Taking your own passport photos

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smugor

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I really hate those photo booths. :)

I once took my own a few years back using a P&S, but only for my driving license. It went fine, though I can't find those any more and doubt they'd be good enough quality wise.

I'm due a new passport now though and would really like to get some good ones. I have a D90 but no external flashes or any fancy white reflector things.

Just wondering if anyone has done this and has any tips etc? I'm especially interested in how I should attempt to light this.

My fear is that they look fine to me and I send them in only to have them rejected weeks later, but I'm probably worrying about nothing.

The guidelines and stuff are here if anyone's curious :

http://www.ips.gov.uk/cps/rde/xchg/ips_live/hs.xsl/36.htm
http://www.ips.gov.uk/cps/rde/xchg/ips_live/hs.xsl/36.htm

Thanks.
 
I took my passport shots a year ago, just set up with a neutral cream background in the conservatory and shot with available light. The light through the roof panels gave a good even illumination.
 
I think that WDC link is out of date. Didn't they change the background requirement to be a neutral grey now?

I took all ours last year....Then gave up and got them done at Tesco. I couldn't be bothered faffing around for the sake of 4 quid lol :p
 
i'm a bit wary about taking my own because there are so many hoops you have to jump through to get it right first time ie: cant smile, background colour size etc.
Having said that I went to a pro a few years ago and he charged me £15 each for my wife and I so will be looking at the alternatives when it comes to renew again.
Dave
 
Have done this twice, once for me last year and once for my fiancee this year. Just done against a cream wall with natural available light (making sure the illumination was pretty even). Make sure you frame an area bigger than required for the passport photo so you can adjust position and trim in photoshop etc.

Both photos were accepted no problem
 
I tried doing the same last year for family and they were very similar in colour, lighting and sizing to the ones they show in the information booklet.
Unfortunately they came back to me requesting another set, so gave up trying and went to two different places - Jacobs and a booth just as an experiment. The Jacobs ones were quite dark and looked nothing like the samples shown in the passport information booklet despite them claiming to be an approved place, and the booth ones were a lot better.
So part of me thinks there may also be something in the quality of the printer or photo paper used perhaps - after all they need to take a digital scan so maybe the dpi of the print needs to be specific?
 
I didn't have any problems, I used a bounced flash.

Took a little while to get the photo to the right size and what have you though - next time I'd probably just use a photo booth.
 
I did this for my wife and as she wanted it checked by the post office the clerk decided that they didnt conform. What rubbish I sent them off and they where used by the passport office.
 
I took mine and the other halfs when they came up for renewal, after shelling out £7 in the woolworths photo booth and then having them rejected due to a mottled background.

I took them outside, bang at noon against a kindof ivory coloured wall with on camera flash with the camera in landscape and they came out fine. Its definitely worth doing your passport application/renewal via the post office fast track. Its a couple of quid more and they check everything, and we had the passports back in the same week. They were the ones that told me about the background in the first batch of photos.
 
Our local photography studio charges £6.90 for 2, £8.20 for 4 and £8.90 for 6.
Dearer than a booth but a much better photo. Not worth doing it myself and risk a rejection.
 
If you use an "approved" photographer, do they (some?) not guarantee that your shots will be accepted or will re-shoot for free if they're not? I've never done it this way before, but it rings a bell.

Otherwise, just bite the bullet and go to the booths. The photo only gets seen for 2 minutes a couple of times at the airport/immigration so it's not like they have to be beautiful or perfectly exposed for critique.
 
i travel a fair amount and for the last 10 years my passport photo has been a laughable one of me stood up awkwardly in a chemist wearing my school uniform. i have experienced many people laugh at it when checking into hotels etc. :)

i'd like a nice one this time but may just end up in a booth. natural light sucks this time of year, especially given the usual time i get up. :(

thanks for the posts.
 
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