UPDATE: Homemade Passport Photos
I previously posted instructions for making passport photos at home. I recently had the opportunity to test them out. In preparing to apply for a passport for my son, I obviously needed passport photos of him. After a few initial attempts at taking shots at home, I was concerned due to a variety of factors, and particularly regarding shadows on the background due to my use of a single flash.
Because of the problems I encountered, and a general time constraint that existed, I decided to seek out professional photos to remove any chance of delay. I found a place that offered 2 pictures for $8, that said they do infants. When we arrived, however, we informed that they had no stand for infants ... we'd have to hold him. They used a specialized Polaroid camera that takes two pictures at once. After about 5-10 minutes the pictures were ready, and they over-exposed. The clerk/photographer agreed, and decided to try again. Her method of lowering the exposure was stepping back from the subject. While the new pictures which took another 5-10 minutes to develop were more properly exposed, the subject was much smaller than allowed. We gave up, and left without any pictures.
Because of this flop I decided to revert back to my original plans. To hedge my bet, I took numerous shots, producing a number of 4x6 digital images to have printed. When I went about finding a local B&M to print them quickly, I ran into further trouble. One Rite Aid's machine was broken. Another's was backed up several hours. I finally decided to try the local photo shop, which had a machine to print digital pictures, but it was in the process of being upgraded. However, he had a sign advertising passport photos, and I inquired about infants. He assured me he could, so I gave it a shot. To my dismay he pulled out a digital camera to perform his "magic," took one shot, then disappeared into the back of the store. In about 2 minutes I saw him trimming the printed pictures, which he handed to me. I'm not sure what steps he took in between, or even if the pictures were printed with an ink-based machine, but either way they were extremely over-exposed. When I pointed this out he informed me that he is "more strict than the Passport people. They'll accept this picture - we've never had a rejection."
Not trusting him for a minute, I made sure to pay by credit card, in the event there's any problem. I also pursued finding a B&M that could print my homemade pictures. I eventually found my way to an Eckerd's, which, for $0.29 per print, had a machine that prints your pictures while you wait. (The machine was compact, and available to the customer directly. The only involvement the Photo guy had was ringing up the pictures.)
When my wife went to get the passport on Monday, they rejected the "professional" pictures. I haven't had a chance to return them yet, but I'll let you know how that goes when I do. They also rejected some of my pictures based on head size, which I found a bit surprising given the effort I had put in measuring carefully using a jig I created in PowerPoint. I then realized that the Eckerd printer cropped a bit off the edges of the pictures, effectively stretching the remaining portion of the image. Fortunately they accepted one of my sets and, with expedited processing, we now have the passport in hand.