Master food photography for Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat with this complete guide. Learn platform-specific requirements, photo dimensions, and proven tips to increase orders.
Your food photos on Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat are your digital shopfront. They're the first thing hungry customers see when scrolling through dozens of options — and often the only thing that determines whether they order from you or the kitchen down the road.
The numbers tell a clear story. Deliveroo reports that restaurants with professional photography see up to 24% more orders than those without. Just Eat found that menu items with photos are four times more likely to be added to a customer's basket. And on Uber Eats, listings with high-quality images consistently rank higher in search results.
But here's the challenge: each platform has different photo requirements, recommended dimensions, and display formats. A photo that looks perfect on Deliveroo might be cropped awkwardly on Uber Eats. An image optimised for Just Eat might look blurry when customers zoom in on mobile.
This guide breaks down exactly how to photograph food for each major UK delivery platform. You'll learn the technical requirements, the proven techniques that drive orders, and how to create photos that work across all three apps.
Before you pick up your phone, you need to understand how your photos will actually appear to customers. Each platform crops, sizes, and displays images differently.
Deliveroo uses a 1:1 square format (equal width and height) for menu item thumbnails. When customers tap to view details, they see a larger version that can display in different aspect ratios depending on the device.
The critical point for Deliveroo: your dish must be centred and look good in a square crop. If you photograph a long pizza tray or a rectangular plate from the side, the thumbnail might cut off the ends of the dish.
Uber Eats favours a 5:4 aspect ratio (slightly wider than tall) for menu item photos. This gives a bit more horizontal space than Deliveroo's square format.
Uber Eats also displays cuisine category images and promotional banners with different aspect ratios, so having versatile photos matters.
Just Eat uses a 4:3 aspect ratio (standard photo proportions) for menu item images. This is closer to what most phone cameras capture naturally.
Just Eat's slightly more forgiving crop means you have a bit more flexibility in composition, but the fundamentals of good food photography still apply.
Before we get into platform-specific tactics, here are the principles that apply to every delivery app. Get these right and your photos will perform better regardless of where they're displayed.
All three platforms compress images when displaying them to customers. If you upload a low-resolution photo, that compression makes it look pixelated and unprofessional. Always shoot at the highest resolution your phone allows.
Front lighting (where the light comes from behind the camera) makes food look flat and two-dimensional. Side lighting creates depth, texture, and shadows that make dishes look appetising.
Position your dish so the main light source (ideally a window) is at 45-90 degrees to the side. This creates gentle shadows that show the shape of burgers, the gloss of sauce, and the texture of fried food.
Delivery app thumbnails are small. On mobile, your menu photo might be displayed at just a few centimetres across. If the dish is a tiny element in a large photo, customers won't be able to see what they're ordering.
Get close. The food should occupy at least 70% of the frame. This ensures that even in the smallest thumbnail view, the dish is clearly visible and appetising.
Busy backgrounds — kitchen equipment, branded packaging, cluttered prep surfaces — distract from the food and look unprofessional. Use a clean, neutral background that makes the dish stand out.
Food looks best in the first 60 seconds after plating. Steam rises, sauces glisten, fried items stay crisp, and greens remain vibrant. The longer you wait, the less appetising the dish becomes.
Have your phone ready before the dish is plated. As soon as it's ready, shoot quickly. Take multiple shots from different angles — you can choose the best one later, but you can't recapture that fresh-from-the-kitchen look.
Now let's get tactical. Each platform has nuances that affect how you should shoot and crop your photos.
Deliveroo's square format rewards centred compositions. Here's how to optimise for their platform:
Deliveroo also offers a photography service in some UK cities, but their availability is limited and pricing starts around £150-300 for a basic shoot. Doing it yourself — or using AI enhancement tools like SnackSnap — gives you more control and significantly lower cost per photo.
