we are having a lot of rejects this month re passport pictures ie: babies complexion too pale even though we are using a dark grey towel as a backdrop

How is everyone else coping

We are using a plain white towel, no problem with that.
Taking the photos with a Olympus FE240 P&S camera

had my second reject this year on sat! and it was on a grey background!

we only did a grey for a week or so, but we are now back to making sure everything is white.

I am getting a little frustrated though because we have tried to do as is required according to the passport office, but that is exactly what is rejected.

we use a kodak 6490 with a slave flash on the background, then into photoshop using the dodge tool on the background. we've been doing it like this for a year or two (upto 20 a day)and never get rejects.

until they start sending all my passports back, this is how I am going to do them.

I would say carry on doing what you used to, as they seem to just want the image quality to be right, regardless of the background colour (white or grey)

"Photos must be taken against a plain, uniform, off-white or light-grey background. 5 - 10% grey is  recommended"

is what the Passport office wants.  So they are really just asking for a light background, off-white is acceptable, so any colour will do as long as it is a light colour.  We are still using a cream background with a slave flash to remove shadows and so far have avoided using Photoshop, occassionally have to use iPhoto to remove red eye.

Nick is dead right, we do much the same. The issue with a 5% grey background I think is to reduce high contrast levels which are difficult to scan their end.
If you have a freindly post office nearby go and have a word as they can get you a checking device for a small fee. They are looking for someone to reccomend as the staff are getting a lot of hassle with the sizing of photobooth pictures.

i`ve used cream white and grey and so far they have rejected all of them, i`m not new to this game i`ve been taking passport pictures for nearly 15 years and within the last 3 days i`ve had 40 pictures returned.
So i`m now telling cutomers that i have stopped taking passport pictues for the month of Feburaury until the passport office sorts out their problems there end.

Nash,

Where is your local Passport Office?

Hi Nick

London

if it does get past the post office we still have returns from the passport agency,
it`s getting to the stage that mothers are getting frantic with me
i used to love doing children passport pictures they were so good that we use to extra sets for key rings

When they are returned from the passport office, have you a chance to see the covering letter? Do they give the exact reason for rejection?

yes babies complexion too pale, but babies are pale in colour

It dosent make sense, babies passports arent subject to the same strict critera only a good likeness is required, we have'nt had a problem (so far). Is it worth ringing the passport offfice? They've been very helpful to us in the past and if you have the rejection letter you can speak to the person responsible for rejecting the photo and if it got as far as their scanner they should be able to bring the image up on screen.

Dear aks have ever tried ringing the passport office its a nightmare it gets worse when you do get through you get a right plank

i`m thinking of putting my price of 4.99 to 6.99 for a set of 4
because i`m losing all confidence in myself as specially when the customers remarks thats why i`ve come to an professional and not to one of those photo booths.

Especially when a clients needs a passprt urgently and then only to be rejected

i can understand why we the photo labs gets the brunt of it

Speak as you find! If you have the rejection letter in front of you it should have a contact name and direct dial number, this person will be dealing with the application. We phoned last year when they rejected a perfectly good photo, turned out it had been scanned incorrectly. They rescanned the photo and sent the passport out to the customer within a week. Very helpful, saved the customer £5 and gave us an insight into how they operate the system

we ask customer to read a disclamer . the post office recomend us we charge £4.49 but thinking of putting them up

yes i think 4.99 is to cheap i do well over 150 a week  i think i would start to enjoy doing them again if i`d charge 6.99