The State Department's passport photo page shows example photos marked acceptable and unacceptable. We ran 21 of them through PicPassed's checker to measure what separates them: a level head, even light, a plain white wall, open eyes and a closed mouth. Here is what we found, including what a checker can't see.
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| Photo of a man against a blue background | Turned down: the background isn't white or off-white. |
| Dark photo of a man | Turned down: too dark. |
| Photo of a woman with her eyes closed | Turned down: eyes closed. |
| Photo of a woman with her head tilted to the side | Turned down: head not straight. It also has shadows on the face and the wall. |
| Photo of a woman smiling with her mouth open | Turned down: mouth open. |
| Photo of a baby with a pacifier in its mouth | Turned down, but only because the head is turned. Our checker does not see pacifiers. |
The names are the State Department's own descriptions of its examples.
| Head tilt | Accepted adults and children: 0.3° to 4.7°. "Head tilted to the side": 10.2°. We ask for less than 5°. |
| Even light (darker side of the face compared with the brighter side) | Accepted: 86% to 100%. The tilted example with shadows: 55%. We ask for at least 62%. |
| Wall brightness (0 is black, 255 is white) | Accepted: 188 to 253. The dark photo: 157. We ask for at least 170. |
| Wall colour (0 is white or grey; higher is more colour) | Accepted: up to 11. The blue wall: 65. We ask for 34 or less. |
The State Department doesn't give numbers. These are our measurements of its examples.
Check these yourself before the photo: glasses or sunglasses, hats and scarves, red eye, colour tints or filters, photos changed with AI or stretched, and textured walls such as white brick. Our checker looks at size, head position, eyes, mouth, light, sharpness and background.
On 11 October 2026 we ran 21 example photos from the State Department's passport photos page (15 acceptable, 6 unacceptable; the page's copy saved on 10 July 2026, last updated March 24, 2026) through the same checks the camera uses. The examples are small, 200 to 300 pixels, so we enlarged them, and their sharpness and size results are left out. We set our limits using the State Department's examples, so this shows how our checks treat them, not an independent accuracy test.
In color and taken in the last 6 months. You face the camera with a neutral expression, both eyes open and your mouth closed, in front of a plain white or off-white background with even light and no shadows. Nothing covers your face, glasses are off, and the photo isn't edited.
The State Department doesn't give a number: it says to face the camera with your head not tilted. In its accepted examples of adults and children we measured at most 4.7°, and its "head tilted to the side" example measured 10.2°. PicPassed asks for less than 5°.
No. Ours does not detect glasses, hats, scarves, pacifiers, red eye, colour tints, AI changes or textured walls. Take off glasses and hats, use a plain wall, and don't edit the photo.
Sources: Passport photos (U.S. Department of State, updated March 24, 2026). Official rules can change; check them before you apply.
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