How to Take a Passport Photo at Home With Your Phone

Taking your own passport photo saves money and a trip to the pharmacy, and most countries accept it — as long as the photo follows the rules. Here’s how to get it right first time with just a phone.

What you need

• A phone with a decent rear camera
• A friend to take the photo (or a tripod and the camera timer)
• A plain, light-coloured wall
• A window with daylight, or two lamps

1. Set up the light

Lighting is the number-one reason home passport photos are rejected. You want soft, even light on both sides of your face and no shadows on the wall behind you.

• Face a window during the day, standing a metre or so back from it. Overcast days are perfect.
• Avoid overhead lights alone: they create shadows under your eyes and nose.
• Don’t use the flash. It causes glare, red eyes and harsh shadows.
• At night, place two lamps at 45 degrees either side of the camera at head height.

2. Choose the background

Stand about half a metre in front of a plain wall, so your shadow falls on the floor rather than the wall. The colour doesn’t need to be perfect — our passport photo maker replaces the background with the exact colour your document needs — but a plain, light background makes the edges around your hair cleaner.

3. Position the camera

• Use the rear camera, not the selfie camera. Arm’s-length selfies distort your face, making the nose look bigger and the ears smaller.
• Hold it at eye level, about 1.2–1.5 metres (4–5 feet) away, straight on, not tilted.
• Frame from mid-chest to above your head, with space around your head. Don’t zoom in tightly: the tool needs room to crop to the correct size.
• Turn off beauty mode, filters and portrait (blur) mode. Authorities reject edited photos.

4. Get ready

• Remove your glasses — most countries no longer allow them.
• Remove hats and headphones. Religious head coverings are usually allowed if your face is fully visible from chin to forehead.
• Push hair away from your eyes and the edges of your face.
• Wear normal clothes in a colour that contrasts with the background (avoid white for a white background). No uniforms or camouflage.

5. Pose

• Face the camera straight on, shoulders square.
• Keep your head level — not tilted or turned.
• Neutral expression, mouth closed, eyes open and looking at the lens. A slight natural smile is allowed in some countries (such as the US) but not others; neutral is always safe.

Take several shots; you can pick the best.

6. Crop and check

Upload your best photo to the free passport photo maker, choose your country and document, and it will:

• find your face, eyes and the top of your head,
• straighten a slightly tilted head,
• crop to the exact size with the correct head height and eye position,
• replace the background with the required colour, and
• warn you about closed eyes, a turned head, uneven lighting, glasses or low resolution.

7. Print or upload

For online applications, download the digital photo: it’s sized and compressed to the official file requirements. For paper applications, download the 4×6 inch print sheet and print it at a pharmacy or photo kiosk as a standard 4×6 (10×15 cm) print on photo paper. Choose 100% scale with no borders, then cut along the guides.

Country quirks to know

• US: square 2×2 inches; glasses not allowed.
• UK: online applications use a digital photo; plain cream or light grey background.
• Canada: printed photos generally need the photographer’s details on the back, so a home print may not be accepted for paper applications.
• China visa: 33×48 mm, with strict head size and a small margin above the head.

Check the official rules for your document — each country page on our site links to them.