How To Take a Passport Picture

A passport picture is just a small picture. at the size of 4.5cmX3.5cm (5cmX5cm American, 5cmX7cm Canadian aan there may be other sizess for different countries.
Going to a photo store to take this picture can be very expensive, and making such set of pictures at home can be cheap and easy.
there are several basic requirements from a passport photo:

Photo must be a "front view" give a clear view
The face and a bit of the shoulders shoud be seen
The background for the photo should be in one light color
Eye color, skin tone and hair color should be clear.
There are some more strict requirements, but if you do as above, there is a good chance you are OK. see reference for more details.

So, what is the big deal about taking the picture yourself?? The deal is that it will be way, way cheaper to print the passport picture as a regular picture, than to take a specialized passport picture.

Following are the steps needed to make a bunch of passport pictures in various programs. if you go with small pictures 3.5X4.5 you get 6 per 10x15 picture.

Photoshop

Get a picture of your object on light background, lets call this picture the source picture
In Photoshop, create a new file at the size 10cmX15cm, with 300DPI resolution. Use black background. lets call this picture the destination picture.
now, pick the selection tool in PS, nad sett the selection ratio to 3.5 to 4.5 (which is like 7:9), and select the face on the source photo, to take most of the selected area.
copy your choice (CTRL+C) and paste it onto a new picture. now, resize to 3.5cmX4.5cm, with 300DPI.
select again and copy multiple times into the target picture.
merge the layers, and export as jpeg.
you are done.

Sample:

The picture we took for my baby daughter:

Reference:

http://www.ppt.gc.ca/passports/get_photo_specs_e.asp
http://travel.state.gov/passport/guide/faq/faq_881.html

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Comments

Thu, 2006-07-27 00:37 — david bailward (not verified)

back of passport photo

Did you not forget that the reverse side must, in Canada at least, have a printed declaration of photographer and date; also space for the guarantor's name, ID and signature?

Wed, 2007-10-10 05:32 — Saera (not verified)

Also, no shadows in the

Also, no shadows in the background, or what looks like parents fingers.... I unfortunately take passport photos every day.

Tue, 2006-10-24 08:27 — Anonymous (not verified)

Do-it-yourself Passport Photos

For U.S. nationals, one can find a description of how to make passport prints from your own head shot.

http://www.riceton.com/item/154

Fri, 2006-12-15 10:11 — Anonymous (not verified)

and "also at least in

and "also at least in Canada" your not allowed to have any shadow behind you.

Thu, 2007-09-20 17:10 — Anonymous (not verified)

as a passport photographer,

as a passport photographer, im looking and seeing shadows, glare, and what looks like somebodys finger. also you have to be certified to take one.

Sat, 2007-11-24 06:01 — NicMyers.com (not verified)

Photoshop Passport Template

I created a passport template for photoshop to speed up the process of creating US passport photos. It's located (with tutorial) here: http://www.nicmyers.com/2006/12/12/photoshop-passport-template-v1/

Fri, 2008-01-04 04:22 — Yeah right..... (not verified)

Certified passport photographer.....

Yeah right you do not have to be certified. You shouldnt give people false info just to take their money. My friends all took the photos and there is no law saying you need a special license or certification.

Mon, 2008-03-17 22:10 — Jay Bedingfield (not verified)

Don't need certification

I used to work at the photography studio inside a WalMart in California and we did passport photos. There is no certification requirement. The only regulations are in the passport documentation. Light background and the dimensions (2X2, head about 1 inch tall), no visible supports for children, clear image of the face with no sunglasses, hats or glare from prescription glasses, un-retouched, printed on thin photo paper, and if digital at least a one megapixel source image. Even then its at the passport offices discretion so it could be a bad WalMart photo and get rejected just as much as it could be a perfectly acceptable home-done image. They don't ask you where you take it, they just look at the picture.
I'm actually going to submit the image online to get printed at clarkcolor.com rather then do an inkjet photo printout because I believe the quality of the image will turn out better on real photo paper.

Sat, 2008-07-26 00:27 — techgeek (not verified)

Easy transform Passport Picture at Home

This is the easiest way to make a passport size .jpg at home.Try to take a picutre using digital camera just top of your body upto shoulder. Transfer .jpg to the computer. Launch the Adobe photoshop(PS). Drag the picture to PS. Click File->New. Select image->width 2 inch height 2 inch. Background White. Click rectangle marque tool and select the whole or part of the .jpg . click Edit->copy. Now select the new untitled image(2in X 2in). Click Edit->Paste. Right click the image and do Free Transform. Now you will see the pasted .jpg. size accordingly to fit in 2X2in box. Hit Enter to commit the transform. Now you got the 2X2in passport image. If you want to change background of the image click the color picker and set the color white. Now Click Edit->Fill. Select use : background Color and Blending Mode as Overlay. Hit OK . Now the image background will change to bright white. Save the image as .jpg. Now you got 2 X 2 in passport picture and take it to any store and get printout which will workout lot cheaper than Walgreen or Costco.

Sat, 2008-07-26 11:27 — udijw

Thanks for sharing this technique

It sounds like it is a fast and easy way to produce American sized passport image.

Sun, 2008-08-03 22:16 — Anonymous (not verified)

Try this software, it's free. Perfect for US passport photo DIY.

This software, PassportPhotoCropper, is easy to make a US passport photo. It is free. It's definitely easy to use and strictly compliant with the Passport photo standard. Try it. http://passportphotos.me

Wed, 2008-09-10 10:26 — manchit (not verified)

But the problem is the shadows

All this is fine.
How will you eliminate shadows though?
For that you do need basic lighting setup.

Wed, 2008-09-10 13:26 — udijw

re: shadows

You are correct. It is funny to see this picture and realize how far I have changed as a photographer.

You can either use a basic lighting kit, or simpler yet, take the picture in a shadowed location

Tue, 2008-09-23 01:29 — Daniella (not verified)

I need help and soon.

Okay, here's my deal. I have had the stupid pic taken and I look nothing like the picture. I don't know why I'm not as photogenic as I was at one time, but I've actually been pulled over when travelling because they have not believed the picture was me!! How's that for each time I travel.

What's the big deal any ways, people in immigration don't know what we look like any way and I have a picture that I do look like to a tee, the only thing, it does look like it's air brushed, but it's not!! So, any suggestions would be appreciated.

If you need me to explain this better, just ask, it may seem vague.

Mon, 2008-10-06 17:57 — xiops (not verified)

Fri, 2009-08-07 08:20 — Anonymous (not verified)

If you got an iPhone/iPod, you can create your own passport pic

An iPhone application "PassportCAM" will do the trick for you. It can take many different passport photo format around the world.

Try below link

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=323038...

Thu, 2009-10-15 21:54 — Corne (not verified)

Great article. Was good help

Thanks

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