Guide
How to Photograph Your Pet
Five Minutes, Your Phone, and a Little Natural Light
You don't need a professional camera to capture a beautiful photo of your pet. A phone, soft natural light, and the right angle are often enough. Follow our simple five-minute guide to take clear, meaningful photos for your personalized pet portrait or keepsake.
Getting the shot
Find a window
Daylight from the side, not behind them. Turn the overhead lights off — mixed light is what makes fur look muddy.
Get to their eye level
Crouch or sit. Photographs taken looking down at an animal are the single most common reason a portrait does not work.
Wait for the ears
Ears tell you who the animal is. If they are flat back or blurred from movement, wait and take another.
Fill the frame
Head and shoulders, with a little space around them. Do not crop in the phone — we can do that.
Take twenty
Then pick the sharpest. It is almost never the first one.
What we can work with
- JPG, PNG, WEBP or HEIC
Up to 12 MB. Photos straight from an iPhone are fine as they are.
- 800 px minimum
On the shorter side. Below that we will ask you to resend.
- Their eyes open
A sleeping pet is lovely and very hard to make recognisable.
A photograph from 2011 is fine
Most of what we make is for animals who are no longer here, and the photograph is usually old. Grain, a slight blur and a dated background are all fine. What matters is the angle and whether we can see the shape of the face.