An application returned for the photograph costs weeks, and often the fee. What makes it worth understanding is that the same handful of problems come up again and again, and most are visible before submission.
1. Head size outside the band
The most common failure by a wide margin, and the hardest to see. Chin-to-crown has to land inside a band a few millimetres wide, and nobody can judge that by eye.
Usually fixable by re-cropping, provided the original was framed with some headroom. If the photo was framed tightly in the viewfinder, there may be nothing to work with.
2. Background not uniform
Nearly always a shadow behind the head from standing too close to the wall, sometimes a gradient from side lighting.
Partly fixable. Colour can be replaced; a shadow that merged with dark hair damages the mask and shows at the edge. Better to retake - it costs five minutes.
3. Glasses
Refused outright by most authorities since the mid-2010s, and refused everywhere when there is glare or a frame across the eyes.
Not fixable. Retake without them.
4. The print is the wrong size
A correct file printed with fit to page or borderless enabled comes out two to five percent small, which moves the head out of the band.
Fixable by reprinting at 100 percent scale. See printing at true size.
5. Expression or gaze
Smiling where it is not allowed, mouth open, eyes narrowed, or looking slightly off-camera because you watched the screen rather than the lens.
Not fixable. Retake.
6. The photo is not recent enough
Enforced by appearance rather than by date. Grown or removed facial hair is the usual trigger, and for children almost any gap is too long.
7. Digital alteration
Filters, beauty modes and skin smoothing - frequently applied by the phone without being asked. Not fixable, and worth preventing by turning the setting off before shooting.
8. Resolution or file problems
Below the minimum pixel size, over the file weight cap, wrong aspect ratio, or visible compression artefacts from a file squeezed too hard.
Usually fixable by exporting again from the original rather than re-saving the export.
9. Something else in frame
A supporting hand on a child's photo, a chair back, a strap, a doorframe, another person's shoulder.
The pattern
Four of the nine - head size, print size, file problems and often background colour - are arithmetic, and arithmetic can be checked before you submit. The rest are decisions made before the shutter: glasses off, neutral face, eyes on the lens, a metre from the wall, beautification off.
IDShot measures the first group against the rules for your specific document and names what to change, and its camera guidance handles most of the second group by framing and firing for you.