UK Baby Passport Photo Rules: A Guide for Newborns and Under-1s
Babies under one do not need their eyes open, and GOV.UK officially recommends laying them on a plain light-coloured sheet and shooting from above. Every relaxation, every rule that still applies, and how to actually get the shot.
By Helal · Last updated
What are the rules for a UK baby passport photo?
Babies need their own passport from birth, and the photo rules relax substantially for the youngest applicants. For children under 1, GOV.UK states that they "do not have to have their eyes open," that they "should lie on a plain light-coloured sheet" with the photo taken "from above," and that "you can support their head with your hand, but your hand must not be visible in the photo."
What does not relax is the specification itself. A newborn's photo is still 45mm × 35mm with a head measuring 29mm to 34mm from crown to chin, still against a plain light background, still with nobody else in the frame. The relaxations are about what a baby can reasonably be asked to do. The measurements are unchanged.
What is relaxed, and what is not
Requirement | Under 1 | Age 1–5 | Age 6+ |
|---|---|---|---|
Eyes open | Not required | Required | Required |
Looking at the camera | Not required | Not required | Required |
Plain expression | Not required | Not required | Required |
Mouth closed | Not required | Not required | Required |
Alone in the photo | Required | Required | Required |
No toys or dummies | Required | Required | Required |
Plain light background | Required | Required | Required |
45mm × 35mm, head 29–34mm | Required | Required | Required |
No shadows | Required | Required | Required |
Sources: GOV.UK, photo requirements for babies and children, and HM Passport Office photo standards, which allows examiners to waive the eyes-open, expression, mouth and gaze requirements for children under 6.
The three rules that catch parents out
1. No hands in the frame
You may hold your baby's head. Your hand may not appear. This is the single most common newborn rejection, because supporting a floppy newborn head without any part of your hand entering a 35mm-wide crop is genuinely difficult.
The reliable workaround is to remove the need to hold at all. Lay the baby down, which is why GOV.UK recommends it.
2. No toys, no dummies
GOV.UK is explicit: "babies must not be holding toys or using dummies." A dummy covers the mouth and a toy is an object in frame. If your baby settles with a dummy, the sequence that works is: settle them with it, get the camera ready and focused, remove the dummy, shoot within the next two or three seconds.
3. Alone in the picture
"Children must be on their own in the picture." No parent's shoulder, no sibling, no arm at the edge, no reflection of you in a shiny surface behind. Crop tightly and check the corners of the final image.
The method that works: lay them down
This is the official recommendation and it is also, by a distance, the easiest approach.
What you need: a plain light-coloured sheet — cream, white or light grey, ironed or pulled taut — on a firm flat surface. A changing mat under the sheet, a bed, or the floor all work. Good indirect daylight. A phone.
The setup:
- Pull the sheet completely flat. Every crease and fold reads as a shadow or a mark, and the background must be plain. Tucking it under the mattress or mat keeps it taut.
- Lay the baby on their back, head towards you, body straight, face upward.
- Position for light. Face the baby towards a window with soft daylight, but out of direct sunlight. Do not stand between the window and the baby — you will cast a shadow over them.
- Hold the phone directly above, parallel to the sheet. Not at an angle. A tilted camera produces a tilted head, which the examiner guidance rejects.
- Frame from the top of the head to below the chin, with the head filling roughly two thirds to three quarters of the frame height.
- Take twenty photos. Then take twenty more. Volume is the entire technique with an infant.
Turn the flash off. Always, but especially here — a flash straight down into a newborn's face is unpleasant for them and produces harsh shadows and glare.
Why shadows are the hidden problem
Laying a baby down solves the head support problem and creates a lighting one. The baby's own head casts a shadow onto the sheet immediately beside it, because the sheet is only centimetres away.
Three fixes, in order of effectiveness:
- Use large, soft, diffuse light. An overcast day through a big window is close to ideal. Bright direct sun through a window is the worst case.
- Light from the front, not the side. Position the baby so the window is beyond the top of their head, roughly in line with their face, rather than off to one side.
- Lift the light source. If you must use room lighting, more lamps at a distance beat one lamp close up.
The rules prohibit "any shadows on your face or behind you," and the examiner guidance accepts small shadows only "when the customer's face or facial features are not hidden." A shadow across one cheek is a rejection.
Getting the head height right on a small head
The 29mm to 34mm head height is measured crown to chin regardless of age — see UK passport photo size requirements for where every measurement comes from — so a newborn's head must occupy the same proportion of the frame as an adult's. Because a baby's head is physically small, you have to get the camera much closer — which brings two complications.
Focus. Phone cameras have a minimum focusing distance. Get too close and the image softens, failing the "sharp focus" requirement. If your photo looks soft, back off slightly and crop afterwards; you have pixels to spare.
Proportion. A baby's head is large relative to their body and their features sit low on the face, which means a crop that looks correct by instinct often puts the eyes too low. HM Passport Office needs the eyes within "the top 40% to 70% of the photo." Leave a little less space above the crown than feels natural.
