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AJ PAINT
ES

Our work

The job photos go here.

There are no photographs of our own jobs on this page yet, and we are not going to fill it with stock images pretending to be Juan’s work. Until they arrive, this page is the shot list: which photos to take on a job, and how to take them.

Jump to the shot list Get a free estimate

Why this matters

The before-and-after pair is the part of the site that sells.

Painting is a visual trade. Nobody buys "prep" or "two coats of colour" — they buy the room in the photograph. In a Housecall Pro survey of 1,040 homeowners, 92% said visuals of past work influence who they hire, and 68% expect photo or video proof of completed work before they decide.

Here is the opening: we went through the biggest painting-contractor sites competing in this area, and almost none of them put before-and-after pairs on the homepage. They hide them behind a gallery link, or they do not have them at all. It is the single biggest gap in the category, and all it takes to fill it is somebody taking the before shot before the work starts.

The before shot costs thirty seconds. It is impossible to get back afterwards. That is the entire difficulty of this page.

92%

of homeowners say visuals of past work influence who they hire.

Housecall Pro survey, 1,040 homeowners.

68%

expect photo or video proof of completed work before they decide.

Same survey.

Projects

What will live on this page.

Each card is a real job of the kind Juan does every week. As soon as the photos arrive, the before and the after sit here side by side.

  • Before
    After

    Kitchen cabinet refinish

    Carlsbad

    Doors and frames taken down, sanded and sprayed in waterborne urethane enamel. Before and after from the same corner.

    Waiting on photos from Juan

  • Before
    After

    Full exterior, 1990s stucco

    Oceanside

    Pressure wash, hairline crack repair, primer, then two coats on body and trim. Full elevation from across the street.

    Waiting on photos from Juan

  • Before
    After

    Whole-house interior before listing

    Encinitas

    Walls, ceilings, trim and doors throughout. Room by room, with the furniture back in place.

    Waiting on photos from Juan

  • Before
    After

    Beach bungalow wood trim rebuilt

    South Oceanside

    Scraping, filling and priming wood the salt air had taken apart, with lead-safe containment on a pre-1978 house.

    Waiting on photos from Juan

  • Before
    After

    Association-approved exterior

    San Clemente

    Color off the HOA approved list, the sample board, and the finished elevation.

    Waiting on photos from Juan

  • Before
    After

    Ceilings and trim, whole house

    Vista

    Flat ceilings and enamel trim, with the hand-cut line where the wall meets the ceiling.

    Waiting on photos from Juan

This part is written for Juan

What follows is the job-site shot list. It is out in the open on purpose, so anyone can see what gets asked for and why. If you are reading this on a job, this is all you need: nine photos per job and ten rules for taking them.

The shot list

Nine photos per job.

Not every job needs all nine, but every job needs the first one. Without the before, the after is just a nice-looking room.

  1. 1

    Before and after from the same spot, at the same time of day

    The important one

    This is the most important item on the list. Before anything gets moved, stand in one place and take the before shot. Put a small piece of tape on the floor where your feet were. When the job is done, take the after shot standing in exactly that spot, and then pull the tape. Shoot it at the same hour too: if the before was nine in the morning, the after is nine in the morning. Different sun means a different colour on the wall, and then there is nothing to compare.

  2. 2

    Wide room shot showing the whole wall plane

    Back into the corner and get the whole wall — corner to corner, floor to ceiling. Half a wall tells nobody anything.

  3. 3

    Close-up of a cut line where wall meets ceiling

    Get close enough that the line fills the frame. It is the first thing anyone who knows paint looks at, and it is your signature. One good cut-line photo is worth ten photos of the room.

  4. 4

    Trim and baseboard detail

    Close, and from an angle rather than straight on. The angle is what shows the even sheen on the enamel and the clean line where trim meets wall.

  5. 5

    Cabinet doors, open and closed

    Closed shows the colour and the finish. Open shows that the edges and the inside of the frame got painted too. That is exactly what separates a real cabinet job from a fast one.

  6. 6

    Exterior full elevation from across the street

    Cross the road. Get the whole house — roof, garage, front door — square in the frame with no poles or cars in the way. If it does not fit, walk further back rather than zooming.

  7. 7

    Exterior detail showing the stucco texture

    Close up, with the sun coming across the wall rather than straight at it. Raking light brings the texture out and shows the coating went into the surface instead of sitting on top of it.

  8. 8

    The crew working, with masking up and drop cloths down

    This is the photo that answers the question homeowners never say out loud: are they going to wreck my house? Tape on the trim, cloths on the floor, outlets covered. Take it before cleanup.

  9. 9

    A finished room with the furniture back in place

    An empty room photographs like a job site. Furniture back where it belongs is how the customer pictures their own house.

How to shoot it

Ten rules, and that is all of them.

None of this needs equipment or any knowledge of photography. It is the same ten things on every job.

