Pressure washing before and after photos: a shot list

Pressure washing before and after photos book jobs when the two shots match: same spot, same angle, same light. When they don't match, the homeowner can't tell how much of the change is your work and how much is the sun moving. Below is a six-shot routine a tech can run in about two minutes once it's habit, the phone settings worth caring about, how to caption the pairs, and where to put them.

Why most pressure washing before and after photos don't convince anyone

The same problems turn up on a lot of pressure washing pages. The before was taken from the street in morning shade and the after from the lawn in full afternoon sun, so the after looks brighter mostly because of the light. The after is zoomed in tighter, or cropped so the side of the house with the worst mildew is gone. The driveway after was shot while the concrete was still wet, so it's dark and blotchy and hard to compare. Some pages only show a close-up of one clean strip, which says nothing about the rest of the house.

A homeowner who has hired a crew before has seen plenty of these. If the pair looks staged, they assume the job will be too. A plain, slightly boring pair taken from the same spot is more convincing than a dramatic one that doesn't line up.

The 6-shot routine: wide, mid and close, before and after

You take three shots before you start and the same three when you're done.

1. Wide. The whole front of the house from the street, or the full driveway from the end where it meets the road.
2. Mid. One wall or one section: the north side with the green on the vinyl, or the garage door and the slab in front of it.
3. Close. The worst spot from about an arm's length away. The black streaks on the roof, the algae on the siding, the oil stain, the rust from the sprinkler heads.

For the before shots, pick a spot you can find again. The mailbox, a sidewalk seam or the corner of the driveway apron all work. Hold the phone at chest height and keep it level.

For the afters, open the before photo, look at where the roofline and the edges sit in the frame, then stand on the same mark and line the new shot up to match. Wait until concrete has dried before you shoot it, since a dry slab is what the homeowner sees the next morning. If you work with a helper, one person can take all six so the height and habits stay the same.

Phone settings that matter (and the ones that don't)

The phone in your pocket is fine as long as a few things stay the same between the before and the after.

Use the standard 1x lens for both shots. The wide 0.5x lens bends rooflines at the edges, and digital zoom makes the shot soft. If you need to be closer, walk closer.

Lock the exposure so the phone doesn't brighten the after on its own. On an iPhone, press and hold on the wall until "AE/AF Lock" appears. Most Android camera apps have something similar when you tap and hold. Turn off filters and portrait mode, and keep both shots in the same orientation, landscape for houses and driveways.

Turn on the grid lines in the camera settings so you can keep the roofline level. Wipe the lens before the after shots, because a lens that's been in the truck all morning near the mix tank can leave a haze over everything.

Light matters more than any setting. Overcast days are the easiest. On a sunny day, try to shoot the before and after with the sun on the same side, and avoid shooting straight into it.

What doesn't matter much: megapixels, a pro camera mode or an editing app. If you edit at all, keep it to straightening and cropping, and apply the same crop to both photos.

Captions that help search: surface, town and what was done

A caption should tell a stranger what they're looking at. A simple pattern works: surface, town, what you did. For example, "Vinyl siding on a two-story in [town]. Soft wash, mildew on the north wall." Or "Concrete driveway in [town]. Surface cleaner and a post-treatment for the oil stain."

People search for things like "house washing [town]" and "roof cleaning near me", and a caption with the surface and the town gives your page the words they typed. Rename the files before you upload them too, so "IMG_4432.jpg" becomes something like "vinyl-siding-soft-wash-[town]-after.jpg". Write a short alt text that describes the photo in the same words. Name the town and stop there, though: a street name or house number never belongs in a caption.

Where to use them: your site, Google and quote replies

On your website, put your best pair near the top of the home page and next to the quote form, where people decide whether to send a request. A drag slider or two photos side by side both work. On the Haint Blue page, a sample design for a fictional business, you drag a slider across the house to wash it. Below that, group the rest of your pairs by surface, as covered in what to put on a pressure washing website.

On your Google Business Profile, add the after shot (or both) with the same caption when you finish a job. People looking at your profile on Maps see recent photos of your work, and a profile that keeps getting new ones looks active.

In quote replies, send a matching pair. When a homeowner sends a photo of green siding through your quote form, reply with the price and a pair from a similar house: "Here's a two-story we did in [town] last month." It shows them the result they're paying for before they say yes.

Ask the homeowner before you post their house

Even without the house number, someone's home is easy for their neighbors to recognize. Ask before you post. The easiest moment is when you book or at the walk-around: "Mind if I take a few before-and-after photos for my website? I won't show the house number or the cars."

Before you post, check the frame for house numbers, license plates, people, and kids or pets in the windows. Crop them out or skip the shot.

If someone says no, take the photos anyway and keep them to yourself. A dated before photo of a cracked window or peeling paint protects you if anyone later says the wash caused it.

If you'd rather have a site built around your photos, we build and look after pressure washing websites with a before-and-after up top and room for your captioned pairs. Try the slider on Haint Blue, a sample design for a fictional business. It's $99 to start, refunded if you pass on the preview, and $399 all in at our founding price for the first 25 clients. Hosting is $99 a month.