Eight in the evening in Costa Adeje. A British couple leaves the hotel hungry, with no booking. They're not going to read a menu in Spanish: they open Google Maps, type "restaurant" and swipe through the photos. Three seconds per restaurant. Yours loses on the very first image, even if your wreckfish is the best in the area.
That is how people decide where to eat today, and it's why food photography is no longer a thing for Michelin-starred restaurants. It's the first thing the customer sees and, very often, the only thing.
What photo is your customer actually seeing?
Probably not the one you'd choose. On a restaurant's Google profile, your photos sit alongside the ones diners upload, and you don't decide which ones show up first. If nobody looks after the profile, a customer's photo can end up as the cover.
And Google goes a step further. Since 2024, Maps recognises the dishes in customers' photos and labels them with the name they have on your menu. In other words: the dimly lit photo someone took of your creamy rice can end up as the official image of that dish for everyone who looks it up. You can't delete other people's photos, but you can give Google something better, especially if your menu is set up properly, as we explain in how to keep your menu up to date on Google Maps.
Did you know? The colour of the plate changes the taste too. In an experiment by the Universitat Politècnica de València and the University of Oxford, the same strawberry mousse was perceived as sweeter on a white plate than on a black one. What you see in the photo already shapes how the food will be remembered.
Why doesn't a phone always get it right?
Because a phone gives you sharpness, and that's the least of it. What makes someone walk in or walk past are the details you don't notice until they're missing:
- The time of day. A terrace at midday in Los Cristianos gives harsh shadows and blown-out whites. The same terrace late in the afternoon can be the best photo on your profile.
- The signature dish, recognisable. If you're known for octopus in Puerto de la Cruz, the octopus comes first, whole and on its plate, not in an artistic close-up where nobody can tell what it is.
- Postage-stamp size. On Maps the photo appears tiny. A dish with too many elements turns into a blur.
- Looking like what arrives at the table. A photo that exaggerates the dish doesn't save you anything: it just moves the problem to the reviews.
Light, framing and plating are a craft, and it shows on that six-inch screen. That's why the restaurant food photos that work are rarely the most spontaneous ones, but the most thought-out.
Why does food photography in Tenerife need a photo of every dish?
Because many of your customers don't know your cuisine. A British visitor doesn't know what escaldón de gofio is, and a Swede isn't going to put "papas arrugadas" into a translator, but if they see the dish, they get it in half a second. On the island, the photo works as a translated menu: wrinkled potatoes with spicy mojo or grilled cheese don't explain themselves, and a good image does.
And since that same photo ends up on your Google profile, your menu, your website and Instagram, it helps if they all share the same look. If each one has a different style, the restaurant looks like four businesses instead of one.
When is a professional food photography shoot worth it?
When what your customer sees today doesn't live up to what you serve. The signs are usually these:
- You've changed the menu and the photos are from the old one.
- The first images on your profile are customers' photos, badly lit or of dishes you no longer serve.
- Your photos look fine on a computer, but on a phone you can't tell what the dish is.
- You're about to enter high season and want to arrive with a refreshed profile.
A well-planned shoot isn't about "taking nice photos": it's about deciding beforehand which dishes need an image and for which channel, and plating with that use in mind. The difference between forty useful photos and two hundred you never use lies in the preparation, not the camera.
A five-minute test
Do it today, before tonight's service. Search for your restaurant on Google Maps from your phone, the way a tourist would, and open the photos tab. Look at the first ten as if it weren't your business. Would you walk in? Can you see the dish you're proudest of? Is there a photo you'd rather nobody saw?
If the answer doesn't convince you, that's where we come in. At GMB Horizon we do food photography in Tenerife at your own venue, anywhere on the island: no studio and no set outside your kitchen, just your tableware, your dining room and your real light, which is exactly what customers will find when they walk in.
Before the shoot we decide with you which dishes, spaces and formats you need, so nothing is left to improvisation. On the day we photograph dishes and drinks, but also the terrace, the atmosphere and the team, because a table with a view sells as much as the plate. And every image is made for where it will live: vertical for Instagram and TikTok, horizontal for the website and booking platforms, and specific shots for your Google profile, with the option of video or reels from the same shoot.
We deliver everything selected, edited and organised by use, ready to upload without cropping or retouching. And if your menu needs a refresh too, we design it in print and digital with a QR code and keep it up to date on Google Maps, so the new photos have somewhere to shine. We work with restaurants, hotels and bars all over the island that are refreshing their menu, opening or changing concept, or that until now only had phone photos.
Go into high season with the profile your kitchen deserves. Tell us your case and we'll start by looking at what your customers are seeing today.