Photo Guide

A great portrait starts with a great photo. Spend two minutes choosing the right one and your finished portrait will look stunning.

The 30-second checklist

Before you upload, your photo should have:

  • ✅ Even, natural daylight on your pet's face

  • ✅ Eyes clearly visible — not in shadow, not closed

  • ✅ One pet per photo (we'll add multi-pet portraits soon)

  • ✅ Close enough that your pet fills most of the frame

  • ✅ Reasonably sharp — not heavily motion-blurred

  • ✅ A high-resolution photo straight from your camera roll, not a screenshot

If your photo ticks all six, you're good to go. Upload and see your live preview in seconds.

What makes the perfect photo

Lighting

The single biggest factor. Our AI artist works from the light it can see — so the more detail captured in your pet's face, the more detail comes through in the drawing.

Best

  • Outdoors on a bright but overcast day

  • Indoors near a window, with the light falling on your pet's face

  • Open shade outdoors (e.g. under a tree, not direct midday sun)

Avoid

  • Strong sunlight behind your pet (backlighting hides the face in shadow)

  • Direct flash, which flattens features and creates red-eye

  • Dark rooms with low light

  • Mixed lighting (one side bright, the other side in deep shadow)

Angle and distance

Get down to your pet's eye level. Photos taken from standing height looking down distort proportions and make the head look smaller than it really is.

Fill the frame — your pet should take up at least half the photo. If they're a small dot in a big field, the drawing won't capture their personality.

Focus and clarity

Tap the screen on your pet's face before taking the photo so your phone focuses there. A few seconds of patience for a clear photo will reward you with a far better portrait.

A small amount of softness or shallow depth-of-field is fine — our artist faithfully reproduces what's in the photo, so artistic softness in the background will translate beautifully. What we can't recover is motion blur across the whole face.

Resolution

Use the original photo straight from your camera roll, not a screenshot of a photo. Screenshots are heavily compressed and lose detail. If the photo was sent to you via WhatsApp or Messenger, ask the sender for the original.

Photos that work brilliantly

  • A bright window-lit indoor portrait, your pet looking towards you

  • A sunny garden photo with the sun behind you (so your pet is lit from the front)

  • A close-up of your pet's face from their eye level

  • Photos where you can see both eyes clearly with a small natural catchlight

Photos that don't work as well

  • Backlit photos — sun behind your pet means the face is in shadow

  • Group shots cropped to one pet — heavy cropping loses resolution

  • Photos taken through glass — reflections and softness reduce detail

  • Pets wearing sunglasses, costumes, or holiday hats that hide their face

  • Very old, low-resolution, or heavily filtered photos

  • Selfies with your pet — angle is too steep and faces overlap

Help, my photo is the only one I have

We understand — some pets are camera-shy, and for memorial portraits the photos are precious and there may only be one.

Before you decide your photo won't work, try this in your phone's Photos app:

  1. Open the photo and tap Edit

  2. Increase Shadows to lift detail out of dark areas

  3. Reduce Highlights to recover blown-out brights

  4. A small bump in Contrast and Sharpness to restore definition

Save the edited version and upload that. You'll see the preview before you pay, so there's no risk.

If your preview doesn't look right, email us at hello@theanimalportraitco.com before ordering. We'll take a look at your photo and let you know honestly whether it'll produce a portrait you'll love. If not, we'd rather tell you upfront than disappoint you with the finished print.

Multiple pets

For now we recommend ordering one portrait per pet. Our AI artist produces its sharpest, most detailed work on single subjects, and that's what we want every customer to receive.

We're working on a multi-pet option for launch in [Q3 2026] — sign up to our newsletter at the bottom of the page and we'll let you know the moment it's live.

Still unsure?

Upload your photo and try the live preview — it's free, takes seconds, and you only pay if you love what you see. There's no commitment until checkout.

[Try your photo now →]

A great portrait starts with a great photo. Spend two minutes choosing the right one and your finished portrait will look stunning.

The 30-second checklist

Before you upload, your photo should have:

  • Even, natural daylight on your pet's face
  • Eyes clearly visible — not in shadow, not closed
  • One pet per photo (we'll add multi-pet portraits soon)
  • Close enough that your pet fills most of the frame
  • Reasonably sharp — not heavily motion-blurred
  • A high-resolution photo straight from your camera roll, not a screenshot

If your photo ticks all six, you're good to go. Upload and see your live preview in seconds.

What makes the perfect photo

Lighting

The single biggest factor. Our AI artist works from the light it can see — so the more detail captured in your pet's face, the more detail comes through in the drawing.

Best

  • Outdoors on a bright but overcast day
  • Indoors near a window, with the light falling on your pet's face
  • Open shade outdoors (e.g. under a tree, not direct midday sun)

Avoid

  • Strong sunlight behind your pet (backlighting hides the face in shadow)
  • Direct flash, which flattens features and creates red-eye
  • Dark rooms with low light
  • Mixed lighting (one side bright, the other side in deep shadow)

Angle and distance

Get down to your pet's eye level. Photos taken from standing height looking down distort proportions and make the head look smaller than it really is.

Fill the frame — your pet should take up at least half the photo. If they're a small dot in a big field, the drawing won't capture their personality.

Focus and clarity

Tap the screen on your pet's face before taking the photo so your phone focuses there. A few seconds of patience for a clear photo will reward you with a far better portrait.

A small amount of softness or shallow depth-of-field is fine — our artist faithfully reproduces what's in the photo, so artistic softness in the background will translate beautifully. What we can't recover is motion blur across the whole face.

Resolution

Use the original photo straight from your camera roll, not a screenshot of a photo. Screenshots are heavily compressed and lose detail. If the photo was sent to you via WhatsApp or Messenger, ask the sender for the original.

Photos that work brilliantly

  • A bright window-lit indoor portrait, your pet looking towards you
  • A sunny garden photo with the sun behind you (so your pet is lit from the front)
  • A close-up of your pet's face from their eye level
  • Photos where you can see both eyes clearly with a small natural catchlight

Photos that don't work as well

  • Backlit photos — sun behind your pet means the face is in shadow
  • Group shots cropped to one pet — heavy cropping loses resolution
  • Photos taken through glass — reflections and softness reduce detail
  • Pets wearing sunglasses, costumes, or holiday hats that hide their face
  • Very old, low-resolution, or heavily filtered photos
  • Selfies with your pet — angle is too steep and faces overlap

Help, my photo is the only one I have

We understand — some pets are camera-shy, and for memorial portraits the photos are precious and there may only be one.

Before you decide your photo won't work, try this in your phone's Photos app:

  1. Open the photo and tap Edit
  2. Increase Shadows to lift detail out of dark areas
  3. Reduce Highlights to recover blown-out brights
  4. A small bump in Contrast and Sharpness to restore definition

Save the edited version and upload that. You'll see the preview before you pay, so there's no risk.

If your preview doesn't look right, email us at hello@theanimalportraitco.com before ordering. We'll take a look at your photo and let you know honestly whether it'll produce a portrait you'll love. If not, we'd rather tell you upfront than disappoint you with the finished print.

Multiple pets

For now we recommend ordering one portrait per pet. Our AI artist produces its sharpest, most detailed work on single subjects, and that's what we want every customer to receive.

We're working on a multi-pet option for launch in Q3 2026 — sign up to our newsletter at the bottom of the page and we'll let you know the moment it's live.

Still unsure?

Upload your photo and try the live preview — it's free, takes seconds, and you only pay if you love what you see. There's no commitment until checkout.

Try your photo now →