How to choose a photograph that paints well
A practical guide to picking photographs that translate beautifully into painted portraits — lighting, resolution, and composition tips from the PaintBot studio.
Start with the light
The single biggest predictor of a good painted portrait is the quality of light in the source photograph. Soft, directional daylight — from a north-facing window, or the hour after sunrise — produces the gentle gradations of shadow that oil paint loves. Overhead office light and hard on-camera flash both flatten faces and force the engine to invent detail where none exists.
Get closer than you think
Fill the frame. If you’re shooting a portrait, put the eyes in the top third and don’t worry about the top of the head. If you’re shooting a pet, get down to their eye level and shoot from a metre away, not across the room. Cropped tightly, a phone photograph can rival a DSLR.
Resolution matters, but composition matters more
We can work with anything above about 1500 pixels on the long edge, but resolution won’t save a photograph shot in bad light. If in doubt, send us the file — we’ll tell you within a day whether it will paint well or whether we’d recommend a reshoot.
A note on colour
Warm indoor light and cool overcast light will each push the finished painting in that direction, unless you tell us otherwise. If the person or pet in the photograph has a colouring you’d like preserved, send us a second reference photograph and we’ll match it.