Beginners Guide: Taking Your Own Construction Marketing Photos On-Site.
There are so many reasons why great photography should be a priority for your Trade and Construction brand and marketing.
So let’s start here.
📸 Photography helps to showcase your construction company's work and capabilities.
📸 High-quality photos of your completed projects can help to attract new clients and showcase your skills to potential customers.
📸 Photography can help to tell a story and provide context.
📸 By including photos of the construction process, you can give potential customers a better understanding of what goes into each project.
📸 Photography can help to differentiate your construction company from your competitors.
📸 Photography is a powerful tool for your construction social media marketing.
📸 By sharing photos of your projects on social media platforms, you can engage with potential customers and showcase your work to a wider audience.
📸 Photography can be used in a variety of marketing materials, including your website, brochures, business cards, and more.
I think we can agree, photography is all-round epic for your construction marketing.
Hiring a professional photographer may not always be possible – time, costs etc.
And though we HIGHLY advice considering one for certain parts of your marketing (think website homepage as one of them), there are plenty of places that self-generated photos can help your Trade and Construction business.
The birth of social media being one of them!
And how sharp and powerful new phone cameras are nowadays is quite mind-blowing.
If you are going to take your own photos (presumably on your mobile phone) for your construction marketing, then it’s worth taking a few minutes to get it right.
Because a high quality shot of your work could be the difference in a customer enquiring with you… or scrolling past.
Here's a bunch of helpful tips to help you NAIL your photography on site when taking your own photos…
1. Get your lighting right for your construction marketing photography.
You may think a photographic genius is all about angling the camera, but it’s not.
A great photographer spend YEARS mastering light.
And this is the BIGGEST factor in helping you nab some epic shots on your mobiles on-site.
So here’s some tips.
❌ Don’t take a photo directly facing the window.
I see this one a lot with construction photos.
A job has been completed and it’s time to take those all-important shots of the room that has been worked on.
However.
All the photos have been taken facing the window.
So the camera is aimed directly into the light.
Which means the photos themselves come out really dark.
And make for really poor adverts for your work and business.
Or.
It can make the photos really harsh with shadow.
Again, not a great advert for your work if it’s hard for us to see.
Though, facing a window can sometimes work in certain situations, depending on the angle.
But if you’re just starting to get used to taking better photos, just use this as a rule of thumb for now.
It's always a good idea to experiment with different lighting setups and angles to see what works best for your specific situation.
Every site is going to be different.
⭐️ TIP – instead, try taking your photos with the window behind or to the side of you. That way the shot should light up and make for a much better image that does your work justice.
☀️ Use natural light where possible.
Open some curtains (unless you’re photographing ones you’ve just installed!).
Lift the blinds.
Crack open the shutters and doors.
Do whatever you can to allow as much natural light into a room as possible.
Photos will always look more natural (where you don’t have a pro camera) when daylight is your main light source.
💡 Turn on the lights.
Where daylight is a huge issue – maybe in basements and small rooms – light the room as much as you can with artificial light.
For those construction pros that REALLY want to nail it, you could pack a stand up ring light on your travels and light the rooms yourselves.
These are relatively cheap (start from about £30) and you can get stand up ones that are all different sizes to help light a room.
Or, if you are trying to take a photo or of something close up and detailed (engravings or paintwork for example) positioning these lights nearby can really help.
⏰ Think about the time of day you take your photos.
Again, this is all going to be about how much natural day light you can pour into a room.
If you’re UK based, there’s no point taking photos at 4pm in December when it’s dark (if you’re not going to light the room artificially yourself).
So gage the time of year you’re at and when there is the most light as the time of day to take some shots.
Even if that means coming back at a later date.
2. Remove unwanted items in shot for your construction marketing photography.
One of my all time favourites.
A client of ours did the most magnificent kitchen refurb.
High end.
Beautiful finish.
They took photos of their finished work but left a cereal box and an over-ripe fruit bowl in shot.
Though only a small part of the photo, it completely stole the focus and shattered the feel of the high end kitchen.
We’ve also seen finished work… with rubbish bins left in the corner piled up.
And interior shots where the duvets were really crumpled.
All these details MATTER.
