Painless passport photos
January 16, 2006
Achieving a decent passport photo of yourself, which both matches the legal requirements and coincides with a good hair day is tough enough but have you ever tried to meet all the criteria for a baby’s passport photo? And have you ever tried to do it in one of those photo booths?
Trying to hold an infant on its seat, without either dropping the child or getting in the picture yourself is a nightmare.
Yes, I know I should have gone to a professional photographer last time but from now on I am going to recommend people try epassportphoto.com
I just put it through its paces and it seems to work well. Find a plain backcloth, line up your offspring, fire away and then upload the image.
You can crop and rotate at will and it lays out a sheet of regulation-sized images.
Then you either send this away for printing or - my choice - print it yourself.
Stress-less. Almost
Found on Lifehacker.
Update: Not so great after all. There’s a piece in today’s Guardian about printing your own passport photos. Entirely discouraging:
"The issue isn’t the digital cameras, it’s the printing," confirms the spokesman. "You have to print out at a resolution of 1200dpi [dots per inch] or it isn’t good enough. The problem is whether the image is of sufficient quality when you come to any border in the future to give a good biometric match."
The introduction last year of new standards for passport photos has led to more rejections - though not principally because of poor cameras. (A two megapixel camera will capture enough detail to give a legal passport photo.) If you want your photo to be approved, don’t invest in a printer, buy a comb. "Hair obscuring face" is the most common reason for photos being rejected.
Comments
5 Responses to “Painless passport photos”
It is no longer advisable to print your own passport photo. Since the UK implemented new international standards on passport photos the Passport Office has been rejecting hundreds of photos printed on home printers - sometimes even when using photo paper on a photo printer! See the UKPS website and The Times:
http://www.ukps.gov.uk/news/news.asp?intElement=1116
http://travel.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,10295-1984107,00.html
Killjoys. I am going to put this to the test at our Glasgow passport centre - just as soon as I have a spare ten hours to queue. Thanks Stuart.
Killjoys. I am going to put this to the test at our Glasgow passport centre - just as soon as I have a spare ten hours to queue. Thanks Stuart.
Neil,
I believe that the Guardian article mainly talks about folks who photoshop their wrinkles, pimples, etc. Have you managed to test your passport centre?
Neil,
I believe that the Guardian article mainly talks about folks who photoshop their wrinkles, pimples, etc. Have you managed to test your passport centre?