Photography Tips

Your fleet isn’t just a mobile workspace for your technicians and their tools—it’s a rolling billboard for your brand. High-quality truck photos aren’t just nice to have; they’re a vital marketing asset. Make sure your vehicles are front and center in all of your printed materials as well as on your website. Your fleet is one of the most recognizable ways homeowners connect with your brand.

And while your vehicles are the face of your brand on the road, don’t forget about the real faces behind the brand. Remember, the more human and the more “real” your brand appears, the more customers will trust you and, more importantly, the more likely they are to choose you over a competitor.

So, get some fun team shots. Use a quality camera to get some amazing behind-the-scenes photos of your technicians in action. Show your team interacting with customers. Consider taking before-and-after shots on those really challenging jobs. Starring in an upcoming community event? Photograph your booth and the team members working it. Got the best uniforms in town? Show ’em off in photos! You get the idea. Your brand shouldn’t be camera-shy, so embrace your inner paparazzi and start snapping!

The more authentic your brand looks and feels, the more unforgettable or “sticky” it becomes in your customers’ minds.

Here are some key points to remember when photographing trucks or other subjects:

1. Always use a good-quality camera and try to avoid using a smartphone to take your pictures. If you are going to be promoting your quality brand, start with quality photos.
2. When you are taking photos, be sure to set the camera’s resolution to as high as possible to capture every pixel of your image. Low-resolution photos equal blurry photos in many formats.
3. Be sure the day is mostly sunny, but without full sunshine. Also, be sure that the sun is to your back, so the side of your truck is fully illuminated.
4. Stand perpendicular to the side and center of your truck. It doesn’t necessarily matter if your truck is facing to the left or to the right, but to the left is best since it’s the driver’s side.
5. The location (background) of your photo is best when it’s in front of a house. If that’s not possible, consider utilizing any local landmarks that are famous in your community.

Putting a Face to the Brand

While your vehicle is the billboard most people see first, the faces of your team help your customers have an idea of what they can expect when they work with you. The more you can show your team as professional, friendly and clean, the more powerful this imagery is for your customers.

Keys to Photo Success:

1. To recap our photography best practices from above, be sure to use a good-quality camera (not a smartphone), set the camera resolution to as high as possible and “shoot” for a sunny day, but without full sunshine, and be sure the sun is to your back.
2. To tell a clear “We were in your neighborhood” story in a single photo, make sure your truck is parked in the driveway and close to the home.
3. Be sure that you capture your truck or team member and the surrounding area. Do not stand too close to your truck … we will crop photos as necessary.
4. Make sure that you can clearly see any signage on your truck.
5. Walk around your truck or team from many angles while taking lots of photos.
6. Pro tip: Get some great photos of a mock service call!

Pixel Perfect, Please

When you send our team your photos in Google Drive, they should be in JPG format and should be about 15MB or more in size. If your file sizes are smaller, they may be low-resolution files that may not work well for all applications (including your website).

That’s a Wrap

Investing in a good camera is always worth it. In addition to your fleet, snapping photos of jobsites or technicians in action is another great way to connect your customers to your company. You never know when the perfect shot will come in handy for a future campaign.

Photography Shot List

Not sure where to begin with your photo library? This list is a great starting point to get your next photo shoot off the ground. Click each category below for our recommendations: