How to take a scan-ready photo at home

Facet rejects photos that fail any of six quality checks: yaw, pitch, roll, resolution, lighting, and sharpness. Most users who hit a rejection screen are within a small adjustment of passing. A 3-minute setup at home will pass on the first attempt.

Lighting

The best lighting is the simplest: a window during daytime, face turned roughly toward it. No direct sunlight, no overhead bulbs, no ring light unless it sits directly behind the camera and pointed at you. Avoid mixed light sources. Mixed lighting creates colour casts that confuse the skin module.

• Good: window light, 9am to 4pm, face toward the window.
• Bad: overhead kitchen bulb, bathroom vanity bulbs, any light behind you.
• Avoid: ring lights that create a visible reflection in your eyes.

Camera and distance

A modern phone front-facing camera is fine. Hold it at arm's length, with the lens at eye level. Both of those matter. A phone held below eye level distorts the jawline and adds yaw error. A phone held above eye level shortens the chin and adds pitch error.

Pose

1. Look directly at the lens. Not at yourself on the screen. Looking at your own image adds a 2 to 3 degree gaze offset.
2. Neutral expression. No smile, no clench. Open mouth and clenched jaw both shift the lower-face landmarks.
3. Hair off the forehead and away from the cheeks. Hair occluding the brow or jawline breaks landmark detection.
4. No glasses. Glasses occlude the canthi and skew the eye module.
5. No makeup is preferable. Some makeup is fine but heavy contouring will fool the skin module.

Background

A plain wall in a neutral colour works best. Patterned backgrounds and busy environments do not affect scoring but they do increase the chance of a sharpness or contrast rejection on lower-end phones.

Why the rejection screen is a friendly checklist now

Earlier versions of the scan page showed a red error block when a photo failed. Most users assumed the app was broken and left. The current version lists the six checks with green ticks for what passed and a small instruction next to anything that failed. Most users now pass on the second attempt.

If you are repeatedly hitting the same failure, it is almost always lighting. Move toward a window and the rest tends to fix itself.