Practical timing advice
None of this is in the guidance, and all of it decides whether you succeed.
- Shoot after a feed, not before. A fed baby is a still baby.
- Avoid the tired window. An overtired newborn will not open their eyes, hold still, or stop crying — and while eyes-closed is permitted under 1, a screwed-up crying face distorts the features and will not pass.
- Warm the room. A cold baby on a sheet will not settle.
- Have two people. One to lie the baby down and step out of frame, one to shoot.
- Do it in daylight hours. Artificial light at 7pm is the most common cause of a soft, yellow, shadowy photo.
If your baby will not cooperate today, stop and try tomorrow. The photo only has to have been "taken in the last month" when you submit it, so there is no benefit to forcing it in one session.
What to do when it will not work
Some sessions produce nothing usable. That is normal, and the guidance gives you room to try again.
If the baby will not stop crying, stop. A crying face distorts the features and screws the eyes shut in a way that reads as distress rather than rest — and while eyes-closed is permitted under 1, a contorted face is not a usable likeness. Feed, settle, and come back later.
If the baby will not stay still, you are almost certainly working too slowly. Have everything ready — sheet flat, phone in position, flash off, timer or burst mode selected — before you lay them down. The window between "settled" and "moving" can be fifteen seconds.
If the head keeps rolling to one side, the examiner guidance rejects a head "turned to one shoulder or at an angle." A rolled towel placed under the sheet on each side of the head, invisible in the frame, keeps it centred. Your hand may support the head but must not appear.
If the eyes are half open in every frame, that is fine under 1. It is only from the first birthday that eyes must be open.
If the room is too dark, do not push on with the flash. Wait for daylight. Artificial light produces colour casts and hard shadows on a face just centimetres from a white sheet.
The photo only has to have been taken in the last month when you submit it, so there is no advantage to forcing a result in a single sitting.
The cost of getting it wrong
A child passport costs £66.50 online or £80 by post, per GOV.UK passport fees, and is valid for five years. A rejected photo does not lose the fee — the application pauses while you supply another one.
What it costs is time, and with a newborn that time is usually attached to a specific trip. If a rejection pushes you past a travel date, the 1 Week Fast Track service for a child passport is £156.50, against £66.50 for the standard online route.
Fifteen minutes with a flat sheet and good daylight is a very cheap insurance policy against that. See your passport photo was rejected: what happens next.
Once your baby turns one
The eyes-open exemption ends on their first birthday, and it is a significant step up in difficulty — a one-year-old must have their eyes open but still does not have to look at the camera or hold a plain expression. The lying-down method also stops working as soon as a child can roll and sit.
For the age-by-age breakdown, see child passport photo requirements by age.
Newborn photos are the hardest to judge against the standard. Our UK passport photo service checks the frame and returns the compliant crop.
Frequently asked questions
Does a newborn baby need their own passport?
Yes. Every child needs their own UK passport regardless of age — children have not been able to travel on a parent's passport for many years. A child passport costs £66.50 online or £80 by post and is valid for five years, per GOV.UK passport fees.
Do a baby's eyes need to be open in a UK passport photo?
Not if the baby is under 1. GOV.UK states that "children under one do not have to have their eyes open." From their first birthday the eyes must be open, though they still do not need to be looking at the camera until age 6.
Can I hold my baby for their passport photo?
You can support their head, but your hand must not be visible in the photo, and you must not appear in the frame yourself. Laying the baby on a plain light-coloured sheet and photographing from above is the method GOV.UK recommends, and it avoids the problem entirely.
Can my baby have a dummy in their passport photo?
No. GOV.UK states that "babies must not be holding toys or using dummies." Remove it immediately before taking the photo.
What background should I use for a newborn photo?
A plain light-coloured sheet, pulled completely flat — cream, white or light grey. Creases and folds read as marks and shadows, both of which are rejection grounds. See what colour background a UK passport photo needs.
My baby's head keeps rolling to one side. What can I do?
Place a rolled towel under the sheet on each side of the head so it stays centred, keeping both out of the frame. Examiner guidance rejects a head "turned to one shoulder or at an angle." Your hand may support the head but must not be visible.
Should I use a photo booth for a newborn?
Laying the baby on a flat sheet at home is easier and is the method GOV.UK actually recommends. A booth cannot be reconfigured for an infant, its flash makes babies blink and cry, and you get one sitting rather than forty attempts.
How long is a baby's passport photo valid?
Your photo must have been taken in the last month when you submit it. Once HM Passport Office has received it, examiner guidance gives a child's photo a 6-month shelf life, compared with 12 months for an adult. See how long a UK passport photo is valid.
Sources
- GOV.UK, Get a passport photo: photo requirements for babies and children
- GOV.UK, Get a passport photo: digital photos
- HM Passport Office, Photo standards (accessible)
- GOV.UK, Passport fees