How to take a passport photo at home
A simple, practical workflow to shoot, crop and export a compliant passport photo with nothing but a phone and a white wall.
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Most passport rejections are caused by three things: shadows on the background, head not centered, and the wrong final dimensions. You can solve all three at home in under five minutes.
Stand about 1.5 meters in front of an evenly lit, plain white wall. Avoid hard ceiling lights — they create shadows under the eyes and on the wall behind you. Two soft side sources (or daylight from a window) work best.
Hold a neutral expression, mouth closed, eyes open and looking straight at the lens. The phone should be at eye level, not tilted up or down. Take the shot in landscape so you have crop room on both sides.
Then upload the photo into the editor below, pick your country preset (US 2×2 in, EU 35×45 mm, UK, India, etc.), align the head inside the guides, and download the JPG. The tool also outputs a printable A4/Letter sheet with multiple copies.
The three things that cause rejections
Around 80% of passport-photo rejections we hear about come down to the same three issues: shadows on the background, the head positioned too high or too low in the frame, and final dimensions that don't match the spec. Each is fixable at home with a phone.
Setting up the background
Stand at least 1.5 m in front of a plain off-white wall. The distance is what kills shadows — the closer you stand to the wall, the harder a single light has to work to wrap around you. If your best wall is yellowed, hang a clean white bedsheet, pulled taut so there are no creases.
Authority specs allow off-white and very pale grey, but they explicitly reject patterns and visible texture. A freshly painted matte white wall reads as "off-white" in almost every camera; glossy paint reflects spotlights and looks streaky.
Lighting that works
- Best: diffuse window light from the side, with a white wall or sheet on the opposite side acting as a fill. No direct sunlight.
- Good: two desk lamps with daylight bulbs, one either side of the camera, each angled 30° in toward the face. Aim them at a white wall or large piece of paper to bounce, not directly at your face.
- Avoid: ceiling lights only (raccoon eyes), the phone's flash (red-eye + harsh shadows), the front-facing camera in low light (noise + skin smoothing).
Framing the shot
Hold the phone at the height of your eyes — not your forehead, not your chin. A tripod, a stack of books or a friend all beat a handheld selfie. Shoot in landscape orientation so you have crop room on both sides; the editor squares the photo afterwards.
Neutral expression: lips closed but relaxed, mouth corners level, eyes open, looking at the lens. Glasses are usually allowed but the frames must not cover the eyes and the lenses must not show reflections. Authorities increasingly recommend taking glasses off to avoid rejection.
Cropping to the spec
Drop the photo into the editor at the top of this page. Pick your country preset — the crop frame is locked to the right aspect ratio, and a guide line shows where the eyes need to sit. Drag and zoom so your head fills 70–80% of the frame and the eyes line up with the guide.
For exact specifications by country, see our passport size guide and the country-specific pages it links to.
Printing at home (optional)
For in-person appointments you'll also need physical prints. The editor exports an A4 or US Letter sheet with multiple copies of your photo at exactly the spec dimensions, plus cut guides. Print on glossy 4×6 photo paper — see our printing guide.