A custom portrait begins with a single decision: which photo to send. Everything that follows, the composition, the colour, the way the finished piece sits on a wall, is shaped by that one image. The good news is that a strong reference photo is rarely the most polished one on your phone. It is the most honest one. Here is how to choose it.
Start with the light
Soft, even light flatters almost any subject. A face near a window on an overcast afternoon, a pet caught in the warm spill of a lamp, a portrait taken in open shade outdoors: these give a clean read on the features that matter. Hard midday sun carves deep shadows under the eyes and nose, and a single harsh flash flattens everything into one plane. If you can choose, choose the gentle light. It carries the most information about your subject, and information is what a considered portrait is built from.
Get close, and let the subject fill the frame
A portrait lives or dies on the eyes and the set of the face. The more of the frame your subject occupies, the more there is to work with. A photo taken from across the room, with your subject small in a busy background, leaves very little to compose around. Step closer, or crop in before you send, so the face or the body is the clear centre of the picture. For pets, this often means getting down to their level rather than shooting from above.
Mind the angle
The most natural portraits tend to come from a photo taken at roughly eye level, looking toward the subject rather than steeply up or down. A slight turn of the head reads as relaxed and considered; a dead-on, passport-style shot can feel stiff. You do not need a posed sitting. A candid moment, the head tilted, a half-smile, the ears pricked, often makes the warmest portrait of all.
Resolution matters more than you think
A small, blurry image cannot become a sharp, room-sized piece, no matter how it is handled. Send the largest, clearest version you have. A photo straight from a modern phone camera is plenty; a screenshot of a screenshot, or an image pulled small from a chat app, usually is not. If the photo looks soft when you zoom in on your screen, it will look soft on the wall. When in doubt, send the original file rather than a forwarded copy.
A short checklist before you send
- Soft, even light, not harsh sun or direct flash.
- The subject fills most of the frame, with the face in clear view.
- Taken at roughly eye level, with a natural turn or expression.
- The largest, sharpest version of the file you have.
- One clear subject, not a crowd to choose from.
If you have two or three that fit, send the one you love most. The photo you keep coming back to is usually the one that will make a portrait you keep coming back to.
What happens next
Once your photo is in, the studio composes your portrait in the style you choose and prepares it at full resolution. You see the finished result before anything is made, so there is room to refine. Browse the oil-painting collection to see the register a good photo can become, or start a piece directly: a framed print for a clean, gallery look, or a matte canvas for something softer and more textural.
A portrait is made to order, one at a time, from the image you trust us with. Choose that image with a little care, and the rest follows.