How to Choose the Perfect Pet-Portrait Photo

Your custom embroidered pet portrait is only ever as good as the photo you hand over. The stitches follow the picture, so the picture does most of the heavy lifting. Lucky for you, the perfect one is almost definitely already living in your camera roll, somewhere between 400 screenshots and a blurry photo of a receipt.

Here's what makes a good one.

What to look for

• Good light. Natural daylight near a window or outside shows their real colors and all the little details. Dark and shadowy hides the good stuff.
• In focus. If the face looks crisp when you zoom in, every whisker and freckle can become thread. Blurry = guesswork.
• Eye level. Get down on their level. A photo taken from above is mostly forehead, and forehead has never moved anyone to tears.
• Face front and center. Head-and-shoulders is perfect for a hoop. Let that little face fill the frame.
• Personality. The head tilt. The side-eye. The unhinged grin. Pick the one that makes you smile before you've even thought about it.

What to skip

• Heavy filters — they shift the colors and smooth away the details I actually need.
• Faraway shots where the face ends up the size of a lentil.
• Group photos, where everyone's a little bit blurry and nobody's the star.

When in doubt, send a few

You don't have to agonize over the one perfect photo. Send me two or three good ones — it gives me a fuller read on their coloring, their markings, their whole vibe, and we can pick the strongest together.

The short version: well-lit, sharp, eye level, and unmistakably them. It's usually the photo you've already caught yourself smiling at. Trust that.