NSW Driving Licence Photo

NWS Driving Licence Photo Guidelines

The requirements for a driver's licence in Australia vary between states. New South Wales is one of Australia's six nations, situated in the south-east of the country with Sydney as its capital. The standards for a driving licence photo are quite the same all over the world, but there are still some differences that need to be considered to avoid problems with the application.

When you apply for your learner’s licence for the first time, you need to prove your identity. For this purpose, you can use your NSW Photo Card, but if you have never submitted a photo to the systems of Transport for NSW, it is compulsory to do it in this circumstance. 

This is the identity photo that will appear on your NSW Driving Licence, so make sure it meets the following guidelines. 

• Your eyes should be wide open, and you should look directly at the camera.
• Your expression should be neutral, with your mouth closed and no smile
• In any case, you should not have glasses or sunglasses
• Your face is clearly visible and your hair isn’t covering any part of it

NWS Driving Licence Photo Requirements

The NSW Driving Licence Photo is a biometric photo, meaning that it needs to be suitable for facial recognition. Facial recognition works by measuring the distances between facial features, such as eyes, nose and mouth. The measurements are then compared to look for potential duplicates and therefore identity fraud.

So that facial recognition works properly, all the photos must meet international standards for pose and quality. An application containing a photo not following these requirements will be rejected. Read on to find out what these requirements are!

Size and quality of the NWS Driving Licence Photo

Photos must be between 35mm and 40mm wide and 45mm and 50mm high. The size of the face from the chin to the top of the head has to be between 36 and 32mm.

The photo for the driver's licence must be clear and focused, with no retouching at all. The printing needs to be high quality, heavy‐weight and glossy.

Background and Lighting

The background has to be of a uniform and light colour, preferably white or light grey. It has to contrast with your face and your clothes. The brightness and the contrast must show your natural colours (skin tone, eyes, and hair colour). The red-eyes effect is not accepted, and it can not be removed by editing. 

The lighting needs to be uniform too: photos with shadows or reflections (both on the subject and the background) are not acceptable. For this reason, we suggest you take off your jewelry while taking the photo. Small jewels and facial piercings which don’t cover any part of your face are accepted, but they risk creating reflections on your face.

Head position and expression

The face has to be centred, facing the camera and not tilted in any direction. It has to be completely visible, from edge to edge. You can’t have hair, jewelry, or head coverings hiding any part of your face.

The expression should be as neutral as possible: smiling, laughing, or frowning is not permitted. The eyes must be open, clearly visible and looking directly at the camera. The camera needs to be positioned in front of the eyes of the subject. The mouth must be closed. 

Glasses

You can’t wear glasses in your photo for a driving licence, even if you always wear them in your everyday life and use them while driving.

If you can’t take off your glasses for medical reasons, you have to provide a medical certificate to Transport for NSW. This has to be signed by a registered medical practitioner with their contact data included. You must also pay attention to the fact that the frames can’t obscure your eyes and the lenses can’t reflect light. 

Headcovers

You may only wear head coverings if you wear them for cultural or religious reasons in your everyday life. Those that only have a decorative function are not admissible.

Religious head coverings have to be plain-colored and not be patterned. You should wear them so that your face is clearly visible from edge to edge and from the chin to the top of the forehead. Moreover, the headcover can’t create shadows on your face. 

You can't wear a wig either. Hair accessories are accepted, as long as they don’t cover any part of your face and they don’t create any shadow or reflection on it. 

Most common mistakes on Driving Licence Photo

If you don’t meet these requirements, your photo will probably be rejected. To avoid this trouble make sure to read the most common mistakes people make while taking a photo for NSW Driving Licence and to not repeat them.

You should not:

• choose a background colour that is not plain
• alter your photo with any kind of computer software
• submit an overexposed or underexposed photo
• tilt your head down, up, or sideways
• look sideways or have your eyes closed
• smile or have your mouth open
• wear eyeglasses without providing a medical certificate
• wear a headgear that obscures your face or without religious reasons
• have your hair covering your face

How to take a NSW Driving Licence Photo at home?

If you are tired of wasting time and money to take photos in a professional photo studio, we have a solution for you! You don’t necessarily need to take your Driving Licence Photo in a professional photo studio or a photo booth. You can do it wherever you want, just using your digital camera or smartphone and an online photo editor. We recommend that you ask somebody to help you and not to do everything alone, as selfies are not recommended.

Choose a good place and a good moment and take as many photos as you want. You can also try different clothes, hairstyles and makeup. Don’t worry too much about technical requirements like size, crop, or background colour. Focus on taking the best photo of yourself with the head straight, the face clearly visible, and a neutral expression. Our online photo tool will then help you to fulfil the other requirements. It crops, resizes, changes the colour of your background and at the end verifies the correctness of your photo!

NWS Driving Licence Photo Tool

This useful photo tool is available online, is simple to use, is much cheaper than taking a photo at a professional photography studio, and is more convenient than a photo booth. In just a few minutes, you can take and create your NSW Driving Licence photo using our online photo editor. 

Read the instructions on the web page or the application, follow the guidelines while taking the photo and then upload it to our system. The AI used by our online photo tool checks the conformity of the photo to the official requirements: it crops it to the perfect size and removes the wrong background.

You can upload as many photos as you want and you pay only for the correct photo that you have chosen. Your Driving Licence photo will be sent to you immediately. 

You also have a guarantee of acceptance by authorities! You can be sure that your photo for NSW Driving Licence made with our online photo tool won’t be rejected!

NWS Driving Licence Photo Mobile App

If you prefer using a mobile application, you can definitely do it! Don’t worry about the brand of your smartphone or your mobile operating system: you can find our photo tool mobile app in the Play Store and the App Store. It is easy to use just like the website, and it enables you to take your photo for NSW Driving Licence even outside your home, for example at work. Also with the app, you will benefit from the acceptance guarantee. So, what are you waiting for? Download our app, and take your driving licence photo!

Last update: 30/5/23