Photo Guide
Photos should ideally be high resolution, with even lighting, be able to clearly see their eyes and the fur colour and details. The more detailed the photo the more detailed the drawing. Multiple photos can be sent, especially if there are multiple subjects, to help get a full sense of the subject. Also consider the pose they are in as well, try to keep it at eye level. Below are a few image give help give an idea on what are useful and not so useful reference photos.
Useful references
These photos have good lighting with a lot of detail in the fur and eyes, which you can clearly see the colour of, they are also well posed, at eye level and fill the frame so will result in a nice composition as well.
Not so useful references
-Lighting
In these examples, there is either too much light or too much shadow, so you lose a lot of detail by it being either too dark or over exposed.
Not so useful references
-Eyes/pose
The eyes as the window to the soul.
In these examples, you can not see the eyes as the dog is either looking down or has them closed. The images are either looking slightly down or bellow eye level as well, which will cause some distortion of the face. Ideally, images will be at eye level and so you can clearly see the eyes, that are either looking at the camera or off to the side, not up or down.
Not so useful references
-Image size/resolution/focus/blur
In these examples, whilst some of the images could be cropped to achieve better framing of the pose, or to get a head shot, given how far away the dog is in the photo as well as the low resolution and image quality, once zoomed in the image would become far too pixelated to work with, especially when scaled back up. Where others are just too blured to start with or not focus on the face but on other parts of the image.
Finding the Perfect Pose/photo
-Bella
So with all of these things in mind, here were the options for choosing Bella's photo to work with. Overall you get the sense that she is a happy dog who has a lovely smile, and is equally as adorable while sleeping! She seems to love the park just as much as a comfy lounge. So how to choose when they are all so cute!! But its in the eyes, mouth, and ears!
Well first of all I would probably eliminate the bottom row, as you can't see her eyes at all as she is mostly looking down.
The second row, there are some cute poses. However, some that are blurred, or are over or under exposed, or where the eyes are quite dark and hard to see, so ultimately would work as well to use.
So with the top row, noting the lighting, in each photo the lighting is quite different so the fur colour is affected, in some it even has a green tinge. But there are some with great lighting, getting good colour and also are well focused showing a lot of detail in the fur.
As far as poses go, some are a little over head or distort the face, or where you cant see the ears properly.
For the most part they are close crops and wouldn't require too much adjusting for the framing of the pose. Other things noticed, they mostly show her having a happy smile on her face and has beautiful eyes and looks best with her ears not flattened too much.
The the winning image is the top left. Great lighting, shows her colours, its well focused, so you can see a lot of fur detail as well as her eyes. Shows her big smile and ears well. Its also at eye level with no distortion.