Uber Eats' 5:4 ratio gives slightly more horizontal space, which suits certain dishes better:
Uber Eats also factors photo quality into their ranking algorithm. Restaurants with professional-looking photos tend to appear higher in search results and recommendations, giving you a visibility advantage beyond just looking good.
Just Eat's 4:3 ratio is closest to standard smartphone camera output, making it the most forgiving platform for beginners:
Here's a practical workflow for shooting delivery app photos in your kitchen, even during a busy service.
Designate one spot in your kitchen as the photography area. It doesn't need to be large — just enough space for a plate and your phone.
The plating for photography should be slightly neater than normal service — but still realistic. Customers should recognise the dish when it arrives.
For each dish, capture 4-6 photos from different angles. This gives you options and lets you choose the best shot for each platform.
After shooting, you'll need to optimise the images for each delivery app's specific requirements.
Tools like SnackSnap automate this entire editing process. Upload your phone photo, choose a style that matches your brand, and the AI handles cropping, colour correction, background cleanup, and enhancement in seconds. You can even generate platform-specific exports with one click.
Even experienced restaurant owners make these errors. Avoiding them puts you ahead of the competition.
Customers can spot a stock photo instantly. It looks impersonal and creates suspicion about whether the food will actually look like the picture. Always photograph your own dishes, prepared in your kitchen, using your recipes and presentation.
If one photo is shot on a white plate with a dark background, another on a wooden board with natural light, and a third with flash in the kitchen, your menu looks disjointed and unprofessional. Use consistent backgrounds, angles, and lighting for every item.
If you've changed your recipe, presentation, or portion size, update your photos. Nothing damages reviews faster than food that doesn't match the picture. Regular photo audits — every six months or after any menu change — keep your listings accurate.
Yellow kitchen lighting makes food look unappetising. Flash creates harsh shadows and flat colours. Dark photos hide detail. If you can't shoot in natural light, use the brightest available ambient light and correct colour issues in editing.
Most customers browse delivery apps on their phones. Your photos need to look good at thumbnail size. Complex dishes with multiple elements become confusing at small sizes. Simplify compositions so the main item is instantly recognisable.
Upload the highest resolution images you have — at least 1200 pixels on the shortest side for each platform. Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat all compress images for display, so starting with a larger file ensures better quality after compression. There's no benefit to uploading low-resolution images; they just look worse.
Yes, but with adjustments. The same photo can work across Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat, but you should crop it to each platform's recommended aspect ratio for best results. A photo cropped to 1:1 for Deliveroo will display with white bars or awkward cropping on Uber Eats if you don't adjust it. Tools like SnackSnap let you export platform-specific versions with one click.
No. A modern smartphone, natural light, and attention to composition will produce photos that outperform 80% of your competitors. Professional cameras help, but they're not necessary. Lighting and composition matter far more than equipment. If your budget is limited, invest time in learning good technique rather than buying gear.
Update photos whenever you change a dish's recipe, presentation, or portion size. Beyond that, audit your photos every six months. Refreshing your images — even if the dish hasn't changed — signals to customers (and platform algorithms) that your restaurant is active and engaged.
The 45-degree angle works best for most dishes on delivery apps. It shows both the top and side of the food, giving customers a clear sense of what they're ordering. Overhead shots work well for pizzas and flat dishes. Low angles suit stacked items like burgers. For delivery apps specifically, avoid extreme angles that don't translate well to small thumbnail views.
Getting delivery app photos right doesn't require expensive equipment or professional training. Here's what matters:
Professional food photography for delivery apps used to cost hundreds of pounds per shoot. Today, with a smartphone and the right approach, you can create menu photos that compete with chains — and drive the order increases that come with them.
Creating great delivery app photos is only half the battle. Editing them for each platform, removing busy backgrounds, and ensuring consistent quality across your entire menu takes time.
SnackSnap's AI photo studio transforms phone photos into professional menu images in under 60 seconds. Upload your photo, choose from 18+ photography styles, and get platform-ready exports for Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat — all with one click.
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