photograph guide
Tips for Capturing the Perfect Photo for Pet Portraits
When choosing a photo for your pet portrait—or taking a new one—there are a few key things to keep in mind to ensure the best possible artwork.
✨ Lighting Matters – Is your pet well-lit? Avoid harsh overexposure or deep shadows. Natural light works best!
✨ Fur Detail – Can you clearly see the texture and definition of their fur? A sharp, detailed photo makes for a more lifelike portrait.
✨ Eye-Level Perspective – Photos taken from above (as we often do) don’t translate well into art. Try getting down to your pet’s eye level for a more natural and engaging image.
✨ Framing & Distance – Your pet should fill the frame without needing to zoom in or crop excessively. Avoid photos where they’re a tiny dot in the distance!
Following these simple tips will help create a portrait that truly captures your pet’s character and charm.
good photograph examples
Both of the below images are crisp and clear as you can see, lighting is good, all parts are in focus and they are from the pets eye level, both of these would make excellent reference images.
not so great photograph examples
The images below show examples of more challenging images, whether it be out of focus, or too dark, too far away or from a strange angle, none alone would be suitable for reference images.
If you are struggling to find a great photo, do get in touch and send through what you have and we can have a chat about it.
pets that are no longer with us
If you are looking to commission a piece for a pet that has passed away I appreciate you may be working with limited photographs, my suggestion is send through what you have.
With that I can then look through with you and determine if it will be possible to create a piece from the images you have, unfortunately it isn’t always possible but if I feel it is, I will do my best for you.
Multiple pets
If you have 2 dogs and a cat and you want them in a single piece of art, don’t worry you haven’t got to try to get them all in a single image, I wouldn’t do that to you!
As long as you have great photos of each of them its usually quite possible to create a combination that works perfectly.