How to take a passport photo with an Android phone
Most Android phones ship with a "beauty mode" filter enabled by default — which causes automatic rejection on US, UK, China and most national passport portals. The first step in taking an Android passport photo is turning that filter off.
Quick answer
Disable beauty mode, use rear camera, plain wall, daylight
Open the camera app, find the "Beauty" or "AI Photo" toggle in the settings menu, turn it off. Switch to the rear camera. Stand 1-2 metres from a plain wall facing a window. Use a tripod or stable surface at eye level. Neutral expression. Process through our tool for the country-specific crop.
Step-by-step
Disable beauty mode (most critical step)
Open the default camera app, tap the settings gear icon, look for "Beauty", "AI Photo", "Smart Beauty" or "Auto Enhance" — toggle off. Some manufacturers (Samsung, Xiaomi, Oppo) enable this by default and the resulting photos fail every biometric check.
Switch to the rear camera
The selfie (front) camera uses a wide-angle lens that distorts head proportions. Use the main rear camera instead — 12 MP or higher is standard on modern Android phones.
Set photo resolution to maximum
In the camera settings, set photo resolution to the highest available (typically 12 MP or 50 MP). This ensures the photo has enough detail to print at the target country size.
Stand in front of a plain wall
Blank wall in light grey, off-white or plain white. Stand 1-2 metres in front to avoid casting your own shadow.
Use daylight from a window in front
Diffused daylight from a window in front of you is ideal. Avoid the flash, ceiling lights or any artificial light source.
Mount the phone at eye level
A tripod, phone stand or stack of books on a chair. The lens must be exactly at eye height — tilted up or down distorts head proportions.
Use the timer
Set the camera app timer to 3 seconds. This lets you relax your face after pressing the shutter and before the photo is taken.
Take 5-10 frames, pick the best
Even with the same setup, expression varies frame to frame. Take multiple shots and choose the one with the most neutral expression, both eyes fully open and head straight.
Frequently asked questions
My Samsung / Xiaomi / Oppo phone keeps applying skin smoothing — how do I turn it off completely?
In the camera app: Settings → Photo → toggle off "Beauty Face" / "AI Photo" / "Auto Enhance" / "Smart Beauty". Some manufacturers split this across multiple toggles — turn off every one of them. If a toggle is hidden, take the photo in the Pro / Manual mode which bypasses most filters.
Can I use a third-party camera app like Open Camera or Google Camera?
Yes, these apps usually bypass manufacturer beauty filters entirely. Open Camera (open-source, free) is a reliable choice — it takes unprocessed RAW or JPEG without any auto-enhancement.
Why does my Android photo look "too smooth" even with beauty mode off?
Some Android manufacturers apply additional noise reduction at the firmware level that cannot be disabled in the camera app. Test with a third-party camera app like Open Camera; if the result still looks too smooth, take the photo in good daylight and shorten the exposure (Pro mode lets you set ISO 100-200 for cleaner output).
Related guides
Skip the manual steps
Upload a portrait — Anfas.Pro applies the country-specific crop, background and biometric framing automatically. Free preview before payment.