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How to save $$$ on your Passport Photo


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OK, I admit it, I look lousy in most photos; I just do not photograph well. Passport photos are a real challenge, but I have found the solution to the $9.99-12.99 photos that most drug stores charge for a single shot--that usually looks awful!

First print out the passport application on line that shows you the exact size of the photo that is required. Find a blank white wall. Get a friend to take several photos of you with a simple digital camera. The photo taker should be between 2 and three feet from your face. Take SEVERAL photos till you get four you like, at slightly differing distances from the camera. (Delete the other bad photos).

Take the memory card from the camera, and go to a drugstore or Costco or anyplace that has those do-it-yourself Kodak camera machines. Print the four photos. When they come out of the machine, compare the size of your head to the passport application photo grid, and choose the one that fits the photo grid best.

Pay for the photos--total cost about $1.50, and you'll get a photo that you actually like!

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Hmm.... when having passport and id pictures taken.... think about dressing up or possibly "glam" it up when you show up at the pharmacy or Costco photographer. Makes a huge difference and you'll be proud of the picture.

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My passport came back with a picture that was actually worse than the picture I sent them. They used to laminate the original you sent to the passport. Now they print it directly on the passport. Apparently the passport shifted in the printer and one half of my face is lower than the other. It is quite ghoulish, really. Comparatively, my driver's license is stunning.

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Who is EVER going to see your passport photos except for customs agents and TSAs? Passport photo are not meant to be flattering, they are meant to be a likeness. Directions say that a neutral expression is preferred and they should be head-on and a certain distance from the background. Head should take up a certain amount of the space,

DH and just sent in our renewals and got our pictures done at AAA (free with membership). They met all requirements, which I am afraid of not meeting if I tried to take them myself (or have a friend take them)

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Yes, taking your own pictures might require a piece of white poster board as a background and perhaps 30 minutes of fiddling with the sizes ... but you absolutely can take your own pictures.

 

Remember that your picture must be taken "straight on", and you cannot wear any hats or anything else that could be considered "a disguise" in your picture.

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  • 2 weeks later...
OK, I admit it, I look lousy in most photos; I just do not photograph well. Passport photos are a real challenge, but I have found the solution to the $9.99-12.99 photos that most drug stores charge for a single shot--that usually looks awful!

First print out the passport application on line that shows you the exact size of the photo that is required. Find a blank white wall. Get a friend to take several photos of you with a simple digital camera. The photo taker should be between 2 and three feet from your face. Take SEVERAL photos till you get four you like, at slightly differing distances from the camera. (Delete the other bad photos).

Take the memory card from the camera, and go to a drugstore or Costco or anyplace that has those do-it-yourself Kodak camera machines. Print the four photos. When they come out of the machine, compare the size of your head to the passport application photo grid, and choose the one that fits the photo grid best.

Pay for the photos--total cost about $1.50, and you'll get a photo that you actually like!

 

This is probably one of the funniest posts I've ever read on this website. Are you kidding me? You spend like 3 hours with another person taking your own passport pictures to save under $10? I'm sorry but that works out to around $3 an hour for each of you. Suck it up man! If you can't afford the cruise pictures then you can't afford the drive to the airport, the parking, the flight, the airfare, the cruise, the return..... Seriously it's like $8 - or free at AAA.

 

What if those great pictures don't pass muster with the US passport office. Then you have to resubmit it again. For $10 I'll just go to Costco. As another poster stated, the only ones that see my passport picture is the guy at immigration and he ain't talking.

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If you belong to AAA, they'll take your photo for free. I assume that my passport picture will look like my driver's license photo, and I'm OK with that.

 

We are AAA members and we were charged for our pictures. We just took our teen daughter and they charge too. Hubby said because shes not a AAA member but then he said they charged us last time too :/

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Different AAA clubs offer various services and various prices. According to Wikipedia AAA is composed of 69 individual clubs.

 

That's interesting. We have AAA basic & weren't charged for our passport pictures. The others stating they were had me confused. You just cleared up my confusion. Thanks!

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I posted this originally because (as I stated) I get 'ax murderer photos' when I go to Costco or CVS. I am retired and have the time (five minutes for photo taking, five minutes for photo printing) to do this.

But if you have friends who are first time passport needers/cruisers, you can knock out everyone's photos and do it for a VERY reasonable cost. A friend of mine chaperoned their high school band on a European school trip, and they needed 31 passport photos. $310 saved. (and isn't this thread about saving money??)

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I posted this originally because (as I stated) I get 'ax murderer photos' when I go to Costco or CVS. I am retired and have the time (five minutes for photo taking, five minutes for photo printing) to do this.

But if you have friends who are first time passport needers/cruisers, you can knock out everyone's photos and do it for a VERY reasonable cost. A friend of mine chaperoned their high school band on a European school trip, and they needed 31 passport photos. $310 saved. (and isn't this thread about saving money??)

 

Well, most people aren't getting passport pictures for 31 people. As an individual who only has to do it once every ten years it just seems like way too much work. Sorry I made your idea seem less than useful. I just place value on my time and to do what you suggest is just way to much work for me and I don't work. Go to Costco, take picture, shop, pick up picture for $10, done. I gave up trying to look good in pictures once I turned 50. I just tell people, I've been married for over 40 years (okay was only married for 30 years at 50). If he hasn't left me yet he sure isn't going to leave me for my looks now and HE is the only one who's opinion I care about.

 

Luckily for me, those people at the DMV haven't asked me to come in to redo my drivers license in almost 25 years so I look pretty darn good compared to now :D. You would not believe what I weigh either! Now THAT is a fantasy LOL.

 

The pictures are the cheapest part of the passport. I stand by if you can't afford the $10 comment. You have the application, processing and the fast forward if you are late. I just did my passport for Canada. Now THAT is money. Those people are serious about their pictures too. They want just the right angle and please do not smile! Chin up - look here. Man oh man. They refused to deliver my passport to my Canadian address (where I own a home) and charged me an extra $100 to deliver to my US address. Got it, not going to let it expire.

 

So, I have to ask..... are you an axe murderer?

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  • 2 months later...

If you have a quality printer attached to your computer, you are already there. Take your digital camera, set it up on a tripod [if you want to do it all alone], aim it at a white wall, turn off the flash, have a nice bright light above and behind the camera, set the camera on portrait if you have that option, make a tape x on the wall, center camera frame on the x, set the timer to go off, put the center of your head even with the x, wait for shutter to trip, check photo to make sure your whole face is on the photo with room at the margins, load on computer, adjust for size and print it on photo paper. You can then print the same photo multiple times on the same piece of paper. You never leave your house.

 

If some one is there to help you, then you just set the camera to the correct exposure, have them stand against the white wall, set the viewfinder to give you a full face framed photo, have them take the camera, confirm the shot, take your photo reduce the frame size of your face in the photo, take it again.... then you go print it on your own printer.

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