How to Make a Passport Photo on Your iPhone

You can take a usable passport photo with an iPhone. The camera is far better than what most photo booths use. What actually causes rejections is rarely image quality — it is framing, shadows and background.

Here is how to get it right in about five minutes, and what to check before you submit.

What you need before you start

• A second person. A selfie taken at arm's length distorts your face — the nose enlarges and the ears recede. Almost every authority's guidance implies a photo taken from a couple of metres away. Hand the phone to someone else.
• A plain, light wall. Off-white, cream or pale grey. Not a patterned wallpaper, not a door with a visible frame, not a kitchen.
• Even, indirect daylight. A window to the side or in front of you, in daytime, with the overhead lights off.
• Plain clothing. Something that contrasts with the background. A white shirt against a white wall disappears at the shoulders.

Taking the photo

1. Stand about 40–60 cm in front of the wall. This gap is what stops your own shadow appearing behind you — it is the single most common fixable error.
2. Have the photographer stand roughly 1.5–2 metres back and hold the phone at your eye level, not above or below it.
3. Use the rear camera, not the front one. It is the better sensor and it introduces less distortion.
4. Face the camera square on. Both ears roughly level, shoulders straight.
5. Neutral expression, mouth closed, eyes open and clearly visible.
6. Take six or seven frames. Blinking is invisible to you and obvious in the photo.

Cropping to the right size

This is where most people get stuck, because a passport photo is not simply a square crop. It specifies the photo's overall dimensions and the height of your head within it, and the two have to be right at the same time.

The UK, for example, expects a 35 × 45 mm photo with the head between 29 and 34 mm from chin to crown. The US expects a 2 × 2 inch square with the head between 1 and 1 3/8 inches. Getting the outer dimensions right while the head is the wrong size is a rejection.

Doing this by hand in a photo editor means converting millimetres to pixels and measuring your own head, which is tedious and easy to get wrong. Passport Photo ID Maker handles it by giving you a guide overlay for the document type you pick — you align your face inside it and the proportions come out correct.

Fixing the background

If your wall was not quite plain enough, background replacement will cut you out and drop in a flat colour. Two things to watch:

• Check the hair edges. Automatic cut-outs struggle with fine or curly hair against a busy background. Zoom in before you export.
• Match the required colour. Most authorities want white or off-white. A few specify light blue or grey. Check the rules rather than defaulting to white.

Before you submit, check these

• No shadow on your face or on the wall behind you.
• No glare on glasses — many countries now simply ask you to remove them.
• Nothing covering the face, including a fringe over the eyebrows.
• Neutral expression. A slight smile is accepted in some countries and rejected in others.
• Full head and the top of the shoulders in frame, and the head not cropped at the crown.
• Correct dimensions and correct head height.

Print or digital?

Online applications usually want a digital file with minimum pixel dimensions and a maximum file size. In-person applications want physical prints, normally two identical copies.

If you need prints, do not send a single photo to a printer — you will waste most of the sheet. Lay multiple copies onto a standard paper size first, which is what the print screen in the app is for. There is more on that in how to print passport photos at home.