How to take great food photography for Deliveroo
While photography have fallen to the way side during the Covid pandemic, specific areas are thriving. One such area is food imagery, particularly imagery for online platforms like Deliveroo. From high end restaurants to everything in-between, having a delivery presence is the only way to get your food into your customers bellies.
Why bother with the photography for Deliveroo? The numbers show that having imagery increases sales. Who doesn’t like seeing the food they are going to eat before they eat it!
Source: Deliveroo
More photos means more sales:
Individual dish photography for just 10% of your menu can boost orders by 12%
This increases to 24%, when providing dish photography for 30-40% of your menu
You can expect a 6.5% increase in orders for dishes that include photos
But wait, there’s a catch. The photography has to be good. Poor photography decreases orders. A professional can make the process quick, efficient and avoid waste (remember you need to actually make all the dishes to photography them). If you’re going solo and want some help, here are Deliveroo’s guidelines and some extra tips from me.
Example - Zuma sushi resataurant
Zuma is a high-end Modern Japanese restaurant with a sushi counter and robata grill in Knightsbridge, London. I had the pleasure of photographing their food for Deliveroo.
Hero Image
How do you rank higher on deliveroo? Restaurants with hero images feature higher on the restaurant list than those without. They also attract more visitors to their menu. It’s the first thing the user sees.
Hero image Deliveroo tips:
3-5 dishes
avoid overcrowding the image
don’t use props - hands, faces, text, logos, watermarks or raw ingredients placed around the dishes
choose a clear and clean background that will complement and highlight your product
Hero image pro tips:
even and consistent light - beware when using natural light it can vary depending on time of day and cloud cover
Avoid shadows - use a reflector (white card will do the trick) to reflect the natural light back onto the food and remove the shadows
Make sure all the food is in focus - reviewing images on the small back of a camera can be deceiving. Zoom in to ensure you have everything in focus
Item Images
Using specific photos of each item on your menu makes it as easy as possible for customers to decide what to order. It is not compulsory to have a shot of each dish but with the opportunity to increase sales, I’d consider it a must have.
Item images Deliveroo tips:
One dish
centre the dish in the photo
include all of the plate
for stackable items such as burgers, sandwiches, cakes and drinks, a side-on angle looks the best
Item images pro tips:
Cropping - when shooting make sure to leave a lot of background around your dish. You will need the extra space when cropping to Deliveroo’s specifications
Angle - if you are unsure shoot top down, 90 degrees and straight on to compare
Be consistent - the images will appear in a row. Make them look neat and professional. eg. all the plates on the same angle
remember that the idea of the image is to entice people to eat it!
Which one makes you hungry?
Final image delivery
Deliveroo have specific ration and size requirements so that the image does not change when viewing your menu on mobile or web devices:
Landscape orientation
At least 1920 x 1080 pixels - anything higher than this has to have a 16:9 ratio
Ensure the whole dish is in the frame
All images must be JPEG files
Label images with the correct dish names
make sure you own the images (no copying anyone else!)
How to book photography
Don’t hesitate to get in touch for information about my services. You can connect straight through the contact page on my website. I’m always happy to talk all things photography (and food for that matter). Pricing starts from £400 for a half day shoot and will usually cover a basic menu.
Happy shooting (and eating).
