How to take the perfect photo to upload

A personalised print is only ever as good as the photo behind it. The good news: you don't need a fancy camera or the first clue about photography — the phone in your pocket is more than enough. You just need a few small tricks that turn an ordinary snap into a portrait worth putting on the wall, the sofa, or your desk. Here's how to get the shot.

Wait for good light

Natural light does nearly all the work for you. Photograph your dog near a big window, or outside on a bright-but-cloudy day — that soft, even light is the most flattering thing there is. Avoid harsh midday sun, which casts hard shadows and makes them squint, and skip the flash, which flattens their features and turns their eyes an alarming shade of green. Morning and late afternoon are your friends.

Get down to their level

The most common mistake is shooting from standing height, looking down at the top of their head. Crouch, kneel, or lie down so the camera sits at their eye level. It instantly reads as a proper portrait rather than a photo of a dog waiting for its dinner — and it captures the expression in their eyes, which is really the whole point.

Fill the frame with their face

For a print, you want their head and shoulders large and central, not a small dog marooned in the corner of a big garden. Move physically closer rather than using the zoom (phone zoom just makes everything grainy), or leave a little breathing room around them so there's space to crop neatly later. Close, sharp, and centred is the aim.

Keep it sharp

A crisp photo of a still dog beats a blurry one of an action hero every time. Tap the screen to focus on their eyes before you press the shutter, and get their attention with a treat, a squeaky toy, or a daft noise held just above the camera — that alert, ears-up, "what was that?" look is pure gold. If they simply won't settle, hold the shutter down for burst mode and pick the best frame afterwards.

Think about the background

A simple, uncluttered background makes your dog the star — a plain wall, a patch of grass, a neutral blanket. This matters even more if you'd like the background removed from your photo on the finished print: a clean, contrasting backdrop gives the tidiest cut-out, while a busy one (or a background the same colour as your dog) makes a neat edge much harder to get.

Send the best-quality version

This is the easy one to get wrong. Send the original photo — not a screenshot of it, and not a copy that's been through the wringer of a group chat or downloaded off social media. Both come out soft and pixelated once they're printed large. Straight from your camera roll, full size, is always best.

Catch their character

And the most important rule, which isn't really about technique at all: the best photo is the one that makes you smile. The head tilt. The side-eye. The tongue out mid-yawn. The daft grin they pull when they've stolen something they shouldn't have. Choose the picture that's most them — that's the one that makes the print.

Ready when you are

Got the one? Head to any of our personalised gifts, choose "upload your own photo," and pop it in — you'll see it on your cushion or notebook straight away. And if the perfect photo is proving elusive (some dogs are simply not models), you can always choose a hand-illustrated watercolour of their breed instead. Either way, they'll get the tribute they haven't quite earned but absolutely deserve.