How to Take a Passport Photo at Home
Updated September 2026 · Works with any smartphone
Photographers charge $10–20 for ten minutes of work that, with the right setup, your phone can do just as well. Passport and visa photo rules worldwide share the same core: an evenly lit face on a plain background, photographed straight-on at the right size. Get the lighting right and the rest is mechanical.
1. Light: the 80% factor
The single biggest quality lever. Ideal setup is daylight from a large window directly facing you: stand about a meter from the window so the light wraps your face evenly, with no hot spots on the forehead or shadows under the nose.
- Never backlit. A window or lamp behind you turns your face into a silhouette — the most common home-photo failure.
- Avoid overhead-only light. Ceiling lights dig shadows into the eye sockets.
- Cloudy days are your friend: clouds are a giant softbox.
Check for shadow on the wall behind you — if your silhouette is cast onto the backdrop, reviewers will often flag "shadow on background". Move further from the wall or diffuse the light.
2. Background: plain beats pretty
A white or light-gray wall is perfect. No doors, switches, shelves, or other people in frame. If your wall is textured or colored, our tool's background replacement can flatten it — but starting clean always gives the better edge quality.
3. Camera: height and distance
- Camera at eye level. Held below the chin, faces look distorted; above, the forehead balloons.
- Arm's length or further. Have someone shoot you, or lean the phone against something and use the timer. Selfie lenses up close exaggerate the nose and shrink the ears.
- Use the main (wide) camera, not the front camera, when you have a helper — it has the better sensor.
4. Posture and expression
Shoulders squared, chin level (imagine a string pulling the crown of your head up), both eyes open, mouth closed or a natural smile, no tilting. Look directly into the lens — not at your own reflection on the screen.
5. What you wear
Anything is fine except a uniform. Choose colors with some contrast against a white background (a white shirt on a white wall tends to dissolve). Glasses off, no headwear unless worn daily for religious reasons, face fully visible where your country's rules require it.
6. Crop, size and export — free, in your browser
Open idpixo, pick your format — 1-inch and 2-inch Chinese-standard, US 2×2, or one of the country presets on our specifications page list — upload, and the in-browser face detection positions the crop. Export a JPEG at print quality. Nothing is uploaded: your photo never leaves your device, which is exactly how it should be.
Quick checklist
- Daylight from the front, no shadows on face or background
- Plain white/light background, no objects
- Camera at eye level, ≥ arm's length away
- Neutral expression, eyes open, straight gaze
- Glasses off, face fully visible
- Correct pixel size for your document (tool handles this)