How to Take Before & After Photos: For Painting Contractors

As a Painting Business Owner, it’s understood that you and your team are not Professional Photographers. On the other hand, as a Business Owner, you’re aware of how important wearing multiple hats can be for your Painting Company.

The professional painting industry is rather unique. Your services are visually appealing. For instance, the same cannot be said about Plumbing or HVAC companies.

But just because you can take photos of your work, why should you?

Here we will review the importance of photography for your marketing campaigns.

We will provide several tips to help you take better before and after photos while on the job, and we’ll even discuss where you can use these images to generate more painting leads!

I want to give a BIG shoutout to Molly Rose. Molly is a professional interior photographer based out of sunny Los Angeles, California, and has graciously offered to contribute to this post.

Let’s jump in!

Your work is visual, and our brains were built to process visual information. It’s why 90% of the information processed by our brain is visual inputs.

Plus, your customers LOVE before and after images as they can visually evaluate your quality of work.

The best part? This powerful marketing material can be created for free using nothing more than your existing smartphone.

Let’s start by addressing some common questions…

Two words: Marketing material

Your before and after photos are the best way to visually communicate your craft and the processes you’ve worked so hard to refine. Use these images to build trust and break down customer hesitation.

Consider this: A potential customer is presented with two painting companies: One with high-quality images of their work presented with an estimate, and the other estimate presented without that visual information. Which one do you think the customer is more likely to trust?

As they say: Seeing is believing.

You work hard to refine your skillset. You’re a craftsman, or craftswoman. Be proud of what you do.

Even if you don’t invest in advertising or marketing for your Painting Company today, you will at some point in the future.

So take pictures of your work for the world to see, even if you’re not actively using them today, your future marketing agency will thank you.

There is not a set number of photos you should take while on the job site, but the minimum recommended number is probably higher than you think.

For instance, the industry’s largest Painting Companies will take THOUSANDS of photos a year. Why? In part, because they make great marketing material.

Taking 50 images of an empty room you just painted may seem like overkill, right? Wrong. Maybe your thumb was in the way, or perhaps your camera caught a lens flare. The more photos you take of your painting projects, the more likely you are to walk away with workable images.

Once you walk away from your customer’s property it may not be easy to return onsite to take more photos, so it’s important you get it right the first time.

Take several photos of your subject from the same location, making small adjustments each time, then move to a different angle.

Depending on the size of your painting project, you may walk away with over a hundred images.

While those before and after images are important, they won’t benefit you or your marketing campaigns unless you keep them organized.

Implement an SOP (standard operating procedure) to catalog your project photos on the cloud.

We recommend using a service like CompanyCam to organize your project photos. You can tag/label images, add annotations, and group your photos by project, all using their mobile app!

Alternatively, if you’re looking for a free solution, take a look at Google Drive. At the time of writing this article, Google accounts include Google Drive free up to 15GB, they have a mobile app to easily create new folders and categorize images, and it’s easy to share and collaborate.

The short answer: It depends

For most painting contractors, the camera on your mobile device will get the job done.

If you completed a large project that you believe will photograph well (affluent house, car dealership, etc) then it may be worth hiring a photographer for a few hundred dollars to take professional photos.

We only recommend purchasing a DSLR camera if you have the time, motivation, and resources to invest.

We find that fancy cameras typically stay unused in the camera bag, as most well-intentioned purchases do.

Just because you have the right equipment doesn’t mean you’ll be able to take better photos. Lighting, aperture, and exposure times can all impact the quality of your images, and it takes some practice to get it right.

For this article, we are going to focus (pun intended) on photography tips specific to the camera on your mobile phone.

For this, we engaged a professional photographer. Molly’s skills are evident in her photography. In fact, most of the images we used in this post are from her portfolio, so her advice is not to be taken lightly.

This is one of the most commonly asked questions by amateur photographers — Do I hold my photo vertically or horizontally?

Answer: Take both, but prioritize landscape (horizontal) images if you have to pick one.

Landscape (horizontal) images are needed for most channels, including your website, emails, and even print marketing. Computer monitors are wider than they are tall, so when it comes to digital marketing, landscape images are a requirement.

Portrait (vertical) images are primarily used for social media, but as long as the subject is properly positioned in the image, most landscape photos can be used here as well.

To do this, open the settings on your phone and enable the grid for your camera. This will help you keep your vertical and horizontal lines straight. Keep shooting until you get the right shot.

While this may seem obvious, it’s something that takes planning and foresight. Before you start prepping a job site be sure to scope out the locations of your before and after images.

