Taking baby’s pictures may be a quite difficult parental responsibility, not to say frustrating: your photo can be rejected for so many reasons! Still, we all need to follow the UK rules—otherwise, your photo won’t help to confirm the child’s identity. These tips and details will help you take a correct size printed photo for your child passport with suitable width, height, tilt, and body position. And remember: the best principle to follow here is to focus and keep calm.
Parents of a newborn can take pictures for any popular documents at home, too. The formula for your success includes an iPhone or Android, light-coloured background, and an awake child in a good mood.
Don’t use any PhotoShop or Instagram filters. Keep the original clear face-centred shot made with a smartphone or DSLR camera. Don’t apply a frame or borders.
To make the whole thing as fast as possible, get your baby passport picture here at the PhotoBooth Online website. Then you can try applying online with a JPEG baby photograph or submit in person with a printed newborn’s picture. In the latter case, you attach the photographs to the supporting documents (a paper form and the birth or child adoption certificate, for example).
The quality of a baby passport photo matters a lot. If you provide a poor-quality image file or prints, your application might be rejected.
The first step to the perfect baby picture for documents is to find a room with good lighting and a white wall. For a baby passport picture, a light-coloured background should be used (as given in the official photo requirements). The second step is to make sure your kid is facing the camera or your phone correctly. Put it on the eyes level of your baby (children under 6 do not have to look directly at the objective lens).
Then take a digital photo (or several shots) and convert your input images at the PhotoBooth Online web app page. Once it gets the image, the tool will trim and crop it to fit the governmentally accepted 35 mm x 45 mm proportions. A UK passport photo of this format may be used for online applications.
The last step is to apply with your new baby photos for documents. After parents take the photo for baby passports, they can submit the printouts attached to a paper application form. Alternatively, they can verify their photograph with the gov website for submitting quickly through the online application form.
As a rule, there should be a number of available options in your neighbourhood:
As you see, each way has one or more major cons to balance out its pros. However, you can avoid all the possible stress and money waste: take a photo of your baby at home and crop it here at our UK online service.
If you think that the places in your neighbourhood (like your local store or photo booths) aren’t good enough for taking a printed or digital infant passport photo, there’s an efficient alternative. Save time and money by taking the shot right at home when your baby is well-fed and in a good mood! And even if the latter isn’t the case, it won’t be a big deal: any decent digital passport photo service will let you take as many photo shots as you want.
It’s worth noting that the baby passport photo services on the market are quite numerous, and the majority are paid (and not everyone has a money-back guarantee). In case you don’t want to pay for something you haven’t even tried yet, give PhotoBooth Online a go!
But first, take a photo of your kiddo on your smartphone. Ensure that the baby’s head and upper shoulders are fully visible and that he or she is facing the camera (children under 6 don’t need to look directly at the camera though) with a more or less neutral facial expression. Please note that the baby’s hands must not be visible (or parents hands, for that matter). As soon as you’ve got a perfect photo, access our website and hit that photo upload button!
Once your future baby passport photo is uploaded, we will process it in mere seconds: cut it to the correct ratio, make sure the baby’s head is positioned correctly and replace the background with a light grey backdrop similar to a white sheet. You can use the resulting baby photo for online submission or reproduce it on high-quality photographic paper and submit a child passport application with the printed photos by post.
Quite convenient, isn’t it? To top it all off, anyone can use our UK passport photo tool free of charge, whether they need a shot for their travel document or some other popular documents!
HMPO standards for children aren’t much different than the ones for adults. But the child’s passport application process is more flexible in terms of the requirements for the baby’s face, head, hair, neck and body, baby’s hands, and accepted code of conduct.
To apply for a child passport, you have to provide two 35 mm x 45 mm printouts of professional quality. The printed photo must be taken during the last month.
It’s okay if the baby is not sitting still, but other UK passport photo rules remain the same:
Submitting a file modified by a selfie editing site or services isn’t allowed either.
Dress your baby for close-up pictures as you usually do. However, make sure that the clothes are not too brightly-coloured. As much as you’d want your little one’s photo to stand out, his or her apparel should be somewhat neutral (which also means no bow or other stylish accessories). The safest option here is to choose something of plain colour that makes a good contrast to the background.
But it’s not only about the upper body clothing, there are also a number of rules on the allowed headwear. For instance, there should be no hats or other head covers, the only exception is made for religious attire.
Also, some parents want to make things more interesting by putting sunglasses on their child. Obviously, it’s unreasonable, and the baby passport photo regulations in England are pretty strict in that respect – you must remove glasses or lenses temporarily, even if they are needed for medical reasons only.
If you follow these simple rules carefully, your baby passport application with digital or printed photos should be accepted without any problems.