How to take a baby's passport photo (for a child under 1 year old)

The U.S. Department of State, the UK Home Office, and Canadian Service Canada all publish the same warning on their photo guidance pages: infant photos are the most-rejected category of passport submission. The U.S. State Department puts the figure at roughly one in three infant photos returned for resubmission, compared with about one in five for adults. The reason isn’t that the rules are harder — it’s that newborns can’t follow instructions, and parents end up holding the baby in frame, propping them up on a couch with cushions visible, or catching them mid-blink.

The good news: there’s a small, consistent set of techniques that work for every baby under 12 months. Once you know them, you can usually get a usable shot in 10 minutes of trying.

Why infant photos are different

A passport photo has the same biometric goals at any age — full face, visible features, neutral background, even lighting. The differences for an infant are practical:

• They can’t sit up. Anyone under about 6 months won’t hold a seated pose. Anyone under 12 months can’t be relied on to stay still.
• They can’t pose. “Look at the camera, mouth closed, neutral expression” is not in the repertoire of a four-month-old.
• Eyes are sometimes closed. Newborns sleep 16 hours a day. Most passport rules say eyes must be open — but several countries make explicit exceptions for newborns (we cover the country-by-country rules below).
• Nobody else can be in frame. The official rule everywhere is one person in the photo. A supporting hand, an arm, the corner of someone’s sleeve — any of these is grounds for rejection.

What you need before you start

• A plain white or off-white sheet, ideally large enough to cover both a flat surface and the wall behind it. A clean cot sheet works.
• A smartphone (any iPhone from 11 onward, or a recent Android with a capable rear camera). Don’t use a webcam.
• Natural daylight. The strongest light should come from the side the baby is facing — not from directly above (creates eye-socket shadows) and not from behind (silhouettes the face).
• A second adult, if possible. One person operates the camera, the other gets the baby’s attention. This isn’t required but it doubles your hit rate.
• About 10 minutes of the baby’s most alert, most-fed, least-cranky window. Right after a feed but before a nap is the sweet spot.

Method 1: The white sheet on the floor (under 6 months)

This is the standard technique for newborns and babies who can’t sit up yet.

Step 1: Lay out the sheet

Spread a clean white or off-white sheet on the floor or on a firm flat surface — a changing pad on a bed works. Smooth out the wrinkles. Wrinkles read as shadows to a passport reviewer and can be flagged as “background not uniform”.

If the sheet has any pattern, even subtle stitching at the edges, fold it under so only a plain area is visible in the frame.

Step 2: Place the baby on their back

Lay the baby flat on the sheet, face up. Their head should be roughly centred on the sheet with enough white space around it to fill the frame.

No hands, no arms, no pillows visible. This is the single most common cause of infant photo rejection. If you need to support the head, use a rolled towel underneath the sheet so it isn’t visible — or accept that you’ll need to be quick.

Step 3: Shoot from directly above

Stand over the baby with the phone held parallel to the floor — lens pointing straight down. The baby’s face should be looking up at the camera, not turned to the side.

Distance: about 60–80 cm above the baby. Closer than that distorts features; further than that and the head fills too little of the frame.

Use the rear camera, 1x lens, no flash, no portrait mode. Same rules as adult photos — the flash causes red-eye, portrait mode adds artificial blur that gets flagged as editing.

Step 4: Get attention at the lens

Have a second person stand behind you and make a noise or movement just above the camera lens — a soft shake of a toy, a clicking sound, a familiar voice saying the baby’s name. The goal is to get the baby looking straight up at the lens with eyes open.

Take a burst of shots. iPhones do this if you hold the shutter; most Android cameras have a burst mode in the camera settings. Twenty photos give you a good chance that two or three have open eyes and a neutral expression.

Method 2: The car seat against a white wall (6–12 months)

Once the baby can hold their head up but can’t reliably sit, the car seat or infant bouncer method works well.

Step 1: Cover the seat with a white sheet

Drape the white sheet over the entire car seat or bouncer so none of the patterned fabric, straps, or buckles are visible. Tuck it down into the sides.

Step 2: Position the seat against a white wall

Place the covered seat in front of a plain white or off-white wall. The baby’s head should be against a clean section of the wall — no light switches, picture frames, or door edges in the background.

Recline the seat slightly so the baby is facing forward but supported.

Step 3: Get the camera at the baby’s eye level

This is critical — the camera lens needs to be at the same height as the baby’s eyes. Squat down, sit on the floor, or use a low tripod. Shooting from above (looking down at the baby) distorts the face and fails the “facing the camera” check.

Distance: 1–1.2 metres from the baby’s face.

Step 4: Take the shot

Same camera settings as Method 1 — rear camera, 1x, no flash, no portrait mode. Burst-shoot while the second adult gets attention at or just above the lens.

The eyes-open question, by country

This is the part where requirements actually vary by country, and getting it wrong is a common reason for resubmission.

