Passport photos

[MyGhastIsFlabbered]

I need to renew my passport and am trying to do it online. But when it comes to the pictures...🙈
If I'm not actually smiling or pulling a silly face I look like a mass murderer. Please tell me I'm not alone in this. Is there any way to make them more bearable?

It's ok, I look like I've spent 10 years in a hippy commune

They don't look as bad when the passport office have laminated them for some reason

Passport photos aren't going to be used in a beauty contest, theyre there so passport control can tell it's you!

So long as you can tell the old photos and new photos don't look THAT different to each other, then you shouldn't need to get a countersign

...ps, I used to work on the passport helpline.

I found a booth at Tesco that was great. For £6 I had 12 goes at producing a decent photo which got passed and looked ok to me.You then can have the photo emailed to you so that you can complete an application online as well as walking away with 4 pictures. Having said this I am going back again for a second go to see if I can improve on the first lot!

£6 is a ripoff, you can just take a selfie on your phone and upload it.

Funnily enough I had this conversation with DD today and told her that everyone looks like a serial killer having their mugshot taken.

I take them myself in front of a pale background with my phone. As many attempts as it takes to get a halfway decent one where I look like a single rather than mass murderer.

you cant take a selfie as this reverses the image. you can get someone else to take the photo on your phone and upload it.

Don't bother paying, just keep going at home until you get on you like, and that they will accept.

The new passports have the photo embedded into the paper, with a huge hologram over it, so it's fairly difficult to make out detail. With the biometric identifiers, the photo itself is probably fairly low down on the checks they use to confirm it is you.

@soontobeanana You can, mines a selfie, still look like a mass murderer though!

you cant take a selfie as this reverses the image

Mine doesn't.