What the specification means in practice
The Ministry of External Affairs states the requirement as 630 × 810 pixels in colour, with the face taking up 80% to 85% of the photograph. Two things follow. First, 630 × 810 is exactly the 35:45 proportion, so the print equivalent is the familiar 35 × 45 mm rectangle even though the guidance does not say so in millimetres. Second, 80–85% is a noticeably tighter crop than the 70–80% most ICAO-aligned countries use — a photo framed correctly for a UK or Schengen application will have too small a face here.
The move to ICAO-compliant photographs
Applications submitted through the Passport Seva portal are assessed against ICAO-compliant photograph guidelines. If you are working from older advice, or from a photo studio that has not updated its templates, check the framing against the current pixel specification rather than assuming an earlier format still applies.
Getting the 80–85% face proportion right
The measurement is a close-up of the head and the top of the shoulders, with the face — chin to crown — occupying 80% to 85% of the frame height. That leaves very little margin above the head and almost none below the chin, which is why photos cropped from a wider shot so often land outside the band.
The guidance also asks that the photo be taken from a distance of about 1.5 metres from the camera. That is not a contradiction of the tight crop: shoot from a distance so the facial proportions are natural, then crop in. Shooting close to fill the frame directly produces the enlarged nose and narrowed ears that make facial matching unreliable.
Background and glasses
The background must be white. This is worth stating plainly because the Indian OCI card — administered separately — requires a plain light coloured background that is specifically not white, and applicants who hold both documents regularly submit the wrong photo to the wrong process.
Glasses should be taken off. The stated reason is reflection: the guidance groups glasses with distracting shadows and asks that they be removed to avoid reflections in the lenses.
Expression, framing and lighting
Look directly at the camera with your eyes open and clearly visible, no hair across them, and your mouth closed. The expression should look natural rather than rigid. The head must be centred in the frame and not tilted, showing the full head from the top of the hair to the bottom of the chin.
Lighting must be uniform, with no shadows or flash reflections on the face and no red eye. Skin tones should be reproduced naturally, and the image must not be altered by computer software — retouching is treated the same as any other alteration.
Head coverings
Head coverings are not permitted except for religious reasons. Where worn, the facial features from the bottom of the chin to the top of the forehead and both edges of the face must be clearly shown, and the covering must not cast a shadow across the face.