Everything people ask

Do I have to pay before I see anything?

No. You make the portrait first, look at it, and decide afterwards.

Upload a photo, choose a style, and the portrait appears on your screen — free, no account needed. If you love it, you can buy the high-resolution file or have it printed. If you don’t, you’ve lost nothing but a minute.

What if I don’t like it?

Then don’t buy it. That’s the whole reason it’s free to see first.

But before you give up on it — there’s a box marked Modify under the portrait. Type what you’d like changed in plain words, press Apply, and it gets painted again. "Warmer colours", "make the light softer", "remove the glasses". You don’t have to accept what you were handed.

You can also start over with a different style or a different photo. Nothing is charged until you decide something is worth keeping.

What if I give it and they don’t really like it?

That’s the fear with anything handmade or personal, and it’s a fair one — sentiment alone can leave someone politely holding a thing they don’t want.

Which is why this has to stand up as an object first. Heavy cotton paper with real texture, a face they love, painted well enough that it earns its place on a wall regardless of who sent it.

And you get to judge that yourself before you spend anything. If it doesn’t move you, it won’t move them either — don’t send it.

Is this a real service?

Yes. It’s a small business run by one person in New York, and every portrait is painted, printed and shipped the same way.

The strongest answer we can give you is the one that costs you nothing: make a portrait before you spend anything. You’ll know in a minute whether this is what you hoped it was.

Will the portrait actually look like the person?

Yes — the likeness holds, and you can check it before you pay a cent.

It’s a painting rather than a copy, so it reads the way a painted portrait reads: the face is theirs, softened by the medium. If the likeness isn’t right, make it again — it costs nothing to try another photo or another style.

Can it be done again if the face isn’t right?

Yes, as many times as you like, free.

The quickest fix is the Modify box under the portrait: say what’s wrong in your own words — "his face is too red", "she looks too young" — and press Apply. It paints again with that in mind.

A closer photograph usually helps too. So does a different style; some mediums hold a face more tightly than others.

Will anything be added or changed that I didn’t ask for?

No. Nobody who wasn’t in your photograph appears in the portrait. Nothing is invented, nobody is added, and the mood of the picture is the mood you brought.

Faithful is the whole point. This isn’t meant to improve your family or reimagine the day — it’s meant to be that photograph, painted.

And it doesn’t replace anything. Your photograph is still your photograph; the portrait is a second thing made from it.

If something ever does sit wrong, you don’t have to live with it or start over. There’s a box marked Modify under the portrait — "lose the man in the background", "remove the glasses" — and it paints again. You see all of it before you pay, so nothing goes on a wall you haven’t already approved.

Is this AI?

Yes, the painting itself is made by a machine. We’d rather say so plainly than let you wonder.

What it isn’t is something invented. Your photograph is the irreplaceable part — a moment somebody actually lived, that no machine could supply — and the painting is made from it rather than instead of it. Nothing is added, nobody is invented.

Your photo is never used to train anything, and it’s deleted within 24 hours.

Can I use an old photograph?

Yes. Old photographs are what most people bring, and they work.

A scan or even a phone snapshot of a printed photo is fine. What matters is less the age than the face — see below.

Does it need to be a good photo?

It needs to be a close one, more than a good one.

An ordinary phone snapshot is fine. A blurry one is usually fine. What doesn’t work as well is a face that’s small and far away — a wide group shot where everyone is a few pixels across gives the painting very little to work from.

If you have a choice, pick the photo where the face is biggest in the frame. And make it free first: you’ll see what you’re getting before you decide anything.

What if it’s the only photograph we have?

Then use it, and see.

It costs nothing to look. A portrait from a soft photograph comes back softer, and that is the photograph rather than a fault in the painting — but it is very often still beautiful, and people are frequently surprised.

Can there be more than one person in it?

Yes — up to six people in a single portrait.

They need to be reasonably close together and facing the camera, because every face has to be big enough in the frame to paint. A wide group shot with small, distant faces is the one thing that doesn’t work well.

Why not just print the photograph?

Because everybody already has the photograph.

It’s on a phone, and probably on several. Printing it hands someone a document they already own. Painted, the same moment becomes an object that did not exist until you decided to have it made — and that decision is visible in it.

It’s the difference between a copy of something and a thing in its own right.

Can you make a portrait of someone who has passed away?

Yes. It is one of the most common reasons people come here.

You need one photograph of them — any photograph. Make it free first and look at it before you decide anything. Nobody should commit money to this sight unseen.

It’s the only photo we have of them, and it’s old.

That’s usually how it is, and it’s usually fine.

A scan of a printed photo works. So does a phone snapshot of one in a frame. Age matters far less than how close their face is in the picture — pick the one where it fills the most of the frame, even if that photo is faded or creased.

A portrait from a soft photograph comes back softer. That’s the photograph, not a fault in the painting, and it is very often still beautiful.

Can you add someone who has passed away into a family photo?

Not yet. Combining two photographs into one portrait is something we are working on, and we would rather say so than take your money for a near miss.

What works today is a portrait of them from their own photograph — on its own, or beside a separate portrait of the family.

