How to take a Schengen visa photo at home

What the photo must show

The Schengen visa photo is 35 × 45 mm, portrait orientation. In the maker, open ‘1. Choose the document’ and it already offers Schengen visa (35 × 45 mm); if it does not, set ‘Country’ and ‘Document and size’ yourself. ‘Show size and rules’ then lists the measurements before you take anything.

The rule measures the face between the lowest point of the chin and the crown of the bare skull, and that span must land between 32 and 36 mm on a sheet 45 mm tall. Volume of hair is ignored. So a high hairstyle never counts as extra face height, and you should not shrink your face in the frame to make room for it.

• Photo size 35 × 45 mm
• Chin to skull: 32–36 mm, hair ignored
• Plain white or light grey background
• Facing the lens, neutral expression
• No headwear, no tinted glasses, no editing of the picture

Who this guide is for, and who it is not for

This guide covers the photo for a Schengen short-stay visa application. Different documents of the same member states do not follow the same rules, and mixing them up is a quick way to waste a print run.

Photos for German passports and ID cards are a separate case. Since 1 May 2025 Germany takes only a digital photo from a certified studio or the office’s own terminal for those documents, so a home photo does not work there. France is similar for its identity documents: a booth or a professional photographer is expected, and a white background is not allowed there, whereas the visa photo may be white. If your task is a national passport or ID card of either country, ask the issuing office what to do instead of using this page.

Your consulate may add its own rules

The size and the head range are shared, but the office that handles your application decides what it accepts. Some consulates and visa centres add requirements: a photo taken within a recent period, a studio source, a particular file format or size for an online form, or a rule about head coverings. These change from time to time.

Before you shoot, open the instructions that came with your appointment or application and read the photo paragraph. If it says something stricter than this guide, follow it. The maker gets the geometry right; it cannot override a requirement set by the office.

Set up the wall and the light

Choose a plain white or light grey surface with no pattern, picture frame, door edge or curtain fold. Stand roughly a long stride away from it so that your head casts no shadow there. A bare painted wall is ideal; a bedsheet pinned up usually shows creases.

Face a window in daylight rather than a lamp. Light from the side leaves one cheek darker, and a ceiling light puts shadows in the eye sockets. If the glare is strong, wait for an overcast hour or hang a thin white curtain over the glass. Ask a family member to hold the phone at your eye height, or rest it on a stack of books, because a phone held below the chin changes how the jaw looks.

Hair, clothes and glasses

Keep your hair off the eyes and clear of the eyebrows. Hair that falls onto the forehead is fine as long as both eyes and brows are fully visible. Remove hats, headbands and earphones. Whether a scarf or similar covering is accepted for faith or health reasons is up to the receiving office, so read what it says.

Wear a top that contrasts with the wall. A white collar against a white wall blurs the line of the shoulders, while a darker or mid-tone top gives a clean edge. Avoid anything with a busy pattern near the face.

For the Schengen visa, glasses pass when the rims leave the eyes uncovered and the glass shows no reflection. In practice, tilt your head slightly while checking the live image, and if any window or lamp shows in the lenses, move or take the glasses off. Tinted lenses are not accepted.

Shoot it in the maker

Under ‘2. Add your photo’, press ‘Open the camera’. The guided camera tracks your face and counts down three seconds, shooting only once placement, posture, gaze, expression and lighting all look right. If you would rather use a better camera, add a JPG, PNG, WebP or HEIC photo instead.

Look straight into the lens with your chin level and both shoulders square. Keep your mouth closed and your expression neutral, without a smile. Take several shots; the first one is seldom the sharpest, and a slight change in where you look can remove a shadow.

• Pick the document, read ‘Show size and rules’
• Press ‘Open the camera’ or add a file
• Read the ‘Checks’ and retake what is flagged
• Use ‘Fine-tune’ for position and head size
• Keep ‘Face, hair and clothes’ set to ‘No touch-ups’

Check the result, then save

Open ‘Checks’ and read it line by line. Items under ‘Some things need a new photo’ explain what went wrong and how to redo it, while smaller faults such as brightness and the background were already put right. If the face is outside 32–36 mm, use ‘Fine-tune’ to bring it back, and look at the picture once more to confirm that the top of the head and both shoulders are in view.

For an online form, press ‘Save file’ and check the form’s own limits on size and format, since they differ between offices. For paper, press ‘Save print sheet’ and pick the paper you will print on (4 × 6 in, 10 × 15 cm or 89 × 127 mm); you get several 35 × 45 mm copies on one page. Print at full scale, not shrunk to fit, then cut along the grey lines.

Common reasons a photo is rejected

Most refusals come from the same few problems, and each is easy to see before you submit. Keep the original shot so you can try again without starting from nothing.

A photo that looks good on a screen can still fail on paper, so look at a print at its real size next to your passport if you have one. If it feels like a different person, retake it rather than hope.

• Face outside the 32–36 mm range, in either direction
• Shadow on the wall or across one side of the face
• Glare on the lenses, or frames over the eyes
• A smile, open mouth or tilted head
• Filters, smoothing or a changed background
• A patterned, dark or unevenly lit wall