How to choose a photograph for a personalised storybook

You do not need a professional portrait. A recent phone photograph can be useful when it shows the person clearly, in focus and under light that preserves their real colouring. A relaxed expression and ordinary pose are preferable to heavy styling.

The photograph is used to understand identity, not to recreate the original background. A simple home setting is fine. What matters is that the person—not a filter, shadow or object—is easy to inspect.

A photograph can feel lovely as a family memory and still be a poor identity reference. Sunglasses, a turned face, severe compression, dramatic coloured light or another overlapping face can remove the details needed to separate one person from another.

Very tight passport-style crops can also remove useful information about age, build and proportions. At the other extreme, a person who occupies only a tiny part of the frame may not contain enough facial detail.

Every required person is assigned to a specific story role. Separate source photographs keep that mapping unambiguous and give each identity enough visual information. For a child-and-parent story, that means one child photograph and one parent photograph—not a single family photograph used for both.

A group image may sometimes help a production team understand relative height or a relationship, but it should not be the only identity source unless a specific edition explicitly supports that exception.

The uploaded photograph helps establish who the character is. The authored illustration determines what that character is doing. A school uniform in the source photo does not mean the character will wear it in every scene, and a broad smile does not force the same expression into a quiet story moment.

This separation is intentional. It allows the identity to remain recognisable while the character participates naturally in each authored scene rather than appearing as a pasted photograph.

Zoom in once. Can you clearly see the eyes, hairline, jaw and natural skin tone? Zoom out. Is there enough context to understand age and build? Then check that there is only one primary person and no strong filter.

If you are uncertain, ask the studio before sending the file. You do not need to email a child’s photograph merely to ask whether a type of image is suitable.