Choosing a good photo for your custom portrait painting

While there can be plenty of room for artistic license, it still makes sense that the photo you send us be the best possible quality it can be. The clearer, the larger and the more detailed your photo, the clearer and more detailed your oil painting will be.

Consider these 5 Tips when choosing an image for your painting:

Tip 1 – Choose a large image – if we can’t see it we can’t paint it. Therefore, try to send us the largest or highest resolution version of the photo you have. This helps with detail as much as form. Images taken with camera phones or downloaded from the internet are often very small and lack sufficient detail. A simple rule of thumb – look to see whether you can make out the pupil of the eyes of the person in the photo. If you can then that means that your photo is probably large enough.

Tip 2- Choose a sharp image – a sharp, focused image makes for a great reproduction, whereas blurry images can be almost impossible to paint from. Therefore, you want a sharp image that provides plenty of detail.

Tip 3 – Good lighting – photos taken in strong sunlight can “bleach out”, destroying much of the detail, while photos taken in dark places with insufficient light, can lack detail all together. Therefore, try to choose a photo that has a good balance of light. Ultimately, natural daylight is best.

Tip 4 – Smile or no smile! – The human face is a complex form of interacting muscles so when someone isn’t smiling it’s almost impossible to anticipate how they do look when they are smiling. So try to choose a photo that exactly captures the moment you want painted.

Tip 5 – Black & white to colour – regrettably we can’t change a black and white image into a colour painting. There are just too many possibilities. However, we can change a colour photo into a black & white painting.  So if you are looking for a colour oil painting, the best idea is to submit a full colour photo of the subject you want painted.

You can contact us for any assistance and we’ll work with you in finding the best and most satisfying solution for you.

Take advantage to discover our comprehensive range of painting services: kid’s portraits, family portraits, pet portraits, wedding portraits, anniversary portraits, graduation portraits, boat portraits, house portraits, vehicle portraits and landscape portraits. We provide free consultation, fast and reliable service.