Was your passport photo rejected because of the wrong face size?
I take a lot of passport photos for lots of different nationalities. Its crazy how different the instructions are from country to country.
I noticed a simple mistake the authorities sometimes make when describing how large a face should be in the photo, especially when they don't supply a template like the U.S. or Australia does.
For example, the Italian passport photo instructions ask that “The face must cover 70-80% of the photo…”
If you take this rule literally the photo will be rejected! I’m not sure if it is a problem with the translation to English, but other countries like Jamaica, Germany and South Africa have the same issue in their rule-set!
So what's the problem? Well if, like most of the world’s passport photos, the photo is 35x45mm big, a face that takes up 80% of the area will fill the entire photo! See the image below as an example.
What the authorities really mean, (I assume given the sample photos they provide) is that the face from chin to crown should be 70-80% of the HEIGHT of the photo, not the AREA.
I also think that the choice of face height of between 70% and 80% is not entirely optional. Wider faces (like mine) need to be closer to 70% in height, because it were higher than that, the width is too much for the photo limits. Longer, narrower faces need to be closer to 80% so that they are not too small in the frame.
Poorly-worded instructions like this are the reason why I make my own country-specific photo templates. We have to be careful to follow the detailed rules, and at the same time interpret the ambiguous or mis-intended ones.
Find out more about my fast passport photo services here: https://www.filnenna.com/passport, or contact me to have your passport photos taken and printed within an hour.
I’m Fil Nenna, a portrait photographer serving Boston’s North Shore who specializes in helping individuals and small businesses like yours get more customers through quality images for your website or social media like LinkedIn.
Located in Marblehead I provide on-location services in Salem, Swampscott, Peabody, Saugus, Beverly, Danvers, Lynn, Boston and beyond. I can work in any space no matter the size or lighting conditions.
Please get in touch at info@filnenna.com to find out how quick and convenient making awesome headshots can be! We can even make interview-style branding videos.
