Eliminating shadows

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aeronic

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Name
Steven
Edit My Images
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I am trying to take some passport photos of my family, and have searched numerous threads on this forum - but they all seem to be concerned with photoshop, not the actual lighting of the photo.

I am very aware that the photo should have a light cream/grey background, so am using a light cream wall as background.

I have an a single nissin 622 flash, which I can either use on camera, or off camera (to light the wall, but it ended up blown out white even on lowest power).

So far, my best efforts have been to put the flash on camera, turn down as low as possible, and then use Manual on the camera until I get an exposure that I'm happy with. (however, that ends up leading to higher ISO and possibly a DoF that is too narrow).

Diagram:

C/F ---- S -- |

C/F = camera/flash
S = subject
| = wall

Any suggestions would be warmly welcomed.
 
Passport photos are very specific so you need to be careful it needs to have even lighting and i think I read somewhere white or neutral grey background. I think you will struggle to get a decent passport photo with a 1 light set especially with it on the BG not the person up I think you would probably need a min of 3 lights

You need to light the person and the wall, so you would light the wall and set your exposure then add your subject and add mote light to light them correctly. Might be better to hop down to a photo booth - probably easier with a result that will be accepted (but maybe not as nice but ID photos arent designed to be are they!).
 
I managed to get mine done at home, but when I went to get the passport they rejected them because they had been home printed and the ink wasn't acceptable. You will be better off going to the booth.
 
I didn't expect everyone to be so downbeat!!
This is my best effort so far, no editing except crop.


IMG_4362.jpg by aero7, on Flickr

Obviously it's not the correct size/aspect for passport photos yet, still playing...
 
Wasn't trying to be down beat just trying to save you time, effort and money. By all means go for it but they are exceedingly picky about the photos used!
 
Yeah, my photo was perfect, they had no complaints with that, it was because of the home printing ink, they said it was unacceptable.
 
I'm going to resize and put 6 of them on a 6x4 sheet and get them printed at tesco :)
 
I do LOTS of passport photos. All printed on a Kodak printer. No problems.
 
I seem to recollect that passport photos require spectacles removed.
 
Dave Stone said:
I do LOTS of passport photos. All printed on a Kodak printer. No problems.
Click to expand...

Maybe I just have a 'jobsworth' in my local post office. Mine were done with Epson ink on good quality paper. He rubbed his finger over it a few times and gave it back. :shrug:
 
Strangways said:
They are okay, it is no sunglasses or tinted glasses.
Click to expand...

Apologies, you are correct. I remember having to remove mine, but they are photochromic lenses which are (like me!) getting on a bit and no longer go completely clear.
 
I did mine myself, Epson Photo RX585 printer, Epson Premium Glossy Paper (there is nothing special about either of these). Printed as per specification on the direct.gov website.

By the way, I sent in two pictures printed on a single piece of paper, NOT trimmed to size.

If you go through the Post Office checking system my opinion is that they are overly strict as they need to make sure it doesn't come back to them. I think the service they offer is crap (recently at the PO on a different matter the lady in front of me had her passport application rejected for using a 'rollerball' pen instead of a 'biro' (the actual requirement is 'ballpoint', either should be fine)).

I wouldn't bother with the post office, it seems everyone who has had their's rejected used the PO, send them direct. This was all just recently in December, btw.
 
I did all of our family's ones at home, printed via photo box for a couple of quid. Post office seemed ok with them and they didn't come back.
 
Everybody seems to be making this hard....

Legal reqs (including a link to the official source) - http://www.photobox.co.uk/shop/prints/passport-id-photos

Plus I'd get Photobox to print them. Why take the chance of getting it rejected for a couple of quid? They printed mine about 8 years ago.

Re taking the picture....I'd use ISO 400 ish, f8, stick the flash on the camera and point it backwards at a neutral coloured wall. FWIW I bet they would accept the one above. It's only like 2 inches square.
 
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