Every Love Stays Studio portrait starts as a photo on someone's phone — usually one of about four thousand. The portrait can only ever be as good as the photo it comes from, so choosing the right one is the single most useful thing you can do for the finished piece. Here's how to pick a winner.
1. Light matters more than anything
Choose a photo taken in natural light — near a window, or outside on a bright but not blazing day. Your pet's face should be fully lit, with no heavy shadow across one side. Avoid photos taken with a harsh flash: it flattens their features and turns eyes strange colors. If you can see the true color of their fur and both eyes clearly, the light is right.
2. Sharp beats cute
A slightly less adorable photo that is sharp will make a far better portrait than a hilarious one that's blurry. Zoom in on the photo before you send it: if the whiskers, nose and eyes stay crisp, it's a good candidate. Send the original file rather than a screenshot or a photo saved from a social media app — those are compressed, and the lost detail can't be painted back in.
3. The whole face, eyes open
The best portrait photos show the full face — ears included — with your pet looking at or near the camera. A gentle head tilt is portrait gold. Photos where half the face is out of frame, the head is turned fully to the side, or the eyes are mid-blink will fight you. Sleeping photos can work beautifully for memorial portraits, though; choose the mood you want the portrait to carry.
4. One pet per photo
Send one photo per pet, with that pet as the clear subject. Group shots where your dog is the third head from the left make likeness much harder to nail. If you're ordering a multi-pet piece, one clean photo of each pet is exactly what we want.
5. Don't worry about the background
The couch, the toys and the laundry pile don't come with them — we paint the portrait, not the room. The one exception is contrast: a black dog photographed against a black sofa gives us very little to work with. A photo where your pet stands out from what's behind them is always easier to turn into art.
What to avoid
Blurry or motion-blurred shots. Heavy beauty filters (they erase the markings that make your pet yours). Photos taken from far away and cropped in. Sunglasses, hats pulled over the eyes, or anything covering the face. And backlit photos where your pet is a silhouette against a bright window.
How it works once you've picked the photo
After you order any piece from our Custom Pet Portraits collection, reply to your order confirmation email with your chosen photo and your order number. We email you a proof within 1–2 business days, and nothing is printed until you approve it — so you'll see exactly how your photo translated before anything is made. If a photo truly won't work, we'll tell you straight away and you can send another; no order moves forward on a bad photo.
Still choosing between two or three favorites? Send the sharpest, brightest one. Your future wall will thank you. More on the process is on our FAQ page.