Personal Technology Tips in Plain English
Get Out Of The Country! (Wait, you need a passport photo!)
If one of your resolutions for this next year is to be a jetsetter, you’d better be ready with a Passport in hand. Instead of heading over to CVS and paying them a whopping $7.99 for passport photos, do it yourself for 50 cents!
You can easily take a photo yourself with your digital camera at home.
The US Department of State website gives 7 clear rules for the perfect passport photo. Basically, you just have to take it on a clean, white or off-white background and make sure it’s a nice clear headshot.
You can also download all the Passport Application forms and avoid the long lines at the post office as well!
Now all you need is the print out the photos to the correct size. Forget about re-sizing, editing, cropping, etc.
Just hop over to ePassportPhoto.com to auto-generate perfect photos to print out!
You can upload any photo from your own computer, rotate, crop, etc and then it will auto size it and layout the photos so that you can easily print out a 4×6 photo at home or at the store.
I printed the 2 required passport photos out for $0.25 at CVS (you need 2, but the 4×6 photo generated gives you more than two)!

They looked so good that when I brought up the photo to pay for it at the register, they initially tried to charge me $7.99 for my DIY photos (that is the price of THEIR regular passport photos)!
My clerk was so confused how I could walk-out with passport photos for only 25 cents…and don’t forget that you can upload the final photo to Shutterfly or Kodak EasyShare Gallery – they both offer free prints promotionally, so it could be totally free!
Hey, once you submit your passport application, you’ll probably want to know when you’ll actually get the finished passport back, right? Usually you’ll receive it within 6 weeks, but just to be sure, the US Department of State has set-up an on-line passport application status check.
QUESTION: WHAT COUNTRY ARE YOU TRAVELING TO NEXT? (OR WANT TO TRAVEL TO NEXT?)
I love tech, gadgets and the web. Hope you pick-up a useful tip or two here today that helps you use technology to your advantage! Better yet, why not share your own expertise in a comment on a post today to help the other readers that land here for answers!
January 9, 2007 - 2:32 pm
Ah, and don’t forget to take off that hat!
Unless worn daily for religious reasons, all hats or headgear should be removed for the photo. And in all cases, no item or attire should cover or otherwise obscure any part of the face according to the US Department of State.
December 8, 2009 - 10:29 am
You can create valid passport photos with http://idphoto4you.com website.
It uses face detection to set size and position of head.
It is free.
Built-in standards for 63 countries.