How to Get Clients to Photograph Their Wall (So the Preview Is Accurate)

Showing a client their portrait on their own wall is the most persuasive thing you can do in a wall art sale. It also depends on something you don't control: a phone photo taken by someone who has never been asked to photograph a wall before.

Most of the wall photos you'll get back are usable. A few will be taken from a sharp angle, in the dark, or with half the sofa cut off. The fix is to ask clearly, once, before the session, and to know what to do when the photo still isn't right.

What makes a wall photo usable

You need four things from the photo:

• Taken straight on. The phone should face the wall squarely, not from a corner of the room. A strong angle makes a rectangular frame look like a trapezoid, and the preview stops looking real.
• The whole wall in frame, plus a little of what's around it. Include the ceiling line, the floor and both side edges where possible, along with any furniture below. Those give the client their sense of scale when they look at the preview.
• Even daylight. Daytime with the curtains open is best. Night shots under a single ceiling light come out yellow and grainy, and the portrait sitting on top looks pasted in.
• Something measured. The width and height of the wall, or of something flat on it, like an existing frame. This is what lets the portrait appear at its true size rather than a guess.

The measurement is the one clients forget, and it matters most. Without it, a 30x40 and a 20x30 can look the same on screen, which defeats the purpose.

If the wall is awkward to measure, there's an easy shortcut: tape a sheet of A4 paper flat to the wall before taking the photo. Everyone has one, and its size is known exactly, so it does the measuring for you.

The message to send

Send it when you confirm the booking, not the night before. People need a daylit moment at home to do it, and that might not come up for a week.

Keep it short enough to read on a phone:

Before your session, could you send me a photo of the wall where you'd most like to hang a portrait?
Stand back so the whole wall is in the shot, hold your phone straight on (not from an angle), and take it in daylight if you can.
Please measure the width and height of the wall. If that's tricky, tape a sheet of A4 paper flat to the wall before you take the photo instead.
If you're torn between two walls, send both.

That last line is worth keeping. Clients who send two walls are telling you they're already thinking about where a piece would go, and you'll often end up selling for both spaces.

Which wall to ask for

Clients usually pick the wall they walk past most, which isn't always the best spot for a portrait. If they're unsure, these are the walls that tend to work:

• Above the sofa in the main living area. Large, seen every day, and suits a single big piece or a set of three.
• The hallway or entrance. Narrow walls suit a vertical piece or a short row of smaller frames.
• Above the bed. Often overlooked, and a good place for a calm, wide image.
• A staircase wall. Good for a gallery wall of mixed sizes if they want to show several images.

You don't need to say all of this in the message. Keep it in your back pocket for when a client replies with "which wall should I do?"

When the photo comes back wrong

Some photos will need a second try. Here's how to handle the common problems without making the client feel they've failed a test.

If the photo is close enough, use it. A slightly off-angle wall photo can usually be corrected when you mark the wall's corners, and it still beats a sample room, because it's their room.

Asking for the wall photo helps the sale before you've shot a frame

There's a side benefit here. Asking for a wall photo tells the client, before the session, that wall art is a normal part of what you do. It moves the conversation from "will we buy anything?" to "where will it go?"

It also changes how you shoot. If you know the wall is long and low above a wide sofa, you'll make sure you have a landscape image that suits it. If it's a narrow hallway, you'll get a strong vertical. You arrive at the reveal with photos that fit the space, which is half the work of selling them.

Where to start

1. Add the wall photo request to your booking confirmation email this week.
2. Include the measurement line and the A4 tip. Measuring is the step most often missed.
3. Save the four replies from the table above as text snippets so you can send them in a few seconds.
4. Look at the wall photo before the session and plan at least one image for that space.

Portrait Reveal is built around this photo. Your client uploads their wall (or picks a pre-scaled sample room if they can't), and every collection appears on it at true scale, at the reveal or from a private link at home. US$14.99/month, 14 days free, no credit card. Once you have the wall photo, our guide to IPS software covers how to use it in a session.