Pro-tip: Take a picture, put down a piece of tape, or use a feature of the room/ground (ex: manhole cover, edge of wood floor, corner of room, etc) as a guide to know where to stand for the “after shot.”

To keep the photos as consistent as possible, be sure to consider things that may not be in the “after” photos, like vehicles, water bottles, or other debris that may cause distractions.

Don’t use filters on your photos. While it may seem attractive, filters only have a 3 to 12-month trend pattern.

By avoiding filters, you’ll ensure you have “evergreen” marketing material that can be used for years to come.

Plus, filters can always be applied in post-production if needed!

Pay attention to the details. If you’re taking photos outside try to avoid vehicles that may not be in the “after” photos.

The goal is to keep the images as consistent as possible so the only change between the before and after shots should be the paint you apply to the walls.

Don’t be afraid to ask the customer if you can help move their furniture in exchange for a staged room to photograph.

Pictures on the wall and furniture in the room are infinitely more photogenic than an empty wall with a fresh coat of paint!

When photographing interiors, lighting is one of the most important factors that can impact your shot.

Consider the time of day: While exterior shots are best photographed during the golden hour (one hour before sunset) interior photography is easier to shoot mid-day while the sun is highest in the sky.

Avoid direct light and harsh shadows. Position yourself with the windows to your back to avoid a washed-out photo. Use curtains and blinds to control the natural light. Turn on lamps and overhead lights until you find the best combination that evenly lights the room.

Whitespace is simply the room you leave around the subject in your photo.

While this isn’t as important for interior shots, this can play an important role when photographing the exterior of a house or office building.

We recommend keeping your subject centered both vertically and horizontally. Take a few steps back to ensure there is ample room for cropping the image afterward.

This is especially important if using these images for digital purposes (website, emails, social media, etc). Since computer screens are primarily designed for landscape and mobile devices are generally held in portrait, this allows for cropping without cutting off the main subject.

Keep your subject centered (with whitespace) in landscape shots to allow for cropping on mobile while still displaying a full-screen image on a desktop computer.

If you repainted a house that is about to be listed on the market, consider asking your customer for their photographer’s contact information.

This is a great way to obtain professional photos of your work without having to coordinate a photoshoot or pay for a professional photographer!

Yes, your project photos are critical, but while you’re at it, get the team together for some candid smiling photos on the job.

Why are these important?

As humans, we subconsciously resonate with other human faces. This is particularly true when it comes to advertising and marketing your Painting Business.

Aim for authenticity. Staged photos never perform as well as candid shots.

While you’re taking photos, don’t forget to capture some videos. Generally speaking, videos outperform images on paid ad campaigns.

Examples:

As we touched on earlier in this article, your project photos are your best marketing assets. These photos are particularly important for those painting companies on a limited budget since your only overhead is a phone and the time you invest in shooting the photos.

You don’t need a degree in graphic design or expensive photo editing software like Photoshop to produce high-quality images for the web. There are several mobile apps that can help with this.

We recommend downloading the Adobe Lightroom app for your mobile device. It’s free and provides countless presets for quick and easy photo editing.

One of the best features of this app is a geometry tool called “upright” that can straighten out your photos with minimal cropping.

Social media is a great place to build trust and brand awareness, and aside from a time-investment, it’s free!

To build up an organic following without running ads, plan on posting a few images at least 5 times a week. If you do the math, you’ll need at least 780 photos a year to cover this posting schedule.

Meta (Facebook & Instagram) is the best place to reach your audience on social media. These social platforms are where most of your target audience resides, photography displays well, and hashtags can help you reach a broader audience. Stick to hashtags your customers might be searching for, such as #interiordesign and #housepainters.

Your Google Business Profile (formally GMB, or Google My Business) is a free resource on Google that positions your business in front of an audience actively searching for your services.

It’s no secret that cell phone cameras have significantly improved over the last decade. Just a few years ago, taking pictures on a smartphone for printed material would be laughed at. Why? Because print marketing requires a higher pixel density than digital marketing.

The key is to configure your phone to take high-resolution images. By default, most phones are set to optimize for data and storage space, which typically sacrifices image quality. Be sure to set your phone to take the highest-resolution images possible.

We have found success utilizing these images on postcards, door hangers, and presentation folders.

Here at Base Coat Marketing, we PARTNER with our clients. That’s right, we’re not just a service provider. With that said, these images are still a required homework assignment we give all of our clients.

Why?

Because they’re THAT important. So if you’re looking for a ways to scale your business, start by taking better before and after project photos!