What actually changes with age
The photograph itself is the same specification at every age: 35 × 45 mm printed, 600 × 750 pixels or better for the online application, and the head between 29 mm and 34 mm from chin to crown. What changes is how much cooperation the Passport Office expects from the subject.
| Age | Relaxed | Still required |
|---|---|---|
| Under 1 | Eyes may be closed. Mouth may be open. May be photographed lying down on a plain light-coloured sheet. | Still alone in the frame. No hands, no arms, no dummy, no toy. Head support is allowed only if it is invisible. |
| 1 to 5 | Does not need a neutral expression and does not have to look straight at the camera. | Alone in the frame, eyes open and visible, nothing held, plain light background, no shadows. |
| 6 to 15 | Nothing — the adult rules apply in full. | Neutral expression, mouth closed, looking straight at the camera, eyes open and unobstructed. |
Verified on 2026-08-11 against GOV.UK — Get a passport photo . Read it yourself before you submit; it is your application and the rules do change.
The method that works: photograph from above
Almost every difficulty with a baby photograph comes from trying to sit the child upright against a wall. Under one year old you do not have to. The guidance allows the baby to lie on a plain light-coloured sheet and be photographed from directly overhead, which solves four problems at once: the background is guaranteed plain, the head is supported without anybody touching it, the child is genuinely alone in the frame, and gravity holds the pose still for long enough to take twenty pictures instead of one.
Lay a white or cream sheet on the floor, not on a bed — a mattress makes a valley that throws shadow around the head. Use daylight from a window rather than a ceiling light, which casts exactly the downward shadow the rules forbid. Stand over the baby, hold the camera parallel to the floor rather than tilted, and take far more shots than you think you need. Then pick one calmly afterwards.
For a child over one, who has to have their eyes open and be alone in the frame, the plain-sheet trick still works if they will lie down. If they will not, put them in a highchair pushed close to a plain light wall with the chair back and straps out of the crop, and have a second adult stand directly behind you rather than beside you, so the child looks towards the lens.
The part no amount of patience fixes
Once you have a usable photograph, the remaining task is arithmetic and it is unforgiving. The head has to occupy between 64% and 76% of the photo’s height, measured to the crown of the head rather than the top of the hair. On a baby that distinction is larger than it sounds, because fine hair stands up and reads as head to the eye and as background to a person checking the measurement.
You mark the crown and the chin; the crop is computed to land the head in the middle of the permitted range, so a small error in where you placed a marker stays comfortably inside the tolerance instead of falling off the edge of it. The output is 601 × 772 pixels, above the online minimum, with the file size kept between the 50 KB floor and the 10 MB ceiling that the application enforces.
Nothing is uploaded. The picture is decoded, cropped and re-encoded by code running in your browser, which matters more than usual here: a photograph of somebody else’s child, sent to a server in another country to be processed, is not a thing you should have to agree to in order to get a passport.
Frequently asked questions
Do babies need a passport photo at all?
Yes. Every UK passport holder needs their own passport and their own photo, from birth. A newborn cannot be added to a parent's passport — that stopped being possible in 1998 — so the first passport application for a baby needs a photograph that meets the same dimensional standard as an adult's.
Can my baby have their eyes closed?
Under one year old, yes: HM Passport Office explicitly allows a baby under one to have their eyes closed. From the first birthday the eyes must be open and visible. This is the single most useful concession in the guidance and the one parents most often do not know about, because it removes the impossible part of the task.
Can I hold my baby for the photo?
Not visibly. The child must be alone in the picture, so no hand, arm, shoulder or lap may appear. Supporting the head is permitted for a baby under one provided your hand cannot be seen — which in practice means supporting from behind, out of frame, or laying the baby down instead.
Can they hold a dummy or a toy?
No. The guidance names both: babies must not be holding toys or using dummies. It is worth taking the dummy out a few seconds before the shot rather than at the moment you press the shutter, because the expression immediately afterwards is usually the problem.
What about a car seat or a pram?
Nothing else may appear in the photo, so a visible car seat, pram, patterned cushion or buggy strap will fail. A car seat can still be useful as invisible support if it is covered with a plain light sheet and cropped out entirely — the rule is about what is in the frame, not what is under the child.
Does the head still have to be the right size?
Yes, and this is where most home attempts fail. The head must measure between 29 mm and 34 mm from chin to crown inside a 35 × 45 mm photo, whatever the age. A baby's head is a different shape and proportion to an adult's, so eyeballing the crop is even less reliable than usual. The tool computes it from the two points you mark.
How long is a child's passport valid?
Five years for a child under 16, against ten for an adult, so the photograph has to be redone more often — which is another reason not to pay a booth for it. Check the current fees and validity on GOV.UK, as both change.
A disclaimer that is not boilerplate
This site is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to HM Passport Office or any government body. The tool sets the geometry to the published specification and that geometry is checked by an automated test on every change. It cannot judge the lighting, the background, whether a hand crept into the corner, or whether your one-year-old counts as under one on the day. We cannot guarantee that any photo will be accepted.