How to Take a Passport Photo at Home (and Fix the Background)

Passport and visa photos are one of the most common reasons people go looking for a background remover. It makes sense: the camera on any recent phone is good enough. Where home photos usually go wrong isn't the camera, it's the rules. The background has to be the right color, the light has to be even, the expression neutral and the head a particular size. Here's how to get all of that right at home.

Check the official rules before anything else. Every country and visa program sets its own size, head height and background color. Some, including the US State Department, also say the photo must not be digitally changed at all. If that applies to you, don't replace the background. Take the photo against a genuinely plain white wall instead and use steps 2 to 4 below.

1. Find out which background color you need

There isn't one worldwide standard, and the differences catch people out:

• US passport and visa photos: plain white or off-white.
• UK passport photos: plain cream or light grey. Pure white isn't what they ask for.
• ID cards, residence permits, exam registrations: often white, light blue or red, depending on the country. Some forms in parts of Asia specifically want blue or red.

Where editing is allowed, the background is the easiest thing to fix afterwards. The background remover offers white, passport blue, passport red and any custom color, so you can match the form. Put your effort into what you can't fix later: light, focus, pose and expression.

2. Get the light right

Lighting is where most home passport photos go wrong. The face needs to be evenly lit, without a dark side, without a shadow on the wall behind you and without shiny patches.

• Face a window in the daytime. Soft daylight from the front is the best light you'll get for free. Direct sun is too harsh: you'll squint and get hard shadows.
• Never stand with the window behind you. Your face goes dark while the camera adjusts for the bright glass.
• Switch off ceiling lights if they put shadows under your eyes and nose. Mixing yellowish bulbs with daylight can also make your skin look an odd color.
• Hold a sheet of white paper just below your chin, out of the frame. It bounces a bit of light back up and softens shadows.

3. Set up the camera

An arm's-length selfie distorts your face. The nose comes out bigger, the ears smaller, and the phone is nearly always tilted. Get someone else to take it, or prop the phone up and use the timer.

• Keep the camera level with your eyes, pointing straight at you.
• Stand roughly 1 to 1.5 meters (3 to 5 feet) away and zoom in a little instead of stepping closer. Your face will look more like it does in real life.
• Leave plenty of room around your head and shoulders. You'll crop later, and it's much better to have too much space than to lose the top of your hair.
• If someone is helping, use the back camera. It's usually sharper than the selfie camera.

4. Pose and expression

The details vary, but most authorities agree on the basics:

• Look straight at the camera, head level, not turned or tilted.
• Keep a neutral expression with both eyes open. The UK wants your mouth closed; the US also accepts a natural smile.
• Keep hair away from your eyes and the edges of your face.
• Take your glasses off. The US no longer accepts glasses at all, and other countries have strict rules about glare and frames.
• Remove hats and head coverings, unless you wear them for religious or medical reasons. Check what proof the rules ask for in that case.
• Wear ordinary clothes that don't match the background. A white shirt against a white wall makes your shoulders disappear, and it makes background removal harder too.

Take a dozen shots. Picking the best of twelve is far easier than nailing one.

5. Replace the background (if your rules allow it)

Even a plain wall at home is rarely plain enough. The light fades across it, and there's often a door frame, a switch or your shadow in the shot. Replacing it with a solid color gives the flat, even look officials expect.

1. Open the background remover and add your best photo. It's processed on your own device; nothing is uploaded.
2. If the edges around your hair or shoulders look rough, press Redo with better model. That model was trained on people specifically.
3. Choose the color your form asks for: white, passport blue, passport red, or your own.
4. Download the PNG. It's the same resolution as the photo you started with.

6. Crop to the official size

The background remover doesn't crop or resize, so the last step is cutting the photo to the official dimensions and head size. A US passport photo, for example, is 2 × 2 inches (51 × 51 mm), with the head measuring 1 to 1⅜ inches from chin to the top of the hair. Many other countries use 35 × 45 mm, each with their own head-size range.

Your phone's photo editor can crop, and so can any free editor on a computer. If you're printing at a pharmacy or photo kiosk, look for a passport layout that puts several copies on one 4 × 6 inch print. It's usually cheaper than a studio.

Applying online? Upload forms often want a JPG under a certain size. The image compressor turns the PNG into a JPG and gets it under whatever limit you type in.

7. Check it before you submit

• Zoom right in on your hair and ears. Look for bits of the old background left behind, or bits of you that went missing.
• The new background should be one flat color, with no gradient and no light halo around you.
• The photo should be sharp and well exposed, with no beauty filters or retouching.
• Some online applications check photos automatically and may reject ones that look edited. A photo taken against a genuinely plain, light wall is always the safest place to start.

Common problems and how to avoid them

With decent light and ten minutes of setup, a home photo can look every bit as tidy as one from a studio. For help with fiddly edges, see our tips for cleaner cutouts.