How to Choose the Best Photo for a Custom Portrait

Every portrait our atelier composes begins with one ordinary photograph: a holiday snapshot, your dog asleep on the sofa, a wedding picture that has lived in a frame for years. It does not need to be a professional photo. It does need to carry the few things a portrait cannot invent: a face, an expression, and the way the light falls on them.

This guide explains how to choose a photo for a custom portrait: what matters, what doesn't, and how to choose well for a person, a couple, a family or a pet. A few minutes spent choosing the right photo is the surest way to a portrait that truly looks like them.

What a portrait needs from your photo (and what it doesn't)

An old-master portrait keeps some things from your photo and reimagines everything else. Knowing which is which takes most of the worry out of choosing.

What carries over:

• the face and its proportions, which make the likeness;
• the expression: a half-smile, a raised eyebrow, the patient gaze of a spaniel;
• the color of eyes, hair, fur or coat;
• the character of the light on the face.

What is reimagined:

• clothing, since the style you choose dresses the sitter in velvet, silk or a braided uniform;
• the background, so a cluttered kitchen can become a palace hall or a country estate;
• pose and framing, which follow the conventions of the period.

So don't discard a photo because of an old sweatshirt or an untidy room. Set it aside only if the face is small, blurred or lost in shadow.

How to choose a photo: the five-point checklist

1. The face is clear and fills the frame. A face that takes up a good part of the picture carries far more detail than a small figure in a landscape. Cropping is fine, as long as what remains is still sharp and not too small.
2. The light is soft and even. Daylight from a window or an overcast sky is ideal. Harsh midday sun and on-camera flash flatten features and throw hard shadows across the face.
3. The eyes are visible and in focus. No sunglasses, no hair falling across them, no motion blur. The eyes are where a portrait comes alive.
4. The camera is at eye level. Photos taken from far above or below distort proportions. Eye level gives the most faithful likeness.
5. No heavy filters. Beauty filters, strong color effects and heavy retouching change features, and the portrait follows what it sees.

One more thing: a true expression beats perfect technique. If you are torn between a slightly soft photo where they look exactly like themselves and a crisp one where they look stiff, try the first. You see your portrait before you pay, so trying costs you nothing.

Phone photos: yes, but use the original

A recent smartphone takes photos that are more than good enough for a portrait. What matters is which copy of the photo you upload.

• Use the original from your photo library, not a screenshot. A screenshot records your screen, not the photo, and loses detail.
• Avoid photos forwarded through messaging apps. Many compress images on the way, sometimes heavily.
• Photos saved from social media are usually reduced too. If a friend posted the perfect picture, ask them to send you the original file.
• iPhone photos are welcome as they are. We accept JPG, PNG, HEIC and WebP files up to 25 MB.

As a guide, we ask for at least 768 pixels on the shortest side. Any modern phone camera is far above that; a thumbnail or a tightly cropped screenshot may not be. If a photo is on the small side, we tell you as soon as you upload it. You can still use it, knowing the portrait may look softer, especially at larger print sizes. Our guide to choosing a fine art print or gallery canvas explains which sizes suit which rooms.

Choosing a photo of your dog, cat or companion

Pets make wonderful sitters, and royal pet portraits have a joy all of their own. Pets are also the least cooperative sitters of all. A few habits make all the difference:

• Get down to their level. Sit or kneel so the lens is at the height of their eyes. Photos taken from standing height make heads look large and legs short.
• Show both eyes and both ears. Ears are character: one that stands, one that folds, one that never quite decides.
• Find the daylight. Dark coats lose their detail in dim rooms, and black dogs and cats need more light than you would think. A spot near a window works well.
• Catch their attention. A treat held just above the lens, or a soft squeak, gives you the alert, direct gaze that suits a noble portrait.
• Take plenty of photos. Burst mode is your friend. Keep the one where the eyes are sharpest.

For a Person + Pet portrait, you can upload one photo of the two of you or one photo of each. The same rules apply to both faces: close enough, well lit, eyes visible.

Couples and families: one group photo or separate photos?

For a custom couple portrait, you can upload one photo of the two of you or two separate photos. For a custom family portrait of three or four people, you can use one group photo or up to four photos, one per person.

One group photo works best when everyone faces the camera, the faces are of similar size and nobody is half-hidden behind a shoulder. Group photos taken from across the room often leave each face too small.

Separate photos are the better choice when the only group picture is a distant one, or when you are bringing together people who were rarely photographed side by side. Look for photos with similar light and similar angles, so that everyone seems to have sat for the painter on the same afternoon.

Whichever you choose, make sure you have permission to use the photo of everyone shown; for a child, that means the permission of their parents. We ask you to confirm it before uploading, and it is a courtesy that matters.

When you only have an old or imperfect photo

Sometimes the choice is made for you: a grandparent's wedding picture, a faded print from a shoebox, the only good photo of a companion who is no longer here. Imperfect photos can still become beautiful portraits. They simply need a little care.

• Scan rather than photograph it, if you can. A flatbed scan at 600 dpi or more captures far more detail than a quick snap, and many phone scanning apps also do a good job with prints.
• If you photograph the print, lay it flat near a window, avoid reflections and fill the frame with the photo itself.
• Don't over-restore it first. A few scratches and a little grain are fine. Aggressive sharpening or automatic colorizing can change a face.
• Black-and-white photos work. Colors such as eyes and hair are then interpreted, so if a color photo of the same person exists, compare the two.

If the photo is of someone you have lost, take your time. A memorial portrait from a cherished photo can be a gentle way to keep them close, and you see the preview before deciding anything.

What our photo check looks for

After you upload, we check each photo before your portrait is composed. The check looks at:

• size, to see whether there is enough detail for a fine portrait;
• sharpness, to spot blur;
• light, to flag photos that are very dark or very bright;
• faces, to see whether each face is clear, whether it is small in the frame, and whether the number of faces matches the number of sitters you chose;
• your companion, for pet portraits, to make sure they can be seen clearly.

If something looks off, we tell you in plain words and suggest a remedy. You can choose another photo or use this one anyway: the check advises, it doesn't decide for you. Apart from the file types and the size limit above, only photos that cannot be opened, or that are far too small to use, are turned away.

Your first preview is free, and you can try again up to three times for each portrait, in the same style or another. So when you have a photo you like, upload your photo and let the atelier take it from there.

Your photo and your privacy

A portrait is personal, and so is the photo behind it. Your photos are used only to create your portrait and are deleted after 30 days unless you order. When we prepare a photo, the hidden information stored inside the file, such as location data, is removed.

Featuring a finished portrait in our gallery is entirely optional and only happens if you tick the box. We would never show your name, and never your original photo without asking you first.

Found the one? Your first preview is free, and you only order the portrait you love. Create Your Portrait