5 guides

Getting the pair right is most of the job

The software takes about a minute. The photography is where a before and after is won or lost, and almost nobody writes about it properly. These are our attempt at that.

Shooting the pair

The half nobody covers properly. Matching the angle, the light and the distance, so the result reads as real rather than staged.

A before photograph beside an after: on the left, a man with long unkempt hair and an untrimmed beard standing against a plain wall; on the right, the same man in the same light after a cut and a beard trim.

How to Take Matching Before and After Photos

A method you can follow with a phone in a salon or on a driveway: the spot, the height, the distance, the lens and the light, plus the five numbers to write down.

8 min read

A before photograph beside an after: on the left, a dim living room with peeling walls and worn furniture; on the right, the same room after renovation, photographed from the same corner.

The Same Angle, Six Weeks Later: Repeating a Shot You Took a Month Ago

The renovation is done and the before is six weeks old. Here is how to reproduce a shot from a memory you no longer have, and when to admit the mismatch instead.

7 min read

A before photograph beside an after: on the left, a woman with her natural dark hair standing outdoors against greenery; on the right, the same woman in the same spot after a vivid multi-tone colour service.

Why Your Before and Afters Look Fake (and the Seven Tells That Give It Away)

A viewer never analyses your before and after pair, they just feel that something is off. Here are the seven physical tells that cause it, and how to fix each one.

7 min read

By trade

Salon, detailing, landscaping, renovation and the rest. What to shoot and what to post.

Before and After Reels for Hairstylists and Barbers

The chair is your fixed mark and wet hair is the tell that gives you away. A method for a matching pair between the last snip and the door, in the time you already have.

10 min read

How to Shoot a Pressure Washing Before and After Video (the Half Strip Method)

The half strip shot on a driveway makes the pair for you before you even reach for an app, but only if you also take a real dry before and pick the right mode for a wide surface.

9 min read

Read it, then go and shoot it

Ghost Camera is free, and it is the fastest way to make the second photograph line up with the first.

Get the app freeiPhone, iOS 17 and later