How do I take a passport photo at home?

Passport and identity photographs are judged by an automated check and then a human, and both reject for the same small set of reasons. Getting it right at home is straightforward once you know what those are.

What you'll need

• A plain, light-coloured wall
• A second person to take the photograph
• A phone or camera
• Even daylight or two lamps

Step by step

1. Check the current rules first.Requirements for UK passports, driving licences, visas and other countries' documents differ in size, background colour, head proportion and whether digital submission is accepted. Read the official guidance for the specific document rather than a general article, since the details are revised.
2. Find a plain, evenly lit background.A light grey or cream wall is usually correct for UK documents. Plain white can be acceptable but is harder — it shows every shadow. Stand well away from the wall, half a metre or more, so no shadow falls on it.
3. Light the face evenly and from the front.Facing a window on an overcast day is ideal. Two lamps at forty-five degrees either side work indoors. What you must avoid is a single side light, overhead light casting shadows in the eye sockets, and direct flash, which throws a hard shadow onto the wall.
4. Have someone else take it, from the right distance.Around a metre and a half away, camera at your eye level, using the standard lens rather than the ultrawide. Close-up wide-angle distorts facial proportions and looks nothing like you, which is exactly what an identity photograph must not do.
5. Get the pose right.Square to the camera, head straight and not tilted, shoulders level, eyes open and looking directly at the lens, mouth closed, neutral expression. No smiling for most documents.
6. Clear the face.Hair off the eyes and eyebrows, nothing across the face, no hats or head coverings except for religious or medical reasons where the full face must still be visible. Remove tinted glasses; plain glasses are increasingly discouraged and are simplest to remove.
7. Check the eyes.Both fully visible, no reflections or glare across them, no red eye, no hair strand across an eye. Eye problems are among the most common causes of automatic rejection.
8. Crop to the specified proportions.The head must occupy a defined portion of the frame height and be centred. Most official digital services will crop for you from a straight-on photograph with headroom, so leave a margin all round rather than cropping tightly yourself.
9. Do not retouch.No filters, no beauty modes, no skin smoothing, no removing blemishes, no adjusting the shape of anything. Turn off any automatic enhancement on the phone. Retouched photographs are rejected and the automated checks are good at detecting them.
10. Check it before submitting.Look at it at full size for shadow on the background, glare on glasses, an uneven expression and any hair over the eyes. Most online applications will give an automated verdict before you pay, which is the cheapest check available.

Tips

• Wear something that contrasts with the background. A pale top against a pale wall makes the outline hard to read.
• Take twenty and choose. Neutral expressions are surprisingly hard to hold and a small difference makes a photograph look like you or not.
• Babies and small children have relaxed rules — usually eyes open, no toys or hands in shot, and lying on a plain sheet is accepted.

Common mistakes

• Taking it as a selfie at arm's length — The distance is far too short, which enlarges the nose and narrows the face, and most services reject selfies explicitly. Have someone stand back with the phone.
• Standing against the wall — The light throws a shadow onto the background directly behind the head, which fails the plain, evenly lit background requirement. Step forward half a metre.
• Using flash — It creates a hard shadow behind and glare on glasses and skin. Even ambient light is what the rules effectively require.

If it doesn't work

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