For your commissioned artwork, I prefer to do a photo session with you - but sometimes that's just not possible. Here's what I'm looking for if you are sending me photos to work from:
1. Photos should be outdoors, in good directional light (not indoors or in the shadow of a tree, building, etd.). Try your best to capture the highlights in the eyes and on the nose, as these highlights will make the portrait come alive.
2. Photos should focus on the head - fill the frame with what's important!
3.Photos should be sharp, clear, and as high-res as possible: either Camera RAW (preferable) or the largest jpeg your camera will give you.
4. Please, NO flash photos!! Flash flattens everything, puts odd highlights in the eyes, and removes all the beautiful form from the subject.
5. Get on your subject's level: kneel down and shoot at your dog's eye level, or even lower (if possible). Standing up and pointing the camera down at your pet often makes for banal images - not always, but too many people snap away from this position and the results are uninspiring.
Here's a good example of a BAD photo: it's indoors, there's not much form to work with, the dog has a poor head presentation, and the photo is not focused on the head - there's not much information for me to create a nice portrait.
This is a good example of a GOOD photo: close-up on the head, catchlight in the eyes, highlight on the nose leather. This photo is the basis for the "blue merle Aussie" portrait (see the Gallery page for the finished artwork). The original photo is 8+ MB, so I have a lot of information in the highlights and the shadows - what's shown here is a low-res web version of a large, beautiful image.
The Bottom Line: the better the photo, the better the portrait! since only YOU live with your dog and know him/her intimately, I rely on you to help me capture what you want in your final artwork.