The setup
- Plain, light background. A white or light gray wall works best. Have the person stand 2–3 feet in front of it so their shadow falls behind them, not on the wall.
- Soft light from the front. Face a window, or stand under even overhead light. Avoid a bright window behind the person, which turns faces dark.
- Camera at eye level, about 4 feet away. Use the normal 1× or 2× lens, not the wide-angle lens, which distorts faces up close. Don't use the front camera at arm's length.
- Head and shoulders, centered. Leave a little space above the head. The badge maker crops each photo to fit the photo spot, so a slightly wider shot is better than one cut off at the chin.
- Natural look. Face the camera, eyes open, no filters or beauty effects. Follow your organization's rules on hats and sunglasses.
Photo quality checklist
- In focus, with no motion blur
- At least 600 pixels tall (any modern phone photo is far more)
- JPEG or PNG; iPhone HEIC photos are converted automatically
- Not a screenshot or a photo of a printed photo
Photos for a whole team
When you're making badges for many people from a spreadsheet, the file names connect each photo to its person:
- Name each file after the person, for example
jane-smith.jpg, and put that file name in the Photo column of your spreadsheet. - Upload all the photos at once on the roster page; they're matched to people by file name, resized and rotated the right way up automatically.
- Reordering later? Photos from earlier orders with the same file names are reused, so you only upload new people's photos.
- Photo day tip: tape a mark on the floor and keep the phone on a stand at the same spot, so every photo matches.
Privacy
Badge photos are personal data. Collect only what you need, store the files somewhere access-controlled, and delete old photos when people leave.