Take a Baby Passport Photo at Home

What you need

• A white or off-white sheet (crib or bed sheet is fine)
• Bright, even daylight — near a window, not under a single ceiling light
• Any recent phone camera
• A calm moment after feeding, when your baby is lying face-up

Five steps

1. Lay the sheet flat. Spread the white sheet on a bed or the floor — ideally hang or drape part of it up behind your baby’s head so the surface behind the face is plain and shadow-free.
2. Position the light. Face your baby toward a window. Avoid strong side light (it casts face shadows) and direct harsh sun. Skin tone should look accurate, not washed out or orange.
3. Shoot from directly above. Hold the phone level over your baby, far enough away that the whole head plus shoulders fit with room to spare — more original area means a cleaner crop later. Keep your own shadow off the baby.
4. Take 5–10 shots. Frames differ by seconds but eyes, tilt, and blur differ a lot. Stay out of the frame yourself — no hands, no faces at the edge.
5. Check before you print. Add all the shots to the free checker, confirm the face on each, and let it rank the best one and flag problems before you spend money printing.

The car seat trick (officially suggested)

If your baby will not lie still, the State Department suggests covering a car seat with a plain white or off-white sheet and taking the photo while your baby sits in it. The same rules still apply: face visible, eyes reasonably open, nothing else in frame, even light. The seat itself must not show.

Mistakes that get baby photos rejected

• A hand or arm visible at the edge of the frame
• Pacifier in, blanket over the cheek, or a hat
• Shadow across the face from a window at the side
• Head tilted or turned because the baby moved
• Motion blur from trying to catch a wiggle
• A busy background — patterned blanket, crib bars, toys
• Editing the photo afterwards: filters, brightening, background replacement are not allowed