Taking Your Own Passport Photos

By next year travelers will need passports for air, sea and land to go to Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. The $100 passport fee is unavoidable, but now with digital technology you can take your own passport picture and save a few dollars.

The drawback is that there are very specific standards for a passport photo and if you don’t follow the rules, your application may not go through.

For example, photos have to be exactly 2 inches by 2 inches.

Stand against a white or off-white background with no shadow.

The height from the top of your head to your chin should measure about 1 inch. Your digital camera needs to be at least 1 megapixel.

You can print out the photo yourself, but it has to be on photographic print paper.

If you have any doubts about your printer quality, then take it to a professional.

Or, check out the Web site www.epassportphoto.com that helps you crop and size the photo correctly.

You can print six passport-size photos for free or they can deliver prints to you for $6.

Learn more about passports with Passport Tips: What You Should Know.

Looking for more advice? Click here for more Free Daily Travel Tips.