Two routes from one photo
In a house style
Upload the photo, pick a style and get a free watermarked preview. The four styles are below.
- Field plate: an old natural-history plate, with fine engraved lines and soft tints on cream, and the nearest we get to a painted look.
- Ink print: the Japanese gyotaku tradition, black ink on a warm ground, at its best on a tight crop of the fish.
- Pencil study: graphite on cream stock, every scale hatched in.
- Tackle catalogue: a 1950s two-colour look in bottle green and cream.
Check the scale pattern against your photo, then the fins. Nothing prints until you approve it. Start with your catch photo.
As it is
Your photo, unchanged. The upload tool checks which sizes the file will support before you pay anything, so a soft print never turns up as a surprise. Print the photo as it is.
Where the styles come from
The field plate follows Victorian fish books. William Houghton's British Fresh-Water Fishes of 1879 had 41 chromolithographic plates, drawn from nature by A.F. Lydon, as the PBFA records.
The ink print has an angling history of its own. Gyotaku, Japanese ink printing of fish, began as a way for samurai in the Shōnai domain to record their catches. The earliest known example dates from 1839. Nippon.com notes that anglers still use it to record the size of a catch. A fitting style for a PB.
Is it a painting?
No, and we won't call it one. No brush touches it. What you get is a print of your photo in a painted or drawn style, on paper, canvas or a mug. If you want a one-off painting on canvas, that's a different trade with a different price and a much longer wait. Ours takes minutes to preview and days to deliver.
Why the scales matter
Anglers know a fish by its scales and markings, and on a mirror carp the pattern is as good as a name. The Wildlife Trusts note that mirror and leather carp show different scale patterns from the common carp. A styled print that moves those scales isn't a print of your fish, so every house style is told to keep them in place. You still check, because it's your fish and you know it best.
How the preview works
Verify your email and you'll get three free previews a day, shared across your uploads. Each one is watermarked. Compare them side by side, pick the one where the fish looks most like your fish, then choose a format and size. The watermark doesn't appear on what you buy. If none of the previews looks like your fish, don't approve any of them, and try a different photo or a different style tomorrow. Previews stay in your account for 30 days, so you can show someone before you choose.
Picking the photo
Use the original file, with the fish sharp and filling the frame. Night shots with flash often work well, as long as the head torch was off and the fish is sharp. Screenshots and photos saved from social media are usually too small to print well at any size bigger than a mug. Our guide to photographing your catch goes through the rest.
Prices and delivery
Every size and format shows its live price as you go. UK delivery is free. A styled print goes into production once you approve a preview, so allow a little longer than for a photo printed as it is. Checkout shows a delivery estimate before you pay. For a gift, see our fishing gifts, or fishing prints if there's no photo to start from.