How photo shops should take UK baby and child passport photos

Parents want something they can type into a child’s passport application, and often a sheet of prints as well. A booth is a poor place to get that from a baby. A staffed counter can do it, if the sitting follows the age rules and each child leaves with their own Photo Code.

This guide is for UK photo studios, camera shops and pharmacy counters. It covers the rules that change with age, a Saturday-proof workflow, and how one studio tool turns a capture into a digital passport photo, a one-click print sheet and a Photo Code that can be used for an HMPO online application. Passport Photo Code is independent of GOV.UK and HM Passport Office. HM Passport Office makes the final decision on every photograph.

The job is one child, one photograph, one code

A family visit feels like one sale. On the application it is not. Each person needs their own recent photograph. The usual shop route for an online application is a Photo Code: a short reference the parent types in so that picture can be retrieved. Two children means two codes. A parent renewing at the same time is a third.

The child must be the only person in the frame. A brother at the edge, a parent’s shoulder, or a toy held “just for a second” makes the frame unusable. Cropping someone out afterwards is not a repair. Shoot again.

The picture should be a good likeness from the last month. A new passport needs a new photograph even when the child looks unchanged. A school portrait or last summer’s booth strip is the wrong starting point.

Official wording is on GOV.UK’s photos for passports. A short applicant summary is on our requirements page. Keep the age questions on a card by the camera, and point parents who want the home version at UK passport photos for babies and young children.

Rules that change with age

A plain light background, a recent likeness and “this child alone” apply at every age. Expression and eyes do not. First passports and renewals share those rules. The handover is what changes: a Photo Code for an online application, a print sheet when a paper form asks for prints, and often both. The photograph still has to meet GOV.UK photo rules.

Babies under one

A baby under one does not have to have their eyes open. You may support the head, but the hand must not appear in the photograph. GOV.UK’s method is specific: lay the baby on a plain light-coloured sheet and take the photograph from above.

Use a sheet with no pattern and no crease through the head. Toys, dummies and patterned blankets come out of the frame before you shoot. The photograph has to be unaltered by retouching, so a dummy deleted in software is the wrong repair. If a hand, a sleeve or your shadow shows, shoot again.

Keep your body from throwing a shadow across the sheet. A hard flash into a baby’s face produces red eye and a flinch. Soft daylight, or the even light you already use for adults, is easier to repeat. Use a low, stable surface, with the parent’s spare hand outside the frame. Do not balance a baby on a high counter.

Children under six

Children under six do not have to look straight at the camera or hold a plain expression. They still need a clear face, open eyes and no hair across the eyes. The under-one exception on closed eyes stops at the first birthday. A slightly open mouth is fine. A blurred laugh is not.

Sit the child alone. A lap puts a second person in the picture. Use a low chair against the plain wall, camera at face height, parent behind you talking. You watch the eyes and the edges.

From six onwards

From the sixth birthday the adult rules apply: face the camera, look into the lens, plain expression, mouth closed, eyes open and visible, no hair across the eyes. A head covering stays only for religious or medical reasons, and the face stays clear. Glasses come off unless the child has to wear them. If they stay, they cannot be tinted, and frames, glare or shadow must not cover the eyes.

Height is not the rule. A small seven-year-old still follows the adult pose. Ask the age before you pose them.

How to run the sitting

Ask before anyone sits. Whose passport, and how old are they today? Online, paper, or both a code and prints? Say the child price before the first frame, from the card at the till. A baby takes more minutes than an adult. What to charge for prints plus a code treats that as your retail decision: a separate line for a baby or young child, agreed at the start.

Capture. Plain light background, even light, the child alone, face unobstructed. Use the normal camera mode. Portrait mode and beauty filters soften edges and blur the background, which fights a plain-background photograph. For a baby, take a short sequence from above and keep the sharpest frame with a clear face and no hand. For an older child, a few frames are enough. The staff checklist is the adult loop. Put the age card beside it.

Check the frame yourself. Look for a second person, a toy, a dummy, a hand, a shadow behind the head, hair across the eyes, and red eye. Closed eyes are allowed only under one. Do not paint, clone or smooth.

Prepare one job per child. Upload that child’s frame in Passport Photo Studio. The workspace checks and formats it to the UK digital passport specification. A flag is a prompt, not a decision by HM Passport Office. If it mentions eyes or expression, check the age before you reshoot a baby who is allowed to have their eyes shut.

Code, then print. Generate the Photo Code in that same job. One-click printing sends the print sheet to the printer you already use. Then start the next child as a new job. Two children in one session is how codes get swapped on the way out.

Handoff. Write the child’s name beside the code. Read it back, including any dots, and watch for 0 and O, and for 1 and I. Say: “Type this code on this child’s online application. Check the photograph that appears is this child. The code can be used for an HMPO online application. We are not the Passport Office, and they make the final decision.” The screens they will see are on the GOV.UK page for a photo with a code.

