Passport Photos

D

Dan1502

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331
Name
Dan
Edit My Images
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Hi

I've just tried taking my own passport photos and resizing them in photoshop then printing samples out on my inkject, the idea being to get them printed professionally if ok.

Anyway, I read all the guidlelines and the following tutorial

http://www.ephotozine.com/article/How-to-take-passport-photographs-11755

I set my 50D up on a tripod with a flash bouncing of the ceiling. I tried various apertures from f4.0 up to f8.0 using a Canon 17-55 lens set to a focal length of about 50mm.

Anyway, I think I have got the proportions spot on but the images don't seem particularly sharp after resizing down and also when printed, the images are too dark (they look fine on screen). I can see the pixels on the printouts. I'm also not sure if my eyes are well enough lit or too much in shadow due to the flash bouncing off the ceiling.

Should I just give up or are there any simple things I can do with regards taking the photos, adjusting settings (such as shooting RAW and sharpening after) and such like. (I shot on aperture priority, jpeg at highest resolution and set the white balance to flash).

I could post the before and after pics later but have to go out in a minute.

I'd prefer not to give up on this as I've spent a bit of time on it now and I would prefer to have a reasonable picture for the next 10 years!

Thanks

Dan
 
Is your computer and printer calibrated? As this could be some of the reasons why the prints are looking underexposed compared to your computer monitor.

But apart from that I can't really say as I've never attempted it before.
 
Sometimes the dark printouts are a colour profile issue, other times, the heads just need a clean. I have done this both sucessfully and of course unsucessfully. I 'fiddled' with the printer settings and the colour profiles and happily got a printout that looked human and not dark/grey. Done this on at least 4 occassions now for family/friends and no complaints from the passport office either.

K
 
I think I've managed to sort this now. Basically the resizing method on the tutorial was either wrong or not explained well. I managed to resize whilst retaining maximum relolution then print at maximum dpi on my HP Photosmart.

I also found out about ICM (and/or ICC?) profiles and matched the printer settings to the photoshop settings for the same or very similar paper to what I was using and the results were much better.

Does anyone know if you have to have the photos professionally printed or if they are printed at maximum resolution on photo paper and meet all the other criteria they will be ok? I am also planning on using the check and send service at the post office - if they say they are ok is that it or can they still be rejected?
 
Dan1502 said:
I think I've managed to sort this now. Basically the resizing method on the tutorial was either wrong or not explained well. I managed to resize whilst retaining maximum relolution then print at maximum dpi on my HP Photosmart.

I also found out about ICM (and/or ICC?) profiles and matched the printer settings to the photoshop settings for the same or very similar paper to what I was using and the results were much better.

Does anyone know if you have to have the photos professionally printed or if they are printed at maximum resolution on photo paper and meet all the other criteria they will be ok? I am also planning on using the check and send service at the post office - if they say they are ok is that it or can they still be rejected?
Click to expand...

Photos and passports, arghh! My daughter had a photo rejected for one passport after it had been perfectly accpetable for the previous issue (only one year apart), don't ask!

As far as I can gather 'they', can and do, reject photos at any stage and the post office only check that there are responses at all appropriate places with appropriate seeming documents enclosed.
 
Dan1502 said:
Anyway, I read all the guidlelines and the following tutorial

http://www.ephotozine.com/article/How-to-take-passport-photographs-11755
Click to expand...

You should really follow the official guide

Dan1502 said:
I set my 50D up on a tripod with a flash bouncing of the ceiling. I tried various apertures from f4.0 up to f8.0 using a Canon 17-55 lens set to a focal length of about 50mm.
Click to expand...

The recommended way is to use 2x softboxes / umbrellas, each at 45 degree to the person, and 2x background lights. Background should be around 4% grey. Perhaps you can get away with popup flash but this won't give the same output.

Dan1502 said:
Anyway, I think I have got the proportions spot on but the images don't seem particularly sharp after resizing down and also when printed, the images are too dark (they look fine on screen). I can see the pixels on the printouts. I'm also not sure if my eyes are well enough lit or too much in shadow due to the flash bouncing off the ceiling.
Click to expand...

You should be looking at histogram!!! Printer calibration comes in next.
Reflector should handle the shadows (there should be none!). The flash needs to be around 50mm +1 EV to expose properly as you waste light around the room.
How are you resizing? You should have 300 dpi file for printing. Sharp focus is another must. Were you shooting in manual mode and at max sync speed at ISO100-200? Otherwise you must have had an enormous exposure or crazy high ISO - or both :D

Dan1502 said:
Should I just give up or are there any simple things I can do with regards taking the photos, adjusting settings (such as shooting RAW and sharpening after) and such like. (I shot on aperture priority, jpeg at highest resolution and set the white balance to flash).
Click to expand...

You should set your camera to RAW now, and never touch that setting again. White balance is probably slightly off. It can be adjusted in post by measuring a grey (colourless) area or by setting custom white balance (refer to camera manual).

These are things you need to get used to for all photography.
 
