Every custom portrait starts with a photo, and the photo does most of the work. A good one gives an artist everything they need. A poor one means guessing at the shape of a face nobody but you knows properly.
Here is what actually matters, in order.
1. Light beats everything
Daylight is your best tool and it is free. Take the photo near a window, or outside in shade — not direct midday sun, which flattens features and blows out white fur.
Avoid flash. It reflects off eyes, washes out markings, and creates hard shadows that hide the shape of the muzzle.
If your pet is black or very dark, light matters more than for any other coat. In dim light a black dog reads as a silhouette, and detail that is not in the photo cannot be invented.
2. Get down to their level
Most pet photos are taken from human height, looking down. That foreshortens the face and makes the head look small relative to the body.
Crouch until the camera is level with their eyes. This single change improves more photos than anything else on this list.
3. Eyes open, facing you
Eyes carry the expression. A portrait where the eyes are half-closed or turned away loses the thing that makes it recognisably them.
Getting attention is the practical problem. A squeaky toy held just above the lens works. So does saying a word they react to — walk, treat, their name — and shooting immediately.
4. Fill the frame
Stand close enough that the head and shoulders take up most of the picture. A distant photo cropped in later loses detail, and detail is what a portrait is made of.
If you can only get one shot, make it a head-and-shoulders one.
5. Keep the background simple
A plain wall, grass, or a quiet room. Busy backgrounds make it harder to see where their outline actually is, particularly around ears and fur edges.
We can remove a background — it just works better when there is a clear edge to work from.
6. Take more than you think you need
Take twenty. Pets move, blink, and turn away at the exact moment you press the button. Twenty photos usually contain two good ones. Three photos usually contain none.
What if the only photo you have is a bad one?
This comes up constantly, particularly for memorial portraits. Sometimes the only picture of a pet who has died is blurry, or old, or taken through a window, or a screenshot from a video.
Send it anyway.
We work with what people have, because often it is the only thing that exists and no better photo will ever be taken. We will tell you honestly before you are charged if we genuinely cannot use it — but we would rather try.
The short version
- Daylight, no flash
- Camera at their eye level
- Eyes open and facing you
- Close enough to fill the frame
- Plain background
- Take twenty, keep the best
And if none of that is possible, send what you have. We will tell you where we stand before you spend anything.
Got your photo? Turn it into a custom framed pet portrait with your pet's name included, or make a memorial portrait for a pet you've lost. You'll see two free digital proofs before anything is printed.