A photo of your own yard is the best base for a design. You can shoot it inside VisionScaper or pick one you already have.

• The live camera needs the page to load over https. If the camera is not available, VisionScaper falls back to your phone’s photo picker.
• Allow camera access when your browser asks.

1. Start a design and choose Take a photo (“Use your phone camera with framing guides”).
2. Read the tip on screen: hold your phone sideways at eye level and fit the whole area in the frame.
3. Use the grid. The four corner marks help you frame the shot, and a line labeled Eye level shows where the camera is looking.
4. Tap the round shutter button (Take photo).
5. To back out, tap Cancel.

On phones that have a motion sensor, VisionScaper records the phone’s tilt at the moment you shoot. It uses that tilt to place the blue eye-level line for you. On some phones the browser asks permission to use motion sensors first. If there is no sensor, the line is a guess that you can drag later.

1. Choose Upload a photo (“Pick a photo of your yard you already have”).
2. Pick an image file. Any common image works, such as JPG or PNG.
3. The photo opens in the Designer.

• It shrinks very large photos so the longest side is about 1600 pixels.
• It trims very long, thin photos (more than 2.2 times wider than tall, or the reverse) to a more normal shape.
• It saves the photo with the design on your device.

• After the photo loads, set the scale: see Set the scale for me.
• Take one photo per angle you care about and add each as a view.

• “That photo format can’t be opened in this browser”: re-save it as a JPG or PNG.
• The camera screen never appears: open the page over https, check the browser’s camera permission, or use Upload a photo.
• The eye-level line looks off: drag the blue line in the Scale tab. See the scale articles.

• Tips for a good yard photo
• Set the scale with "Set it up for me"
• Start a new design