8 week old baby. Tips for passport photo?

Swampy

Hi all,

Have to get a passport for our new baby. I'm wondering if any of you have any tips on how to get the right photo. Am i better off taking them myself on a digital camera?

thanks.

Ayla

We brought our babies to a professional studio - for about €20 they guaranteed the photos would meet all passport regulations. We thought it worth it b/c getting it exactly right (lighting, pose, etc) can be awkward enough & the last thing you want to do is have your child get wiggly while you're trying to get everything right.

Tabnabs

We went to a camera shop that did passport photos. €20 was the full price, but we got lucky and it worked on second or third go so he only charged us a tenner.

stargazer 68

I would take them into a shop that does passport photos. They have experience with this kind of thing and know exactly how to do it. 20 euro is a bit steep though!

r3nu4l

Well I live in England so it's a bit different for me in terms of cost (£6).
I took our daughter at 6 weeks old to a shop that does passport photos. For adults you sit on a stool with a white screen behind you. Obviously this is not feasible for a six-week old

The shop had a large, soft cushion that they lay our daughter down on and took the photos from above.

Advice.
Call ahead and ask if they have a large cushion that you can lie the baby on.

Bring a white blanket with you, at least if you have to lie the baby on the floor rather than a cushion that he/she sinks into you can swaddle him/her to keep the baby quieter. Have white card or paper to put behind the baby's head for the photo. (You could ask if the shop can provide white card/paper)

Don't have a hat on the baby.

If possible feed the baby before going to get the photos done.

We were very lucky because our daughter kept her eyes open for the shot. The lady in the shop took one photo and that was it. In and out in under five minutes! I couldn't believe it, I'd been prepared for an epic 45 minute, 200 photographs struggle

Claire de Lune

Hi,

Our son was 5 weeks old when we needed a passport photo, and he couldn't open his eyes on demand :rolleyes:

We took the photo at home with our digital camera when he was well awake after bath, he was lying on our bed (white sheets). We had to take about 40 pictures as he had to look straight into the camera and both his ears needed to show on the picture!

We then took the memory card to a photographer who resized the picture to the passport photo standards and printed them. Job done!

limerick_lady

I brought my son to the local pharmacy (it's a big one with a photo counter in it too) I had him in his maxi-cosi so they told me to take him out of it, they laid a while bedsheet on it and I put him back into it. That gave the white background that was needed. They had great patience and took loads of photos but we only paid about €8 for it! They printed 4 of them for us for that price too.

They're so strict on size of head/face etc that it can be hard to get it right yourself!

Good luck with it!

dark crystal

We took some digital photo's of our 6 month old lying down on his white changing mat. As long as the eyes are open, the baby is looking straight to camera and you inlude the top of the head and the top of the shoulders, they'll accept it. Make sure you have a light, neutral backround behind the baby too.

We went to the nearest Harvey Norman store and chose the 'passport' size when processing the photo's.

No need to shell out for professionals at all.

I find it ridiculous you have to take a picture of a baby for it's own passport anyway. Sure, by the time the child is 2, they will look nothing like the photo originally taken anyway!! I wish they'd stuck to just including the child on the parent's passport instead.

MiCr0

we did something similar to limerick_lady and it worked fine

i think there is now a requirement for 4 photos too
(http://www.dfa.ie/home/index.aspx?id=257)

Frank Black

Having tried to get them done at the local pharmacy (2 week old baby) we gave up and did them ourselves at home. As previous poster has suggested wait until they are awake and put them on a bed with white sheets and just stand over them and take loads of pictures with a digital camera - we then cropped/resized the best one, printed and sent off - worked for us anyway.

peckerhead

+1.

All a bit of a nonsense, really, when you consider how quickly the kid is gonna look nothing like the photo... :rolleyes:

ectoraige

If you have a digital camera, itls far easier to do it yoursef. Lay your child on a white blanket and take the photo from above. You can then upload the picture to ePassportPhoto and creates an image with 8 passport pictures on it which you can print at any kiosk.

When you're takingthe picture, ratling keys is great for getting them looking the right way. Also, consider saving the photo in black & white, it can be more forgiving in terms of shine etc.

wmpdd3

Helped a friend do this with her 6 week old.

As above, thats exactly what we did. A white piece of card behind then the baby lying down and take the pic from above. We did it at home and formatted them with this website:

http://www.epassportphoto.com/

Then just printed them in a supermarket machine.

Swampy

Thank you all. Will definatly give the epassportphoto a punt.

xzanti

I took my lad to a Chemist, the girl lay him on a sheet on the floor and got grand snaps in a couple of takes.

Mr Simpson

peckerhead wrote: »

+1.

All a bit of a nonsense, really, when you consider how quickly the kid is gonna look nothing like the photo... :rolleyes:

tbh its not that strict for kids under 3. Just make sure their whole head is in the picture, you don't really need to worry about their eyes being open either if they're only a few months old. The easiest way of taking it is to have them lying down and take it from above.

Ballyman

They're a bit anal about this kind of thing. You need to have a clean shadowless background and pretty much fill the frame with his/her head.

miss_shadow

Got my daughters passport photo taken the other day. Took her to the pharmacy and the man there took them from above. It did take a fair few shots but after about 10mins we got a good photo of her looking straight at the camera by holding the leaflet which she decided to be fixed on above the camera!
the photo has her whole face which was accepted by the passport office.

Monokne

wmpdd3 wrote: »

Helped a friend do this with her 6 week old.

As above, thats exactly what we did. A white piece of card behind then the baby lying down and take the pic from above. We did it at home and formatted them with this website:

http://www.epassportphoto.com/

Then just printed them in a supermarket machine.

Is it easy to print them? I used the site and it basically just gave me a big JPEG file with the 4 passport photos on one side and a plug for the site on the other. Do I just bring it to a kiosk and print it as the exact size it is??

CaraMay

Lying down on a white sheet is the best bet

uck51js9zml2yt

local pharmacy did ours. lie the baby on it's back on a white sheet.