How to Photograph an Epoxy Floor
A glossy floor is a mirror, so the camera records whatever it reflects: the lights, the windows, the truck in the drive. Control what the floor reflects, pick the angle for the job each shot has to do, and keep the color true to what you can deliver.
Before you take the picture, look at what the floor is reflecting. Use soft, even light, keep bright lights and windows out of the reflection, and clear the room. Take three shots of every job: a wide shot of the room, a low shot that shows the gloss, and a close shot looking down that shows the color and texture. Edit for brightness and straight lines, never for color.
Why a glossy floor is hard to photograph
A high gloss coating behaves like a mirror. The camera records what the floor reflects before it records the floor itself, so a picture of a flake garage can end up as a picture of the ceiling lights, the window and the truck in the drive, with the flake showing only in the gaps between them. That is a problem of geometry, not equipment: the same floor shot from the same spot with a better camera reflects exactly the same things.
So the work happens before you press the button. Look at the floor on the screen, not at the floor in front of you, and ask what it is reflecting. Then change the light, the angle or the room until the reflection is doing something you want.
Control the light
- Soft daylight is the easy win. An open garage door or a bank of windows lights the floor evenly. Shoot with that light coming from the side or behind you, not straight into the lens
- Switch off the lights that land in the reflection. Ceiling fixtures show up as a row of white hot spots. If you need them on, move until they fall outside the frame
- Do not mix warm and cool light. Warm bulbs and daylight together throw a color cast that changes how the floor reads, and a gray floor that looks beige in a photo is the wrong floor
- Watch for yourself. Low and close, you and your phone are in the reflection too
Three shots for every job
Each shot has a different job, and the angle that does one of them badly does another well.
The room
- From the doorway at chest height, the whole floor in frame, phone level so the walls stand up straight
- Shows the scale of the job and how the floor sits in the space
The gloss
- Low, near floor level, looking along the floor toward the light
- Uses the reflection on purpose: a clean, straight reflection of a door frame or wall reads as flat and glossy
The surface
- Close, looking down steeply, so the floor reflects nothing bright
- Shows the real color, the flake or quartz blend and the texture with almost no glare
The details
- Cove base, stem walls, joints, transitions at the door
- This is where careful work shows, and an informed buyer looks for it
A low shot shows every undulation in the floor as a wavy reflection. That is honest, and it is also a reason to look at the photo properly before you post it.
Get the room ready
Only once the floor is ready to walk on and to have things put back on it, which the first 24 hours after coating covers. Then:
- Sweep or dust mop the area you are shooting: dust and footprints show on a glossy floor far more than they do in the room
- Take out the tools, buckets, tape, rubbish and the vehicle. Anything shiny in the room reflects twice
- Leave one ordinary object in the surface shot if it helps a viewer judge scale, such as a boot at the edge of the frame
Before and after: same spot, same angle
A before and after pair only persuades if the viewer can see it is the same floor. Take the before shot before you start grinding, from a spot you can find again, at the same height and in the same light. Note where you stood, or mark it somewhere that will not be coated. Shoot the after from the same place, and use the same lens on your phone both times, because a different lens changes how big the room looks.
Phone settings that matter
- Clean the lens. A smeared lens blooms every highlight, and a glossy floor is mostly highlights
- Set the exposure on the floor. Tap the floor rather than the bright door or window, or the floor comes out dark
- Walk closer instead of zooming. Digital zoom softens exactly the flake and texture you are trying to show
- Keep lines straight. Hold the phone level and square to the wall; tilted walls make a flat floor look like it slopes
- A clip-on polarizing filter is optional. At some angles it cuts the reflection off a glossy floor. Try it on a job before you rely on it
Keep it true to what you can deliver
A floor photo is a promise. The customer who calls because of it expects that floor, and judges yours against the picture.
- Edit for brightness, straightness and cropping only. Do not shift the color, change the blend or add gloss
- Name the system and the colors in the caption. A flake floor in a named blend over a named base color tells the next customer exactly what they are looking at
- Be careful with metallics. No metallic floor can be reproduced from a photograph, which the metallic epoxy system page explains. Show them as examples of character, not as a floor to order
- Only post your own work. A manufacturer's photo or somebody else's floor presented as yours sets an expectation you did not earn
- Ask the customer. Get their permission before a photo of their home goes anywhere, and keep house numbers, vehicle plates, faces and anything personal out of the frame
Keep a library you can search
Photos earn their keep when you can find the right one quickly. File each job by system, colors or blend, and the kind of space: garage, basement, commercial kitchen, warehouse. Then, when a customer is weighing up a quote, you can send a floor like theirs with the system named in a minute, which is one of the contacts how to follow up on a quote recommends. The same library feeds your website, your business listing and your social posts; the Facebook and Instagram ads guide covers what paid social is worth once the pictures are good.
Record photos are a different job
Everything above is about photos that sell. Photos that protect you are taken differently: on the day, of the whole floor, the edges and every punch item, without regard for how good they look. The customer handover guide covers that set. A photo of a fault needs something in frame for scale, which identifying a coating defect explains. Take both kinds; do not let one stand in for the other.
What this guide does not cover, and where those answers live
- What marketing is worth. The marketing and sales guides
- When the floor can be used. The first 24 hours after coating
- Image and privacy rules. These differ where you work; check the ones that apply to you
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are my epoxy floor photos full of glare?
Because a glossy coating reflects like a mirror, and the camera sees the reflection before it sees the floor. Bright point sources such as ceiling lights, windows and an open door show up as white hot spots that hide the color and the flake. Fix it with the light and the angle rather than the camera: switch off or avoid the lights that land in the reflection, use soft daylight, and move until the hot spots fall outside the frame.
Do I need a professional camera to photograph floors?
No. A recent phone is enough for marketing photos, as long as the lens is clean, you set the exposure on the floor rather than on a bright window, and you avoid digital zoom. What makes floor photos work is light, angle and a clean room, and none of those depend on the camera.
Should I edit photos of my floors?
Edit for brightness, straight lines and cropping. Do not change the color, the flake blend or the gloss. A photo edited to look better than the floor sells a result you cannot deliver, and the customer who buys from that photo judges your work against it.
Can I use photos of a customer's floor in my marketing?
Ask first, and ask in writing if you can. Keep house numbers, vehicle plates, faces and anything personal out of the frame whatever the answer. Rules on using images of private property differ from place to place, and this guide does not cover them.