Hi Wendy, I wonder if you could give me advice on how you did your digital photo please? Did you use a machine like Photomaton or did you take the photo yourself? I am having a nightmare with both scenarios 
Most people end up doing it themselves it seems. We certainly did. Took a few tries until thecomputer said yes.
Hello,
we set up the camera on a tripod to take the photo with a digital camera, (blank background etc etc), then loaded the pic onto the computer, cropped it and uploaded the pic to their website when i got to the “upload file” section.
The photo machine I tried didn’t seem to want to comply with UK specifications, and I would not trust by myself to try doing it on a mobile phone!
Good luck
Wendy
Hi Wendy, thanks, I really appreciate your quick reply. I will now do as you did. A while back we used a mobile phone and it was also almost impossible to find a blank wall in an old stone walled house 
I will now use a camera and tripod and move boxes and furniture to find a decent wall!! I have wasted money in the Photomatons and the digital numbers do not correspond with the UK online form boxes. Many many thanks! Have a lovely evening! Rachael
A large sheet of white cardboard will also work.
Or if you want something you can use again in future, try this from Amazon FR for €14:
https://www.amazon.fr/-/en/Background-Professional-Photography-Television-Broadcasting/dp/B07SHLXQ69
Shoot the image larger than you need and crop to the required dimensions in any photo editor program.
The lighting needs to be from the front and very flat, so outdoors on an overcast day is best, or standing under a veranda facing the outdoors, if you don’t have a flash.
With flash, to make you less convict-like, fire it through a diffuser such as a white sheet or bounce it off a white ceiling.
No problem, hope it works for you. Have a good evening.
Wendy
Thanks Chris, that is wonderful advice, really appreciate it, and your quick response. I will give all this a try. Then hopefully I can have a holiday “abroad” this year Feeling hopeful now that I have had responses from Survive France Have a great evening!
Thanks Wendy!
Also don’t stand too close to the cardboard, otherwise you’ll cast a shadow on it and that would make your photo unacceptable.
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Thanks Mark. Good plan. Have a lovely day!
Good advice. Never stand too close to any cardboard. You may get taken to the dechetterie.
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I have a decent DSLR and studio lighting; I know how to take a half reasonable photo, but when I renewed mine 2 or 3 years ago, it didn’t matter what I tried, it was always rated badly… I seem to recall they wanted shoulders and chest in the frame, which is what I did.
In the end, I just scanned a passport photo from a booth (also did the same for my son’s recent application). It’s a much more cropped version, and if you scan it too large it will say the photo is too blurry, but if you reduce the pixels and sharpen, it worked, and both mine and my son’s pictures were accepted.
Last time I got a new passport (2023) I did my own - and they were OK with it, thankfully.
I used a pale grey background (Colorama / Savage Quartz) and just a Godox AD200 flash fired into an umbrella from the front. I don’t think I even bothered with two lights as there is a bit of difference in illumination across my face.
I did shoot fairly wide (chest level upwards). The file I submitted was resized to 3000x2000 pixels, so maybe that was a factor in your case?
If you want a laugh, here’s the result:
As a comedic touch I have this filed on my computer under “Portraits”
That’s a good photo Chris - perfect for a passport. I’d say you’re a dab hand when it comes to photography, I’m assuming you have quite a bit of experience in that field?
I originally submitted something similar, size wise too (3000 pixels is overkill for a tiny passport photo but I thought it would keep them happy). Ironic that a scan of an already tiny picture, reduced to about 1200 pixels or less got me a much higher rating.
24 years as a full-time professional.
Although I started with a Kodak Instamatic as a young teenager, then moved on to a Praktica 35mm camera and an Olympus OM-10, and then Canon. Nowadays I shoot with Fujifilm digital cameras.
Being a glutton for punishment I used to shoot Kodachrome 64 in the Instamatic - yes you could get tiny slide film in 126 format back in the day!
The slides were miniscule and you had to buy plastic adapters to bring them up to 35mm size to use in a projector.
Ah, that would explain it then!
I’m afraid some of those models are lost on me, but I did dabble a little with Kodak slides as a young teen, but more the conventional 35mm size. The Fujifilm digitals look like they’ve kept that retro look which is nice.
First digital camera I ever saw, was something my old boss brought back from China, which saved directly onto a 3.5" floppy disc that went inside, which must have been in the late 90’s. Then around 2000 I got a Casio QV-3000EX, with a whopping 3.3 MP, but back then the digitals couldn’t touch a half decent traditional camera.
Yes and also the retro physical controls for the most part, which is nice - less button fiddling and you can check the settings without going into a menu!
Sounds like a Sony Mavica:
Yes my first digital was an Olympus point and shoot, around 3 megapixels I think.
Mind you, we used to shoot outdoor billboard images on the original Canon EOS 1D digital, which was 4MP!
I think that was the camera Chris, certainly operated by the same principal.
I know MP isn’t everything (far from it), but back in the day 4MP vs 3MP made a big difference!
To be fair the Mavica used a 1/1.8" CCD chip whereas a 1D Mk1 had a much bigger sensor - APS-H (between APS-C as in current Fuji cameras and “full frame” 35mm).
That would have more of an impact on image quality than the number of megapixels I think.
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Questions about renewing a UK passport from France. My current passport runs out on 2nd September 2025. I have no plans to travel in the near future - what would be the best moment to apply? I understand that in renewing, I need to send in my current passport. Therefore, what happens if an emergency arises and I should need to travel back to the UK, but do not have a passport. Alternatively, what about if I need to show my passport as a means of identity in France? Lastly, what is the recommended way of sending back a passport?