Passport photos

IvanOpinion

We got ours done in a Kodak shop and it was about £9-10 each. We got some printed ones and an electronic copy sent for upload purposes.

quoia

eDicky said:

How are you making your application? If online, you can upload your photo taken in a way to fulfill the requirements. Any smartphone already has a camera app, if applying on your phone it can be used to take and submit your photo, but somebody else must take the photo because a selfie is a mirror image, useless for the biometrics.

With a paper application you're at the mercy of a photo studio or booth, sorry I've no idea of the cost, usually these days they issue a code to submit to HM Passport Office for them to upload.

My phone has a setting for Front Camera to turn MIRROR OFF

The selfie image on the screen is STILL the same as before (as though you are looking in a mirror) and if you hold a newspaper across your chest the writing is all back to front

BUT the PHOTO SAVED is as though someone else took it !

The image of the newspaper is correct and perfectly readable


Regarding the photo itself here are the official guidelines

https://www.gov.uk/photos-for-passports

Unlike some years ago you now take a much wider shot including shoulders and arms/torso

You DO NOT need to crop or re-size the image yourself - when you apply online and go to upload the photo the program will find your face and select exactly which bit is required for your passport image.

Not only that but IT WILL RATE the quality of the photo - Poor, Average or Good - an arrow pointer on a rotary scale - like the needle on a car's speedometer.

I actually applied myself just over 2 weeks ago.
I'd got 3 very slightly different photos that I thought would be suitable.

The 1st one came up as quite POOR and suggested to try again

Despite the 2nd being all but identical to the 1st it scored rather GOOD so I submitted it

I have since been informed that my passport application has been APPROVED !!!

So all good and no need to spend the £8 or £10 that the photo booths I'd checked out were going to charge me to do this...

... and that is now at least 3 times I've done it myself without ever having one rejected.

maman

IvanOpinion said:

We got ours done in a Kodak shop and it was about £9-10 each. We got some printed ones and an electronic copy sent for upload purposes.

We used a local camera shop to do the same for a similar price. 

I know it's more mse to DIY but it was worth it to know the photos were acceptable. We were given a code to use when doing the online renewal.

We did this at the start of last month and the passports arrived in 2 weeks. 😊

TonyMMM

Just renewed mine with a photo taken on my phone ( but by my wife)...no issues at all.