I've read somewhere recently (maybe here) that inkjet printed passport photos will bleed over the years and turn to crap. I've printed my own on the small Canon dye sub printers. Worked perfectly and will last forever.
 
Stop!
As stated above, Inkjet prints will be rejected as the water-based inks are not compliant.
The laminate process used in passports will cause the ink to 'bleed' over a period of time making the image blurred.
This information was given to us (the Army) by the passport office and was the reason we purchased dye-sublimation printers (same as used in photo-kiosks) which do not have this problem.

There's nothing stopping you from taking the photos as long as they're in compliance with the rules, but you'll have to take them to Boots or another photo shop that has one of those self-service printing stations - they have dye-sub printers in them as well...
 
Thanks guys.

I did read the official guidelines including the full version for photographers and whilst I don't have all the kit suggested I thought I ought to be able to get results as good if not better than a booth.

I used an old external flash angled up at the ceiling along with being sat opposite a window so some light from the front too.

The photos were sharp but not the pictures and I have since rectified this.

I do generally shoot in RAW but was concerned that they say no manipulation allowed. Well, every photo has some manipulation, it's just a case of whether the camera does it or you do it in software - right?

The one that comes out best on my printer has just had the exposure increased a little and the lightness increased a touch. I then have two that both look ok, one with the original cream background and one where I've filled the background with light grey.

Having just checked, the photo was taken at f6.3, 1/13s ISO400.

If I take it to be printed, is it likely to come out similarly to on my printer?

One final question that I've been thinking about as a result of this is whether I should be using the sRGB colour profile setting for shooting or something else?

I'm not keen on posting my passport pic on here but could save it to photobucket and pm someone a link if they wouldn't mind commenting.

Thanks again

Dan
 
I just shoot Passport-pix at JPEG-medium and be done with it - it's a passport photo, FFS, not something that's going in the National Portrait Gallery...

As long as it conforms to what they ask for, it'll be fine.
 
I've used mypix.com to get mine, my wifes and my three girls.

They only charge £1 per passport picture (6 images) but the carriage on top makes it just under £4 so makes it worthwhile if you have several to order at the same time :|
 
costco will do them on a passport calibrated camera and no mistakes
3 for £3..iirc

dont let your passport application get sent back because of diy photos as nearly happened to me using a post office machine which wasnt calibrated for the passport regulation parameters
 
Well, I decided to get them printed on a Boots instant machine. I noticed a very small crease in the surface so whilst pointing it out to the photo counter assistant I asked him if the photos were proper professional quality as I was using them for passport photos.

Well, what a hassle. After quite a long discussion (shall we say) I got him to call someone to check as all I wanted was to know if they were or not as otherwise I would have let him process them on his big machine!

Having confirmed they were proper photos I then reprinted them on another machine and they came out fine.

I've not trimmed two sets with a proper guilotine so they are precisely the right size and have checked the proportions and the chin to head top is about 31mm and all is according to the template so they should be fine.

One set is on the orginal light cream background and on the other I have replaced the background with a light grey (50% grey with 10% opacity).

I'm not entirely sure which to use as the only minor doubt I have in my mind is the 1 pixel line you get around the head when replacing the colour (which is a light cream not white anyway) - given that the resolution I worked with was thousands of dpi, I can't see it being a problem.

I just have to decide which to use now.

I don't have much leeway time if they are rejected as I go away in about 5 weeks but I've gone this far and am determined to see it through!

I'll let you know what happens.

(oh and I wasn't doing this to save costs, I just wanted to choose a reasonable photo and also wanted to do it as I have decent gear and want to use it)
 
Dan1502 said:
Having just checked, the photo was taken at f6.3, 1/13s ISO400.

Dan
Click to expand...

You must be kidding. This means blurry image and completely messed up colours. Find a studio to do the photo and then go read your camera manual and flash manual.
 
It seemed odd to me. I should explain that it was the first time I'd tried the flash and it is a very old one I found in the attic that my Dad gave me with film SLR years ago (which I didn't use). It's Canon compatible but basically has a slide that tells you what aperture to set (which I did). I checked that the flash was firing which it was but was surprised at the slow shutter speeds.

The photos are pretty sharp though, probably due to the tripod and remote and reasonable amount of natural light.

I do want to read up on basic flash photography but haven't had time yet.

Any basic tips welcomed. I also need to work out if this old (Vivitar) flash is worth bothering with as a starting point or not.
 
Having read the camera manual again, it is possible that as I was shooting in aperture priority mode, it operated as automatic slow speed sync. To be honest flash photography is something I know very little about. I wish to learn more about it as I also had trouble getting to grips with the use of my strobe underwater as I haven't yet found very good and simple guides. If anyone can point me in the right direction - advice and/or links to tutorials etc, that would be great.
 
Just an update. I submitted my application by check and send at the post office a week, last Friday and received the passport today with no problems and am pleased to have managed to produce an acceptable photo myself.

The only adjustment I recall making (other than to the size/crop) were exposure and lightness and possibly a very mild high pass filter (lab colour, overlay blending).

However as the output was quite different to how it looked on my monitor it has led to me looking carefully into calibration and all the complexity that goes with it.
 
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