Okay... You can be upset but....

[Retail's Bitch]

A little background before I get into it...

Canadian passport photos are quite sticky as far as the rules go..

No glasses, because they create glare and make the eyes hard to see.

No black shirts, because the colour casts dark shadows on the face.

No white shirts, because when the flash goes off, it lightens the photo and blends the shirt in with the background and the office wants to see definition in the photo.

No heavy creams on the face - THIS INCLUDES SUNBLOCK PEOPLE! - because it makes the face shiny... Again with the perfect definition in the photo.

No hats.

Must see your ears

No shiny jewelry, nothing worn up around the neck.... I could go on... But this isn't about the rules per se... Just 1 of them.

No Black shirts. This father and his son came into the studio yesterday and the son was wearing a black shirt. The father had a quick and decent solution... They'll go and run to the bathroom and him into his Dad's shirt. Now the kid was about 12, so it was a viable and cheap solution. Until the kid started kicking up a fuss.

"No Dad! I'm not wearing that..." Being your typical style conscious teenager.

So I explain to them the next best thing would be to go purchase one. The Dad agreed and made an offhand remark about "Gee Teenagers eh?" I smiled and they headed off...

Around the corner...

"Commere you little jerk! Hey Asshole! Get back here so we can go get you a shirt. This is ridiculous!!!" etc... until they were out of earshot.

It was a bit strange because the Dad at first glance seemed he wouldn't say shit if his mouth was full of it, as the saying goes.

And when they came back, the kid was in a different shirt, we shot the passport and the father was chipper as ever. "Kids eh? I guess I shouldn't be so hard on him." Etc...

In retrospect I guess the shirt thing wouldn't have worked anyway... The father, while not extremely hefty, did not have the build of a 12 year old boy. I would've been curious as to what he'd look like in his scrawny kid's tshirt. LOL

[tollbaby]

Sounds like an abusive relationship to me. I grew up in a house like that. Butter wouldn't melt in my father's mouth while we were out in public, but the second we were out of anyone's line of sight or hearing, he'd smack us around and call us all kind of names.

Just a thought, but the dad probably intended to stay in the bathroom until his kid came back out with his shirt

[siead_lietrathua]

just curious, since im stuck taking passport shots at the CNoSDM, i have heard that they do not prefer white shirts, but black ones now too?
only asking cuz i've taken shots in both colours and haven't had them sent back with a problem (we guarantee the shots or take a reshot free if they bring the rejection form back)

[fireheart]

I REALLY hope my mum doesn't have this problem when she goes for her passports. The rules in Australia as far as I know are that the face has to be uncovered, hair needs to be visible, infants need to be awake....oh and the weirdest one. You CANNOT SMILE. O.o

[Retail's Bitch]

It's just erring on the side of caution. By wearing those colours it's easier to fuck the photo up. IE we'd have to play with the contrast and brightness and dick around with the camera to make sure they came out okay. It's just easier on everybody to not wear those colours...

Other things you can't wear are hoodies, turtlenecks, tanktops, strapless 'tube tops, or anything with spaghetti straps. Shoulders have to be covered... Oh and no hair bands or clips in the hair either.

[siead_lietrathua]

Other things you can't wear are hoodies, turtlenecks, tanktops, strapless 'tube tops, or anything with spaghetti straps. Shoulders have to be covered... Oh and no hair bands or clips in the hair either.

geez, im gonna have to check the store's inbox or something. asides from headbands i haven't been told any of that. heck i've taken pics of girls in tube tops and had them go through (which makes me giggle cuz from the camera position it makes them look nakee)
then again, we aren't an actual studio, just a drugstore with a little pull down screen in the popbottle area. >.<

[Duncan MacLeod]

I REALLY hope my mum doesn't have this problem when she goes for her passports. The rules in Australia as far as I know are that the face has to be uncovered, hair needs to be visible, infants need to be awake....oh and the weirdest one. You CANNOT SMILE. O.o

Same in the USA... My Girlfriend is actually traveling to Australia in August (Perth via Brisbane) and they told her she couldn't smile. My lovely lady does not look her best with a frowny face

[tollbaby]

I've never heard of ANY of those restrictions other than having to take off my glasses. (and yeah, I live in Canada). Maybe some places are just stricter than others. I was even allowed to use my married name on my passport even though the gov't of Quebec requires me to use my maiden name on everything else.

[Nyoibo]

I REALLY hope my mum doesn't have this problem when she goes for her passports. The rules in Australia as far as I know are that the face has to be uncovered, hair needs to be visible, infants need to be awake....oh and the weirdest one. You CANNOT SMILE. O.o

Australian passport photos are easy, just go to the post office, they usually know what needs to be done and they'll get it right, they had to do 3 sets of mine because the first 2 sets wouldn't have been accepted, but they only charged me for one and made sure that they'd be fine.

[bainsidhe]

My US passport has me wearing glasses. A few days before I took the photo, I fell asleep with my glasses on and rolled on top of them. I hadn't had a chance to get the glasses readjusted professionally, so I tried to do a quick fix before getting my photo taken. Try as I might, my glasses are forever crooked on my passport.

[Stryker One]

Hmmm,

No, black shirts? So, if you happen to be a really, really dark black guy, is that gonna be a problem? Like this.

[BeenThereDoneThat]

A bit off topic but when I was starting college I went to have photos taken for my college ID and it was a passport photo place...they told me I couldn't smile. For some reason I was too wimpy to just say "it's actually for a school ID so it doesn't matter"...

I will have to look up the official US rules before I go get mine taken again. Last time I went I apparently didn't break any rules because they took my photos with no problem, but I don't want to waste my time so I might as well make sure I go prepared.

[phoenixv07]

Apparently, the reason that some countries don't allow people to smile for passport photos is that smiling throws off the facial recognition software that they use to detect passport fraud.

This has been your random fact for the day.

[Ree]

Back in 2006, I had my very first passport so I could travel to Australia. Being a bit of a procrastinator, (and due to other circumstances that caused some delays) I left it until just down to the wire to have my pictures taken.
This was just before coloured pictures were allowed on passports, so they were B&W.

I normally wore glasses, but I was told to take them off.

I have a very pale complexion, and I was wearing a light colour. The photographer took several pictures, and my face kept washing out. She finally put a bright scarf around my shoulder and took some more.
She only charged me for 1 set, but gave me 2 sets, and said I could leave it up to the passport office to decide which one was better.

I got to the passport office, and at first, they weren't going to accept either set because they said my face was too pale.
I was in a panic! This was almost last minute. He said there was a place down the hall where I could get new ones taken. I had no idea how I was going to get a guarantor for a new set and still have my application approved in time. (I was already paying for expedited service and the passport was going to reach me just in time, as it was.)
He said, "Just give me a minute, and he did some messing around on a scanner with some kind of filter, and finally accepted one of the sets.

He did his thing, and brought the papers and pictures to the counter where the other set of pictures were still sitting.
He then proceeded to pick up one of the declined pictures instead of the mate to the one he had chosen.

I said, "Oh, you took the wrong one," and he said, "It doesn't really matter. This one is just for the file."

[tropicsgoddess]

And I thought the rules for US Passport pictures were persnickety.