How to take a passport photo at home with your phone
Take a compliant Indian passport photo at home: wall setup, lighting direction, distance, and which phone camera to use.
What you'll need
- Phone with rear camera
- Plain wall or white sheet
- Even front light
Step 1: Prepare the background
Use a plain light wall. Stand one arm's length away to reduce shadows.
Step 2: Frame the shot
Rear camera at eye level. Leave headroom — see Indian passport photo size — 35×45 mm (2026 rules) for face-height rules.
Step 3: Light from the front
Face the window or lamp. Avoid overhead-only light.
Step 4: Export to spec
Crop, resize, then compress — see Photo size too large — how to get it under 20 KB or 50 KB. Wrong order causes blur.
Common mistakes at each step
- HEIC from iPhone — convert to JPG
- Compress before crop — loses quality
- Ignoring minimum KB — over-compression fails too
Do it automatically
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FAQ
Can I use the front camera? Rear camera is sharper; front works if the lens is clean.
Where is the full spec? See Why your white background isn't white (and what to do) and the official notification.
See also
- Why your white background isn't white (and what to do)
Background not white enough for passport or OCI? Shadows, grey walls, and halo edges from cheap removal — and how to fix each.
- 7 home lighting setups for a document photo
Best lighting for passport photos at home — window, overcast, doorway, two-lamp, and phone-torch bounce.
Related guides
More PhotoFix articles on the same problem or document type.
- How-toP2How to take a baby or infant passport photoBaby passport photo in India: white sheet technique, eyes open, no hands in frame — genuinely hard, done right.
- TroubleshootingP0Passport photo rejected at the PSK counter: every cause, diagnosedTold to retake at Passport Seva? Match your symptom to the cause — shadow, glasses, face size, or wrong dimensions — and fix it before you go back.
- TroubleshootingP0Your face is the wrong size in the photo (India's unusual requirement)Indian passport photos need 36–38 mm chin-to-crown height — larger than many countries. Normal selfie framing often fails.