Guide

What photo works best?

The portrait is built around your pet's face, so the single photo you upload decides most of the result. The good news: you don't need a camera or any skill — a phone photo taken with a little care is exactly what works best. Five things cover it.

1. 1. Daylight beats everything

   Photograph near a window or outside in open shade. Indoor evening light makes phones smear detail, and the portrait is built from the detail in your photo. Avoid direct flash — it flattens the face and produces those glowing alien eyes.

2. 2. Get on their level, face-on

   Crouch to their eye level and shoot the face straight on or at a slight angle. Top-down photos distort proportions. Both eyes, the nose, and the ears should be fully in frame — an ear cropped out of the photo is an ear we have to guess at.

3. 3. Fill the frame with the face

   Get close, or crop before uploading, so the head takes up a good share of the image. A pet on the far side of the garden is a landscape photo, not a portrait photo.

4. 4. Sharp matters more than pretty

   A boring but tack-sharp photo beats a charming blurry one every time. Check by zooming in on the eyes: if you can see the detail in them, it's sharp enough. Burst mode is your friend with a pet that won't hold still.

5. 5. Skip the filters

   Upload the original, unedited photo. Beauty filters, heavy HDR, and app effects distort the features we build the portrait around. JPEG, PNG, or WebP up to 10 MB — straight off the phone is exactly right.

Cats sit stillest when they're already settled — a windowsill in afternoon light is the classic setup. Dogs respond to a sit command and a treat held just above the camera lens, which also gets you that attentive, ears-up expression. And remember you're not betting on the photo: you get up to three previews per order and approve one before anything is paid or printed.