Every portrait I draw starts in the same place: a photograph on my screen, zoomed in to about 400%, while I try to work out whether that shadow is a marking or just the sofa. The better the photo, the more of your pet I can give back to you — so I thought I'd write down everything I've learned from squinting at a few hundred of them.
Before we start, one important thing: you do not need a good camera. You do not need a photography course, a ring light, or a pet who sits still. Almost every portrait in my shop was drawn from a phone photo taken by someone who was mostly just trying to get their dog to look at them for two seconds. It is genuinely fine.
The one thing that matters most: light
If you only remember one sentence from this whole post, make it this one: take the photo near a window, in the daytime, with the light coming from in front of your pet rather than behind them.
Daylight is soft and honest. It shows me the real colour of their fur, the shine in their eyes, and the little variations in their coat that make them them rather than a generic brown dog. Indoor evening lighting turns everything orange and flat, and camera flash does something unforgivable to a dog's eyes — it flattens them into two shiny discs and removes every bit of expression.
Some quick light rules that will do most of the work for you:
- Face them towards the window. If the window is behind them, you'll get a silhouette and I'll get very little information.
- Overcast days are secretly perfect. Cloud is a giant softbox. Bright direct sunshine creates harsh shadows across the face and blows out white fur completely.
- Turn the flash off. Always. It is never worth it.
- Outside in the shade is lovely too — under a tree, on a porch, next to a wall the sun isn't hitting directly.
Get down to their level
Most photos of pets are taken from human standing height, looking down at them. It's the view we're used to, but it makes for a strange portrait: you get a lot of forehead, a compressed little body, and eyes that disappear into shadow.
Kneel down. Sit on the floor. Lie flat on your stomach if you have a very small dog or a cat who lives at ankle height. Photographing them from their own eye level instantly makes the photo feel like a proper portrait rather than a snapshot, and it gives me their actual face shape instead of a foreshortened version of it.
This is the single easiest improvement most people can make, and it costs you nothing but slightly dusty knees.
Fill the frame — but not too much
I need enough detail in the face to draw it properly. If your pet is a small distant shape in the corner of a large garden photo, zooming in just gives me a blur.
Aim for their head and shoulders to fill a decent chunk of the frame. Get physically closer rather than using your phone's zoom, because digital zoom just crops and softens the image. Two or three steps forward will do more for the picture than any setting on your phone.
That said — don't crop so tightly that you cut off their ears. I like to have a little breathing room around the edges to work with.
Catch them being themselves
Here's the bit people find hardest, and the bit that matters most to me. A technically perfect photo of a pet looking politely at the camera is often less useful than a slightly imperfect one where they're doing the thing they always do.
The head tilt. The one raised eyebrow. The specific expression they wear when they hear the treat drawer. The way they lie with one paw crossed over the other like a very small aristocrat. That is the portrait. That is what will make you laugh out loud when you open the file.
Send me the photo that makes you smile, not the one you think a photographer would choose. I can fix lighting. I cannot invent personality.
A trick that works on almost every dog: get the photo set up, then make a noise they've never heard before. A weird squeak, a new word, a kissy sound. You get about one second of genuine curious head-tilt before they get bored. That one second is gold.
For cats, honestly, it's mostly patience. Wait until they've settled somewhere with good light and are looking mildly disgusted by something. That's the cat equivalent of a smile.
How many photos should you send?
Two or three is ideal. One clear photo of the face is essential; a second one from a slightly different angle helps me understand the shape of their head, and a third showing their whole body is useful if you'd like more than just a headshot.
Please don't send me forty. I will look at all forty, because I have no self-control where other people's pets are concerned, but it genuinely doesn't help — it just makes it harder for us both to choose.
If you're torn between two, send both and say so. Choosing between photos is part of my job and I'm happy to give you an honest opinion about which one will draw best.
Photographing more than one pet
They do not need to be in the same photograph. In fact, they almost never are, because animals refuse to cooperate on principle.
Send me one good, clear photo of each pet separately and I'll bring them together in the artwork as though they'd posed beautifully side by side. Try to make sure the photos have roughly similar lighting so the finished piece feels like one moment rather than a collage — but honestly, I can work around it if not.
What if the photo isn't perfect?
Send it anyway.
I mean this sincerely. Some of the portraits I am proudest of came from photos that were grainy, badly lit, taken on a phone from 2011, or slightly out of focus. This is especially true for pets who have passed away, where sometimes there is only one photo left and it isn't the one anyone would have chosen.
If a photo is going to be difficult, I'll tell you honestly before I start, and we'll work out together whether there's a way through it. There usually is. Never let "it isn't a good enough picture" be the reason you don't have them drawn.
A very short checklist
- ☀️ Daylight, near a window, light in front of them
- 🚫 No flash
- 🧎 Camera down at their eye level
- 🔍 Close enough to see their face clearly
- 👀 Eyes in focus — everything else can be soft
- 😄 Their real expression, not their polite one
- 📤 Two or three options is plenty
And then send them over, tell me their name, and let me do the squinting. 🐾
— Lala x