If you have a computer and a digital camera, there’s no reason to ever pay a drugstore $8 for a couple of crummy passport photos and lousy customer service. This blogger discovered that he couldn’t even get an in-focus photo from a local CVS: “When we pointed that out, he was like ‘Oh really? don’t worry all photos printed here look like that and no one ever came back because a photo was not accepted.’” If you’re not Photoshop-savvy, just use the free epassportphoto.com website.
At epassportphoto you upload your photo, crop it according to your country’s standard guidelines, and save the resulting 4×6″ image—that’s six 2×2″ ID shots—to your computer to print wherever you like, whether it’s at home, from an online service, or at that same CVS with the myopic camera operator.
Not only will you be able to control the photo lighting and quality (and retake the photo until you’re happy with it), but you’ll have four more 2×2″ shots than you get for $8 at CVS or Walgreens. And if you need any more incentive to cut the drugstore out of the process, consider that they also produce sets of six photos at a time—they just refuse to give you more than two unless you pay extra:
While we waited for the photos to print out, I saw (with my own eyes) that the photographs were printed on a 4? x 6? photo paper – and there were 6 copies on it. Then the dude coolly cut away 4 copies, disposed them, and handed us the remaining two copies.
“The Stupid Passport Photo Ripoff” [the tao of making money]
(Photo: Mexican 2000)
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@Mercurypdx: A hammer may not necessarily kill the chip, a microwave will most certainly fry it. I had to wait to get a new passport because my name was changing due to marriage, and when the one with the RFID chip comes, I am taking the risk and microwaving it.
They’ve already hacked the chips in the RFID passports and they have a range of 30 ft.
@swalve: Your personal information (name, dob, etc) stored on a chip that is easily hacked by someone sitting in a 30 ft radius of you.
I used the site above to create a nice little JPG. I’m going to print it out with my little Canon 4×6 photo printer which uses a dye sub process and send it with my passport renewal. I’ll post an update with success or failure.
You can also go to the United States Post Office and get your photo taken. Since its the government they havent gone digital yet, so the photos are nice and clear. Plus, they are guaranteed to match the exact proportions required by the passport office.
Last time I had a passport photo taken (2 years ago) the post office was chargin $11.50 for the service.
I was pissed off enough to have to pay $100 for a passport for my asshole brother’s wedding in Mexico, but I was livid when the CVS clerk took my pic with an ancient digital camera, played with it in their crappy stripped down photoshop software, and printed it out. And charged me $12. Fucking hell. Never ever doing that again.
I realize this is not a very new post, but I felt like I wanted to comment.
I work at a pharmacy in Australia. While I agree that the markups are ridiculous (we charge $10.95 for passport photos), the price does cover things such as time spent with the customer taking the photo, waiting for an available opportunity in order to print the photos, and cover any free photos we may have to give the customer in case the photo gets rejected.
Now, I’m not saying it’s worth AUD$10.95 (USD$7.50 approx), and it is definitely cheaper to print your own.
However, (and this may not apply to the US but it applies here), there are some reasons for the price:
a) the photos are printed six on a 6”x4” photo paper (standard size) but they are not printed in the 2”x2′ size’ (for example, they are not each one sixth of the 6”x4” paper, but again this may only apply to Australia); instead, they are the correct size and dimension of the passport photos. This kind of effect would be difficult, though not impossible, to correctly duplicate in an image to be printed.
b) Secondly, it is much easier to simply take a photo of yourself, and use a photo kiosk at the pharmacy to have the automated software detect your face and light and size it correctly to the passport standards. Software like this costs money to make, and it costs money to buy.
c) As I said previously, and again may not apply in the US, we only have one person working the photographics area. One. We can have up to ten customers at a time, for one employee to handle. The price you pay covers any loss that may result from not being able to help another customer.
d) The price you pay also covers the cost of buying a camera and equipment for taking the photo. It also covers any other time we may have to spend in case your photo is not accepted (which may not always be our fault. I’ve had perfect photos returned from passport applications).
e) I must once again say that I know you’re not talking about Australia, but it is offensive to state that “there’s no reason to ever pay a drugstore $8 for a couple of crummy passport photos and lousy customer service”. I don’t know about in the US, but this does not apply here. We do not give you “crummy passport photos” and “lousy customer service”. I reprint passport photos several times to make sure I have the colour balance and lighting correct (even the automatic software gets it wrong, frequently), and I frequently go out of my way to make sure that my customer’s expectations are met and that they are satisfied completely. Stating something like that is an offensive generalization. But maybe all the drug stores in the US really are like that, I don’t know.
Finally, just wanted to say that: we give out all six photos, for the same price, and discounts for more than one person. And yes, $10.95 is far too much, but the standard $0.49 for a 6”x4” will not cover what everything.
Anyway, that’s my AUD$0.029 (or USD$0.02).
The problem with epassportphoto is that when you go to the place they tell you to pick up your pictures, the clerk says they can’t be printed. Then when you write a question to epassportphoto, they don’t answer you as to what to do. Would be a great service if it worked. I don’t think it does.