Photos That Don't Work (and What to Do Instead)
Most people who ask "is this photo good enough" already suspect the answer. Here's the honest version, category by category, with what to do about each.
"It's blurry." Depends how blurry. Slight softness is fine — a sculptor reads structure, not pixels. Motion blur across the whole face is not, because the features smear in a way no amount of skill recovers. Try another frame from the same burst; people often have five near-identical shots and only looked at the first.
"It's only a profile." Workable, but you lose the front of the face. If you have any front-facing photo from the same period, even a bad one, send both — the second one gives the artist the information the profile doesn't.
"His eyes are closed." This is the one worth hunting for an alternative on. A closed-eye portrait tends to read as asleep, and asleep reads as absent. If every photo you have is closed-eye, say so up front — a good maker will compensate, and it's better than them faithfully reproducing the thing you didn't want.
"It's a screenshot." Check the actual pixel dimensions before you worry. If it's under about 800 pixels across the face, you're asking for a guess. Ask whoever took the original for the file — this works surprisingly often.
"It's from an old phone, 2009." Old is fine. Small is the problem. A 2009 phone photo at 1600 pixels is better than a 2024 screenshot.
"There are two of us in it." Fine — the maker crops to the animal. Just be explicit about which one you mean.
"It's a group of pets." Also fine, but expect a composition decision: separate portraits, or one image with all of them. Both work; they feel different. Separate tends to read as "each of them, individually remembered."
"I don't have any good photos at all." Then don't commission a portrait yet. Ask family, ask the vet (clinics photograph patients more often than people expect), check old messages and social posts — people send each other pictures they've forgotten. Two weeks of asking usually turns up something better than the photo you're trying to talk yourself into.
The rule underneath all of this: a maker who won't tell you a photo is bad is not helping you. Ask directly, "will this actually work, or should I keep looking?" You want the honest answer before you pay, not after.
Related reading
- How to Choose a Photo for a Pet Portrait
- Two Pets in One Portrait: How to Make It Work
- 5 Questions to Ask Before Buying a Pet Keepsake
Stillglow makes small keepsakes — including 3D relief portraits hand-sculpted from a photo you send. See how the portraits work.
