How to photograph your kid's drawing for embroidery

The drawing on your fridge is going to become a hoodie. The photo you take of that drawing decides how clean the embroidery comes out. Two minutes of phone-camera planning, no special equipment, and you'll have something we can digitise without asking you to re-shoot.

Use daylight, not the overhead bulb

Lay the drawing flat near a window during the day. Daylight gives the truest contrast between the paper and the drawing lines. Avoid direct sunlight (it creates harsh shadows) and avoid the kitchen ceiling light at night (it tints everything orange and can wash out fine pencil). Cloudy-day light through a window is ideal.

Frame the whole drawing, head-on

Hold the phone directly above the drawing, parallel to the paper. Tilted phones produce trapezoid distortion that makes circles look like eggs. Frame the drawing so all edges are visible with a small margin of paper around it. You don't need to fill the frame; you need the camera to see the lines clearly.

Plain background helps

Use a plain table, a piece of butcher's paper, or just the floor. Patterned tablecloths and wood grain confuse the digitising software (and us). White background is best; any solid colour works.

One mistake to avoid

Don't trace the drawing in a darker pen to make the lines clearer. You'll lose the kid's actual line, which is the whole point of the embroidery. We can pull out faint pencil lines on our end; we can't put your kid's hand back into the line if you've over-drawn it.

If the drawing is in a notebook

Notebook spines cast a shadow down the middle of the page. Either hold the book flat with one hand while you photograph with the other, or scan it on a flatbed scanner if you have one. Even a basic phone scanner app (like Apple Notes' built-in scanner or Google Drive's scan) does a clean job in seconds.

Ready to upload?

Drag the photo onto the product page when you order. Browse the kid's drawing collection to choose a garment first, then upload. If your photo is borderline and you want a second opinion before you order, email it to support@rkthreads.com and we'll have a look.