Especially if you are after a higher end client.
Use this photo shoot check list to make sure you’ve got yourself covered.
✅ Clear any rubbish.
✅ Be sure no ‘bodies’ are looming in the background – client or workforce.
✅ Tidy up where possible – ask clients if you can move items for the benefit of the photos. Less is more.
✅ Check surroundings that appear in shot – bed covers, curtains and toys (as domestic examples) or desks, chairs, and walls (as commercial examples). Is everything tidy?
For the few minutes it takes to clear a site properly before taking photos will give you years or marketing material for your construction business that aligns you.
3. Take a variety of shots for your construction marketing photography.
A variety of shots can help to tell a completer and more nuanced story about your construction project.
For example, you might want to capture wide shots of the entire construction site to show the scale of the project, as well as close-up shots of specific details or features.
Taking a variety of shots can also help to keep the viewer interested and engaged.
If all your shots are the same, the viewer might lose interest, but by mixing up the types of shots you take, you can keep the viewer's attention and keep them interested in the project.
Experiment with angles.
Try close shots of your workmanship.
Take wide shots.
Shoot on your mobile landscape AND portrait (turn your phone up both ways).
You never know where different orientations are going to come in use in the future.
Create yourself a mini library of photos for any particular project.
Not just one shot from afar of the finished work.
Why?
Because you can use ALL these shots over time, in different ways for your marketing.
It might be the same job but we don’t necessarily need to know.
You might use some of the close up shots of some of the furniture (that got painted as part of a bi decorating job) in years to come when explaining tips on prepping for furniture spraying.
If you only take one or a couple of photos of a job, you can’t repurpose it as much.
Different angles, close-ups, details, wide shots etc mean you could have MONTHS worth of social media or website blog content at your fingertips.
Imagine doing that for every job.
Your construction marketing would start to get a whole lot easier.
4. Get permission from workers who might be included in the photo for your construction marketing.
🔒 Privacy.
Your workers have the right to privacy and taking photographs of them without their permission could be seen as an invasion of their privacy.
⛑ Safety.
Some workers may not want to be photographed while they are working, as they may be concerned about the potential risks to their safety.
For example, they may be working with heavy machinery or hazardous materials, and having their photograph taken could be a distraction that could increase the risk of an accident.
✅ Consent.
In many cases, it is simply a matter of respect to ask for someone's permission before taking their photograph.
This is especially true if you are taking photographs for commercial purposes, as the workers have the right to control how their image is used.
You may already have this outlined in their contracts that they signed before working with you, but always good to check in on each instance too to make sure everyone is happy.
5. Wear branded workwear if workers feature in your construction marketing photography.
There are several reasons why you want to ensure your team are wearing branded workwear to be captured in your construction marketing photography…
👔 Professionalism.
Branded workwear can help to give your construction company a professional appearance and establish credibility with potential clients.
🚨 Brand Awareness.
Wearing branded workwear can help to increase brand awareness and make your company more easily recognizable to potential clients.
🎳 Team Unity.
Wearing branded workwear can help to create a sense of team unity and pride among your employees, which can be beneficial for morale and productivity.
🦺 Safety.
Depending on the nature of your work, branded workwear may also be necessary for safety purposes, as it can help to identify your employees as members of your team and ensure that they are easily identifiable on the job site.
So, you want to make sure that if you staff do feature in the photos, they are representing and aligning your brand with all the above.
6. Avoid shooting directly into the sun for your construction marketing photography.
A good tip for when you are doing outside shots.
Perhaps for decorators, roofers, landscapers etc.
Similarly to standing in front of a window, if you shoot directly into the sun it’s going to give you low quality photos as everything else will likely appear dark.
Plus your eyes are going to be real sore.
Experiment with angles and make sure that whatever is in shot is lit well without the glare of the sun ruining it for us clients.
7. Consider using a drone to capture aerial views of the site for your construction marketing.
Drone footage is a seriously good tool to have in your construction marketing.
It’s especially great for the likes of Loft Converters, Roofers, Tree Surgeons.
Where you are working in spaces that your clients are never going to be able to access themselves – usually out of safety.
Here’s why photos from a drone can help elevate how your construction company is perceived:
📸 A unique perspective.
