How to document cargo damage with photos: Practical rules

Composition and framing

Get the angle right. Shooting from an angle hides or distorts damage. Stand directly in front of the subject and centered before raising the camera, and keep the phone level. A tilted shot changes how big or small something looks, which matters when someone downstream is judging severity from the image alone.

Take shots from different angles. One photo from one spot never tells the whole story. As soon as the doors open, take a wide shot of the entire load from outside. Then move to the left and right sides and shoot diagonally toward the cargo, since each angle reveals areas the other hides. If the damage affects the surroundings too, add a context shot that shows the affected cargo alongside what's around it.

Don't get too close. Cropping off the edges of the container or the pallet leaves the viewer guessing what's outside the frame. Back up until all four corners are visible in the preview before shooting. Use landscape for wide subjects and portrait for narrow ones, and check the corners of the preview every time before pressing the shutter.

Match orientation to the subject. Holding the phone vertically for a wide subject like a container interior wastes most of the frame and adds black bars. Always shoot wide subjects in landscape, use your phone's level indicator to confirm you're horizontal, and rotate the phone before you focus, not after you've already framed the shot.

Light and exposure

Make sure there's enough light. An unlit interior swallows labels and fine detail into shadow, even if the damage itself is technically visible. Open both doors fully and angle them so sunlight reflects into the interior. For sealed trailers, use a portable LED or phone torch held at 45 degrees to avoid hotspots. Zoom into the preview before moving on. If text or a label isn't readable there, it won't be readable later either.

Watch for backlighting. Shooting toward the light turns the cargo into a silhouette with no visible detail. Check your own shadow before shooting. If it points toward the subject, the sun is behind you and working in your favor. If it points away, walk around until it doesn't. On overcast days, HDR mode can recover shadow detail when you can't reposition. Give yourself the full 30 seconds to walk around a subject before settling on the first shot you get.

Avoid glare and reflections. Direct light hitting a shiny surface, laminated cargo, stretch wrap, foil, tape, blows out exactly the detail you're trying to capture. Shoot at a 45-degree angle to reflective surfaces rather than straight on, and never straight on with a flash. If glare shows up in the preview, shift your position slightly until it clears rather than shooting through it.

Camera quality

Make sure the subject is in focus. Autofocus left to guess will often lock onto the background or the floor instead of the damage. Tap the subject on the screen to lock focus manually, hold the phone still for a full second afterward, and don't take the shot until the focus ring confirms. As a working standard, barcode lines and label text should be clearly separated in the shot, not fused into a blur.

Keep the lens clean. A fingerprint or dust on the lens introduces haze across the entire image and nobody notices until the shot is already taken. Wipe the lens with a microfiber cloth before starting a documentation session, and recheck it every three to four photos in dusty or cold environments. If a smudge or glare shows up in a photo, clean the lens and retake it immediately rather than working around it.

Information and visibility

Show the size of the damage. A damaged item photographed on its own gives no sense of scale. Include a measurement tool, a hand, or another instantly recognizable object near the damage in every shot. Without something to compare against, whoever reviews the claim has no way to judge how serious it actually is.

Don't let objects block the evidence. Wrapping, ropes, and loose packaging in front of the cargo hide the very thing you're trying to document. Take two or three minutes to clear the foreground before shooting. If pallet wrap or film is covering the damage itself, move it aside carefully before photographing rather than shooting around it.

Pair wide shots with close-ups. A close-up alone tells you there's damage but not where it sits in the load. Always take a wide shot first to establish position, then move in for a close-up that fills the frame with just the damaged area. One without the other is incomplete documentation.