How to take a passport photo on iPhone
You can shoot a compliant passport photo with your iPhone in under two minutes — no conversion apps, no AirDropping to a Mac, no exporting from Photos. Here's the short version: get your back to a plain wall, hand the phone to someone, and take one photo. Upload it as-is. We'll handle the cropping, the background, and the format conversion.
The HEIC problem nobody tells you about
Since iOS 11, your iPhone has been saving photos as HEIC by default. It's a smaller, sharper format than JPEG — but most government portals and passport-photo services don't accept it. If you've ever tried to upload an iPhone photo and seen "unsupported file type", that's why.
The usual workaround is awkward: AirDrop the photo to a laptop, open Preview, export as JPEG, and re-upload. We let you skip all of that — drop your HEIC file into the studio and we read it directly.
Set up the shot in 30 seconds
The hard part isn't the phone — it's the room. Three quick checks:
- Wall. Plain, light-colored, no patterns, no shadows. White or off-white works for most countries; a few (Japan, India for visas) want a specific blue or off-white. Pick the wall first; faking it later is harder than you'd think.
- Light. Stand facing a window or under even ceiling light. Avoid hard direct sun on one side — it leaves a shadow on the wall behind you, which most countries reject.
- Distance. Stand about 3 feet from the wall (so your shadow doesn't hit it) and have someone shoot from about 4–5 feet away. Selfies tend to distort facial proportions — almost every country's spec rejects them.
Take the shot
Use the rear camera (better than the selfie cam), framed roughly head-and-shoulders. Neutral expression, mouth closed, eyes open and looking at the lens, no glasses. Don't worry about exact framing — we crop it to the millimeter.
Upload as-is
Open the studio on your phone or laptop and drop the photo in. HEIC, JPEG, and PNG all work — up to 10 MB. The studio handles:
- Background removal and replacement (your wall doesn't have to be perfect)
- Country-specific cropping (head height, eye line, dimensions)
- Compliance checks (eyes open, no headwear, neutral expression)
- Final output as a JPEG sized for online portals, plus an optional print-ready PDF
Cost
Single digital photo: $7.90. Add a print-ready 4×6 sheet for +$1. Pay only when you're happy with the preview — no subscription, no upfront cost, no charge if the photo doesn't meet your country's spec.