Small Business. Big Waves.

The photos are the one thing we can't do for you.

They also make more difference than anything else on this list. So here is exactly what to point your phone at, in your trade — and a check that tells you whether each one came out usable before you rely on it.

No photo is uploaded. The check runs in your browser, on your device. Nothing is sent to us and nothing is stored — the same as the rest of this site. You can turn off your wifi and it still works.

If you only take one

The dish you are known for, shot from above, near a window. That one photo does more than the other nine put together.

0 of 5 must-have shots checked. Everything happens on your device — no photo is uploaded anywhere, including to us.

1

The dish you're known for, from directly abovemust have

This is the photo people decide on. It is the one that gets them off the search results page and through your door, and it is the one most restaurants never take.

How: Put the plate on a table near a window in daylight. Stand up, hold the phone flat and level above it, and fill the frame with the plate. Wipe the rim first.

Usually goes wrong: Shooting under the restaurant's own warm lighting after dark, which turns food orange. Daylight, every time — even if it means plating one at 11am for the photo.

Ends up on: Search profile, website, social — the single highest-value photo in this trade

Stays on your device.

2

Three more dishes, same waymust have

One photo is a sample; four is a menu. People want to know there's something for the person they're bringing.

How: Same window, same height, same angle. Doing them back to back in one sitting keeps them looking like one restaurant.

Usually goes wrong: Photographing them over six months in different light, so the set looks borrowed.

Ends up on: Website gallery, social posts

Stays on your device.

3

The room, with people in itmust have

An empty dining room reads as a failing dining room. A room with a few people reads as somewhere worth booking.

How: From the doorway or a corner, at chest height, during a normal service. Ask the nearest table if they mind.

Usually goes wrong: Taking it at 10am when it's spotless and empty — technically the nicest photo of the room, and the least persuasive.

Ends up on: Website, search profile

Stays on your device.

4

The front of the building, from across the streetmust have

This is the photo that tells someone they've arrived at the right place. It reduces the number of people who drive past, and it is the picture search results show beside your name.

How: Stand far enough back to get the whole frontage and your sign in one frame. Mid-morning or late afternoon, with the sun behind you.

Usually goes wrong: Shooting at midday with the sun behind the building, which turns your shopfront into a dark silhouette. Also: cars parked across the front. Wait two minutes.

Ends up on: Search profile, website header, review listings

Stays on your device.

5

The person or people who actually do the workmust have

People buy from people, and in a small business the owner's face does more work than any logo. It is also the photo that most obviously separates you from a national chain.

How: Outdoors or near a window, looking at the camera, not posed in a suit unless that's what you wear. Waist up.

Usually goes wrong: Using a stock photo of a smiling stranger, or a group shot from six staff ago. Both get noticed, and both cost you the thing the photo was for.

Ends up on: Website, search profile, social bio

Stays on your device.

6

The counter, the bar, or the pass

It answers 'what kind of place is this' — counter service or table service, quick or slow — before anyone has to ask.

How: Straight on, from where a customer would stand.

Usually goes wrong: Cluttered card readers, chalkboards mid-wipe, and a staff member caught mid-sentence.

Ends up on: Website, social

Stays on your device.

7

Your coffee, or your signature drink

Drinks photograph well and post often. For a café this is the most shareable thing you make.

How: Near the window again. Slightly above, not directly overhead, so you can see into the cup.

Usually goes wrong: A takeaway lid. Nobody has ever been persuaded by a lid.

Ends up on: Social posts

Stays on your device.

Five things that fix most photos

Daylight beats every filter

Almost every bad small-business photo is a lighting problem, not a camera problem. Shoot near a window in the daytime, with the light falling on your subject rather than coming from behind it. Your phone is already good enough.

Clean the lens

It lives in a pocket. Ten seconds on a shirt is the single cheapest improvement available, and it fixes the hazy, washed-out look people blame on their phone.

Tap the screen before you shoot

Tap on the thing you want sharp. Your phone will focus and set the brightness for that, which is usually not what it picked on its own.

Send the original, not the one from a message

Sharing a photo through a messaging app shrinks it. Always pick it out of the camera roll. This is the most common reason a photo comes out too small to use.

Take five, keep one

Nobody gets it first time, including professionals. The difference is that they take more and throw most away.

What the check can and can't tell you

Got your photos? They drop straight in.

Run the full review and your photos go into the website it builds — again, without ever leaving your device.

Get the full review