Rejected passport photo - Possible to correct in photoshop?

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Hi all,

I did some photos at a local toddler group, and a parent asked if I could just do some quick passport photos while I was there.

The sizings of the photographs are fine, and so are the positioning of the head/shoulders of the baby + children.

But just had a phonecall from the parent saying the photos were rejected due to the background being white.....as oppose to grey or cream (sounds a bit OTT to me)

I really don't want to have to go and set everything back up again just to take 3 photos.

So my question is.... can I simply adjust the background in photoshop to "grey" or "cream"?
Will that be acceptable?

Thanks

djs
 
I have done some recently against white no problems ..!


Although they where not printed at home .. Everything I get printed is sent away...

md
 
Picky, picky picky.
 
mastertrinity said:
yeah theoretically if you adjust the levels you can darken the background and not affect the overall exposure.
Click to expand...

Any tips on doing this? I've had a play with the levels, but can't seem to change the background only.

On 2 of the photos I've just selected the white background and changed it to grey with paintbucket.

But on the 3rd photo, the little girl has curly hair so it's going to take forever to change the white areas to grey.
Any way around this?

Thanks
 
We had to give this advisory when being asked to do passport photos:
We can take it, but you have to print it at a 'proper' printer's.
Inkjet prints 'bleed' under the laminate used in passports - takes a year or so to show, but on a 10-yr passport after 6 years you have a nice blur instead of your mug.

Just another reason it may be rejected.

Funnily we had no problem with 'plain' pale blue, grey, cream or off-white backgrounds...
Most of the ones I did were up against the office wall which was painted the MoD standard pale beige...
 
Any idea why they don't like white backgrounds?
 
Not dark enough grey if I remember correctly from the ones we did last year.
Nice photos though...

Kev.
 
I've just done my passport renewal photo myself. It had been taken against a white-ish background but eventually printed out much greyer. I printed on a small Canon dye sub printer, which I also used for my driving licence renewal recently. Both accepted without complaint.

And the passport office is playing the old supermarket trick. They've put the price up, which we all know about. But the new passport has two pages less than the old.
 
Thanks for the replies. Ive checked mine against the examples on their website and the grey colour is very close.

We'll see what they say this time.
 
Just checked my passport photo, done at my local photolab, who have a passport photo service. The background is virtually pure white.

However, they advised me to take off my specs as, apparently, any reflections in the lenses will mean the pictures get rejected.
 
djs said:
http://66.7.217.94/~jaffahol/TalkPhotog/passportEDIT.jpg

Could someone please just check this link and see if you think this will "PASS"?

The top row are the edited ones, bottom row are originals

Thanks
Click to expand...

I take photos for people's passports, visas, bus passes, etc at work, lots per day!

So, in my (loosely educated!) opinion, the background isn't dark enough. Just a wee bit darker!

Another thing to mention is that they're not a fan of hair on any part of the face. Eyebrows ought to be showing if possible. They are more lenient with under 5's, however :)
 
Cyprino said:
I take photos for people's passports, visas, bus passes, etc at work, lots per day!

So, in my (loosely educated!) opinion, the background isn't dark enough. Just a wee bit darker!

Another thing to mention is that they're not a fan of hair on any part of the face. Eyebrows ought to be showing if possible. They are more lenient with under 5's, however :)
Click to expand...

Thanks very much Chris.
I'll alter it tomorrow before getting it printed
 
I did my driving licence picture years back on a poor webcam, with a messy background that i changes to white, my hair looked crap in the picture so i changed that whilst i was there. I was fully expecting it to be rejected but went through fine, that was a while ago though and passports are stricter, just the thought of my photoshopped licence picture always makes me laugh.
 
I think you need to be able to clearly define the face from the background, and if the background is pure white it can make it hard due to the brightness.
 
Now I could be wrong but it looks like you have post processed the images as well.

Doing this is also a no no and I have a sneaky suspicion that even if you change the background they will get rejected again due to PP

The photographs should be as they come with no PP, also subjects should be straight on in the pictures, I notice that one of the girls is slightly sideways on and this could also get rejected
 
djs said:
Any idea why they don't like white backgrounds?
Click to expand...
I took some for my mother (against a magnolia painted wall) and they were rejected for being too dark. I could have tweaked them in PS but the Post Office had already sent her to the local photographer.
 
ive only ever had mine done in those silly photobooths. they have a pure white background so i cant see that being a problem??
 
A few other things on those photos that could be a problem. A mate of mine used to do passport photos in atravel agency and do the check and send in there as well so I got her advice when takeing a few for freinds.

Background colour you have sorted, I'm not sure they kicked them out for that as my passport photo was done against a white background as long as there was clear seperation it was fine. she used to use a pop up white background.

Head and shoulders should be square on to the camera, the lad is going to the right the middle girl is to the left

Head and shoulders should be centred in the photo, head is on them but shoulders as above are not centred, it was always advised to have both shoulders in view for kids as they are narrow it results in the face being centered and not filling the frame the face should not take the full width of the frame. the face should be 29mm high but no more than 34mm high yours may be slightly too big.

Eyes must be open with no flash reflection or red eye, you have catch lights in them all from your flash

Mouth should be closed with no expression so no smiling (this is not required for under 6 years old) It is difficult to get young kids not to smile when taking photos so they let you off on it the only one this would affect I think is the 2nd girl she looks older and is sort of smiling
 
Peter-T said:
ive only ever had mine done in those silly photobooths. they have a pure white background so i cant see that being a problem??
Click to expand...

i used one in the post office...its said for passports...when i got to the counter to do the post office check procedure they said it was the wrong size and my nose wasnt in the right spot...etc....you know the constraints

went to costco and they did them with a 'passport' camera...at a fraction of the cost

any help?
 
General photo requirements

* Eyes must be open and clearly visible, with no flash reflections and no "red eye"
* Facial expression must be neutral (not frowning nor smiling) with the mouth closed
* Photos must show both edges of the face clearly
* Photos must show a full front view of face and shoulders, squared to the camera
* Photos must not show the subject looking over one shoulder (portrait style) or with head tilted to one side or backwards or forwards
* The face and shoulder image must be centered in the photo
* There must be no hair across the eyes
* Photos must reflect/represent natural skin tone
* Photos must be clear, sharp and in focus
* Photos with shadows on the face or background are unacceptable
* Photos must be taken with uniform lighting and not show shadows or flash reflection on the face and head
* Photos must show a plain, uniform, light grey or cream background. 5 - 10% grey is recommended as a background.
* Hats or head coverings are not permitted except when worn for religious reasons and only if the full facial features are clearly visible
* Black and white photos are not acceptable
*

Where very young children are being supported, ensure that hands are not visible. We recommend that infants who are unable to support themselves are laid on a light grey sheet and photographed from above.
*

Photos must not be manipulated, for example, by removing spots or softening lines, shadows, etc

Exceptions to our photo policy

* For children aged over 1 and under 6 years, the requirements for mouths to be closed and eyes looking at the camera are waived.

http://www.ips.gov.uk/cps/files/ips/live/assets/documents/ips_eye_distance_template_trade_v1.pdf
 
I use the machine at my local Asda and they work a treat!
 
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