WHAT PHOTOS MAKE A GOOD CARD.

A good custom card starts in your camera roll, not in a studio. Every one of the nine things below is something you can do with the phone you already have — they are the same nine on our photo guide, with the reason behind each one. Once you have picked your photos, how it's made shows what happens to them, check by check.

Send 4–10 photos with a clear view of the athlete's face and body. Different angles are better than many similar photos. Game photos, portraits and uniform photos all help.

Likeness lives in the face, so three of the nine are about it. The face should be at least a hand's width of the photo and crisp: move closer, and send the original file — a screenshot throws the detail away. Both eyes need to be visible: no sunglasses, no visor shadow, no helmet cage across the eyes.

Light matters more than you might think. Motion blur and dark gyms hide the face, and one crisp, close, well-lit photo does more than four soft ones. If you only have a minute, pick the sharpest close-up you own.

A face seen only from the front leaves the side view to guesswork. So we ask for one photo with the head turned about 45° to the left and one turned to the right. Add one full-body photo — head to shoes, standing or moving — because it sets the build and the proportions.

Spread them out in time, too. Four shots from one burst count as one photo; different moments, on different days, tell us far more than many copies of the same second.

Send one photo in the team kit — a game photo or team photo day. The kit on the card is copied from it, crest and all: shirt, shorts, socks and footwear, exactly as they are. Nothing on the kit is invented; a mark your photos don't show is a mark that doesn't exist.

If you have the school or club crest as its own file, send it as a PNG or SVG; otherwise a straight-on photo of it works. We never reproduce league or governing-body marks (NFL, FIFA, NCAA, Olympic). Your school or club's own crest — yes, exactly as you send it.

Teammates and parents in the background are fine. A team photo where six faces are the same size is not — nothing in it says which one is yours. In every photo you send, your athlete should be the person closest to the camera.

The short version, if you are choosing photos right now:

• One close-up: face sharp, both eyes visible.
• One with the head turned left, one turned right.
• One full-body — head to shoes.
• One in the team kit — game day or team photo day.
• The crest as its own file, if you have one.

Before any art is made, we look at every photo you sent and tell you in plain words which ones can carry the likeness and what would fix the rest — "photo 3 has four people in it and no clear subject; send one where your athlete is the closest person to the camera", never "validation failed".

From the photos that pass we copy the uniform, build a reference set of your athlete — front and both sides — and measure every later shot against it. If a shot doesn't look like them, it doesn't ship.

Sometimes the photos simply aren't enough — every one is soft, or the face is too small. Then we tell you before any art is made and ask for one more angle rather than guess. We check the photos within one business day, so you hear early.

You haven't paid anything at that point: the proof comes first. If the proof isn't right and we can't fix it, there's nothing to pay at all.