Zomato Food Photography: Real Photos, Rules and Crops

What Zomato actually publishes about photos

Zomato does not publish pixel dimensions, aspect ratios or file-size limits for dish photos. If you need exact numbers, check the upload screen in your Zomato partner dashboard, because that is the only place the current requirement is shown to you. Any 1000x1000px or 5MB figure you see elsewhere is working guidance, not a Zomato rule.

What Zomato does publish is a rule about authenticity. It told partners to stop using AI-generated dish images, saying they mislead customers, and it said it would remove them and add upload checks. The platform's catalogue team can also arrange a photo shoot for partners, which is worth asking about if you have a large menu and no time to shoot it yourself.

Treat this as a content rule, not a technical one. A sharp, correctly exposed photo of a real plate passes the authenticity test. A generated or heavily altered image does not, no matter how good the file specs are.

Plan the shoot around your actual menu

Start with the dishes customers order most, not the ones that look best on camera. A biryani, a thali, a bowl of ramen and a slice of cake each need a different plan. For a stacked biryani, shoot from about 30 to 45 degrees above the plate so you see the rice layers and the garnish; a flat 90-degree top-down flattens the height. For a tall burger or a layered dessert, go lower, around 15 to 20 degrees, so the height reads.

Use daylight from a window at roughly 45 degrees to the plate, with a white board or foil on the opposite side to bounce light into the shadows. Avoid direct overhead ceiling lights, which put a hard shadow under the bowl and turn sauces greasy-looking. If you shoot at night, one diffused light through a white shower curtain or tracing paper is enough.

Shoot on a plain surface that matches your food: a dark slate or wooden board for curries and grills, a light marble or linen for salads, desserts and breakfast. Keep the background clean and uncluttered, because the listing card crops tight and stray napkins, bottles or hands will end up in frame. Style the plate the way it leaves the kitchen, with the same portion and the same garnish.

• Shoot each dish at three angles: 90 degrees top-down, 45 degrees, and 15 to 20 degrees for tall items
• Use one window light plus a white bounce card, and turn off the room's overhead lights
• Wipe the plate rim and remove drips before every frame
• Shoot a horizontal and a vertical version of each dish so you have crop room later
• Keep a written shot list by menu category so nothing is missed

Crop for the listing card, not just the plate

Zomato shows dish photos in small cards on a phone screen, often next to a price and a name. That means the food should fill most of the frame, with the main garnish or protein near the center. A wide shot of a whole table looks generous on your own website but becomes an unreadable thumbnail in a listing.

Because Zomato does not publish a ratio, shoot with room to crop both ways. A square 1:1 crop is the safest working format for a card, with a 4:3 landscape version kept for banners and a 9:16 vertical for stories and reels on your own channels. Leave about 10 percent empty margin around the plate so a tight crop does not cut the rim.

Check the result at thumbnail size on your phone before uploading. If you cannot tell what the dish is at that size, reshoot closer or with a simpler background.

Where photos fail review

The most common failure is not lighting, it is authenticity. Generated images, borrowed photos from the internet, or images of a dish you do not serve will be flagged. Zomato has said it will remove AI-generated images and add upload checks, so do not upload anything you did not shoot of your own food.

The second failure is misrepresentation. A photo of a dish with extra sides that are not included, a portion much larger than what is delivered, or a drink that is not part of the order will confuse customers and can be moderated. Shoot the exact plate the customer receives, including the packaging if the dish is served in it, but not the delivery bag.

The third is quality: blurry frames, harsh flash, heavy color filters, or text and logos burned into the image. Keep the edit to exposure, white balance and crop. If a dish looks dull, fix the light on set rather than the saturation in post.

• No AI-generated or altered dish images
• No photos borrowed from other restaurants or the internet
• No text, watermarks, logos or price overlays
• No filters that change the color of the food
• No dishes you do not actually serve

Keep your own channels consistent

The same real photos you shoot for Zomato can run on your website menu, Instagram, Google Business Profile, QR menu and print, where you control the crop and the styling. FoodPhoto takes a real photo of your own dish and improves light, background and crop for those channels, keeping the food as it is, and every photo comes as a kit of sizes. For Zomato itself, upload your own real photo directly, since the platform does not accept AI-generated or altered images.