From a phone photo
Painting from an iPhone photo
Your phone is a good enough camera for a portrait — with caveats about zoom, filters, compression and which direction you were facing the light.
A modern phone photograph is good enough to paint from — most commissions here start from one, and the old excuse that you need a professional camera stopped being true years ago. What the phone cannot fix is physics: it records what was in front of it, and the painter can only work with what the file contains. The honest version of the question is not 'is my phone good enough?' but 'did this photograph capture the face?'
Three failure modes account for nearly all the rejected references: digital zoom, skin-smoothing filters, and heavy compression from messaging apps. All three are avoidable after the fact — the original file usually exists somewhere — and all three are invisible on a phone screen, which is why they reach the studio at all.
Zoom, filters and compression
Walking three steps closer beats any zoom: digital zoom invents pixels by stretching the ones it has, and the painter ends up painting the invention. Optical zoom on the long-lens models is fine; the 2× button that is really a crop is not. A face that fills a quarter of the frame carries a likeness; a face that fills a fortieth does not, whatever the megapixel count claims.
Filters are the quieter problem. Skin-smoothing removes exactly the structure a painter needs — the small asymmetries that make a face this face rather than a face — and the result is a technically clean painting of a stranger. Send the unfiltered original; if only the filtered version exists, we will say what it can support. And send the original file, not a copy that has ridden through a chat app: compression shreds fine detail, and the picture looks fine on a phone screen precisely because the screen is small.
Resolution, in plain terms: the painter needs the face large enough in the frame that the eyes are individually visible at full size. Any phone from the last several years does this at normal distances; what defeats them is distance, not hardware. A photograph taken across a dinner table, cropped to a face, has already spent its resolution — and no amount of upscaling brings back what the sensor never recorded. Closer and ordinary beats distant and clever, every time.
Orientation, light and the things a mock-up cannot fix
Shoot portrait or landscape according to the composition you want, not by accident: the mock-up can crop within the frame, but it cannot add a shoulder that was never photographed. A vertical portrait with the head centred crops better than a horizontal one with the face in a corner.
Backlight — the face against a window — is fixable more often than people expect: the camera underexposed the face, but the structure is usually still in the file. The unfixable cases are hard flash at night, which flattens the skull into a silhouette, and portrait-mode background blur, which is fine until the composition needs the shoulder or the ear that the phone decided was background. Send the photo and we will say honestly which kind you have.
The raking-light test applies to your own photographs too, before you send them: open the file, zoom fully, and look at whether the eyes still hold detail. If the face turns to porridge at zoom, it will paint as porridge; if the eyes stay legible, the photograph will carry a likeness. It is a thirty-second check that saves a week of hoping, and it is the same test we run on our side when the file arrives.
What happens after you send it
The mock-up arrives within 24 hours at the exact canvas size and crop, and nothing is charged until you approve it — so the honest verdict on your photograph costs nothing to obtain. If the file will not carry a likeness at the size you want, we will say so and tell you which photograph to take instead, which is usually one sentence: closer, by a window, no flash.
Photographs of old prints go through the same door: creases and fading restore digitally for $60–$70 with the restored version approved before painting. What restoration cannot do is invent detail that was never recorded, and we will not paint a guess and charge you for it.
Last thing, on volume: send three or four candidates rather than the single one you have decided on. The choice costs nothing, the mock-up is free, and the frame you would not have picked is sometimes the one that paints — a slightly unflattering angle with sharp eyes beats the flattering one where the face is soft. The studio sees photographs differently from friends; that difference is the service, and it starts before anything is charged.
What it costs
Price is set by canvas size and the number of subjects — not by the occasion, the deadline, or how much detail you ask for. The table below is the same one used on every painting page, so there is no quote to wait for.
| Canvas | Metric | 1 subject | 2 subjects | 3 subjects | 4+ subjects |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 × 10 in | 20 × 25 cm | $189 | $259 | — | — |
| 12 × 16 in | 30 × 41 cm | $289 | $379 | $459 | — |
| 16 × 20 in | 41 × 51 cm | $389 | $499 | $619 | $749 |
| 20 × 24 in | 51 × 61 cm | $549 | $699 | $849 | $1,029 |
| 24 × 36 in | 61 × 91 cm | $789 | $1,059 | $1,290 | $1,560 |
| 30 × 40 in | 76 × 102 cm | $1,090 | $1,449 | $1,749 | $2,090 |
| 36 × 48 in | 91 × 122 cm | $1,390 | $1,849 | $2,249 | $2,690 |
Shipping is free worldwide. Framing is optional and quoted separately — most customers have the canvas stretched by a local framer for $60–$120.
How it works
Send the photograph
One sharp phone photo is enough. Tell us the deadline, the wall it is going on, and anything that must or must not be in the picture.
See the mock-up within 24 hours
A digital composite at the exact canvas size and crop, so size and composition are settled before any paint is bought. Nothing is charged until you approve it.
Watch it being painted
Three to five weeks in real oil, with two progress photographs. You can raise a concern at either one — that is what they are for.
Approve, then it ships
You see the finished canvas first, with one free round of adjustments. Then it travels rolled in a rigid tube, tracked and insured, with the numbered certificate inside.
Real oil, not a print
Hand-painted on cotton canvas, varnished, signed. Brushwork you can see in raking light.
You approve before we paint
A digital mock-up at the exact size and crop, within 24 hours, included in the price.
Numbered certificate
Every painting ships with a signed COA stating artist, medium, size and year.
Free worldwide shipping
Rolled in a rigid tube, tracked and insured. No minimum, no distance surcharge.
Questions
Questions we actually get
Yes — most commissions start from one. The requirements are modest: the face sharp and large in the frame, daylight rather than flash, the original file rather than a chat-app copy. Send it and we will tell you honestly whether it carries a likeness before you pay anything.
Because compression shreds the fine detail a likeness depends on, even when the image looks fine on a small screen. Send the original file from your camera roll, by email or file transfer. If the original no longer exists, send the best surviving copy and we will say what it can support.
Yes — skin-smoothing removes exactly the small structures a painter needs, and the result is a clean painting of a stranger. Send the unfiltered original where possible. If only the filtered version exists, we will tell you before painting whether it can carry the likeness.
Often not — the camera underexposed the face but the structure is usually still in the file, and the mock-up will show whether it reads. The genuinely unfixable cases are hard flash at night, which flattens the face, and portrait-mode blur that has eaten a shoulder the composition needs.
Yes — photograph the print flat, in daylight, without flash, and send it. Creases and fading restore digitally for $60–$70, and you approve the restored version before any paint is mixed. Restoration cannot invent detail the print never held — photograph the print flat, in daylight, without flash, and send the largest file your phone produces rather than a compressed copy.
Send the photo from your camera roll
The original file, not the chat copy. Within 24 hours you will know honestly whether it paints — and the verdict costs nothing.