Cheap and Easy Passport Pictures

AAA (long lines especially toward the summer) I settled on Costco or Walmart. Besides the cheaper price tag, these warehouse style stores were  useful with occupying my kid with food samplings and extensive video sections  while waiting for our turn  or for the final prints. However, things have changed for the better in the last two years. Thanks to advanced digital technology you can now take quality passport pictures in the comfort of your home when you have the time and need I mention -without the ranting spouse or whining kids. All you need is a digital camera or phone and a white wall!    

Using a digital camera and computer:

ePassport photos- and Passportphotos4you are    useful online options to consider especially for those with non-US passports since their page include a tool that can help you determine the photo size needed for your  country’s passport (different countries require different sizes.) Both websites do an especially good job of guiding you through the photography and printing processes. The US government provides an online tool to crop any j peg image you took and downloaded onto your computer into a passport picture as long it is at least 600 by 600 pixels in size. If you encounter any difficulty, click on the help button to the left side of the screen, and it will guide you as to the right dimensions and placement of the image. Once you have the cropped photo, you can use any basic computer program to put six of them together on a two by three-page format and print it.

Using a mobile device:

Mobile device apps are less reliable regarding their overall ease of use and customer satisfaction but tend to be more convenient. I-phone and iPad users can download the ‘passport photo booth’ for 0.99 cents via the Itunes store. I like the passport photo booth since you can save the final formatted picture in your phone photo library and reprint it from any printer while you travel. Unfortunately, this application currently supports only nine countries’ passport sizes US, UK, Canada, Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea and Taiwan, so it is not useful to many. Android users can download applications like passport photo (free)  or and Google’s passport photo creator  (1.37$) but might find even fewer benefits since both apps offer help only with US, Canada and UK passport pictures. Have you taken your child with autism ‘s passport picture-come share your tips how to do it?   ]]>