Baby and infant passport photos

Babies need passports, and the rules bend for them — but less than parents expect, and differently in each country. This covers what is actually relaxed, what is not, and the practical way to get the shot.

What is relaxed, and at what age

The thresholds are specific and worth checking against your own country.

Netherlands. Children under six are exempt from three position requirements (eyes horizontally aligned, head not tilted, shoulders straight) and three expression requirements (neutral expression, looking at the camera, mouth closed). The face-height rule also changes: 19–30 mm chin to crown for under-11s, against 26–30 mm for everyone older.

Australia. A neutral expression is required for anyone over three. For children under three the mouth may be open — but no one else may be visible in the photo.

New Zealand relaxes the expression rule for very young children on the same basis.

United States. The child's expression must be neutral and the full face visible, but "it is acceptable if your infant's eyes are not entirely open". All other children must have their eyes open.

Nigeria. The NIS applies ICAO guidelines "with relaxation for kids under the age of 5", who must look toward the camera with the face centred.

Ireland publishes specific guidance on soothers and on difficulty getting a natural expression from a child.

Brazil. From age three, including adults, the Federal Police take the photo at the appointment — so this only applies to under-threes.

What is not relaxed

Almost everything else. In particular:

• No one else in the photo. This is the rule parents break most often. A hand supporting the head, a parent's shoulder, a lap, a reflection in a mirror — all fail. The US, Australia and the EU all illustrate this as a rejection example.
• Plain background. Same requirement as adults, same colours.
• No shadows on the face or behind the head.
• Nothing covering the face. Pacifiers and dummies are named explicitly by the US and Ireland. Hands, toys and blankets fail.
• Correct head size in the frame, using the child's own age band where one exists.
• Sharp focus. Motion blur is the most common technical failure with babies.

The car seat method

The problem is that a baby who cannot sit up needs support, and support means a second person in the frame. The standard solution avoids that entirely.

The US guidance describes it directly: place your child on a plain white or off-white sheet, or cover a car seat with the sheet and place the child in the car seat.

In practice:

1. Lay a plain, ironed white sheet on the floor or over a car seat. Iron it — creases photograph as background texture.
2. Lay the baby on their back on the sheet.
3. Stand directly over them and shoot straight down. The floor becomes the background, and gravity does the supporting.
4. Keep the camera high enough that you are not distorting the face — about a metre, not arm's length.

Shooting downward also solves the shadow problem, because the light source is usually the room's window rather than something directly behind the head.

Getting the eyes open and the face forward

• Photograph after a feed and a nap. A hungry or tired baby will not cooperate, and no technique beats timing.
• Have a second person stand directly behind you — not beside you — and make a noise to draw the baby's eyes to the lens. They must stay out of frame.
• Do not use flash. It makes babies blink, and it puts a hard shadow on the sheet.
• Take dozens of frames. This is not a situation for careful single shots.
• For a toddler who will sit, put them in a chair against the wall with the parent crouched behind the chair, out of frame, holding them steady from behind — hands must not be visible.

Head size is still measured

This is the requirement that catches people out, because a baby's head is a different proportion of their body than an adult's, and it is easy to end up with a photo of a whole baby rather than a face.

Frame it the same way you would an adult: head and the top of the shoulders, filling the required proportion of the frame. Use your country's own figure — the Netherlands' 19–30 mm for under-11s, or the standard adult band where no child-specific number is published.

Shooting from a metre up and cropping in afterwards is the reliable way to get this right, and avoids the distortion of a close wide-angle shot.

Where you cannot do this yourself

In several countries a photo you take is not accepted at all, and that applies to children too. France requires an approved photographer or booth. Germany has not accepted self-supplied photos since 1 May 2025. Canada requires a commercial studio print. Brazil photographs children aged three and over at the appointment.

If you are in one of those, book the studio — many are used to infants and will have a sheet and a beanbag ready.

Do not edit the photo

The temptation with a difficult baby photo is to clean it up: remove a hand, brighten the background, crop out a shoulder. Editing is a rejection reason in its own right in the US, Canada, the Netherlands, Mexico and Singapore, and Canada specifically names cutting and pasting an image onto a white background as an example.

It is genuinely faster to take another twenty frames.

Checklist

• Plain ironed white sheet, baby on their back, camera overhead
• Nobody else in frame, including hands
• No pacifier, toy or blanket over the face
• No flash
• Full face visible, head straight-ish, eyes open if the child is over the age where that is required
• Sharp, not motion-blurred
• Head fills the required proportion of the frame

The cropper on this site will size the photo to your country's published measurements and check focus, lighting and background — though for infants the expression checks are worth reading with your country's age exemptions in mind.