Is it strange to give one as a sympathy gift?

No. It is one of the few gifts that doesn’t ask anything of the person receiving it.

There’s nothing to arrange, nothing to display if they’re not ready. It simply exists, with their person’s face on it, for whenever they want it.

How long does the portrait take?

Under a minute. You wait on the page and watch it appear.

Most places doing this by hand take two or three weeks. This is the same afternoon — or the same five minutes, if you’re buying a gift late.

Can I get it today?

The portrait, yes — it’s on your screen in under a minute, and the high-resolution file is yours the moment you buy it. You can print it locally this afternoon or email it tonight.

A print from us takes about a week to arrive, so that one needs a little planning.

How long does a print take to arrive?

About a week for prints and canvas, shipped from the printer.

We’d rather under-promise here than give you a date the carrier hasn’t agreed to. The high-resolution file, if that’s what you buy, is with you immediately.

What is a giclée print?

Giclée is fine-art inkjet printing: pigment inks sprayed onto heavy cotton paper, rather than the dye and coated photo paper a normal print uses.

The practical difference is that the ink sits in the cotton fibre instead of on a glossy surface. That gives it texture you can feel, colour with depth rather than shine, and it is the standard way galleries and museums reproduce artwork.

What is the difference between a print and a canvas?

A print is fine-art paper — flat, textured, meant to be framed behind glass or float-mounted.

A canvas is printed onto woven cotton and stretched over a wooden frame, so it hangs straight on the wall with nothing around it. No glass, no framing bill, no reflections.

Paper suits a portrait you want to frame properly. Canvas suits one you want on the wall this week.

What is it printed on?

Giclée on Hahnemühle Photo Rag — 308gsm, 100% cotton rag, with pigment-based archival inks.

It’s a museum-grade paper with real texture, not a photo gloss. The ink sits in the cotton rather than on a coating, which is why the surface looks like a painting rather than a print of one.

Canvas is also available, printed and stretched ready to hang.

What sizes and prices are there?

Prints run from $19.63 to $133.69, in a range of shapes — square, portrait, landscape and panoramic.

Canvas runs from $39.63 to $119.63.

The high-resolution file on its own is $14.99, and it’s included free with any print.

Boxes of ten note cards with envelopes are $27 flat or $39 folded.

How much is shipping?

Exactly what the printer charges us. Never a penny more.

It’s shown before you pay, and a second item in the same order usually adds nothing, because it goes in the same package.

Will the print look like it does on my screen?

Very close, and slightly different — as every print of every image always is.

Screens emit light and paper reflects it, so a print reads a little quieter than a bright screen. Most people say it looks better in the hand. Cotton rag in particular gives colours a depth a screen can’t show you.

Can I choose what’s written on it?

Yes. You type the name yourself, and it appears on the plaque exactly as you typed it.

Check the spelling on screen before you order — what you see is what gets printed. Nobody retypes it, so nobody can mistype it.

Does it have to have a name on it?

No. Leave it blank and the plaque simply carries the medium and the year.

What if my print arrives damaged?

Photograph the piece and the box it came in, and email lara@yourlikeness.app within two weeks of delivery. We’ll replace it or refund it, whichever you’d rather.

Keep the packaging until it’s sorted. Our printers need to see the box to tell what happened in transit, and without it the claim can’t be put in.

What if my order never arrives?

If tracking never shows it delivered, we send another. Once, no questions.

If tracking says it was delivered and it isn’t there, tell us and we’ll help you chase it with the carrier — but we can’t automatically replace a package the carrier records as handed over.

Can I return a print I don’t like?

No — printed work isn’t returnable.

Every piece is made for one person, from one photograph, and there’s nobody else to sell it to. That’s exactly why the portrait is free to look at first: the decision happens before any money changes hands.

Can I get a refund on the digital file?

No. Once it’s downloaded, it’s downloaded.

You saw the portrait before you paid — free, full size, as many times as you liked. Nothing arrives that you hadn’t already looked at.

What happens to my photograph after?

It’s deleted within 24 hours.

The only exception is if you tick the box asking whether we may show your original photo beside the portrait — and that box only appears after you’ve seen the portrait and liked it.

Is my photo used to train AI?

No. Never. Not yours, not anybody’s.

Your photograph is used once, to paint your portrait, and then deleted within 24 hours. It never goes into a training set — not ours, and not any other company’s.

Who owns the portrait?

It’s yours to use. Print it, frame it, hang it, give it away, post it, crop it however you like.

The one thing we ask is that you don’t resell it — prints of it, or the file. If you want to, just ask.

Can I use it in my business?

Yes. Hang it in your shop, put it on your website, whatever your business needs.

Just make sure you had the right to the photograph you started from, and that anyone recognisable in it is happy about being used to sell something.

A photographer took the original photo. Does that change anything?

For anything you’re doing yourself — hanging it, gifting it, even using it in your own business — no. Enjoy it exactly as you would any other.

It only really comes up if you want to sell the portrait, because the photograph underneath is still the photographer’s work. Have a word with them first, and most say yes to a past client who asks.