Why isn't a close-up photo enough on its own?

A close-up carries no location. Nothing in a macro shot of a scratch shows which floor, which room, or which apartment it belongs to. The wide shot with fixed landmarks — window, radiator, door frame — is what ties the close-up to a specific corner of a specific unit.

What should I use for scale in damage photos?

A coin, a strip of painter's tape, or a tape measure laid beside the damage. Coins work for chips, dings, and burns; a tape measure is better for anything longer than a hand span, like a scratch that runs across several planks.

How many photos does each issue need?

Three: wide with landmarks, medium at arm's length, close with scale. Add a fourth only when the angle changes what is visible — raking light on a floor scratch, or a second angle on a burn mark that shifts color.

Do the same photos matter at move-in?

Yes, and they matter most there. The move-in trio of a clean corner is the baseline the move-out trio gets compared against. Same order, same angles, same landmarks.

Rental Damage Photo Evidence Guide

A close-up of a scratch could be any floor in any apartment. Pull back until the radiator and the window are in frame, and now it's the northeast corner of your bedroom. Every damage photo worth keeping is really three photos — wide, medium, close — and this guide works the sequence through a floor scratch, a wall ding, and a countertop burn.

Shoot the ladder: wide, medium, close

Start wide, with two fixed landmarks in frame — a window, a radiator, a door frame, a built-in shelf — so the photo names the room and the corner by itself.
Move to arm's length for the medium shot: the full plank, the full cabinet door, the full stretch of countertop, with the damage visible but not yet filling the frame.
Close with the detail shot plus something for scale — a coin, a strip of painter's tape, a tape measure — because a light scratch and a deep gouge look identical at macro distance.

Worked example: the floor scratch

Stand in the doorway for the wide shot and frame the scratch with the radiator and the window both visible, so the photo places it in the northeast corner without a caption.
Shoot the medium frame crouched at the scratch's plank, aiming along the floor so the scratch, the board seams, and the baseboard all read in one frame.
Place a coin beside the deepest point for the close-up; if the scratch catches light, take one frame with light raking across it and one straight down.

Worked example: the wall ding and the countertop burn

Shoot the wall ding wide from across the room with the door frame and light switch in frame, then medium at arm's length against the paint sheen, then close with a tape strip beside it to hold the size.
Frame the countertop burn wide with the sink and the stove both visible so the counter run is identifiable, then medium on that section, then close with a coin — burns shift darker or lighter with angle, so take two.
Repeat the same order for every surface — scuffed cabinet faces, chipped tile, torn screens — so anyone reviewing the set knows the third photo of each trio is the detail shot.

Attach timing and location to every trio

Shoot all three frames in one session so the timestamps agree; a wide shot from March and a close-up from July read as two different events.
Label the room and the wall or corner in a short note — bedroom, wall behind the door — instead of trusting memory at review time.
Add one line about how it happened only if you actually know: found after couch delivery, March 3 is useful, and a guess is not.

Use the same ladder at move-in and move-out

Capture the same trio at move-in — the day-one photo of the clean corner is what turns a move-out trio into a comparison instead of a memory contest.
Repeat the same wide angles at move-out even where nothing changed — the empty frame that shows no new damage is the one people forget to take.
File each trio under its room in door.lease so the wide, medium, and close frames stay together instead of scattering across a camera roll.

Use this guide as documentation support, not legal advice. Local rules, lease terms, platform policies, and professional guidance may affect how a record should be used.