Reducing an Oversize Passport Photo

[aaron_w.]

Forgive me if this is a stupid question, but I'm a noob who needs some help.

 

Needing passport photos, my wife shot my portrait with our 5MP digicam. My

face in the resulting photo is 1/4" bigger than the US Passport Requirement

(maximum of 1 3/8" from bottom of chin to top of head). I would simply retake

the picture, but my son dropped and broke the camera, so I need to know how to

reduce the size of the photo I now have (the jpg file is in my PC) in order to

satisfy the stated requirement?

 

Thanks

[colinsouthern]

What image processing software do you have?

[eric friedemann]

Aaron, life's too short. Why spend hours jerking around with reproduction sizes on your home printer when you can go to your nearest camera store, drugstore or Kinkos and have an instant, regulation set of passport photos taken for $10 or less?

[aaron_w.]

Yes, I know I can have passport photos taken for $10 or so, but I thought I could learn how to do it myself with the software that I have (IrfanView and Photoshop Elements 5).

 

If reducing the size of my jpg image is not straight-forward, just let me know and I'll have one of those outfits take my passport photo.

[Ian Taylor]

Don't passport photos need to be stamped by the lab? I'm not sure you can DIY.

[colinsouthern]

I've never use Elements, but in Photoshop (it's "bigger brother") you'd need to click on IMAGE then IMAGE SIZE and then put in the numbers you need.

 

Hope this helps!

 

If you'll still desperate, just eMail it to me and I'll do it for you - only takes a couple of seconds.

 

Cheers,

 

Colin

[aaron_w.]

Ian, no that's not necessary. It's perfectly ok to diy as long as the photo meets the current requirements.

 

Colin, thanks for the offer but I'm not desperate, I'm just using this opportunity to learn a little about editing. I'll play with it in PSE5 using your suggestions. If I still can't get it right, I'll follow Eric's advice.

 

Thanks to all for the help.

[eric friedemann]

Aaron, make sure you get the subject size requirement right, not just the 2x2" exterior demensions:

 

 

http://london.usembassy.gov/cons_new/acs/forms/usppt.pdf

[aaron_w.]

Right Eric ...that makes for the difficulty I'm running into. Since my image is not square, when I reduce the width to 2" the height becomes 1.8" (where the dimesions of my face meet the published requirements) However, when I make the Canvas 2" x 2" I get a 0.1" border at the top and bottom of the photo, which is probably not acceptable!

[eric friedemann]

Aaron, over the years, I've shot several thousand Polaroid passport photos. Using 3.25x4.25" pack film, with its 1/4 inch border when you cut the twin images in a trimmer to 2x2" each, you always get a pronounced border at the right or left edge of each image. I've never had passport photos returned for having a border on one side.

 

 

I have had images returned for the head not being adequately large. This can be a problem with small children, as our Polaroid passport camera is fixed focus and you can't get close enough to a baby or toddler to get the proper head size without the image being noticeably out of focus.

[eric friedemann]

Also, if you've shot the image with the obligatory white background and don't want a border, just paste the image on a larger white canvas in Photoshop.

[john falkenstine]

The new passport picture requirements are a study of absurdity and shows how STUPID people can become and mismanage a simple photograph standard that has worked fine since the 1930's.

My mother's pictures were rejected. In reply, I sent them TWENTY-FIVE images of various sizes of my mother's face with the correct external size. The passport arrived with an image copy so bad that nobody can now compare my mother's face with what is in the passport.

[bhargav]

This is the way I do it.<br>

1. Open the original image in Photoshop<br>

2. Crop the face area with an aspect ration of 1:1<br>

3. Create a new image (from File->New) of 2x2 inch dimension<br>

4. Paste the croped image from Step 2 into this 2x2<br>

5. Verify that the face length & everything matches the image requirement .. you can use ruler tool or just use the ruler on the top.<br>

6. Create a new Image of 4x6 inch dimension<br>

7. Paste 6 of 2x2 images from Step4 in the new image of Step 6<br>

8. Save the file.. copy it on USB drive .. take it to nearby Kodak machine .. print it for 29 cents..<br>

<br>

This is very useful for odd size pics like Canadian Visa has a regulation of 35mm x 45 mm!.. who does that .. so we can DIY to the right dimension.. <br>

<br>

Hope this helps..

[jeffrey_dine]

I took my SD card with 6mp jpg head shots (straight on, white shower curtain background) to my local CVS drug store. They have a menu for passport photos in their printer kiosk that is pretty much fool proof and will give you exactly what you need. As I recall, the print cost $.29 for a 4x6 containing 6 copies of the shot. Don't bother sweating the details when it comes to things like color temp and contrast. The gov't scans the photos then prints them on the new ePassports instead of laminating a photo on the page. The quality of the picture on your passport will be horrendous.

[ian_brown5]

Beware... I made my own passport photo which I uploaded to the Walgreens website.

When I went to pick it up at the store, they said they would have to charge me $8 for it,

even though it was printed exactly the same as the other 20-cent photos I was picking up.

It was their 'policy'. Looks like those ripoff artists are upset that they can't charge a

ridiculous price for providing a service any monkey could do.

 

I walked out. Looks like Walgreens has lost another customer...