4 min readLast updated: September 7, 2026
How to choose a photo that will make a good print
The most common reason a result falls flat isn't the style or the printer. It's the source photo. Five minutes of reading that will save you a disappointment.
Generating from a photo works like a good photographer: it works with what it's given. Feed it a sharp, well-lit photo, and the result looks like a painting. Feed it a blurry photo from a party, and the result looks like a blurry party photo run through a style filter.
Five things that make the difference
Sharpness where it counts
For a portrait, that's the eyes. When they're sharp, the brain reads the whole image as sharp, even if the background is soft.
Light from the front, not behind
A photo taken against a window creates a silhouette. Turn so the light falls on the face — daylight from a window works best.
The subject large enough in frame
The head should fill at least a third of the shot. A photo taken from across the football pitch can't be rescued by anything.
A calm background
A cluttered background pulls the eye away, and the style tries to find shapes in it. A wall, sky or grass work best.
The original, not a copy of a copy
A photo forwarded through a chat app has been shrunk and compressed. Use the original from your phone's gallery.
A natural expression
A forced smile looks forced even in an oil painting. The best portraits come from photos where the person is relaxed.
Resolution: what we handle for you
Before printing, we automatically upscale every design to the resolution the chosen format needs. You don't have to calculate DPI or work out how many pixels a file needs for a 50×70 canvas.
- A photo straight from your phone's camera, even an older one
- An image downloaded from the cloud at its original size
- A scanned or re-photographed print, taken in daylight
- A screenshot of a photo on screen
- An image downloaded from social media after being forwarded several times
- A heavily cropped section of an already small photo
- A photo with a blown-out flash and a flat-looking face
Why a print looks different to a screen
A screen emits light; paper reflects it. That's why dark areas tend to look a touch less dramatic on a print than on your phone, and subtle colour gradients come across calmer. It's not a flaw, it's physics. Bear this in mind especially with very dark images.
I've got an old phone, is that good enough?
Usually, yes. Even a five-year-old phone takes photos that hold up as an A2 poster once upscaled. Light and sharpness matter more than the age of the device.
Will this improve a blurry photo?
No. Upscaling adds pixels, not information. A blurry original stays soft — it just gets bigger.
Can I send a photo from a camera rather than a phone?
Of course. The better the original, the better the result — with a DSLR you can go for even the largest formats.
How large a format can I go for?
With a sharp phone photo, a canvas over half a metre is no problem. With an old scanned photo, we'd recommend sticking to A4 to 30×40.
The fastest way to find out if a photo is good enough
Upload it and look at the preview — it's free, and you'll see the result straight away.