Passport photo lighting: two rules and the daylight setup

The two rules

Passport-photo lighting only has to satisfy two things:

1. Even across the face. No bright highlight on one cheek, no shadow under the other eye. Both sides at the same brightness.
2. No shadow on the background. Whatever light hits your face must not project a hard shadow onto the wall behind you.

Every country's spec comes down to these two. Get them right and the light is not what holds your photo back.

The simplest setup that works

Stand facing a large window during overcast daylight. The wall behind you a metre or more away. Phone on a tripod or a stack of books at eye level. Done.

Why this works: the window is wide and indirect (no sharp angles), the wall is far enough that your shadow falls behind you out of frame, and your face gets symmetric front-light at the same brightness across.

Common lighting mistakes

• Single overhead light. Casts deep shadows under the eyes, nose and chin, so the face is not evenly lit.
• Direct sunlight. Too bright. Causes squinting, blown-out highlights, harsh shadows. Wait for cloud cover or face away from the sun.
• Bathroom mirror lighting. Side-mounted spots produce uneven left/right brightness. Easy to miss until rejection.
• Phone screen as light source. Tempting for selfies, but the colour temperature is too blue and the phone is too close to your face. Lights up the nose tip while leaving cheeks dim.
• Camera flash. Throws harsh shadow onto the wall behind, and creates red-eye. Always off.

If you don't have great daylight

Two cheap fixes:

• White paper reflector. A4 sheet of plain white paper held at chest level reflects light back onto your face from below, fills shadows under eyes and chin. Works with any single light source.
• Two desk lamps. Position equally on both sides of the camera, slightly above eye level, aimed at your face. Light from both sides works well for this.

How software helps

We correct the overall exposure and contrast of your photo, and background replacement solves the wall-shadow rule. Very uneven light on the face itself cannot always be fixed afterwards, so our photo check tells you when the lighting is not even and you can retake it.

Take your passport photo with Foto2Pass. Exposure correction and background replacement, for €8.99 in the euro countries.