Country	Eyes-open rule for infants
United States	Eyes can be closed for newborns. Eyes must be open and looking at the camera for any child who can hold their head up.
United Kingdom	Babies under 1 year are not required to have eyes open or mouth closed. Children 1+ must have eyes open.
Canada	Eyes must be fully visible. Closed eyes are not accepted at any age.
Australia	Eyes must be open and looking at the camera. No exceptions for infants.
Schengen / EU	Eyes open and looking at the camera. Some member states accept closed eyes for infants under 6 months on a case-by-case basis.
India	Eyes must be open and looking at the camera.
Japan	Eyes must be open. Closed eyes are not accepted.

The pattern: the US and UK are the most lenient on infant eyes, which makes them the easiest countries to photograph newborns for. Most of the rest of the world requires open eyes regardless of age, which is why a 10-minute window of an alert, well-fed baby is so important.

Always check the country-specific requirements before you submit. The rules change occasionally, and consular practice sometimes diverges from published policy.

Common rejections specific to infant photos

These are the issues that come up almost exclusively on baby photos:

Hands or arms in the frame

You’re holding the baby up, your hand is supporting the head, someone else’s finger is keeping the head from rolling. Any of these fail. The fix is the lying-on-a-sheet method (Method 1) or the covered car seat (Method 2).

Pacifier, bottle, or toy visible

The baby is calm because they have a dummy in their mouth, or you’re distracting them with a rattle that’s just inside the frame. Both fail the “face fully visible” check. The pacifier has to come out for the shot — even if it goes back in immediately after.

Eyes half-closed or rolling

Burst mode is your friend. Take 20 shots and pick the one where both eyes are clearly open and roughly looking forward. A baby’s eyes don’t need to be perfectly centred — passport reviewers know infants can’t track on command — but they have to be visibly open and forward-ish.

Mouth wide open or crying

Slight smile, neutral expression, or closed mouth all pass. Active crying with the mouth wide open does not. If the baby starts crying, stop, soothe, and try again in five minutes.

Background visible through a thin sheet

A thin white sheet on a coloured wall sometimes lets the wall colour bleed through. Use a thicker sheet, or layer two together, or pick a wall that’s already white.

Tilted head or face turned to the side

Babies turn their heads toward whatever sound is loudest. If the attention-getter is standing to the left of the camera, the baby will look left. The person making the noise has to be directly behind the camera or holding something just above the lens.

Shadow on the face from above

Overhead lighting (a ceiling light, an open window directly above) creates a strong shadow under the brow and across the eyes. Move the baby so the main light source is in front, ideally a large window they’re facing.

Fixing problems without retaking

You took the photo, the eyes are open, the expression is neutral — but the background has a wrinkle, or there’s a faint shadow on the sheet. Retaking with a baby is a much bigger ask than retaking with an adult, so it’s worth trying to salvage the shot first.

The in-browser editor handles the most common infant-photo issues automatically:

• Background replacement: swaps a wrinkled sheet, a wall edge, or a visible piece of furniture for a clean white or off-white that matches your country’s spec.
• Shadow removal: evens out side-shadows on the cheek or chin.
• Crop and head-position: detects the baby’s face and crops to the exact size and head-height ratio your document requires.
• Compliance check: runs the same review checks the passport office uses — head size, expression, eye visibility — and flags anything borderline before you submit.

What it won’t do: open closed eyes, remove a hand from the frame, or turn a side-profile into a front-facing shot. Those require a retake.

A note on submission portals

Some countries’ online passport submission systems (UK GOV.UK, US travel.state.gov, Canada IRCC) have stricter automated checks for infant photos than the official guidance suggests. The UK portal in particular will reject any photo where the system can’t detect a face with high confidence — which sometimes happens with very young newborns whose features aren’t yet pronounced.

If the portal rejects a photo you believe is compliant, try:

1. Submitting at a passport office in person with the printed photo. A human reviewer can accept what an algorithm flags.
2. Adjusting the lighting slightly to improve contrast on the face.
3. Trying the photo again at a later age — even a few weeks of development can make automated face detection more reliable.

When to skip the home shoot

Some scenarios where it’s not worth the home attempt:

• Premature newborns under 4 weeks. Hospital staff sometimes recommend waiting. Some countries explicitly accept passport applications without a photo for very young infants and allow the photo to be added later.
• Very fussy babies. If you’ve tried twice on different days and every shot has the baby crying, a professional photographer with experience photographing infants is sometimes faster than another home attempt.
• Twins or multiples needing the same-day photo. Logistically brutal at home — a studio handles two cameras and two attention-getters in parallel.

For everyone else: the white-sheet method works. Take more shots than you think you need, pick the best frame, and run it through the editor for the compliance check before you submit. If you’re not sure what spec your country requires for an infant photo — head size band, background colour, allowable expressions — the country requirements hub lists the exact rules per country, with the infant-specific exceptions called out where they exist.