How to make a passport size photo with a white background at home

What size is a passport photo?

The standard passport photo size in India is 35 mm wide by 45 mm tall. For digital use, that is 413 × 531 pixels at 300 DPI, the resolution photo labs print at. Many online forms use this shape, though exam portals often want a smaller version of it in KB. Always check the current instructions for the application you are making.

Taking the photo

The photo itself matters more than any editing afterwards. Ask someone else to take it rather than using the front camera at arm's length; close-up selfies make the nose look larger and the ears smaller.

• Light: face a window in daylight so the light falls evenly on your face. Avoid overhead lights and flash, which create shadows and shine.
• Distance: stand about a metre in front of a plain wall, so your shadow does not fall on it.
• Camera: hold the phone at eye level, about 1 to 1.5 metres away, and zoom in slightly instead of moving closer.
• Pose: look straight at the camera, neutral expression, mouth closed, both ears visible if possible, no tinted glasses.
• Clothes: wear something darker than the background. A white shirt against a white background makes the outline hard to see.

Changing the background to white

Even a plain wall at home is rarely pure white in a photo; it comes out grey, cream or blue. Open White Background Photo, add your photo and wait a few seconds while it detects the person. Choose White, or the colour your form names, such as off-white or light blue.

Zoom in on the result and look at the hair and ears. If the outline looks harsh, increase Edge softness; if strands of the old background show, decrease it. The model runs in your browser, so the photo is not uploaded anywhere.

Cropping to passport size

Under Size, choose Passport size photo. The tool crops to 35 × 45 mm proportions, keeping your head near the top, and exports a 413 × 531 px JPG. If an online form wants the same photo in a particular KB range, choose the exam photo size instead, or run the downloaded photo through the Image Resizer with the form's numbers.

For printed copies, take the downloaded file to any photo shop and ask for prints at 35 × 45 mm.

Keep one master copy for every form

Different applications ask for the same photo in different shapes and sizes: a passport-ratio print, a small JPG for an exam portal, a square image for an ID card. Each time you shrink a photo, detail is lost, and shrinking an already-shrunk copy makes it look soft.

Save the full-size result with the white background as your master copy, before any resizing. When a new form asks for its own size, start from the master and create a fresh version for that form. Name the copies by purpose, such as photo-passport.jpg and photo-exam-50kb.jpg, so you upload the right one.

Why photos still get rejected

If a photo is refused, it is usually one of these:

• Shadows on the face or behind the head
• Head too small in the frame, or cut off at the top
• Glare on spectacles, or eyes not clearly visible
• An old photo, when the form asks for a recent one
• Edits that change your appearance; replacing the background is fine for most forms, but filters and retouching are not