Photograph Guide
High quality reference photos make a massive difference to creating a realistic pet portrait.
This guide, along with examples of good and bad reference photos, will help you to choose a great reference photo.
Let me know if you need any help with choosing a picture or if you have multiple photos you’d like to send. I’m more than happy to help review your images and discuss which one would make a great custom pet portrait. Email hello@hannahbowle.com or get in touch here.
Lighting
It’s always best to work from a well lit photo. Photos taken outside or using natural light coming through a window work well. This will capture the true colour of your pet’s fur and features nicely.
Images that are too dark or overexposed (too bright) make it difficult to see little details. Interior lighting can also alter the colours.
This photo was very difficult to work from due to the subject being in shadow and too far away from the camera.
Good Quality
Having a good quality photo allows me to capture all the little details and create a realistic looking portrait. It’s always great to work from clearly focused images with a high resolution that show off your pets eyes and direction of fur. If your images are blurry when zoomed in it can be harder to work from.
Close up photos taken from a lower level are best to work from.
This is a low resolution image, making it much harder to see any details in the fur.
True Likeness
Does the picture show the true colour of your pet’s eyes and fur?
I love capturing your pets personality in my portraits so try taking a photo doing something they love to show off their unique character.
It was impossible to tell the true colour of this dog’s eyes in this photo.
If your pet has sadly passed away I understand that you will only have limited photos available. If you are unsure with what reference to choose please get in touch and we can work through them together.
If you would like multiple pets on one page don’t worry if you’re unable to get a photo of them all together as I am able to work from a selection of photos. Get in touch and we can discuss the best picture selection together.