The background is where a lot of home passport photos go wrong. The wall looks white in the room, but in the photo it comes out grey, patchy or with a dark shadow behind your head. This guide covers how to get a plain, evenly lit background at home without editing, and how to check it against your document's rules with Passport Cat, our passport photo app for iPhone and iPad.
For the rest of the setup (distance, pose, glasses), see how to take a passport photo on iPhone.
First: check which background your document wants
Not every document wants white. In the rules built into Passport Cat, the U.S. passport asks for a plain white or off-white background, while UK passport prints ask for cream or light grey. The app's Photo guide, on Home, puts it this way: "most want white or off-white, the UK wants cream or light grey, and a few accept light blue."
In Passport Cat, the document card on Home shows the colour under the document's name, for example "2 × 2 in (51 × 51 mm) · plain white or off-white background" for the U.S. passport. Tap Change to pick your own document, and tap Rules to read the rest of its photo rules.
Don't fix the background in an editor
Editing the photo afterwards isn't allowed for the U.S. or UK passport. The U.S. passport rules in the app say: "No filters, retouching, background replacement, red-eye fixes or AI edits". The UK passport rules say: "Unaltered by computer software: no filters or retouching." So the plain background has to be real: a wall, a door or a sheet behind you when the photo is taken.
Set up a plain background at home
- Pick the plainest surface you have. A bare wall or a closed white door works. Move anything that pokes into the frame, like a light switch, a plant or a curtain edge.
- No white wall? Make one. Tape a white sheet tightly to a wall, or stand a large white board behind you. Creases show up as stripes and patches.
- Stand away from it. Standing right against the wall puts your shadow on it. The Photo guide suggests about half a metre (2 ft) between you and the wall.
- Light the face and the wall. Face a window in daylight, so the light falls on you and the wall behind you evenly. A lamp off to one side lights one half of the wall and leaves the other half dark. Turn the flash off: it causes glare and red eye.
- Don't wear white. The Photo guide warns against clothes the same colour as the wall. A white top on a white wall blends into the background.
Check the background in Passport Cat
- Pick your document. On Home, tap Change on the document card and search by country or document. If Home then says "Self-made photos aren't accepted", downloads are off for that document, but you can still use the checks to practise.
- Take or choose the photo. Tap Take photo (the back camera opens first), or Choose from Photos to use one you already have.
- Read the background check. On Your photo, one of the checks is named after your document's background, for example Plain white or off-white background. Passport Cat looks at the wall around and above your head, leaving out you and your clothes, and measures how plain it is, whether one side is darker than the other, and what colour it is. Then it compares the colour with the colours your document's rules allow.
- Follow the advice on screen. If the background isn't right, the check tells you what to change, for example:
- "Stand in front of a plain wall, with nothing else in view." The wall has objects, a pattern or patches in it.
- "There's a shadow on the wall. Step forward, away from the wall, and light it evenly."
- "The wall looks grey and dark in the photo. Add more light, or use a lighter wall."
- "The wall's colour doesn't match." This one names the colour your rules ask for.
- "Couldn't see enough of the background. Step back from the wall a little." For documents where white isn't allowed, such as the UK passport, a very bright white wall gets a note that the rules ask for cream or light grey, "not bright white".
- Retry or continue. A failed check means no Print & download: the button at the bottom becomes Retake photo, Choose another photo or, for a reopened photo, Try another photo. When every check is met, you'll see "Meets every check". Turn on the points under Please confirm, then tap Print & download.
Passport Cat only checks the background. It doesn't whiten, brighten or replace it: "The photo is only cropped and scaled, never stretched, retouched or given a new background." If the check fails, fix the real wall or light and try again.
When the photo is ready, see how to print passport photos at home to get it onto paper at the right size.
What it costs
In Passport Cat, taking, checking, printing and downloading are free, as many photos as you need, where the document's rules allow. There's no watermark on your photos, no ads, no account and no subscription. (The home-print PDF's printing note, under the photos, ends with "made with Passport Cat".) Passport Cat Pro is an optional one-time purchase. It adds more paper sizes, saved photos for each family member, a family sheet with several people on one 6×4 print, and a check of which other passports and visas your photo works for. More on the Passport Cat page.
Your photos are checked on your device and kept out of iCloud backups; they leave only when you share them or save them to Photos. Final acceptance is always up to the issuing authority, and Passport Cat isn't affiliated with any government.
Quick answers
Does a passport photo background have to be white?
It depends on the document. In the rules built into Passport Cat, the U.S. passport wants white or off-white, and UK passport prints want cream or light grey. The document card on Home shows the colour for yours.
Can I change the background of my passport photo with an app?
Not for a U.S. passport: its rules in the app rule out background replacement. Passport Cat doesn't change the background; it checks it and tells you how to fix the real wall.
Why does my white wall look grey in the photo?
Usually there isn't enough light on it. Face a window in daylight, and if Passport Cat says "The wall looks grey and dark in the photo", add more light or use a lighter wall.
Try Passport Cat
Try Passport Cat: free, no watermark, no sign-up → iyio.com/apps/passport-cat