Any tips on how to get flattering passport photos?

[pearlkent]

OK, maybe not flattering, but at least acceptable.
Ten years have passed since my last lot, when they'd just tightened up the rules about no hint of a smile, hair pulled back off face, face has to fill a certain area of the photo etc etc.
After many attempts (both photo booth and Snappysnaps photographer) and many £££s spent, this still resulted in a hideous photo which I had to submit, as I'd run out of patience.
Any tips on lighting, angles, how much/little make up to wear, hairstyling, whilst staying within the rules. I think maybe I should get some sort of soft fringe cut as the expanse of unbotoxed forehead is bound to look horrendous.
I'm really dreading it, especially as I'm 10 years older (now 54) than last time, and that was bad enough.

Don’t use a photobooth.

Use a professional photographer who lets you choose the pics you like.

Why? just why? Sounds ridiculous to me. It's a passport photo. It doesn't define you. It enables border officials to identify you. And besides, you're doing everyone out of cheap laughs for the next 10 years! Half the fun of passports is the awful photo!

If you go to Max Spielmann they'll take 57 photos so you can choose the least-awful one. I always take the DCs there because photo booths with idiotic children are painful and soul destroying.

I can sympathise, my passport expires this month and I'm dreading having my photo taken.

But I think you just need to go to a photobooth ASAP and get it over and done with. If you agonise over how you look, or make lots of different attempts at getting a perfect photo, it will just make it even harder to pick one.

The only tip I have, because I have terrible 'resting bitch face', is to slightly upturn the corners of my mouth. Not enough to be a smile, but just enough to not look like a miserable cow

My top tip would be to clean the screen of the photo booth. Some hilarious person had put a tiny speck on the screen of the one I used which meant my photos came out with a large wart on my cheek. And I paid a fiver for them.

Mines shit but only gets looked at a couple of times a year. As long as it gets me somewhere sunny, I don’t care what I look like.

We used a local professional photographer - she took tons until there was one that worked. It was less than double a single set in a photo booth. Plus you can get re-prints. She also printed the odd size I needed for a visa. Totally worth it - I had her do my littles and for once they look good.

I tend to trowel on far more make up than I use day to day (I use nothing or minimal) then take it off straight afterwards!

What is it Tara banks is always banging on about.

Smize.

Smile with your eyes

Take it at home against a light background, upload to paspic website and they send photos back in the post

My top tip is to go and get pics done straight after you come out of the hair salon.

TBH there is no real way, as you can't smile everyone looks like a axe murderer so best just to not grin and bear it.

Lots of makeup does help though.

Yes pile the makeup on with a trowl.

If you're in London, this place is where the celebs go for flattering passport photos

I went to a photographer, looked dreadful, then went to Tesco and the photo booth were miles better! I made an effort to have newly dried hair and put a bit of make up on on account of having to look at them for ten years.

Slightly puzzled at what anyone would spend hundreds of pounds trying to get a flattering passport photo

Presuming you don't hang a blown up canvas of your passport in your hallway, why on earth does it matter!?

practise your neutral face, do selfies, stand in front of a mirror...practise, practise practise!

you need to be able to do this face with your eyes closed!

and learn this manoeuvre to cut out your double chin.

You can now take a photo on your phone & upload it so you can take as many as you want to. It has the added advantage of running automatic checks to make sure it is acceptable. Very quick turnaround too.

Whatever you do, the current rules mean you'll look grim. My passport from the mid 80s not only looks astonishingly young, I am smiling. Those were the days.

Yes I have an old smiling one from the 80s, my last one when I renewed a month ago was grim, though unfortunately I suspect is true to life and how others see me. I got a photographer to take it as I didn’t have a suitable plain background at home, it was only £5 though

Agree, I went to the hairdresser then afterwards thought 'ooh now's a good time to get my passport photo done.' I look better on my new one than 10 years ago!!

Definitely take your own using your phone - you can experiment using different lighting at home until you find the most flattering one! I did mine recently and it took a few goes but I'm happy with the result whereas the photo booth ones made me look half dead. The online application tells you whether your photo meets their criteria too so you can discard it and try again if necessary. (Fwiw, I found being near but not right next to a window with the light shining toward my face was the best - but you need a blank wall for the background.)

I had no idea people put so much effort into passport photos. Learn something new everyday on MN!

I also did mine after a hair appointment and yes smile with your eyes! Also just to add I don't think you are allowed to have a fringe (or anything covering your face)

If you are renewing, you can just get someone to take a photo of you on your phone and crop it as required. Then all you do is attach the file to your online application. The system tells you if the photo isn't acceptable for some reason.