Question:
Is there any way to take passport pictures with a normal 35mm camera
and avoid paying the high fees of getting the pictures taken somewhere
else?
Answer:
for my four-year old's passport I took a picture with
my digital camera, printed it out the right size on photo-quality
paper and sent it in; it's on her passport now
If you are in the UK there are guidelines on the website for using your own
digital camera, but nothing about standard 35mm I suspect the quality would
not be good enough.
I always use a photo booth: they are cheap enough!
Pictures from photobooth costs £3 in UK. And with digital equipment inside
nowadays you only print out the ones you are happy with, and they come out
in the right size and format. Small price to pay for something that adorns
your passport for 5 to 10 years?
Just follow the directions that specify how large the head has to
be, where the person should be facing, how much of the shoulders and ears
should be showing, etc.
Figure out the ratio between the passport photo size and the size of the
prints you'll be getting, and use that to position the subject.
Easier still would be to use a digital camera.
If you have access to photo software on your computer, you could scan a print
and fix it (it has to be cropped and you have to have a light background).
Alternatively, if you have access to a digital camera, that is even better. I
made my own passport photos last December and they were accepted for my new US
passport without any problems at all. Cost about a dollar for 20 pictures.
I got a set of photos from a booth and then took several colour photocopies
just before Xerox made me redundant.
AAA auto club "Plus" membership, the photo is free and if you have a regular
membership the cost is $6. This is at my club, others should be comparable.
About 4 ¤/4 pictures in France. I just made some with my digital camera. I
took a picture of me, put 9 frames on a 10x15cm picture that I sent to an
online photo shop, that charges 0,25 ¤ per picture. I endend up with very
good quality pictures, for exactly 1/36th of the price I would have paid in
a booth...
How can the quality of a 35mm picture not be good enough?
35mm pics are often much better quality than low resolution digital
pictures.
The issue will be getting the size correct.
Important note: AAA is a consortium of regional auto clubs (one does
not belong to AAA, one belongs to one's regional club), and the
different regional clubs do not necessarily offer the same services.
On average you'll get a much better quality image from a traditional
camera than you will from a digital camera.
Let's try it again and this time please try to concentrate. My AAA auto
club offers two types of AAA memberships as do most AAA clubs. There is the
regular membership and there is a premium or "Plus" membership. If you are
a "Plus" member your passport photo is free. If you have a regular
membership you must pay $6 which is what I said in the first place.
High fees?
I just paid 3 Euros for 6 passport size photographs, taken in a photo
shop with a digital camera directly connected to a computer so that I
was able to select the photographs that I wanted before they printed
them.
35mm film and processing is going to cost a lot more than that.
here in the US the cheapest you can have passport pictures done
for is about $10, but they are as high as $20. They only give you two
pictures. I need 4 for passport and International drivers license, and
both my son and husband need 2 each. That amounts to $40 minimum for
only a few pictures.
I plan on getting the normal 4x6 size pictures developed. Can anyone
help me with the scales?
TWO RECENT IDENTICAL PHOTOGRAPHS. The photographs must have been taken
within the past six months and be a goodlikeness of you. The photographs
must be clear with a full front view of your face and taken on a light
(white or off-white) background. Photographs may be in color or black and
white and the image size must correspond to the dimensions on the diagram
on page 3 of this form. Photographs must be taken in normal street
attire, showing you without headcovering unless a signed statement is
submitted that the headcovering is worn daily for religious or medical
reasons. Dark glasses may not be worn in passport photographs unless a
doctor's statement is submitted supporting the wearing of dark glasses
for medical reasons.
The spot on the form is 2 inches high. So in landscape orientation (i.e.,
with the camera held normally), the person's face should fill somewhat less
than half of the height of the visible frame.
Assuming decent paper, the print from $100 HP or Epson color printer
and any modern digital camera will beat the pants off your average
point'n'shoot developed at Walmart. The primary stumbling block for
digital photography remains lack of resolution, but this is only an
issue if you're planning on printing something bigger than A4, and
certainly doesn't apply to passport photos!
