.
Keeping a menu shoot repeatable
Write a one-page setup sheet: window, time of day, camera height, angle per category, surface, reflector position and file naming pattern. The next person who shoots a special can match the existing set without a meeting.
Review the menu quarterly and after any menu change. Re-shoot only the items that changed, using the same setup sheet, so new photos sit next to old ones without a visible seam.
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 does not generate a different dish and cannot guarantee approval by any platform, so always upload your own real photo where a platform requires it.
Checklist before you publish
- Pick your window and shooting hours from the seasonal daylight schedule before you cook anything
- Shoot one full category per session and keep camera height and angle fixed within it
- Photograph each plate within two minutes of plating and wipe the rim first
- Shoot slightly wide and centered so square, portrait and landscape crops all work
- Name every file category_item_angle_date and log it in a spreadsheet
- Check each shot at thumbnail size on a phone before moving to the next dish
- Archive removed items instead of deleting them
- Re-shoot any item whose plate, portion or garnish changed, and keep calorie counts matched
Questions
How many dishes can I photograph in one session?
Plan for ten to fifteen items per session. That is roughly how long the light stays consistent at one window and how long food holds its looks after plating. Shooting more usually means the last plates sit too long and the light has moved, which shows up as inconsistent color across the menu.
What angle should I use for menu photos?
Use about 45 degrees for plated entrees, bowls and sandwiches so the surface and the depth both read. Use a straight overhead 90-degree angle for flat items like pizza, wings on a platter or dessert plates. Keep one angle per category so the finished menu looks consistent.
Do I need to update photos when a dish changes?
Yes. If the portion, garnish or plateware changes, the old photo no longer matches what arrives. In the US, chains with 20 or more locations must post calorie counts for standard menu items and FDA guidance covers online menus too, so the photo has to match the item the calories describe.
What file naming should I use for menu photos?
Put the category first, then the item name, the angle and the date, for example appetizer_toasted-ravioli_45deg_2025-03. This keeps every version of one dish together in a sorted folder and makes it easy to find which photo a channel is currently using.