Drone photos can provide a unique and visually striking perspective that is not possible with traditional ground-based photography.
This can help to make your marketing materials more visually appealing and memorable.
📸 Showing the scale of the project.
Drone photos can be particularly useful for showing the scale of a construction project, as they can provide a wide-angle view that gives the viewer a sense of the overall size and scope of the project.
📸 Safety.
Using a drone to take photos can also be safer, as it allows you to capture images of the construction site without having to physically access potentially hazardous areas.
📸 Cost-effective.
Using a drone to take photos can also be more cost-effective than traditional photography methods, as it allows you to capture a wide range of images without the need to hire multiple photographers or use specialized equipment.
8. Get permission from clients before taking photos for your construction marketing.
Same as above – in getting permission from your workforce to feature.
But don’t forget, your team may have signed a contract at the start of their employment, but your clients haven’t.
You might look to factor some clauses in on your Terms & Conditions before you start each project.
This is always a good time to have a discussion with a client about what they are/not comfortable with you taking photos of.
With clients, you are in their home and/or businesses, so confidentiality is a big one.
🔒 Privacy.
Your clients have the right to privacy and taking photographs of them without their permission could be seen as an invasion of their privacy.
Be sure to get consent in writing – either on your terms and conditions or better still, have a separate document to sign that gives permission for photos to be taken and used.
✅ Consent.
In many cases, it is simply a matter of respect to ask for someone's permission before taking their photograph.
This is especially true if you are taking photographs for commercial purposes, as clients have the right to control how their image is used.
You may already have this outlined in their contracts that they signed before working with you, but always good to check in on each instance too to make sure everyone is happy.
9. Don’t forget to back up your photos for your construction marketing.
A big one.
Imagine months, YEARS worth of epic photography you’ve taken (with all the above tips) gone in an instant... and you didn’t back it up.
One of the main reasons to back up your photos is to protect against data loss.
If something were to happen to your phone, such as getting lost or damaged, you could lose all your photos if they are not backed up.
Accidentally deleting photos is also common.
Having a backup can help to ensure that you don't lose important photos that you were hoping to use on social media or your website if this happens.
Backing up your photos can also protect against malware or other security threats that could potentially damage or delete your photos.
Knowing that your photos are backed up can give you peace of mind and ensure that you don't have to worry about losing important photos of big jobs that you have completed.
Make it your mission, every week or every month (if it’s not set up automatically on a Cloud) to back it up somewhere on your computer or a hard drive that stays separate from your mobile phone.
To finish off.
Though this blog is about helping you take your own photos (presumably with your mobile phone) on site, there is one tip we want to give aside from this.
⭐️ PRO TIP – when wanting to document a job from an ideal client, why not set aside a budget and bring in the professional photographers?
Here's why.
If you’ve just completed a job in your construction company that was a dream project for you – scope of work, budget, location, type of client etc – then you want to document this one in the BEST WAY POSSIBLE to attract more of that work, right?
So is it not a worthwhile investment to consider putting a small budget aside (that you could factor into the project) to get a photographer in at the beginning, middle and end so that you have professional photos of this project to showcase for years to come?
Worth the one-off cost in our humble opinion.
⬇️ The Experts Guide: Taking Your Own Photos On Site For Your Construction Marketing Rundown:
1. Don’t face the window when taking photos.
2. Remove unwanted items in shot.
3. Take a variety of shots – angles, close ups, wide shots.
4. Get permission from workers who might be included in the photo.
5. Wear branded workwear if workers feature.
6. Avoid shooting directly into the sun.
7. Consider using a drone to capture aerial views.
8. Get permission from clients before taking photos.
9. Don’t forget to back up your photos for your construction marketing.
🛠 Need a little more help nailing your Trades and Construction Marketing?
Course you do.
First. Let’s work out where you are with all things Marketing.
Got 3 minutes?
Take our Trades Quiz to discover how you score with all things ‘Off The Tools’.
We have heaps of tips, tricks, and hacks for your Trade and Construction business in our cheat sheets, videos and ideas waiting for you on the other side… i.e., your results page.
So, you can improve your score. And NAIL your Trade and Construction business.
Nice.