Before and after photos for Instagram: line them up so they look like the same place
A practical guide from Social Web. Updated 19 October 2026.
For a cleaner, a detailer, a salon or a renovator, a before and after is the post that shows the work. It's also the one the camera spoils most often. The before gets taken from the doorway as you walk in. The after gets taken from halfway across the room, a bit lower, zoomed in. Side by side they look like two different places, and people scrolling past can't tell it's the same job.
Take the before from a spot you can find again
Before you touch anything, pick where you'll stand and remember it. A tile line, a door frame, the corner of the bench. Something you can come back to without guessing.
- Same spot. One step left or right changes which walls and edges are in the shot.
- Same height. Hold the phone at chest height both times, or rest it on the same bench or ledge. If you crouch for one and stand for the other, the whole view shifts.
- Same zoom. Leave the camera on 1x for both. Pinch to zoom on one and not the other and the after will look closer.
- Same middle. Pick one thing to put in the centre of the screen, like a tap, a window or a wheel, and centre it again for the after.
On a car or a single surface like an oven door, a strip of tape on the ground where your feet were saves a lot of guesswork.
Upright or sideways: shoot for the post you'll make
Most before and after posts put both photos in one image, either side by side or one above the other.
- Side by side: each half is tall and narrow, so hold the phone upright.
- Stacked: each half is wide and short, so turn the phone sideways.
Shoot both photos the same way. An upright before and a sideways after will never match without cutting most of one of them away.
Match the light
The before often gets taken with the lights off and the blinds shut. The after gets every light in the room. The change looks bigger, but people notice, and they start wondering what was really done.
Use the same light for both where you can: the same lights on, the same blinds, the same time of day if the job runs over two visits. Turn the flash off for both. Flash on glass, chrome or fresh paint throws a white glare over the exact spot you cleaned.
In a salon, have the client facing the window rather than sitting with their back to it, for both shots.
Make the post 4:5, and check the grid
Make your before and after a 4:5 portrait post (1080 by 1350 pixels). It fills more of the screen in the feed than a square does.
Your profile grid is the other reason. Instagram shows every post on your profile cropped to a 3:4 rectangle, from the centre. On a 4:5 post that trims a thin strip, about 3%, off each side. On a square post it cuts about an eighth off each side. That's where before and after labels usually sit, and often your logo too. Check the edges before you post.
How the Studio lines them up
Even when you're careful, handheld photos drift. The Social Web Studio has a Line up the photos button for this. Put both photos into a before and after template and press it.
- The after photo sits see-through on top of the before. The Studio looks for the zoom, the position and the small tilt that make the two match.
- It matches the shapes in the photo, like grout lines, brick courses and door frames, rather than the colours. The colours are meant to change between a dirty shot and a clean one.
- Then it crops both photos to the area they share, so the post shows the same view twice.
- You can drag the after photo yourself, change the zoom or the tilt, and make it more or less see-through.
- If the two views are too different for it to match, it tells you, and you slide one over the other until the edges line up.
- It works in your browser. Your photos aren't uploaded for this step and it doesn't use AI.
It's made for someone standing in roughly the same place twice. It can't match a doorway shot to one from across the room, so the tips above still count.
New Studios start on the 4:5 shape, and the preview shades what Instagram's grid will cut off, so you can check your logo and labels before anything goes out.
A real example
DSK is a Sydney cleaning business, and one of the businesses we own and run ourselves. Its before and after page shows eight real jobs, including a front path, a pool deck, a roof and a shower drain, each with a line on what was done.
Our page on what a cleaning business website needs shows how dsk.au uses those photos.
Try it on your own photos
The before and after layouts are part of the Studio's post templates, with your logo and colours already on them. The rest is in what's in the Studio.
Studio only is A$49 a month, or A$490 a year, and it works alongside the website you already have. It's free for 14 days. No card needed to start. We check your Studio before we open it to you, usually within 1 business day. Your 14 free days start the day it opens, and we email you the date of your first charge. Cancel any time before then.