How to Make a Passport Photo at Home (Free)

Step by step

1. Take or upload a headshotUse a front-facing photo against a plain, light background, with even lighting, both eyes open, and a neutral expression. A phone selfie in good daylight works well.
2. Choose your size presetPick your country and document — US passport, UK/EU or Schengen visa, India, Canada, Australia, or enter a custom size in millimetres. The output dimensions update to match.
3. Position the facePan and zoom so your head height and eye line sit inside the guide overlay, which shows where the face should fall for the chosen specification.
4. Download or printDownload the exact-pixel photo for an online application, or generate a 4×6 inch print sheet with several copies to print at home or at a kiosk.

Why passport photos are so strict

Passport and visa photos are checked against exact rules because they feed facial-recognition systems and have to be consistent worldwide. The rules cover the print size, the proportion of the frame your head fills, the eye position, the background, and your expression. Get the size or head position wrong and the application is rejected — which is the single most common reason home-made photos bounce.

Getting the size and resolution right

Each document has a defined physical size at print resolution — 2×2 inches for the US, 35×45 mm for the UK, EU, and Schengen visas, and so on. This tool outputs those exact pixel dimensions at 300 DPI, so when the photo is printed at the intended size it measures correctly and holds enough detail. Choosing the right preset does this for you; the custom millimetre option covers any specification that is not in the list.

Head position and the guide overlay

Beyond overall size, most authorities specify how tall your head should be within the frame and where your eyes should sit. The overlay draws those zones so you are not guessing — pan and zoom until your chin, crown, and eye line match the guides. This is where most rejections are avoided, so it is worth lining it up carefully rather than eyeballing it.

Getting the background right

Passport photos need a plain, light, shadow-free background. If your photo already has one, pick a white or light-grey fill and you are done. If the background is busy, run the photo through the site’s Background Remover first, save the cutout, then bring it back here with a plain fill selected — a clean way to salvage an otherwise good headshot without re-shooting it.

Print several copies for the price of one

Booths charge for a strip of photos when you often only need two. The print sheet tiles multiple copies of your sized photo onto a standard 4×6 inch layout, so one cheap photo print — at home or a supermarket kiosk — gives you a full sheet of passport photos to cut out. And because everything runs locally, your face is never uploaded.