Passports

Good day all.
My passport runs out in March this year and looking on the Gov website I need a digital photo. No problem I thought.
But there may be. Apparently the old PP booths take the wrong type of photo, non-digital.
I've tried taking my own but I'm having a problem in finding a plain wall large enough for the picture requirements.
Any advice from those who have applied online would be appreciated.
Thanks

https://www.passport.service.gov.uk/photo/photo-guide

Just done it on line and cant see the problem if you have a digital camera or smart phone. When you submit the online application there is an instant check of the photo which accepts or rejects it.
Stick  some plain paper to a wall with blue tack to create a plain background.
John

Thanks John. I tried that earlier but basically I couldn't get enough of me in without including a shelf, bureau and pictures!
Going to have another go.
Bert
Just taken some more and trying them on website. 
More later......

Hang a plain white or light grey sheet behind you to obscure any shelves etc.

PS I thought they could access and use the same picture as on photocard licences or does that only work the other way around?

cheers
Roger

Some post office take photos and sends it on.

bertb wrote: Apparently the old PP booths take the wrong type of photo, non-digital.
I've tried taking my own but I'm having a problem in finding a plain wall large enough for the picture requirements.
Any advice from those who have applied online would be appreciated.

I recently went through that parlarva.
Do it on line.....easy....until the photo bit!

Gave up and got a photobooth photo and sent it off in the post.
Took about 10 days.

PB

Hi

Just copied this paragraph from the Gov Passport site. 

Go to a photo booth. From some booths in the UK and abroad, you’ll be able to get a photo code with your printed photos. We’ll show you how to use the code to retrieve your digital photo. Not sure what it means I not done it.

All comments noted. Not all photo booth pictures are accepted by passport office now. Peter B the new photos are different from the earlier ones. So unless the booth has been adapted in some way they are not suitable.
As PB says above doing it yourself can be longwinded. Used the sheet on the wall trick but it took around 7-8 attempts to get a pic that passed the P/O rules. The first 4 had the comment "It looks like you have your eyes shut/back to the camera". Eventually got one right although I think there is a shadow on the wall. By then I had lost the will to live.
Max Spielman/Simpsons/Tesco will do it for £9.75-£12.75 which in the scale of things is OK.
And the passport cost goes up March 1st.
Anyway, all done and dusted, old pp in the post. 3 weeks turnround.

As my passport had less than 6 months on it I used the online passport application before coming out here to NZ.
The digital photo part was quite a problem. The instructions state either a light blue or grey background. We have a grey wall, ideal I thought, well not really for us oldies with grey hair!
I took numerous photos, and all were rejected because the photo recognition software couldn't define a line between hair and background. However you can still submit your rejected picture with an explanation why you think it should be accepted. I did this, explaining that I couldn't help having grey hair! A week later I had my passport, complete with 'rejected' photo...
Al.

Well done Al. I saw the option to submit one and with hindsight I should have done that because a human would have seen my face and not the back of me head!

If you wear specs, take them off. I had my photo rejected because I was wearing them. Not even my own mother could recognise me without specs however as I never take them off. No-one, except the automatic passport recognition service at Heathrow, has ever asked me to take off specs before checking against my photo.

bikeralw wrote: . . . all were rejected because the photo recognition software couldn't define a line between hair and background. 

Well, that's one problem I won't have - unless they change the rules and stipulate a pink background!! 

Passport Office received my old PP so fingers crossed real people think I look
human.
Process trackable on line.

Did you pay extra for tracked return of your old passport? I didn't. I see no reason why they can't put the old passport in with the new one, the secure postage for this is included with the fee. As I said, my new passport arrived within a week, my old passport didn't drop on the mat till two weeks after that.
Al.

Oh no Al. I don't want the old one so if it never comes back I'm not bothered.
It will be interesting to see how soon the new one arrives.

I went to a local photographer for our last digital passport photographs, the cost was the same as going to the post office. I'm no oil painting as you can see from my avatar, but the photos were much better quality altogether.

Leighton.

Update.
PO say application approved!
Sent old one back @ 4.45 Monday,12th.(after last collection)
So far so good.

This is the trail on Passport Service tracking site. My underlining.

Looks on the ball. I hope this is a sign that H.M. government is
embracing 20th century technology........
(Let's not expect too much too soon)

What happens next

We print your new passport then send it to you. This will happen in the next day.
We’ll email you when we post it.

Application history

Received at 10.50 today
Your new passport is being sent to the address you gave us.
You should receive it within 2 days.                         

[th]Status[/th][th]Date[/th]

Application approved	7:46am on 15 February 2018
Joined processing queue	5:11pm on 14 February 2018
Old passport received	2:24pm on 14 February 2018
Application received	4:22pm on 12 February 2018
Application submitted	4:21pm on 12 February 2018

OK Pete. Currently the Post Office charge £9.75 for the Check & Send service, £82.25. Although if you are  89 or over it's free!
It wasn't really the the cost, more the convenience of doing it all on line. Our local PO doesn't have a booth and although the one in Burton does I think it is only for driving licence pics (oh yes that's next)
And so far I am impressed with the way it's being done.
I bet it arrives tomorrow while we are out. Even so if it does that will be 4 days from request to delivery.

And the price goes up on 27th March Pete.
https://inews.co.uk/news/uk/cost-of-british-passport-to-increase/
That's why I thought it would take a lot longer to renew.
Mine expires on the 17th March.