How to Pick a Good Photo?

There are four recommendations to keep in mind when choosing your image for best results. These are:

✅ Image resolution/quality.

✅ Distance from the camera

✅ Good lighting

✅ Canvas size

Please note that it is your responsibility to ensure that your photo follows the guidelines. We will process the image received, so you must read carefully the items below and select your picture accordingly.

1 - Image resolution/quality

The quality of your photo will greatly affect your custom painting result. The sharper your image is, the better!

➡️ Try the quick zoom test. If you can zoom in on your image and it remains sharp, you're good!
➡️ You can also check the image properties on your mobile or desktop. The higher more pixels, the better. Try to provide a photo with at least 1000x1000 pixels. If you don't know how to check your image resolution, here's a quick guide to do so on Windows and Mac.

2 - Distance from the camera

➡️ The closer the subject is to the camera, the more details we can capture. As a rule of thumb, the subject/s of the photo should take at least 70% of the pic. Face selfies will work best! Please avoid far shots as they will have substantially less details.

➡️ It is also recommended that you pick a minimum of 36 colors. More colors means more accuracy when it comes to portraits. You can also go for 24 colors, but detail will be reduced acccordingly.

Custom paint by numbers recommendations 1

3 - Pick a photo with neutral lighting

Light and shadows can impact your custom kit. You need to make sure that your photo has:

➡️ Good lighting. Choose images where the light is uniform across the subjects.
➡️ NO instense background light. The light should always come from the camera angle.
➡️ NO shadows on the skin. Shadows can completely change the color palette, creating dark patches.
➡️ NO color filters! The light should be completely natural. Rephrase from using tints such as yellow, blue, purple or green, which are very popular in social media or in some photography apps.

How to pick a good image for your custom kit - Canvas by Numbers

4 - Pick the right canvas size

This one seems like a no-brainer - the larger the canvas the more detail we can fit. We always recommend a minimum size of 16x20" for portraits or any picture with a bit of complexity. If you pick the smallest 12x16" canvas, the amount of detail will be reduced accordingly.

🚨 Please note that submitting a picture that fails to follow these recommendations might cause delays in your order and a result below your expectations. If you have any questions, feel free to email us your picture in advance at support@canvasbynumbers.com so we can have a look. Happy painting!

Difficulty: Easy

Recommendation: Absolutely!

Such a beautiful Painting!

As always, I tend to come up with my own colouring for the paintings. This one turned out so well, because the template and colour combinations are exceptional. I love the contrasting dark and light of the composition and the modern take on traditional subject matter. There is more than enough paint in the little containers to really get the painting to look good without white in the background. Highly recommend this one for a dramatic painting project!

Bright and very handy magnifying light

This magnifying light is a great light-weight item. The batteries will last a long time and and stays bright for those long painting sessions full of detailed areas.

Difficulty: Intermediate

Lovely finished painting

Fun to paint and I was pleased with my results.

I'm obsessed

This is my favourite picture of my Millie when she was a pupper. I've got a whole folder now of photos I want CBNs of!

Difficulty: Advanced

My Beloved Ivy

I absolutely LOVE these custom canvases! They are very realistic and look remarkably like the original photo. This is my 5th Canvas By Numbers piece and I'll be ordering more!

Absolutely Amazing!

This piece was as intricate as they come, but was an absolute pleasure to paint! The colours were vivid and perfectly complimentary to one another. Because I had ordered a 50x60 cm canvas, they sent me extra paint refills for the more common colours. However, the slight issue was that in the refill box, some paints were drier and one had completely dried up and peeled out of the box. Overall, this was a great experience and the result was beautiful

Another Beautiful Painting

Another beautiful painting! Detailed, great paints, well packaged. Canvas by Numbers is by far the best PBN.

Awesome !!

It was incredible to see the painting 🖼️ come together as I’m not a creative person at all. The colors are beautiful and smooth (and plenty so I didn’t have to worry about running out). You can definitely tell the materials are premium. The numbers on the canvas are easy to read and it’s slightly colored so it’s even better. I would advise to get it already framed (I didn’t and had to get it done) so it’s ready to hang when you’re done and you don’t have to worry about stretching it. It came rolled and with two sets of brushes.
Very happy about it !! I’m no artist but look at what I was able to do with CBN !!