Passport interest

Hi. I have some neighbors that are wanting me to get into passport photography & whatever else goes along with that department. Does anyone know where I go to even begin to look into this??

Thanks.

The rules for passport photos are quite strict, much more so than most people realize. be prepared to buy special equipment.

The state department's web site can give you all the info you'll need http://www.state.gov/

I might add that it is hardly worth the effort. Around here a set of passport photos goes for something like 22-25.00. Most of the photographers that I know try to shy away from them and point the people to travel agents who offer it as an add-on service. I have had several calls about doing them and always turn them down. In Canada any photographic service provider can do them. All you have to do is make them the right size, on the right weight of paper and sign the back that you took them. It might be different in the US.

I've heard that that taking the pics for this is very difficult anymore...The lab I use does them and have had to make many retakes because they are not accepted by the government. AT least here in the US

The rules here in the UK are also pretty strict, but the photo booths are now geared up to conform to the guidelines (although it can be tricky to find a working photo booth these days).

Most people just go to a photo print shop and get it done there.

Our local provider and I discussed this just a few days agao. They have strict pose and process requirements. According to the instructions from state that she showed me, the following apply.

Two identical prints must be sent to the state dept. One will go in the passport, and one will remain in their records. For film, a particular negative film and a particular paper must be used. Prints from slides or Polaroids are no longer allowed. For digital, it must be taken with a camera having a specific number of megapixels (no more, no less), and must be printed on a particular paper using a dye-sub process. Ink-jet images are not allowed.

She has a kit, consisting of a camera, printer, cutter, and background screen, designed specifically for the job. The camera viewfinder has an outline of a head. The subject stands on a mark so the camera a predetermined distance from the subject. The background must be pure white. By positioning the individual's head within the outline, the image is appropriately centered.

The memory card is then placed in a special small dye-sub printer (she could use a cable, if she wished), which then prints two images on one sheet.

The image sheet (about 4×6) is then placed in a holder in the cutter. One of the images is positioned according to guide-line markings in a large die-cut opening. The handle is pulled and both pics are cut at once.

The backs of the pics are marked to certify who took them, when, and their license number. Kinda like being notarized.

A computer form is filled out, indicating the name, address, identification type, etc, of the subject, and kept in the photographer's records.

Even stricter requirements apply to pics for certain visas.

All this explains the cost of a couple of small prints.

The last time I had these taken, Ritz did it with a point and shoot digital camera. There are size and content requirements but the did nothing else special.

20droger wrote in post #3813625
...Two identical prints must be sent to the state dept. One will go in the passport, and one will remain in their records. For film, a particular negative film and a particular paper must be used. Prints from slides or Polaroids are no longer allowed. For digital, it must be taken with a camera having a specific number of megapixels (no more, no less), and must be printed on a particular paper using a dye-sub process. Ink-jet images are not allowed.
...

Don't you just LOVE the government? Your friend gets one set of instructions and the U.S. Department of State's web site says something else.

According to the link you gave, you CAN use ink-jet printers. As for the camera, 1-megapixel is the bottom end of the range, but you can be as high as you want. Also, the only requirement on the paper is "thin photo paper."

This is all very good stuff at the Department of State web site. It's target audience is a little lower than what we'd expect, but I think this is written for the general public.

The Main Photo Guideline Page: LINK
All the links below come from this page.

How To Setup Your Lights LINK
This is actually good stuff for anyone. It includes a 3/4 artist rendering of a studio with light positions. Down at the bottom of the page they tell you not to retouch or soften the photos. Zits and wrinkles should be left in place.

Composition Checklist: LINK
Complete with examples.

Photo Quality: LINK
Which is the gateway to the following categories:

Photo Quality: Brightness, Contrast and Color: LINK
Note that they recommend the use of filters to correct for cast or lighting color. While you may be tempted to adjust the color in Photoshop, they recommend that you do not retouch the photos at all. On-Camera Filters: Good; Photoshop Filters: Bad. Recommendations call for proper lighting, a grey card for exposure, and a white card for temperature.

Photo Quality: Head Position and Background: LINK
Excellent posing tips.

