Are you taking a digital camera on your jobs?

Taking before and after pictures is a great way to build a visual portfolio of your work.

Here are a few suggestions for improving the quality of before and after shots...

Try to get a shot that shows as much contrast between clean and dirty as possible. You really want to see an emphasis of the transition in the photo. You will need to shoot with natural or artificial lighting WITH NO FLASH. Flash has a tendency to wash out the picture and you won't see the contrast between dirty and clean.

Set your camera for the type of lighting - this is usually referred to as "White Balance" (sun, cloudy, incandescent, fluorescent). Select the correct light source setting and then try to get as much light into the room as possible.

Then hold the camera as still as possible. If you can, place the camera on a table or on some other furnishing. Or lean against the wall. As you lean against the wall hold your arms rigid and hold your breath as you carefully release the shutter button.

If you're taking before and after pictures, try to shoot the shots from the same vantage point. It's also good to show a little bit of the surroundings in the background, so there's a point of reference. A background reference makes the pictures more believable.

You may still need to tweak the contrast and color balance of the picture a little with your image editing software, but go easy because you don't want your finished picture to look doctored. If you follow these suggestions you can produce good cleaning pictures with a basic digital camera, or even a cell phone.

Have fun adding a visual perspective to your marketing!









Rick Gelinas
rick@excellent-supply.com

Great advice Rick. I always have my camera with me. Opportunities may not present themselves again. Another reason is when I'm cleaning and no one is there residential or commercial and you see a pre-eisting problem prior to to cleaning take a picture. Also I take pictures after cleaning if no one is around to inspect my work, until I get paid just incase it needs to go to court.

WE also use a Flip video camera for shooting jobs and testimonials. Once we are done revamping our site there will be a lot of video on it

Do you get your testimonials on video if the customer is satisfied with your work after you completed the job?

That is correct we do it after we do the job.

Nice, i might start doing that since i usually have my camera w/ me on every job.

What is your plan on uploading them to your site? Specific number of testimonials, size of each video(megs) and video format.

Would be interesting to see.

Go to YOU TUBE and type in carpet cleaners. There is a guy from El Paso who takes video of some of his customers when he is finished.

Hi Rick:



I have followed some of your suggestions. I always take before and after photos. You can see the results here.



http://www.cuidando-sus-alfombras.com/carpet-cleaning.html



Jorge