Taking job photos that actually sell your work

The problem is not the camera

Any phone made in the last five years takes a sharp enough photo for a website. The reasons trade photos look poor are almost always the same handful: bad light, mess in the shot, a wonky angle, and taking the picture before the job is properly finished. All four are habits, and habits are free to change.

1. Always take a before shot

The after photo on its own is a nice tiled wall. The before and after together is a story: this is what they had, this is what I did. Customers understand the second one instantly and it is the format that gets the most attention on Facebook and in Google listings.

Take the before from the spot you intend to take the after from. Stand in the doorway, note where your feet are, and come back to the same place when you finish.

2. Clear the frame

Move the tool bag, the dust sheet, the kettle, the customer's washing. Thirty seconds of tidying does more for a photo than any editing. If it is a kitchen, wipe the worktop. If it is a roof, wait until the skip has gone.

3. Use the light that is already there

Turn the room lights off and let daylight do the work if there is a window. Phone cameras handle daylight well and struggle with the yellow cast from ceiling bulbs. Outside, avoid shooting straight into the sun; put it behind you or to one side. An overcast day is actually better for photographing a driveway or a roof than bright sun, because there are no harsh shadows.

Never use the flash. It flattens everything and makes a new boiler look like evidence.

4. Hold it level and step back

Turn on the grid lines in your camera settings and line the horizontals up. A slightly tilted kitchen looks like a badly fitted kitchen, even when it is perfect. Then take two steps back from where you think you should stand. You can crop later. You cannot add what you cut off.

Shoot a mix of wide (horizontal) and portrait. Websites want wide shots for banners; Instagram and Facebook want portrait or square. Taking both at the time saves an argument with your web person later.

5. Get the detail shots

Wide shots show the job. Close-ups show the skill. A tight photo of neat pipework, a clean mitre, a sealant line, a straight course of bricks: these are what another tradesman would look at, and they are what a careful customer notices too. Take two or three on every job.

6. Put a person in it sometimes

A photo of you, in your work clothes, standing by the finished job, does something the empty room cannot. It says a real person did this and is happy to be seen next to it. Customers hiring a tradesman are hiring a person to be in their house. Show them who.

You do not need to smile like an estate agent. Just stand there, arms by your side, in daylight, looking at the camera.

7. Make a folder system that survives

The most common disaster is not bad photos but lost ones. Make an album or folder for every job, named with the town and the work: 'Yarm bathroom Mar 26'. Back it up to whatever cloud your phone uses. In a year you will have a searchable library that is worth more to your business than the van.

8. Ask permission once, up front

Tell customers at the quote stage that you photograph your work for your website and social media, and that you never include addresses or anything personal. Nearly everyone says yes. Asking after the fact is awkward and occasionally gets a no.

Avoid house numbers, car registrations, family photos on the wall and anything that identifies the house. Crop or blur if you cannot avoid them.

9. Do something with them the same week

Photos sitting in a folder sell nothing. Within a week of finishing, the best three go to your Google Business Profile as an update, with a line about the job and the town. They go to your Facebook page. If you have a website, they go to the relevant service page. If you have a customer who has thanked you, the finished photo goes with your review request, which lifts the response rate noticeably. There is more on that in getting your first 20 Google reviews.

What this does for any agency you hire

If you ever do pay someone to build a site or run your social media, a library of good photos is the single most useful thing you can hand them. It is also something no agency can produce for you. The firms in our sole trader agency guide and our best value website builders comparison will all do a better job with a folder of real photos than with stock pictures of a smiling actor in a hard hat.

And if you never hire anyone, the photos still do their work on your listing and your Facebook page. Either way, two minutes a job.

Frequently asked questions