The best photos are taken in natural light — near a window or outside in open shade works beautifully. Try to photograph at eye level rather than looking down, and make sure their eyes are sharp and in focus. The eyes are the heart of every portrait, and good lighting makes all the difference in capturing their expression accurately.

When positioning your light source, make sure it's in front of or beside your pet rather than behind them. Backlighting is one of the most common challenges in reference photos — it creates a silhouette effect that loses the facial detail and expression needed to create an accurate portrait.

A natural, relaxed expression is always ideal — just your pet being themselves. If you have two or three photos you love, send them all. A front-facing photo paired with a slight three-quarter angle can be especially helpful, giving me a fuller sense of their face, features, and dimension that makes the final portrait feel truly alive.

If your pet has subtle coat colors or distinctive markings — merle, brindle, or complex patterning — an unfiltered photo in true natural light helps me capture those details accurately. Filters and edited photos can shift color in ways that are difficult to correct, so the more true-to-life the better.

A few things to avoid if possible — blurry or heavily zoomed images, photos where ears, paws, or features are cut off, and flash photography, which tends to flatten facial features and alter eye color.