Most of us have thousands of family photos sitting on our phones, but choosing one to enlarge can be surprisingly difficult. The best family photos for canvas prints usually have a clear subject, good light, enough detail and, most importantly, a moment you genuinely care about.
Which Family Photos Look Best on Canvas?
1. The Completely Unplanned Family Photo
Some of the best family photos happen when nobody is looking at the camera. Think children laughing, someone carrying the dog halfway through a walk or everyone squeezed around the table at a birthday.
Candid photographs feel personal because they capture what was actually happening. Our guide to exploring different photography styles has more ideas for taking natural family photos.
2. A Favourite Holiday Photo
A beach you still talk about, a city skyline, a family selfie that somehow worked first time or the moment that became the story of the trip can all make brilliant wall art.
Our guide to ways to make your holiday more memorable has more ideas for creating those “we have to remember this” moments.
3. A Simple Family Portrait
A family portrait does not need studio lighting or matching outfits. What matters more is that faces are clear and the background is not fighting for attention.
Before printing, zoom in and check eyes and smaller details. If everything already looks fuzzy on your phone, enlarging it will make that much more obvious.
4. Grandparents With Grandchildren
These photographs often become more valuable as the years pass. It could be a birthday, Christmas Day or simply everyone sitting together after Sunday lunch.
Do not dismiss the quiet, everyday pictures. They are often the ones that mean the most later.
5. The Pet Photo Everyone Loves
Family means pets too, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with giving the dog prime wall space.
Choose a photo where the eyes are sharp and the background is fairly simple. A close-up usually works better than one where your pet occupies approximately six pixels in the middle of a huge field.
6. A Black And White Portrait
Turning a photo black and white can reduce distracting colours and draw more attention to expressions, light and contrast.
It can work particularly well for portraits, older family photographs and images where the colours in the background are taking attention away from the people.
7. An Everyday Moment
Your child baking, someone reading on the sofa or a sleepy cuddle with the dog might not feel particularly important now. Give it a few years and it may be exactly the kind of moment you are glad you kept.
Not every family photo worth displaying needs a big occasion attached to it.
8. The Photo That Immediately Tells A Story
If you look at a photograph and instantly remember where you were, what happened next or why everyone was laughing, it is a strong contender.
The best family wall art should mean something to you before it means anything to anybody else.
3 Photos You Might Regret Blowing Up
Not every favourite phone photo will survive being enlarged.
Screenshots and downloaded social media photos can lose image quality through compression, so use the original photograph wherever possible.
Very blurry or dark photos can also become noticeably worse when enlarged. A small phone screen can hide an impressive number of photographic sins.
Finally, be careful with heavily cropped photographs. Removing a large part of the original image can limit how big you can successfully print what remains.
How To Check If A Phone Photo Is Good Enough To Print
Always start with the original image from your phone or camera rather than a copy saved from a messaging app or social network. Zoom in and check faces, eyes and finer details before deciding how large you want to go.
It also helps to check whether the print size actually suits the photograph. Photobox, for example, checks image quality when you upload a photograph for its canvas prints and can recommend a suitable size. Its range includes portrait, landscape and square formats, so you can choose a shape that works with the photograph rather than trying to force the wrong image into it.
If a favourite photo is not strong enough for a huge statement canvas, going smaller or including it within a collage may work much better.
What About The Other 7,999 Photos?
Choosing one favourite does not solve the slight problem of everything else sitting on your camera roll.
A simple folder system arranged by year, holiday or event can make favourite photos much easier to find later. Our guide to using a photo storage memory system has practical tips for organising digital photographs so you can actually find them when you want to print or share them.
Turn Your Favourite Photos Into Part Of Your Home
The photographs worth displaying are not always the technically perfect ones. They are the ones that make you stop, smile and remember something.
Start with an image you genuinely love, check the quality before printing and choose a size and shape that suits the photograph.
And if choosing one picture inevitably turns into choosing twelve, our guide to creating a family memory wall covers layouts, frames, positioning and ways to bring a whole collection of favourite photographs together.
