How to take a passport photo at home with your phone

A photo booth or studio isn't the only way to get a passport photo. With a phone, a plain wall and a few minutes, you can take one at home, size it to your country's rules and print it for a fraction of the price. Here's how to get it right the first time.

1. Set up the shot

• Background: stand in front of a plain, light wall: white, off-white or light grey. No patterns, doors or picture frames.
• Light: face a window during the day. Soft, even light avoids shadows on your face and behind your head. Avoid overhead lights and flash.
• Distance: stand about half a metre from the wall so you don't cast a shadow on it.
• Camera: ask someone to hold the phone about 1–1.5 m away, at your eye level. Use the normal (1×) lens, not portrait mode or the selfie camera at arm's length, which distorts faces.

2. Pose like the rules ask

• Face the camera straight on, with your head level.
• Neutral expression, mouth closed, both eyes open.
• Hair away from your eyes; both edges of your face visible.
• Remove glasses (the US and many other countries no longer accept them) and hats, unless worn for religious or medical reasons.
• Wear everyday clothes in a colour that contrasts with the background. No uniforms.

Take a dozen shots and pick the sharpest one.

3. Size it to your country's rules

Upload your photo and choose your country and document. The tool finds your face, sizes your head to the required height (for example 32–36 mm on a 35 × 45 mm photo, or 25–35 mm on the US 2 × 2 inch photo) and lines it up with a guide you can adjust. Turn on background replacement if your wall wasn't perfectly plain.

You get two files:

• A single photo at the exact pixel size, for online applications.
• A print sheet with several copies on a 4 × 6 inch (10 × 15 cm) photo, ready for any print kiosk.

4. Print it correctly

Order a standard 4 × 6 inch photo print, on matte or glossy paper as your authority prefers. Ask for no borders and no cropping ("print at actual size"). Then cut along the guide lines.

5. Uploading online instead?

Many portals set a file size limit, often in KB. If the form rejects your photo, open Resize image, keep the same pixel size and turn on Limit file size to bring it under the limit.

Common reasons photos get rejected

• Shadows behind the head or on one side of the face.
• Head too small or too large in the frame.
• Glare on glasses, or tinted lenses.
• Photo older than six months, or edited with filters or beauty modes.