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Passport, visa and ID photos · Fix a photo

Passport photo too dark, too bright or unevenly lit: how to fix it

Too dark, washed out, lit from one side or flashed: the light is what a home photo gets wrong most easily. Here is how to light it, then what each authority's own page says.

Your photo stays on your device: nothing is uploaded, and no face is recognised.

Check your photo now, free

How to fix it

  1. Use daylight from a window in front of you, not a ceiling lamp and not the sun directly on your face.
  2. Switch the flash off: it flattens the face, reddens the eyes and reflects off skin and glasses.
  3. Tap your face on the phone's screen before the photo, so the exposure is set for the face and not the wall.
  4. If your document's rules forbid edited photos, don't brighten it with a filter. Retake in better light.

Where the rules allow an edited photo, the page evens out your photo's light and colour; where they forbid edits it leaves the photo as it is. Either way it measures whether the background is even.

Check your photo against your document's rules

Choose your document: its page checks your photo in your browser, free. The indented words are the issuing authority's own, from the official page linked beside them, read on the date given. WinPhoto is not affiliated with any government. Only the authority decides whether it accepts a photo.

Ethiopia

India

Italy

Kuwait

Nigeria

Pakistan

Russia

  • Russian unified e-visa (единая электронная виза) applicant face photo
    The photo must be taken with uniform lighting and not show shadows, flash reflections on your face and no red eyes.
    If you wear glasses, your eyes must be clearly visible in the photo. Flash reflection off the lenses, as well as tinted lenses are not allowed (if possible, avoid heavy frames – wear lighter framed glasses, if you have them). Make sure that the frames do not cover your eyes (even partly).
    Official page, read on 4 November 2026.

Schengen Area (France-Visas and German missions quoted)

  • Schengen short-stay visa (type C) application photo, ICAO format
    be taken with uniform lighting and not show shadows or flash reflections on your face and no red eye
    the photograph must show your eyes clearly with no flash reflection off the glasses, and no tinted lenses (if possible, avoid heavy frames— wear lighter framed glasses if you have them)
    Official page, read on 4 November 2026.

Singapore

South Africa

South Korea

Taiwan

Thailand

United Kingdom (Northern Ireland)

Questions

Which authorities' rules are quoted here?
15 documents from 14 countries. Each quote is from the issuing authority's own page, linked beside it, with the date we read it. Rules change: the official page is the one that counts.
Does the check mean my photo will be accepted?
No. The check compares your photo with the published rules as we read them on the date each page gives. Only the authority decides whether it accepts a photo.
Is my photo uploaded?
No. The check runs in your browser and the photo stays on your device. The one exception is the Detail check, which is opt-in and comes with a document's photo.