  1. 01

    Your phone is fine

    You do not need a camera. A phone takes better photos than most of what is on painting-contractor websites right now.

  2. 02

    Turn the phone sideways

    Landscape, not portrait. The page is built for wide photos, and tall ones get cropped.

  3. 03

    Turn on all the lights AND open the blinds

    Both, not one. Daylight gives the true colour and the lamps fill the shadows in the corners.

  4. 04

    Stand in a corner to get two walls

    From a corner the room looks its real size and you can see how it goes together. From the middle everything looks flat.

  5. 05

    No flash

    Flash flattens the room, shifts the colour of the paint and puts a fake shine on enamel. Switch it off.

  6. 06

    Wipe the lens

    Five seconds on your shirt. Lenses pick up dust and paint, and that is the number one reason photos come out hazy.

  7. 07

    Hold still

    Elbows in, breathe out, then press. There is less light indoors than it looks, and any movement shows.

  8. 08

    Shoot the "during" photos before cleanup

    The tape and the drop cloths are the proof. Take that photo with everything still down, not after.

  9. 09

    Shoot the "after" photos after cleanup

    No buckets, no ladder, no rags. Anything left on the floor is the first thing a viewer looks at.

  10. 10

    Ask permission first — and again before it goes online

    Permission to photograph the house and permission to publish it are two different questions. Ask both, and if the answer is yes, send Blake the yes in writing, even if it is just a text.

What not to send

Five reasons to delete it.

Four good photos beat forty average ones. A weak photo does not sit quietly — it drags down the good ones next to it.

  • Blurry

    If it is not sharp on your phone screen it will be worse on a big one. Delete it and take another.

  • Dark

    Unlit rooms, shooting into a window, or after dark. The paint reads grey and dirty even when it is not.

  • Cluttered, with tools in the frame

    Cans, ladders, buckets, rags and cords. In a finished shot they count as mess.

  • Faces without permission

    Not the customer, not their kids, not your own crew without a yes. If somebody is in the frame and you did not ask, do not send it.

  • Anything that identifies where a client lives

    House numbers, street signs, a mailbox with a name, mail on the counter, licence plates. Check the background before it goes.

The homeowner’s permission comes first

It is their house. Ask before photographing it, and ask again before it goes online — those are two different questions, and a yes to the first is not a yes to the second. Nothing that identifies where somebody lives gets published, and if a customer changes their mind later the photo comes down the same day.

Reference examples

Roughly what each shot looks like.

These are not photographs of AJ Paint’s work. They are licensed stock images, included only to show the framing and the light for each shot on the list. No house, no finish and no crew in these pictures has anything to do with Juan. When his own photographs arrive they go above, in the project cards, labelled as his.

  • Single-storey grey and white stucco house beside a pool under a clear skyStock photo · reference only

    Full elevation

    This is what a full elevation looks like: the whole house, square in the frame, shot from far enough back rather than zoomed. Nothing blocking the door or the garage.

  • Close view of a white stucco wall showing the raised texture of the finishStock photo · reference only

    Stucco detail

    A texture detail with the sun coming across the wall. The shadow sitting inside the texture is the thing that proves the coating went in rather than over.

  • Living room with a marble fireplace, white sofas and dark wood shelving against a pale painted wallStock photo · reference only

    Wide room shot

    Whole wall plane corner to corner, daylight, furniture in place. This is how the finished room gets shot.

  • Corner of a room seen close up where the wall meets the ceilingStock photo · reference only

    The cut line

    This is what the cut-line photo means: the wall-to-ceiling junction filling the frame, close enough that somebody can actually judge the line.

  • Kitchen with white cabinets, a dark island and stainless steel appliancesStock photo · reference only

    Cabinets

    Cabinets closed, square on, lit well enough to read the finish. The missing half is the doors-open shot — that is the one that proves the work.

  • Room mid-repaint with protective covering across the floorStock photo · reference only

    Protection

    A "during" photo: floor covered, taken before cleanup. This is the one that answers whether the house gets looked after.

  • Two people rolling paint onto an interior wall togetherStock photo · reference only

    The crew

    People working, full body, hands on the tool. No posing — the photo works when the work is visible, not the camera.

When you have them

Send them to Blake.

Blake builds this site and puts the photos up. Send them straight off the phone at full size — uncropped, no filters — with one line per job: which city, what was done, and whether the homeowner has said yes to publishing them.

  • Text them or email them, whichever is easier.
  • One job at a time is fine — no need to save them all up.
  • If you have the before and the after of the same room, send them together and say so.

Blake’s contact details still needed

Blake’s number and email for photo delivery go here. They have not been invented — they need to be filled in before this page goes live.

Text: to be addedEmail: to be added

Here as a customer looking for an estimate? That is Juan, not Blake:

(760) 809-0025
Call Juan Text