How to Take a Passport Photo at Home: 10 Free Tips

To take a passport photo at home, stand in front of a plain light wall facing a window, have someone else hold the phone at your eye level about 1-1.5 metres away, keep a neutral expression with both eyes open, and take several shots. Then crop the best one to the official shape with the free image cropper. The rules for size, head height and background differ by country and by document, so always check the official specification you're applying under.

Many countries' online passport, visa and ID services accept digital photos, and exam forms almost always do. A good home photo saves a trip to a studio. These ten tips cover the parts people get wrong.

1. Find the official spec first

Before taking a single shot, find the photo rules for your document on the official government site. Note:

• Size: for example 35 × 45 mm in many countries, or 2 × 2 inches for a US passport (as per travel.state.gov).
• Head size: many specs say how tall the head must be from chin to crown, in mm or as a share of the photo.
• Background colour: white, off-white or light grey are common.
• Glasses, headwear, expression, and how recent the photo must be.
• Digital rules: pixels, file size and format, if you're uploading.

Our guide to passport-size photo dimensions in cm and pixels lists common sizes. For visas, see our pages on US, UK and Schengen visa photos.

2. Use daylight from in front

The single biggest improvement is light. Stand facing a large window on a bright day, but out of direct sun. Light from the front lights both sides of the face evenly. Avoid:

• Overhead room lights, which put shadows under the eyes and nose.
• Light from one side, which leaves half the face dark.
• Phone flash, which causes glare and red eyes and casts a hard shadow on the wall.

3. Use a plain wall, and step away from it

A plain white or light grey wall is ideal. If yours is coloured, tape a large white sheet or chart paper behind you. Stand about half a metre to a metre in front of it, so your shadow falls on the floor instead of the wall. Shadows on the background are one of the most common reasons photos are rejected.

4. Let someone else take it

Selfies are taken at arm's length, which makes the nose look larger and the face slightly distorted. They also tend to be tilted. Ask someone to take the photo from about 1-1.5 metres away, then crop in later. If you're alone, prop the phone on a stack of books at eye level and use the timer.

5. Keep the camera at eye level and straight on

The lens should be level with your eyes, pointing straight at you. A camera held below the chin or above the head changes the shape of the face. Look straight into the lens, with your head straight: not tilted, not turned.

6. Neutral expression, eyes open, mouth closed

Most passport authorities want a neutral expression with both eyes open and the mouth closed. Rules on smiling vary, but a neutral face is accepted almost everywhere. Relax your shoulders, breathe out, and take the shot.

7. Glasses, hair and headwear

Many countries now ask you to remove glasses for passport photos; others allow them if there's no glare and the eyes are clearly visible. Check your spec. Pull hair away from the eyes and face. Religious headwear is usually allowed if the face is fully visible, but follow your spec exactly.

8. Wear plain, darker clothes

A plain top in a medium or dark colour stands out from a white background. White clothes can blend into it, which looks odd and can confuse automatic checks. Avoid uniforms if your country's rules forbid them, and skip large jewellery.

9. Frame wide, shoot many

Take the photo with plenty of space around your head and shoulders. It's easy to crop in later and impossible to add what wasn't captured. Take ten or fifteen shots and pick the sharpest, with eyes open and no shadow on the wall. Zoom in on the phone to check focus on the eyes.

10. Crop to the exact shape and head size

Now crop:

1. Open the free image cropper and choose your best shot.
2. Under Shape, pick Passport 35×45 mm for that common size. For a 2 × 2 inch photo, pick Square 1:1. For any other shape, pick Free and type the pixel width and height.
3. Size the box so your head fills the share of the height your spec states, with the small gap above the head it asks for. Centre your face left to right.
4. Choose JPG, click Crop image and download it. If it says the crop is "too large for this device" (possible if you shot in a 48 or 50 megapixel mode), shrink the photo first with the free image resizer and crop that copy.

If an online form also gives pixel or KB limits, finish with the free image resizer and then the image compressor. Our guide to compressing an image to 50 KB shows that step.

If the background isn't right

Retake it. Passport and visa rules generally forbid digitally altering the photo, and that includes replacing or whitening the background, smoothing skin or removing shadows. If the wall came out grey or shadowed, tape up a white sheet, step further away from it, face the window again and shoot another set. Cropping, resizing and compressing to the required size are fine; changing what the camera captured is not.

For non-government forms that say nothing about editing, such as some exam and job portals, see our guide to a passport photo with a white background. Never do this for a real passport or visa application.

Printing at home or at a shop

For a printed passport photo, put several cropped copies on one 4 × 6 inch print; photo shops print 4 × 6 cheaply, then you cut them out. Our guide to photo print sizes in pixels has the numbers.

Crop yours now

Take a handful of shots by a window, pick the sharpest, and crop it to the official shape with the free image cropper. The cropping happens on your device; your photo isn't uploaded.