Upload a single animal, face turned more or less toward the lens, both eyes showing; daylight helps. Focus is not critical: the usual starting point for a Tesera panel is a dog on the couch, snapped on a phone. What cannot be used is a subject facing away, or three dogs at once in one panel. JPEG, PNG or HEIC.
What makes a photo work?
A single animal, face turned more or less toward the lens, both eyes showing, daylight if you have it. That is the whole list, and a phone snapshot meets it more often than a studio sitting.
- One subject: your dog, your cat, a person, not the whole litter
- Roughly facing the camera, so both eyes and the shape of the face are there to draw
- Eyes visible: the design and the cartoon both start from them
- Daylight, which shows the true colour of a coat; lamplight warms everything
- JPEG, PNG or HEIC, straight from the phone
Why the eyes: the line on Tedooo's loader, while it draws, is that the eyes matter above all, and the bench works the same way. If the eyes are there, the rest can be rough. Upload one and the design comes back in about a minute, free, so the cheapest way to find out if a photo works is to try it.
Does the photo need to be sharp?
No. A mosaic resolves into pieces of 8–14 mm, so fine detail in the photograph is not what carries the likeness; the shapes, the markings and the light are.
One buyer sent a slightly blurry phone photo of her collie on the sofa and wrote that the tesserae got the white blaze on the chest exactly right. That is what a mosaic takes from a photo: where the colours meet, how the head turns, what the eyes are doing. A soft photo with all of that in it beats a sharp one of the back of a head. Where an old photograph is all you have of an animal you have lost, send it; if the eyes are in it, we can work from it.
What cannot be used?
A subject facing away, or three dogs at once in one panel. One panel is one portrait, and a portrait needs a face.
| The photo | Works? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A phone photo of a dog on the sofa, facing you | Yes | One subject, eyes visible; most of what we work from looks like this |
| Slightly blurry, but the face and the eyes are there | Yes | The mosaic takes the shapes and the markings, not the fine grain |
| An old print of a pet you have lost, photographed with a phone | Yes, if the eyes are in it | The likeness lives in the eyes and the markings |
| A subject facing away | No | There is no face to draw |
| Three dogs at once in one panel | No | One panel is one portrait |
| Eyes closed or hidden under a hat or a fringe | Try another | The design starts from the eyes |
If you have two animals you want together, write to us before you upload and we will talk through it with you, usually the same day. The ready-made or custom guide is for the case where you have no photo at all.
Can I add a background, a name or a description?
Yes to all three. The AI touch takes a line about the background or style; the name field takes up to 20 characters; and the Describe tab draws a design from words alone if you have no photo.
- AI touch, optional: describe the background or the style, such as a sunset behind him, or olive branches through the border
- Name or text, optional: up to 20 characters, set into the design so you see it before you approve
- Describe it: no photo, a sentence instead, such as a beagle wearing Santa clothes
There is no background tone to pick for the mosaic; the palette comes with the design, drawn from the photo. If you want a different one, say so in the AI touch and run it again. There is no charge until you say yes to one, and if it is still not there our artists will draw it by hand instead; tell us in the note field and you will hear from one of the artists that day.
What happens to my photo?
Your photograph has one job, the drawing of your panel. It is not sold on, not shown anywhere and not fed to any learning system, and we delete it once the order is done.
Before we start, the design is checked against your photograph, and we may write with a question about it; one buyer wrote that we asked two questions before starting and both were the right ones. What we are checking is the thing the design has to get right, the markings and the eyes, and once the panel is set and signed the photo has done its work. What we set it in is on the materials page.
Questions this leaves
Can I upload a photo of a person?
Yes. People are drawn and set the same way as pets: upload the family photo on the create page, and the rule is unchanged, a single animal or person, face toward the lens, both eyes showing, daylight if you can. Tedooo draws it in mosaic in about a minute and you see it before anything is cut.
What file types can I upload?
JPEG, PNG or HEIC, which covers what a phone saves. There is no need to convert or resize anything first; upload the photo as it is. Should the first design miss, swap the photo or the words and draw once more; it costs nothing until you approve one.
Can I put a name on the panel?
Yes, up to 20 characters in the name field, which is optional. It appears in the drawn design, so its position is visible before you approve. A name alone is the usual choice; the placeholder on the form is Bruno, after the rottweiler on our create page.
Will you keep my photo?
No. Your photograph is yours. We use it to draw your piece and for nothing else, and we delete it once the order is done. It is not sold on, not shown anywhere and not fed to any learning system; it draws your piece, the design is held against it, and that is all.
