What? No. Just, "No!"
I will not be over-sharing in this post. The walls in our home are white or a deep blue. Finding a stretch of white wall that doesn't have a door, a window, or some kind of wall-decor on it isn't easy. We needed that white area to get a background for our passport photos. We tried a couple different places in the house, but the best lighting (without setting up lights) and space was in our bedroom.
We did a couple test shots with Joan's phone, then I set up a tripod and used the Sony a6700 to get the photos. Passports require a specific size and resolution; we did these for decades in the studio, progressing from black & white, to color (Polaroid), and then finally digital. We could generally work these in while one of our portrait clients was changing clothes. We didn't have to be concerned about the timing for this session. ;-)
The background is a section of white wall between the entry door to the bedroom and the walk-in closet...
Light from a south exposure window. Using the Sony a6700 with an 85mm prime lens shot wide open so the texture in the wall in the background wouldn't show. It isn't fancy or dramatic: just what the Government wants for the passport photo: lips closed, neutral expression, space around the head and torso so they can crop it to a 2x2" photo.
In the olden days, you went to a photography studio for this. These days, Walgreens or Staples can do it... or, you can do it yourself if you understand what they want for size and resolution. Back in the day, we had a camera with 4 lenses that would shoot 4 images on a sheet of 4x5 Polariod (you couldn't use regular photo paper - it would melt when they laminated it to the passport book).
This was easy: shoot it, size it, upload it. It took longer to fill out my name, address, and other pertinent info (several times during the online application). And now, we wait. Our passports don't expire until November, but it is recommended that you start the renewal process months in advance. Because: government.
2 comments:
You remind me that I need to renew my Passport. It expired and they bounced back the renewal because they did not like the picture that Alice took. No idea why and no further explanation. At the next city over you can make an appointment at City Hall,. They will verify the documents and take a picture then mail in the completed application. It has been on the "to-do" list for about a year. I'm not planning to travel anywhere, but Alice wants it because a passport renewal was the easiest way to get current ID for her late mother. You don't want to make someone in a wheelchair suffer the DMV. Planning ahead for me, I guess.
The online process was pretty easy (for government documentation). They give you the specs on what they want for a photo. For the record, it will be "up to two weeks" before they begin processing on the passports - anything could cause it to be rejected at that point, and then we'd have to go the mail-in route.
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