How I stitched a family portrait from an old photo - tips I wish I'd had the first time

I did something similar last year for my mum's 60th, worked from a photo of her and her sister on the beach back in the 70s. I used DMC floss mostly, one strand over two threads on 28 count evenweave, and honestly the faces nearly broke me. Skin tones are brutal. I ended up blending two shades for the shading around the eyes and that made all the difference, but it took three frogged attempts before I stopped being stubborn about it.

Three evenings on the couch is genuinely fast for a portrait. Mine took closer to three weeks of on-and-off stitching, partly beacuse I kept second-guessing the hair. Hair is where I'd say don't overthink it, just follow the direction of growth with long stitches and it reads fine from a couch distance. One thing that helped me was printing the photo at actual stitched size and tracing the main lines onto the fabric with a water-soluble pen before starting. Saved me so much recounting and unpicking. I also kept the hoop in a ziplock bag between sessions so I didn't have to re-tension everythign each night, which sounds fussy but it kept my stitches even.

The crying-when-opened part is the best. Mine cried too and now I get asked when the next family portrait is coming, as if I run a production line. Careful, that's how it starts.

Gotta push back on the long-stitch hair advice though. Long stitches on 28 count just sit on top of the fabric, so any snag on a ring or a bag strap pulls them loose and suddenly the hairline sags. Mine went lumpy within a month til I went back and split them into shorter passes with a needle woven through. Takes longer, sure, but the hair still looks right after being handled. Did yours hold up over time or has nobody actually picked it up yet?

Reading these replies like they're in another language sometimes. What does 'frogged' mean, is that when you pull the stitches out? That seems to happen a lot with faces apparantly, which scarers me since I've only ever sewn a lazy daisy onto a tote bag. Also genuinely impressed anyone can make a person's face out of thread that doesn't look like a ghost. Three evenings sounds fast to me but I wouldn't know. Did you work off a real photo the whole time or did you draw it on the cloth first?

Update: took the advice about short passes in the hair and it made such a difference, no more lumpy bits sitting on top of the fabric. Also tried blending two shades for her stepdad's face like the beach portrait poster suggested and it acutally looks like skin now instead of a sunburn. Next birthday project is my brother's dog, apparently fur is even worse.