Photo Quality: Exposure and Lighting: LINK
Fans of the lighting tips found in the G&N forum be warned! Passport photos should not POP. The recommendations here will produce evenly lit, flat photos. They'll be good passport photos, but they won't make the cover of Vogue.

Photo Quality: Resolution and Printing Quality: LINK
Yes, you may use an ink-jet printer. HOWEVER, you still need to meet their guidelines. Other parts of the site recommend the use of printing labs. Their reasoning is the labs have better equipment and calibrate it more frequently than the home user (who most likely will only calibrate a printer when changing the cartridges). There are some great examples of good photo quality and bad photo quality.

Digital Photography and Printing: LINK
The Department of State recommends viewing your pictures on your computer for quicker results. Since they have such strict requirements, it'd be best to know what you've shot as quickly as possible. The recommended computer configuration is out of date. You'd have to visit a flea market to find this one. This is a text-heavy page, but it explains many of the "Whys" of what they want us to do as photographers.

The FAQ Page: LINK
The quick answers for people too impatient to read everything else. Everything here is covered on the other pages for which I've provided links.

Glossary of Terms: LINK
Much of what we already know. Read through it anyway just in case there's a term you've forgotten or you're not sure how to spell Aperture.

ssim wrote in post #3810704
I might add that it is hardly worth the effort. Around here a set of passport photos goes for something like 22-25.00. Most of the photographers that I know try to shy away from them and point the people to travel agents who offer it as an add-on service. I have had several calls about doing them and always turn them down. In Canada any photographic service provider can do them. All you have to do is make them the right size, on the right weight of paper and sign the back that you took them. It might be different in the US.

we recently paid $11 for two pictures but we had eight shot for each of us. the photographer used a polaroid looking rig that took two pictures at once.

you'd have to take a lot of pictures to break even in the equipment.

ed rader

Yeah I got mine done and it was done with a polaroid camera at a post office place. The lady pulled down a white screen behind me and took a shot. My brother got one as well - $10 apiece. I was pretty appalled at the quality of the photos, and even my mother was as well. She tried to discourage me from taking my own because of "strict regulations", but I read the info on the passport app and it didn't seem that strict. You have to make sure the head is a certain position on the frame, etc. but that is easy to make sure it is correct in photoshop. Anyway it took me a few mins to take the picture (couple tries cause of self timer) - I did it with onboard flash on a 350D and my tripod. Anyway my picture looked a lot better than theirs so I sent that in for my passport photo and now my passport photo is mine. After that I also did my brother's and my friend's.

As a service of my studio, I used to do passport photos but gave it up for reasons above (no profit). I now see that WalMart does them here for $10./set. Go figure....

I wouldn't recommend doing them to bring in customers. It didn't work for me.

I am a Kiwi living in Australia. My old passport had expired and I had to go through the machinations of getting a new one.

I rang the local photo shop about getting the required pictures. They asked what country the passport was for - I said NZ. Oh, no problems - they have special 'settings' for each country (this city is the federal capital of Australia - there are a lot of nationalities here).

I turn up - they grab their little camera - preload it with settings for NZ - point and shoot - done in seconds. 10 minutes later I have a bunch of pictures in an envelope in my pocket and I am heading off to complete the next stage...

I was interested to know that they cater for the different requirements for each country. Kinda makes it easy for the person to get the right pictures.

On another, similar, note - there is a frame shop in Sydney where he takes the passport pix with a 1DMK2N - we figure it was a way for him to get the camera through the business paying for it. Nice tax deduction with depreciation, too.

Well, from what I understand, here in the U.S. the requirements keep changing because Homeland Security (terrible name for a government branch) can't make up it's mind.

I kinda figured there were some strict guidelines, which there should be. I had heard thru the grapevine that the head needed to be a certain distance away from the camera, blah blah blah. But if any old person can take that shot at Walmart, you know they don't have the expertise they need (no offense to anyone in here that has worked there) - we don't have the "shapest tools in the shed" working at ours, yet they're still going thru the security department & coming out with the passports. So either the country is trying to freak everyone out, or Walmart is using special equipment.

I don't really look for it to bring in a ton of extra business, but hey, $10 is $10.