Q&A: Learn how to create high-quality menu images with Square Photo Studio!

[Tom]

✨ Be your own food stylist with the help of Square Photo Studio! ✨

We were thrilled to welcome back @johnobc from the Square Photo Studio team for another Question & Answer event for restaurant, bar, and food industry businesses August 31.

Here are just a few of the latest feature improvements on the Square Photo Studio app for specifically for food & beverage:

• Real-time object detection to help guide high-quality images
• Access to Square's proprietary library of 1500+ common food & beverage items which you can add to your menus
• Textured backgrounds like wood and marble to help your items stand out
  
  

For more information on how to get the most out of these new features, have a look below for a summary and check out his team's last Q&A.

Note: We can't share specific details on our product roadmaps, though this information will be helpful as we continue to make improvements.

[johnobc]

Thanks for the feedback on this and for testing out the app since the beginning! Can you send me a photo of the item you’re trying to photograph? It can just be the original - no background removed. From there, I can either give you some tips as to how to get the app to work better or pass it along to our team to see what we can do.

For editing, what specifically are you finding easier with the iPhone than with the app?

[GourmetOnWheels]

@johnobc John, I no longer have this picture and no longer carry that item.

Regarding iPhone editing the options are endless.

Here is what is possible and I use it every time; Crop, Straighten, Turn,  Exposure, Black Point, Noise Reduction.

And I use often;  Brilliance, Highlights, Shadows, Contrast,  Saturation, Sharpness, Tint, and Warmth.

Not so often used; Brightness, Vibrance, Defenition, and these I never use; Filters Vivid Warm, Vivid Cool, Dramatic Warm, Dramatic Cool, Mono, Silvertone, Noir

René

[Donnie-M]

What are the plans to allow fine edge editing (like a blow up screen) for hard to cut out items?

Has the team thought about being able to use the photo studio as a way to take specific item images or edits like item grids/favicons?

Last but not least, how tight of integration are we going to get to have a photo library associated directly with our account versus uploading new images that are only stored associated with an item?

[vinesandrushes]

Fine edge editing is the key for it being useful for wine bottle pictures for me.

[johnobc]

I answered up above but would love to see some of your photos to figure out what's going on - ideally you shouldn't even have to edit.

[johnobc]

Great questions Donnie!

- For fine edge editing, if you use an existing photo from your camera roll you are able to refine the background. It is best for small adjustments though and not in-depth editing. The reality is that we’ve found in-depth, extensive fine edge editing is usually done better off a mobile device

- That seems like a great idea - can you send a few example images over of what you’re thinking?

- We’re working on an integration with the Image Library in the Square dashboard now. This will let you edit/format all the photos you have in Square on your device and then save your app photos to your Square dashboard so you can add them to items from your dashboard. Should be a pretty seamless integration if all goes to plan!

[JUYBoutique20]

Android release?

[vinesandrushes]

What's Android? 😆

[johnobc]

Someday 😄 see some of our other answers above. Believe me that we want an Android version as much as you all do!

[TobaccoLeaf]

Need to get an Android App and better algo for hard edges.

[johnobc]

I think I answered this elsewhere but we did recently improve the background removal model. Take a look! For Android, see some of our other responses 🙂

[johnobc · Accepted solution]

Hello Everyone,

Thanks again for taking the time to share your questions and feedback!

We hope your questions were answered—the experiences you've shared will help us as we continue to iterate based on your feedback.

As we close out this event, we wanted to do a recap on three themes that came up frequently:

• Android & iPad support - we want to say thank you again to the Android community for participating in the Q&A and letting us know how much you want the app to work on your devices! We hear you but want to reiterate that it will take us time to get an Android version to the market. iPad support is a less daunting task and it’s something we’re looking at hopefully supporting by the end of this year

• Better background removal and background removal adjustments - we significantly improved background removal with the latest release so if you haven’t tried the app recently, definitely try it again. That being said, there are always going to be some items the app has issues with. To help us work on further improvements on background adjustments: We’d love for you to post any pictures, preferably with the original/non-removed set up, and we can try to figure out where we still have gaps

• Upcoming feature requests - a lot of the feature requests everyone’s asking for read our minds 🙂 we’re committed to continuing to improve the app so you should start to see more of what everyone’s look for in the coming months

We appreciate your experiences and we'll continue to develop the Square Photo Studio app based on your business needs. For the latest updates, keep watch for announcements of new features in Product Updates.