Tips and Advice: Photograph Subjects

Individual Portraits

• Use close-ups for faces
• Select photos where the face occupies at least one third of the picture
• Don’t hesitate to crop to focus closer on the face. For a good rendering of a face, there should be at least 40 stitches wide across the face, ideally there should be 100
• The more stitches there are defining the face, the better the rendering of the person's features
• Avoid shaded areas and strongly contrasted light in faces. Shaded skin is usually not appealing. Pick pictures where the face is well and evenly lit

Group portraits

The same rules apply to group portraits: to faithfully render features, you need to focus on faces and have enough stitches across each face to provide sufficient definition.

• Avoid photos taken from afar
• Focus closely on faces
• For best results, try to limit the number of people in the picture to a maximum of three

Animals and Pets

• If you opt to stitch the background, always use a neutral background, in a color contrasted to that of your pet
• Avoid photos taken from too far away if you want to recognize your pet. Focus on the pet’s head, especially for pictures where the pet is close to a person
• If you are shooting a picture of the whole animal, have it partly facing you
• If you pet has dark fur, use excellent lighting

Objects

• Always favour neutral backgrounds and focus closely on your subject (a vase, a flower)
• Use simple compositions, preferably with a single object

Illustrations

Many pictures other than photos can turn into beautiful stitched pieces. With Amelie Paris you can convert any type of image: children’s drawings, old advertisements, vintage fabrics, and any piece of art for which you hold the rights.

You will just need to either scan them or shoot a picture, using excellent lighting