How to photograph your pet for a portrait

The six rules

1. Get down to their level

Kneel, sit or lie on the floor until the phone is level with your pet’s eyes. A photo taken from standing height looks down on them: the head grows, the muzzle shortens and the chest disappears. A portrait wants the opposite. It looks its sitter in the eye.

2. Find the light

Daylight from a window is the best light there is. Put your pet a step or two from the window, facing it or turned slightly to one side, and stand with the window beside or behind you. Outdoors, choose open shade: the bright side of a building, or under a tree. Direct midday sun makes hard shadows and squinting eyes.

Turn the flash off. It flattens fur, bleaches white coats and turns eyes into green or red lamps.

3. Both eyes, looking your way

The face should point toward the camera, straight on or turned a little, with both eyes open and visible. Ears should sit where they naturally sit. A profile, a sleeping face or a head turned away gives the portrait too little to work with.

4. Fill the frame with head and shoulders

Move closer rather than zooming with your fingers, which only enlarges the blur. The head and the top of the chest should take up most of the picture, with a little space all round. A pet who is a small shape in a big garden will make a weak portrait.

5. Keep it sharp

Wipe the lens. Tap your pet’s eye on the screen so the phone focuses there. Hold the phone with both hands, and take a burst of several shots: one of them will be sharper than the rest. If the fur around the eyes looks crisp when you zoom in, the photo is good enough.

6. Leave it natural

No filters, no stickers, no heavy editing. Switch off portrait mode if it blurs the edges of the ears. Take off anything that covers the head or the ears, such as a hat, a hood or a cone. A collar is fine: the costume is painted over it.

Getting their attention

For dogs, hold a treat or a favorite toy just above the lens, and say the word they can never ignore. A noise they have not heard before (a squeak, a crinkle, a whistle) buys you two seconds of perfect attention, with the head tilted for free. A second person standing behind you makes it easier still.

Cats cannot be directed, only waited for. Have the phone ready when they settle on the windowsill or the back of the sofa, and move something small just above the lens. Take many pictures. Keep one.

Black coats and white coats

A black dog or cat can turn into a silhouette with two eyes. Face them toward the window so light falls across the face, and tap the face on your screen: the phone will brighten the picture to suit. Choose a lighter background if you can, so the outline of the head and ears shows.

White and cream coats have the opposite problem: in strong sun they burn out to a flat white. Keep them in shade or beside a window with no direct sun, and tap the fur on the screen so the phone darkens the picture slightly.

Photos that give weaker portraits

• Blurred, or taken in a dark room.
• Taken from far away, with the pet small in the frame.
• Taken from above, looking down.
• Eyes closed, or half the face hidden.
• Two animals, or a person holding the pet.
• Heavy filters or strong color effects.

If the first preview disappoints, the photo is nearly always the reason. Previews are free, so try a second photo before you give up on a title.

Using an old photo, or a printed one

Any photo works if the face is reasonably sharp. For a printed photograph, lay it flat near a window and photograph it straight on, without flash, so there is no glare. A scan is better still. There is more on this, gently put, on our page about memorial portraits.

Before you upload

The uploader takes JPG, PNG and HEIC photos up to 12 MB, and needs at least 400 pixels on the shorter side, which every phone photo exceeds. Then choose a title and see your portrait: it takes about a minute.