To haave put on ALOT of foundation before my passport photo??

[ByThePowerOfGreyskull]

DH just took the pictures from home and OMG he wants to do the just fallen out of bed look for me to look at for the next 10 years!

So I legged it upstairs and put on loads of foundation covered every blemish (wouldn't have wanted anyone to see me in real life it was awful) and then applied subtle eye make up, and a little lippy.

DH showed me the photo it just looks like I have the skin of a 20 year old (yay!) but Dh says that it isn't necessary - which part of me knows but is it really so bad to be in denial about the aging process for just a little longer?

YANBU. My current passport photo has Myra Hindly on the photograph page which will teach me to try to hide my multiple chins. Only another three years to go.

YANBU. Wish I had done it before i went to the photo booth after walking for 20 minutes in hot weather.

I have to look at shiny, sweaty and lank hair for the next however many years.

YANBU. Photo booths should have a warning flash up before they actually take the photos. 'Have you remembered to make yourself look presentable or you'll regret this for the next 10 years?'.

for some reason my passport has Heather from eastenders photo on it. It's really faded too so ALWAYS attracts attention at airports and I travel a lot.
Only a year to go...........

Phew!thanks ladies, I don't really consider myself to be a vain person but the whole "this picture for the next 10 years" thing really got me.

I love doing them at home as I have the option of doing them again and again!

I am the same I have to send off 2 pics this week and have been practicing what way to hold my head to minimise wrinkles and am about to slap on a thick layer of foundation too!

do you have a digital camera noddy? Just get someone to take them at home so you can take millions and choose the best.

Not 100% certain, but I think you may be able to submit a new photo if it's that awful you REALLY can't like with it for the duration of the passport - obviously this will cost, but weighed against living with the "Myra Hindley" (totally relate to that description) type photo, it may be worth it!

Investigate with passport authorities.

I do have a camera Is there online software to get them 'right' for official things?

hmm you may live to regret your decision. I did this exact thing, even got the pic taken in a tube-station photo booth, which take very flattering photos. So yes, I look great and very young in my pic, but now when the real me wanders through immigration I've had more than one double look as they compare my old pic to the scraggly person in front of them.
I wish I'd taken an awful photo so that I looked better in real life

YA definately nbu! I look a right greaser in my passport photo, I can get a new one soon though. phew!

YANBU. I look like Morticia Adamms in mine.

YANBU

I look like a prostitute in mine, not sure how but the post office photo booth decided to give me bright red lips, black eyeliner and I'm sure a wind machine was hiding somewhere as I had that popstar hair blowing thing going on, I wasn't actually wearing any make up, . I got lots of approving looks when I went travelling a few years back, just not the right kind of approving looks!

Oh God, mine's AWFUL! I took the 'don't smile' thing waaay too far and I look like I'm about to eat the camera in a psychotic rage. Everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY laughs at my passport picture. Whenever I show it at passport control, I notice that the security man's eyes widen in shock, briefly, before he regains his composure. Eight sodding years before I get to change it.

YANBU. I look great in mine (no make up at all though) and am a bit sad at the prospect of having to change the photo in another five years.

YANBU

I accidentally ended up with a fabulous photo on my last passport (i.e. yes, I had spent 'a while' doing hair and make-up but I think it was mainly just a lucky booth!) and had years of people (mainly now-ex-DPs) making fun of it, saying I was really posing in it, asking how much I'd spent on a professional photographer etc.

It was awful when I'd arrive tired and scruffy from an overnight long-haul flight and passport control would do a triple-take between haggard old me and the 'model' in the pic!

I'm actually relieved to have a more normal photo in my new passport!

I'm not saying this because I am a photographer but do take great care over submitting home-made passport pics. Download the Passport Office template and follow it to the letter. Otherwise they'll happily reject your pictures. You are not permitted to do anything significant in the way of post-editing and must get the background shades right. With no shadows! No matter how much you dislike your hair off your face, anyone with a fringe needs to keep their eyes clear - as I wearily had to explain repetitively to a passport pic client last year. Flattering make-up is just fine though!

I speak of someone who needs to get their own pictures done lest I have no passport at all in 4 weeks, mind. Trust me, there's no way I'm submitting any sort of "just got out of bed" version either!

It was vital to do this because the plastic 'watermark' that goes over the top further bleaches facial features. I looked like an alien on one. Passport people do laugh and judge!

YANBU - the rules have got so strict now I dread the thought of somebody deciding we need to be au natural!

My mum went into one of those photo-booths a few years ago to have her picture done. She forgot to pull the background curtain across and, as she has white hair, her pictures came out looking like she was completely bald

We both took one look and nearly wet ourselves laughing.

Isn't it nice that your dh feels that you don't need make up to make you look beautiful though? (Spent a good hour 'freshening up before mine and still look like an extra from Cell Block H)...

I am impressed the pics turned out flattering no matter how much makeup you applied, whatever I do I look horrendous in passport pics (maybe I just look horrendous anyway!)

YANBU. I have not a scrap of make-up on in my passport photo, and very rubbish hair, due to having to get it done as a spur of the moment emergency when my old passport ran out. I look like CACK, and will do, for the next 6 years!

thanks ladies I am feeling better now.

Gloria - we have used the guidelines, and thankfully when we did DS1's we were ok. hope we are ok again this time.