How to take an Indian passport photo with your phone
The Indian photo is a 2×2 inch square — 51×51 mm — on a plain white background, and the head measures 35–41 mm from the chin to the crown. Compare that with the American photo, which uses the same square and asks for 25–35 mm: the face in an Indian photo is noticeably larger, filling roughly 70–80% of the height, and a crop borrowed from a US passport photo comes out too small.
Both edges of the face have to be visible, which in practice means both ears and the full line of the jaw, so push long hair behind your shoulders and do not let a fringe fall over the eyebrows. Stand about 1.5 metres from a white wall, phone at eye level on the rear camera, facing a window. Keep your head straight to the lens rather than turned or tilted — a portrait-style three-quarter angle is one of the fastest ways to have the picture sent back.
Why an Indian passport photo comes back
Retouching. The photo has to reproduce natural skin tones and must not be softened, brightened or enhanced, and the beauty mode that many phones run by default does exactly that without asking. Turn it off before you shoot rather than after.
Print quality is the second one: a continuous-tone print on thin photo paper, sharp and in focus, with no border around the image and nothing written on the front. Then the familiar list — a background that is grey or cream rather than white, a shadow behind the head, a smile with teeth instead of a neutral expression with the mouth closed, glare on glasses, and a low-resolution crop lifted out of a group photo. The photo must be in colour; black and white is not accepted.
Where an Indian passport photo is used
Inside India your photograph is usually captured at the counter of the Passport Seva Kendra, so the printed square is what the forms, annexures and applications made through Indian missions abroad ask for; it is also the format most commonly requested for visa and identity paperwork that follows a new passport. Print a sheet at 300 DPI and keep the digital file. Current instructions are published on the official Passport Seva portal.
