Before and after photos: a guide for professional organizers

Before and after photos are the most persuasive thing an organizer has, and the easiest to get wrong. A before photo taken from the doorway and an after photo taken close up with better light look like two different rooms. Take them as a pair, from the same place, and they do the selling for you.

Get consent before the job

Ask when the job is booked, not on the day. Say what the photos are for: your portfolio, your website, social media, or only the client’s own record. Many clients are happy to share a garage or a pantry and not a bedroom or a closet, so ask for each space.

Keep the answer in writing with the client’s record. If a client later asks you to take a photo down, you want to know exactly what they agreed to.

Two habits make consent easy to keep:

• Leave out faces, family photos on the walls, mail, and anything with an address on it.
• Keep the photos of clients who said no in a separate place from your marketing photos.

Mark your spots

Before you touch anything, pick two or three spots for each space and take the before photos from them. Stand in the corner or the doorway that shows the most of the room. Note where you stood: a piece of painter’s tape on the floor, or a quick photo of the spot itself.

For the after photos, stand in the same place, at the same height, with the same lens. On most phones that means the standard lens rather than the wide one, since the wide lens bends straight shelves at the edges.

Light and settings

• Turn on the same lights for both photos, and open the same blinds.
• Hold the phone level with the shelves, at about chest height, rather than tilted down.
• Tap to focus on the middle of the space, and let the phone set the exposure there.
• Take a few of each. It costs nothing and one will be sharper.

Avoid the flash. It flattens the space and makes a pair hard to match.

What to shoot

The full space, from your marked spots, is the pair that matters. Then add a few details that show the craft: labelled bins, a drawer with dividers, a shelf with everything facing forward. Details are what other organizers and future clients look at longest.

For multi-day jobs, take progress photos at the end of each day. They are useful for the client, who often only sees the space when you have gone, and useful to you when you write the invoice.

File them with the job

Photos in a camera roll are photos you will not find in six months. File each set with the client and the job as soon as you can, with the date and the space. When a new client asks whether you have done a garage like theirs, you want to find three examples in a minute, not an evening.

Use them honestly

Crop, straighten and match the brightness of a pair. Do not remove things from the before photo or add things to the after. A pair is only worth something while people believe it, and the organizing community notices.