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.

[mikeysal]

When are you going to release an Android Square Studio Photo app?

[WineCurmudgeon]

According to Techjury for 2022:

Android is the most used OS in the world.

Even Windows lags behind the widespread adoption of the functional smartphone platform owned by Google. iOS is not even close.

When it comes to mobile devices, Apple has gained some ground over the last couple of years but Android still powers about 75% of all smartphones and tablets.

When are you going to release an Android version is a good question. 

[johnobc]

@WineCurmudgeon @mikeysal 

Unfortunately we still don’t have a timeline for an Android version of the app. Here’s my answer from the Q&A in April for reference - the same is still true:

First, I want to thank all the Android users for participating in this Q&A and for asking this question.

The answer is that we will hopefully have an Android version of this app, we absolutely hear the requests, but we do not have a timeframe yet. To give more context, the app was built off the foundation of an existing iPhone app that Square acquired in 2021. The app we acquired was iPhone only so there were a lot of features that are included in our Photo Studio app that were built specifically for iPhones - like the machine learning model we use for background removal. We definitely want to release an Android version but it will take us time since we don’t have the same foundation to build off of and will basically be starting from scratch. Hopefully this helps explain why we don’t have an Android version yet since this is our top request but we want everyone to know we hear you!

[TobaccoLeaf]

Better object detection and filters. WE NEED AN ANDROID APP!

[johnobc]

With the most recent release, we did update the background removal model pretty substantially. It works quite a bit better and now also works for food & beverage photos (in the past it removed white plates.) In my view, this is probably the biggest upgrade we’ve made to the app since launch and I’m continually impressed with how much better the background removal works. Definitely worth trying again if you haven’t recently.

In terms of filters, what would you be interested in? We have an automatic image improvement model that runs on every image but I’m curious if there’s more you’re looking for.

On the Android app front - we hear you! 

[debinnnc]

I like the idea of having access to food and beverage photos, but I sell natural body care products. Is there any possibility of having access to soaps, scrubs, lotions and things like that?

[johnobc]

That's a great idea! We’ve always viewed body care products as so reliant on a seller’s packaging that we weren’t sure it made sense to offer photos of those since they wouldn't include branding. As an example, a cup of coffee generally just looks like a cup of coffee but a bottle of lotion is really differentiated by the branding on the bottle. We’ve also found the app is great at taking photos of these where sometimes food can be a bit more challenging with all the food styling that goes on. Definitely something we can consider though and please let me know if I’m misunderstanding.

[TheZaar]

The iPhone was "born" in 2007. The iPad was "born" 3 years later. You've designed your photo app for the iPhone, and loading it onto an iPad simply puts an iPhone-size screen on the iPad. Any thoughts on when the app will be reformatted for the iPhone's younger brother?

[johnobc]

We’ve been getting this feedback a lot (behind an Android version…) and it is on our list. Candidly, this will be faster and easier for us to accomplish than Android since it’s in the wheelhouse of our existing engineering team. I can't make any promises on timeline but I'm hoping we get to it soon!

[jamierickson]

How do I reduce the glare on my glass jars of salsa?

[johnobc]

Photographing glass is all about the lighting and is definitely challenging. Where I’ve seen people go wrong is trying to do too much - it’s really tough to light with artificial lights if you’re not a professional photographer. My tip here would be to try to photograph outside on an overcast day or in a room with a lot of natural light. Since you’re trying to reduce glare, you can also slightly underlight your object (so underexpose it) and then bump up the exposure when you’re editing the image in the app. The key is to avoid hot spots and reflections as much as possible. When you’re shooting glass, it’s also helpful to put a white piece of posterboard directly behind the product so it helps the glass look completely clear once the background is removed. Lastly, if you can’t entirely reduce the glare, try to keep it off of logos or text so any of those components can stay legible.

[TheZaar]

Retired professional photographer here. Your advice is great for people without a studio, huge banks of softbox lights, and assistants feathering the shadows. Frankly, "outside on an overcast day" is the best advice, since an overcast sky acts like the huge bank of softbox lights I mentioned previously. One other pro tip: hair spray. A light coating of hair spray makes the glass surface somewhat like frosted glass. Spray it lightly on the glass (not the label) to spread out the light and prevent "specular reflections" (exact reflections of whatever light source you're using). Don't overdo the spray. You can always add more if needed. Hope this helps.

[johnobc]

Ah thank you for chiming in @TheZaar - the hair spray's a neat trick!

[DentedBrick]

Why have you alienated 71% of all cell phone users by leaving out the Android user community? Sure apple has great branding but they only hold a 27% market share of all users. Is it because the developers see it as a status symbol since they are so expensive (over priced) and you don't get much tech wise for your money? google pixel, samsung, etc., all have higher end-hardware, better resolution, better optics, faster processors, more memory. What is the developer rational on the process of this application by limiting it to only ios?

[johnobc]

Thanks for sharing these stats! I answered this up above as well but the app is built off an iOS app that Square acquired in 2021. That means we have a significant head start (like a 2 year head start!) building the features on iPhone. Even if we had a bunch of Android developers working on building an app now, getting to feature parity would take time. It’s definitely something we want and we’re not trying to alienate anyone - it will just take some time to catch up.

[vinesandrushes]

One of the challenges I have with photos is taking wine bottle shots in a photo booth and then editing out the white background so the background is transparent.  Square photo studio didn't quite work but maybe thins have been refined - I'll take another look.

[johnobc]

Yes - please take another look. We should absolutely work for this and the background removal should be improved since the last time you used the app. If it still isn’t working for you, I would love to see the original photo you’re photographing and I can help give you some tips or see where we can improve. This is a use case we absolutely want to help with and we have a ton of wine sellers using the app.

[Sweetpiedessert]

Just need the Android app.

[johnobc]

Thank you for asking nicely 😃 see above for answers about Android - we hear you!

[GourmetOnWheels]

@Tom The app needs a lot of work, when I take pictures of jars it cuts of the top or a side, both in Food and Non Food

Plus the editing of the pictures is still a lot easier to save the picture to the camera roll and then edit it on the iPhone.

René