No matter what part of the country you live in, there have to be a lot of options in all of the UK cities and many towns. Whether you reside in Birmingham, Bristol or Coventry, there should always be plenty of local stores, photo booths and other places close by you can visit to make and print passport photos. Here’s a short generalised list of such places:
So, we’ve got three out-of-home and non-digital passport photo options, and, as you see, none of them is perfect. Whatever you choose, you’d have to put up with drawbacks, be it poor quality, long waiting time, high prices or a far-away address.
Luckily, today’s technologies have offered us a decent alternative: take a digital passport photo right at home! From London and Manchester to Bradford and Newcastle: our online service is available UK-wide for free. All you need for that is a camera-equipped smartphone or a digital camera (both are closer to your than any nearest store). Just use our simple online application and take pictures to be printed and submitted to the passport office!
The answer to such frequently asked questions depends on the method you use.
Some of the stores in your neighbourhood may have automatic passport photo booths that will take images and make their printouts. For instance, your local Tesco or Asda may well have one—whatever UK chain it is, use its online store locator or phone ahead to make sure they do have a passport photo booth. These useful machines will provide you with easy-to-follow instructions on how to take proper passport photos. You just pay the fee and sit in front of the camera—the photo booth will take your picture automatically once the countdown ends. Pretty convenient, isn’t it?
Although not really if you need pictures for a baby passport—if so, this is the least preferable method. This option implies some other major flaws as well. First of all, it’s likely most of your closest UK passport photo booths are in dire need of maintenance, hence the shabbiness which may make you uncomfortable. To top it off, their printing mechanisms might make your passport photo a bit fuzzy. The price is around £8 per set of photographs, but please note that it varies from brand to brand (depending on the store, it can go as high as £14).
You can also find your nearest passport photo studio with a photographer available (with such services, prices start roughly at £10 and go much higher than that). A good specialist will set up proper lighting, adjust your position and make other due preparations before taking a shot. Once it’s done, they can retouch your future passport photo if necessary (for instance, they will remove minor temporary imperfections). In addition to that, they will also make sure that the newly-done headshot meets all the standards effective for United Kingdom passports and other documents.
At the same time, not every photographer is, in fact, a photographer by trade. In every other location in your neighbourhood (say, in many stores), taking passport photos is just a collateral duty for the employees. As understandable as it may be, they are often reluctant and impatient when it comes to taking your image. And even a professional photographer may grow impatient when taking baby passport photos.
Also, some of us feel uncomfortable when photographed by a stranger (or even a photo booth with its robot voice), so that’s yet another reason to find an alternative.
Of course, there is! If you want to save time and get it done more quickly, use the benefits of our digital age. As opposed to a close-at-hand photo booth or a shop found via a store locator, making your passport photo online may well be the fastest option. After all, you only need a device with a camera and a few seconds to do that. And you don’t even have to look for a wall to make background colour in passport photos light grey (as per the UK government’s rules).
Our online service doesn’t have any regional limitations—whether you’re in Bristol, Coventry or Edinburgh, you’ll be able to use it to get a perfectly compliant passport photo in mere seconds.
On this very page, you can upload your photo taken with practically any background, and our tool will remove it automatically. Also, your picture doesn’t have to be shoulder-length, as our tool can also crop it to the extent required for a British passport photo.
All you have to do is to make sure you look straight at the camera and keep your head and shoulders level, mouth closed, and eyes open. A couple of other things to bear in mind when taking a passport photo: make sure that your face isn’t obscured by anything and that there are no shadows (and if you wear glasses, you want to take them off; no tinted glasses either). As for hair and head covering, it’s allowed for religious reasons only. Finally, apply some cosmetics if that’s your thing (just make sure you know all you need about makeup in passport photos).
That’s all there is to the appearance criteria! Simply follow these rules to get your perfect biometric photo without any significant effort.
We understand that all these guidelines may seem overwhelming for an unprepared and inexperienced user. That’s why our tool has an integrated checker that helps you verify your passport photo against the current UK regulations (with the last update taken into account). We guarantee that HMPO will be satisfied!
First of all, you’re already on the right webpage! Once you’ve accessed our professional service, it will only take you a couple of simple steps to get a British passport photo taken nearly instantly. Here’s what you need to do:
That’s pretty much it! Our processing algorithms verify your shot per the latest passport photo regulations—this means there’s no need for any further modifications. Apply online or in a UK passport office: we give you an acceptance guarantee in any case!
Once you’ve completed the photo-upload-and-processing stage and got yourself a perfect picture for your new document, you have two options. Many go the old way and have their digital photos printed at the nearest store that provides picture printing services. In that case, the printout price will likely be under £1. Then you can cut each passport photo out and use them to submit a new application.
While seemingly the safest, this tried-and-true method is not too efficient in terms of time. For one, you’ll have to spend at least an hour finding a place where you can get a correct printout of your passport photo. Once this stage is done, you’ll also need to go to a passport office in person to submit your application with the printed pictures.
In case you want to avoid that and don’t feel like going someplace only to get a small printed passport photo (even if the place is close by), you should really consider online submission. This option is available in many different countries, the United Kingdom included. The good news here is that you submit an online passport application with a digital photo attached. In case you decide to apply for a passport online, you’ll save both time and money (it’ll be about 16 pounds cheaper). After all, British passport renewal is expensive enough, which makes online submission a preferable option. In fact, HMPO itself already calls this method of submitting your passport photo and application ‘the standard service’.