Let us start with the technical foundation: resolution. Your photo needs to be at least 1920 x 1440 pixels. This ensures enough detail that when we convert it to a numbered canvas, the sections remain clear and distinguishable.

Why Resolution Matters

When we convert your photo to paint by numbers, we are dividing it into dozens of numbered sections. Each section represents a colour. If your photo lacks resolution, those sections become too small to paint comfortably, and fine details disappear entirely.

Checking Your Photo's Resolution

• On iPhone/iPad: Open the photo in your Photos app. Tap "Info" (the little "i" icon). You will see the dimensions listed.
• On Android: Open the photo in your Gallery app. Tap the three dots menu and select "Details." Dimensions will show there.
• On computer: Right-click the photo file. Select "Properties" (Windows) or "Get Info" (Mac). Look for image dimensions.

Higher Resolution Is Better

We recommend 2400 x 1800 pixels or higher, especially for detailed portraits (fine facial features), close-up pet photos (whiskers, fur texture), and landscape photos with lots of foreground detail. When in doubt, choose the highest resolution version of your photo available.

Good lighting transforms a photo. Bad lighting dooms it. Here is what works and what does not when choosing a photo for custom paint by numbers.

Best Lighting Scenarios

Natural outdoor lighting is your gold standard. Outdoor photos taken during daytime, especially overcast days or the golden hour just before sunset , provide even, flattering light. Natural light reveals detail without creating harsh shadows, and your features are clearly visible and beautifully defined.

Soft indoor lighting works well too. If you are indoors, position yourself or your subject near a window. Light from the side (not directly overhead) creates dimension without harshness. Window light is diffused and flattering, bringing out natural colours and skin tones.

Professional studio lighting almost always works beautifully. Studio photographers know how to light subjects to look their best, which translates perfectly to paint by numbers.

Lighting Scenarios to Avoid

• Dim indoor lighting: Restaurants, living rooms with overhead lights, or dimly lit parties result in murky, unclear photos.
• Backlit photos: When your subject is in front of a bright window or sunset, their face becomes a silhouette and details disappear.
• Harsh shadows: Midday sun directly overhead creates dark shadows across faces that look like mistakes in the final painting.
• Phone flash: Phone flashes are harsh and create an unnatural, washed-out appearance with red-eye in pets.
• Overexposed photos: Very bright, washed-out images lack the vibrancy needed for a beautiful finished painting.

How you frame your photo matters enormously for the final paint by numbers result.

Close-Up Photos Work Best

When your subject fills most of the frame, details are visible. For face portraits, the head and shoulders should fill 60–70% of the frame. For pet portraits, the pet's head and upper body should fill 60–70% of the frame. For full-body portraits, the entire person or pet should take up 70–80% of the frame.

Wide Shots Are Risky

If your subject is tiny in the frame, say, a person standing in a vast landscape , those small details become impossible to translate to paint by numbers. The figure might end up being just a few numbered sections, losing all personality and detail. Exception: if you are creating a landscape painting where the wide view is intentional, wider shots work, but your focal point should still be clearly visible and detailed.

Background Considerations

Simple backgrounds are ideal. A plain wall, a blurred garden, or a clear sky makes a beautiful backdrop. Your subject stands out, details are clear, and the painting focuses on what matters.

Complex backgrounds create problems. Busy backgrounds, like crowded street scenes, detailed foliage, or multiple people , become confused and muddy when converted to numbered sections. The eye does not know where to focus.

Blurred backgrounds work well. Professional portrait photography often features a blurred background (created using portrait mode or shallow depth of field). This naturally guides attention to your subject and works perfectly for paint by numbers.

Not all subjects translate equally to paint by numbers. Here is what works best.

Let us be honest about what will not work well for custom paint by numbers.

• Dark, underexposed photos: If you can barely see details in the photo, the painting will be dark and muddy. The numbered sections will not translate clearly.
• Heavily blurry photos: If the subject is out of focus, the numbered conversion will be blurry too. Details that should be sharp become indistinct.
• Extremely complex images: Busy street scenes, crowded markets, or intricate textured backgrounds become overwhelming in paint by numbers format.
• Photos with extreme lighting issues: Severe backlighting, glare across faces, or uneven lighting (half the face in shadow) creates problems.
• Very low-quality phone photos: Some older phone cameras produce low-resolution, pixelated images that do not have enough detail to work with.
• Heavily filtered social media photos: If you have applied heavy filters or extreme colour edits, the "true" colours are lost. We work with the colours we can see, so artificial filtering does not help.

If you love a photo but it has minor issues, you can edit it before uploading to improve the results.

Helpful Edits

• Crop for better composition: If your subject is too small or the background too prominent, crop closer. Focus the frame on what matters most.
• Adjust brightness/contrast: If your photo is slightly underexposed, increase brightness. If it is slightly overexposed, reduce brightness. These simple edits dramatically improve results.
• Enhance colour slightly: A small colour saturation boost can help. Slightly more vibrant colours translate to more vibrant paintings. But avoid extreme saturation.
• Remove distracting elements: If there is a photobomb or unwanted object in the background, some editing apps allow you to clone or remove it.
• Sharpen slightly: If your photo is slightly soft, a small sharpening adjustment can help bring out detail.

Edits to Avoid

• Do not apply heavy filters: Filters distort natural colours. We need to see the true colours to recreate them accurately.
• Do not over-brighten or over-darken: Extreme brightness/contrast adjustments look unnatural and lose detail.
• Do not artificially blur the background: If the background needs simplifying, we can handle that during the numbering process.
• Do not over-saturate colours: Extremely vibrant, unnatural colours look wrong in the final painting.

Free Editing Tools

• Snapseed (iOS/Android): Excellent for brightness, contrast, and cropping
• Adobe Lightroom Mobile (iOS/Android): Professional-grade adjustments
• Canva (Web/iOS/Android): Simple cropping and basic adjustments
• Windows Photos (Windows): Built-in brightness and contrast tools
• Mac Photos (Mac): Integrated editing for basic adjustments