Three Secrets for the Perfect Custom Painting!

THREE SECRETS FOR CHOOSING THE PERFECT PHOTO FOR YOUR CUSTOM DIAMOND PAINTING 

Before uploading a photo, remember this: while the photo looks beautiful on your computer or phone, some images don’t turn out beautiful as a diamond painting. There are a few things to keep in mind when choosing a photo. 

1. Only choose large, high-quality photos
2. Pay attention to the colours and shadows of the original photo
3. Choose the size that fits perfectly with the photo

ONLY CHOOSE LARGE, HIGH-QUALITY PHOTOS

The photo will not look good as a diamond painting if the image is already blurry or grainy. Images must be of high quality and taken in good light. Only then the diamond painting turns out perfectly.

 What makes a photo good? Pixels.

Imagine that each pixel is a small diamond. The more pixels (diamonds) in the image (canvas), the more details you get in the diamond painting. We need a good photo to make a lot of pixels (diamonds). The final painting will look just as bright as the original photo if we print the photo on canvas.

If the image has bad quality when you zoom in (raw, grainy), please choose another image. Our paintings are made with a special enlarging application. If the photo is dark or contains a lot of shadows and it has to be printed in a small format, you will lose a lot of detail.

Tip: when you're in doubt, use a conventional computer program (for example Photoshop) to view the quality of your photos. If you are using your phone, zoom in to 100% to see what the photo looks like up close. For the best result your photo should have a minimum resolution of 1134 x 1134 pixels. Sometimes it is okay when the pixels are a little bit less, but the photo must be razor-sharp.

This is how you find out how many pixels your chosen photo has:

Choose the photo. Click on the right mouse button and then go to ‘Properties’ or 'Get Info'. Under the heading ‘Details’ you can see how many pixels the photo has.

Need help with the size and quality of your image? Please don't hesitate to get in touch with us so we can help you with choosing the perfect size for your custom painting.

PAY ATTENTION TO THE COLOURS AND SHADOWS IN THE ORIGINAL PHOTO

One of the most common questions we get are 'Why is the white part of my painting a different colour, like purple, pink or even blue?' and 'Why does the black part of my painting contain brown and green diamonds?'.

This is why. For example, your original photo contains the colours light red or light blue. Those colours will be magnified 1000 times when converted into a diamond painting. If there is a slight red tint in the photo, this can – when enlarging the image – spread to parts of the painting that you would expect to be white.

When we enlarge the photo, every pixel becomes much clearer. It is like looking at your face in a close-up mirror. You see every wrinkle, birthmark and pimple. The same goes for shadows. When shadows on the original photo don't look very dark, they will turn out a bit darker after converting the photo to the enlargement program. The smaller the size, the darker the shadows will be.

With diamond paintings, you also notice all the pixels and details. To avoid this, we recommend making some basic colours and tone adjustments through your favourite photo editing programs before uploading the photo. You can also use a free online tool or app to make these adjustments yourself, such as LunaPic.

Here's a short guide on understanding photo quality.

CHOOSE THE SIZE THAT WILL FIT PERFECTLY WITH THE PHOTO

The two most important things you should focus on are the size of the canvas (what size should the painting be) and canvas orientation (do I need a landscape, portrait or square canvas?).

 Which size should I choose?

When you want to choose the size of the canvas, you should consider how many people, dogs, etc. there are in the photo. Visit this page if you are curious about the right size for your diamond painting. We recommend that the main part of the image occupies 70-90% of the frame for the ideal diamond painting.

In case of doubt, here is the number one diamond painting rule where our followers believe in: the larger the canvas, the more details the diamond painting will have. 

Do I need a landscape, portrait or square canvas?

Make sure that you choose the canvas size that matches the aspect ratio of the original photo. For example, if the photo is landscape, you should choose a canvas with the following sizes: 20x30, 40x50, 50x70, 60x90 etc. Does your photo have a square size? Choose the sizes 20x20, 30x30, 40x40 etc.

Note: if you select a square canvas but send us a landscape photo, we need to crop the photo. We cannot guarantee that something you would prefer on the photo will accidentally be cut off. Our designers will try their best to crop the photo as accurately as possible.

Are you ready now? Click here for your custom diamond painting!

Going for a black and white picture? Then there are some extra things to be aware of! Read about them in our blog.