What Photo Works Best

The single biggest factor in how good your portrait turns out is the photo you start with. Here is exactly what to look for.

Light: face your pet toward the light, not away from it

Take the photo with the light source — a window, an open door, daylight outside — in front of your pet or to the side, never directly behind them. Light behind your pet throws their face into shadow and flattens out the detail a portrait needs. Overcast daylight or bright indoor light from a window is usually your best option; harsh direct midday sun creates hard shadows across the face.

Angle: get down to their eye level

Crouch or sit so the camera is roughly level with your pet's eyes, not shooting down from standing height. A photo taken from above distorts the proportions of the face — the forehead and top of the head dominate, and the eyes and muzzle shrink and lose detail. Eye-level photos read as much more natural.

Distance and framing: fill the frame with your pet

Get close enough that your pet's head and face take up a good portion of the photo. A pet who is a small figure in a big garden might make a lovely photo, but there is not enough facial detail in it to work from. Aim for something closer to a head-and-shoulders shot.

Focus: the eyes need to be sharp

Check the photo at full size on a screen before you send it, not just as a thumbnail. If the eyes are soft or blurred, the photo will not work — pets move fast and a lot of phone photos are a fraction of a second out of focus without it being obvious until you zoom in.

Resolution and file size: bigger is better

Send the original photo file, not a screenshot of it, not a photo of a photo, and not a version that has been through several rounds of messaging-app compression. Each time an image is forwarded through a messaging app it typically gets recompressed and loses detail. Go back to your camera roll and send the original file where you can.

Why phone portrait mode can work against you

Portrait mode blurs the background by estimating depth around your pet's outline — and it does not always get that outline right. Fur, whiskers and ears confuse the depth software more often than a person's outline does, which can leave odd blurred patches or halos right where the detail matters most. A normal photo mode, taken a little closer, is usually more reliable than portrait mode for a pet.

Common photos that do not work

  • Taken from directly above, looking down
  • Backlit, with the light source behind your pet
  • Blurry or soft around the eyes
  • Heavily filtered or with a cartoon or sticker overlay
  • A screenshot of another photo, or a photo of a screen
  • So far away that the face is a small part of the image
  • A group shot where your pet is not clearly the focus

For a longer breakdown of these with what to do instead, see photos that don't work.

Quick checklist before you upload

  1. Light is in front of or beside your pet, not behind them
  2. Camera is roughly level with their eyes
  3. Their face fills a good part of the frame
  4. The eyes are sharp when you zoom in
  5. It is the original file, not a forwarded or screenshotted copy

Related reading