Photo Problems

[iloveglee]

please can any photograph teccies out there help me. i am taking a photo to send digitally to the passport office to renew my passport. i have done my husband's with no problem but mine will not be accepted on the basis that 'cannot see outline of head'. i can only think the reason for this is that, every photo i take, on whatever colour background, i.e. cream, light green, pink, all come out a greyish blue. and unfortunately that is more or less the colour of my hair. when you look at the photo it is quite clear where the outline of my head is, but their equipment which looks at the digital image is clearly not able to distinguish subtle differences of colour. i can't remove the background, leaving it white, because a white background is not acceptable!! the camera is quite a good one, but i have to admit to having on auto as i am not that good with the controls. short of dyeing my hair a darker colour, i am at a loss as to what to do. i have no doubt that the ones you get from a booth will have exactly the same problem and i would have to wait a few weeks to see if it would be rejected. a proper photographer at the end of the day might have to be the solution, but i would much rather try to sort this out myself (with help) if possible as i am keen to get if off asap.

[jno]

have you tried adjusting the white balance control on your camera to see if produces different readings of the background colour?

[sunny-dave]

Could you tie your hair back in a bunch/ponytail, so that the edge of your head is more well defined?

Alternatively you need to process your photo (in something like picasa) to enhance the contrast levels - but be careful, the Passport Office don't like obviously tweaked pictures.

[ivor4781]

use a photo booth that's used for passports (about £5) they can take ones with white or green background, get a mix of both while your sat in one

[iloveglee]

i have tried all of those, except the photo booth, which i am unwilling to use. i used one of those last time, you have to pay the post office to check it for you, or risk sending it and having it rejected. to my and everybody elses eye looking at the photos, she shape of my head is perfectly obvious, so sending in a photo which looks ok is risky. also, last time we used a booth, we had to go back twice more to get an acceptable photo - cost of £15 plus the cost of getting it checked, plus of course the cost of the passport. there should be some way to sort this - i have tried cream background, pink background and all come out greyish blue

[woofgang]

use a temporary hair dye?

[iloveglee]

temporary hair dye i am pretty sure is going to be the way forward. much cheaper than a photographer (£8 for 2 photos available digitally), or booth £6 for photos which have to be packaged up and sent off and risk being rejected. it seems to me that the machinery they are using is not particularly sophisticated because when i look at the photos they reject, it is very obvious to the eye where the hair ends and the background starts. the only other option is guess is to send the best out of the ones i have anyway which you can do, and risk the rejection, at least that wont have cost me a great deal. i know that passports these days have to be machine readable, but not sure if the prelimary check done online is less sophisticated than the machines they put the passport through at control. but changing the hair colour slightly might be a start

[jno]

as dave suggests, if you've got access to any sort of photo editor, lighten or desaturate or change the colour of the background - not so much as to turn it white but enough to make your hair stand out more.

[iloveglee]

my photo editing software is not that good. BUT, i found a background that came out slightly more contrasting with my hair than the others. they looked better to me. guess what, the passport office upload software told me they could not accept this type of file and to upload a jpg or jpeg. and that is what they are. so does anybody know when is a jpg or jpeg not what they say they are!! i am now losing the will to live and am beginning to wonder whether this service is much use. some of the reviews i have read of it arent that positive. i admit i dont know anyone who has used it. they may as well not bother offering it if it doesnt work.

[ivor4781]

we did not have the post office check ours ? these are bona fide passport photos accepted by the foreign office /passport authorities

[EDDIE51]

Go to a Tesco photoshop and get them to take the photo, it costs £9.99
They have a computer program where they send the photo to the passport office website and get an instant answer as to if it acceptable or not. If it is not ok they will repeat the photo for free until it is acceptable , then they upload it direct to the passport office so you do not need to send it. I did it with my wifes passport photo!

[iloveglee]

thank you for the advice about tesco. i just hope theres a tesco photoshop near to us. we don't have many tescos around here. will have to look online or tweet them. it is now becoming a problem. i have taken dozens of photos, none of which are acceptable for several reasons, the file type one was just bizarre, so i opened it up and then saved as jpeg. then it was not acceptable for other reasons!! short of dyeing my hair i cannot find a way to get my hair radically contrasting against the background when the backgrounds are all light grey to blue. hopefully tesco will be able to resolve this. have tried all the ways i can in my photo editing software to lighten/darken/increase/decrease contrast, colour etc. but nothing works. short of actually dyeing my hair i need photoshop to change its colour in the photo. cheaper to go to a photo place. jessops do them, but they only do in actual photo form, if you want digital they charge double!! tesco it is then - hopefully

[jno]

if your editing software is on your PC it might have a "Save As" option which allows you to save the photo as a jpeg. (This means it will have .jpg at the end of its name.)

[EDDIE51]

Black background?

[iloveglee]

the photos has always been a jpg, that is the format the camera saves them in. but i also did go down the save as route, then there was a multitude of other things wrong with it!! black backgrounds arent allowed has to be cream or light grey. which is what my background turns out to be, even though it is actually cream. i do think that because we are taking the photo in a conservatory, which is the only place in the house light enough, there is a lot of blue light coming through the roof, and disrupting the colour background. i don't have photoshop or anything like that, so can't change the background, or even better darken my hair so that the contrast is greater. i have been in touch with max speilman, and yes they will take a photo, do a test upload, and basically keep taking them until one is acceptable. if they know what my problem is, they can probably adjust all the colours beforehand, as their equipment and expertise is a great deal better than mine. And for £9.99 it's probably worth it than going through all this aggro. i have tried using my iphone as well, not acceptable either. i would be interested to know how many actually do get accepted. My husband's did but he has dark hair which contrasts against the background, and not so much hair either!! oh well, i tried.

[woofgang]

when I did photo driving licence, mine was accepted first try even though I was sure it wouldn’t be

[Old_Geezer]

I had that issue but as I could see the outline I filled in the bit of the form that said I thought it should be an exception, and it went through ok.

[Old_Geezer]

You are forbidden to edit the image.
Can't recall what happens if they detect that you have done so.

[iloveglee]

Apparently you are not allowed to edit the photo but don't know how they know. I have truly lost the will now. Perhaps I will stay at home. Visits to 2 max spielman places have come up with the same result. Tried many photos all unacceptable for the same reason. I am going to temporarily darken my hair and then maybe risk sending it. Everybody agrees that there is a very distinct outline of head on the photo but it seems that their software cannot distinguish shades of greyish blue. Nobody seems to be able to get the background any other shade. Our camera is better than the one max spielman outfits use.

[Flonska]

When we needed passport, travel permits and visa photos we used Timpsons. This link should help you to discover if there is a "photo shop" branch near to where you live/work.

https://www.timpson.co.uk/services/passport-photos

If there is one close by maybe give them a try? They also have a replacement policy if the photos are rejected.

[iloveglee]

I suspect that unless i go to a 'proper' photographer who can manipulate the image within the camera as its being taken, i may well end up with the same problem. the cameras they use are not even as good as the one i am using at home, i have tried every which way to try and get the background colour different enough from the colour of my hair so that the outline of my head is picked up by the software on the passport website. next step, before darkening my hair slightly, it to try outside, in natural light with a background with as little blue in it as possible. my hairdresser has given me some hair mousse to use that will just slightly darken, and take out the blue grey highlights in my hair in order to contrast with the background. i am pretty sure there must be many people out there with this problem, but this service to upload your own photo is pretty new so this may be becoming more prevalent. i am not quitting yet though and thank everyone for their insights. i will see if there is a timpsons near me and give them a ring to ask what equipment they use.