Photo shot list for a service business
The 16 photos every service business website needs, from the hero shot to the before and after pairs, with what each one is for. You get a list to hand to a photographer or your crew lead.
Who it is for: An owner paying for photos, or shooting them on a phone, who wants the shots that matter
Stock photos tell a visitor you had nothing real to show. Real photos of your crew, your trucks and your finished work are the fastest trust builder on a website, and they help the Google Business Profile too. The problem is that nobody takes them on purpose. This list makes it on purpose.
Gather first
- Two or three upcoming jobs where the customer is fine with photos. Ask.
- A clean truck, uniforms if you have them, and a morning with good light.
- A phone with a wiped lens, or a photographer for half a day.
How to use it
Print the list or put it in the notes app of whoever is shooting. Check off each shot as you get it. Shoot every one horizontal and vertical. Before and after pairs must be from the same spot, so mark the spot with tape. Send the finished set to whoever manages your site with the shot numbers as file names.
What good looks like
All sixteen, in focus, with people in at least half of them. Faces sell more than finishes.
1. Hero shot: your crew or you in front of a finished job or a clean truck, wide, horizontal, room above the heads for a headline. This goes at the top of the homepage. 2. Owner portrait: outdoors or on a job site, not a studio, looking at the camera, relaxed. For the about page and Google profile. 3. Team photo: everyone who faces customers, in work clothes, on site. 4. Each service in action: one photo per service you sell, showing a person doing the work. A painter cutting a line, a landscaper laying sod, a cabinet install mid fit. 5. Hands at work close up: tools, materials, detail. Three or four of these for use as section backgrounds. 6. Before shot of a current job, from a marked spot, before anything is touched. 7. After shot from the exact same spot and height when the job is done. Repeat 6 and 7 for at least three jobs. 8. Finished work wide: the whole room, yard, building or vehicle, straight on, lights on, clutter removed. 9. Finished work detail: the one spot that shows the quality. A seam, an edge, a joint, a finish. 10. Truck or vehicle with your logo visible, clean, parked straight, three quarter angle. 11. Customer handoff: you with the customer at the end of the job, if they agree. Ask before you shoot. 12. Office or shop interior, if customers ever visit, with the sign visible. 13. Exterior of your building with signage, for the Google Business Profile. 14. Credentials in frame: license, certifications, awards on a wall or in hand, legible. 15. A candid: the crew on a break, loading up, talking to each other. One real moment. 16. Vertical versions of shots 1, 2, 4 and 8 for social posts and the Google profile. Rules for every shot: wipe the lens, shoot in daylight or with all lights on, hold the phone level, no filters, no faces of anyone who did not agree, and take three of each so you can pick the sharp one.
Would rather have it done?
This is something we already run for clients. Send the intake and name this playbook; we will come back within a business day.
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