If they also need prints, put the sheet in the same bag as the written code and label it. Two children in one bag, unlabelled, is how the first code gets typed twice.

What this changes on the counter

Many young children will not sit still for a booth, which is why parents come to a staffed shop that can hand over a code as well as prints.

Pharmacies feel the clock. A baby in the middle of a prescription queue helps nobody. A marked corner, a sheet in a drawer and a quieter time on the price card keep the counter usable. The pharmacy page is written for that footprint. If the only person who knows the age rules has gone home, decline the job.

Camera shops already have the skill. Lighting a face and printing a sheet is existing work. The missing piece is usually a code path that does not send the parent home to upload a file. The camera shop page starts from the kit you own. A child slot on the menu, with more time built in, matches the sitting.

Put the code in the default child package. Parents applying online need a digital photograph that meets GOV.UK photo rules, and a Photo Code they can use for the HMPO online application. Splitting the print and the code across two programs is how the code gets skipped once a toddler has used up everyone’s patience.

Quiet weeks should not mean a pile of unused codes. Child work clumps around half-term, summer and first passports, then stops. A browser workspace covers that without an annual allowance tied to one printer. The studio pricing page is where that cost is compared. The parent’s price stays the number on your card.

What to look for

Test a baby frame, not an easy adult.

• A separate job for every child. Finish one code, write the name, and start again.
• Digital photo, Photo Code and print sheet from one capture. Passport Photo Studio is the browser workspace for that, with one-click printing so you are not rebuilding a layout at the till.
• Checks you can read against the age rules. The software does not know this baby is ten months old. Your card does. Treat a flag as a prompt, not a verdict from the Passport Office.
• No retouch step. Hands, dummies and toys are fixed by shooting again. A clone tool will get used on a busy Saturday.
• Room for a name next to the code. What to print with a Photo Code covers the adult handoff. Add the child’s name when a parent is collecting more than one.
• A login Saturday cover can open. Locums should not need a desktop install or a pack only the manager understands. UK passport photo software for studios is the wider buying note. The child test is simpler: can a colleague finish a baby frame, a code and a sheet while you watch?

Getting started

1. Read the babies and children section on GOV.UK and the requirements summary. Put three lines on a card at the camera: under one, under six, and six and over.
2. Set two setups. A plain sheet on a safe low surface for babies. A plain wall, camera at child height, for everyone who can sit alone.
3. Open Passport Photo Studio from the studio overview and start a free trial on the till computer, with the printer you intend to keep.
4. Run one adult practice job so staff learn the code, the sheet and the sentence they will say. Then do the first real baby with a manager in the room, and stop when the frame is clean.
5. Add a child or baby line to the price card, Photo Code included, plus a print-only line for the parent who already has a code.
6. Studio plans are on the pricing page, or email [email protected]. Training is the age card, the adult checklist and one watched baby job.

Frequently asked questions

Do babies have to have their eyes open?

Only from their first birthday. Under one, eyes may be closed. Under six, they need not look at the camera or hold a plain expression, but the eyes of a toddler should still be open.

Can a parent hold the baby?

They can support a baby under one, provided no hand, arm or clothing shows. Shoot from above, with the baby on a plain light-coloured sheet, which is the method GOV.UK describes.

Can one Photo Code cover two children?

No. Each child needs a photograph and a code, with the name written beside it. That code can be used for that child’s HMPO online application. It does not submit the application.

Can we remove a hand or a dummy in software?

No. Shoot again. GOV.UK asks for a photograph unaltered by computer software. Formatting a clean frame is the studio job.

Can we reprint a school photograph?

Take a new one. It needs to be a likeness from the last month, the child alone on a plain light background, meeting GOV.UK photo rules. For an online application, the parent needs a Photo Code for that new photograph.

Will every child photograph go through?

No. Checks help you catch a hand, a shadow or a busy background before the parent leaves. Only HM Passport Office decides the outcome. Say so at the handoff.

Is a child sitting a different product from an adult photo?

It is the same Passport Photo Studio workspace: digital passport photo, Photo Code and print sheet. Age, time and the name on the code are what change. Shop jobs stay in the studio login at studio.passportphotocode.com, not in the personal tool meant for someone at home.

The short version

Photograph the child alone, follow the age on the card, and shoot again rather than retouch. Under one: eyes may be closed, photograph from above on a plain sheet, no hand showing. Under six: they need not look at the camera or hold a plain expression. From six: the adult pose.

Finish with a digital passport photo that meets GOV.UK photo rules, a Photo Code that can be used for an HMPO online application, and a print sheet if they want paper. One child, one code, the name beside it. Start from the studio pages and run a real child sitting before you put babies on the door.