What to photograph on a job, and why it beats anything we could write

Before, during, after — in that order

The finished shot on its own is worth far less than the pair. A tidy new driveway is pleasant; the same driveway next to the cracked concrete it replaced is persuasive.

The before photograph takes ten seconds and most people forget it, because at the start of a job nobody is thinking about marketing.

The shots worth taking

A short list, and it barely changes by trade.

• —The before, taken from where the after will be taken
• —One wide shot showing the whole finished job in context
• —One close shot showing the standard of the finish — an edge, a joint, a consumer unit
• —Somebody working, ideally a face. People hire people
• —The van or a branded item somewhere in one frame, without making it an advert

What ruins a good photograph

Poor light, mostly. A job photographed at four in December is unusable; the same job at midday is fine.

Clutter is the other one. Tools, bags, cones and a wheelbarrow in shot make good work look unfinished. Thirty seconds of tidying changes the picture entirely.

Why this outranks the copy

Anybody can claim to do good work. A photograph of a genuinely tidy finish in a recognisable estate is evidence, and it is the one asset a competitor cannot copy.

It is also why stock photography actively hurts — people recognise it, and it reads as a business with nothing of its own to show.