I can't stress how bad an idea it is to use this for passport photos.
Passports are likely the strictest, most important ID that most people will ever own. The reason the photos have strict requirements is to ensure that the ID can be effective. Putting a photo of not you on your passport is such a huge self-own.
It's also not just about whether your passport authority accepts the photo, it's about whether every single border you cross accepts it, and crossing a border in a country you aren't a citizen of is about the worst place to have your ID questioned.
How is it a photo of "not you"? This looks to me like AI brightness/contrast/cropping and not generative AI.
And no I'm not paying $25 for some idiot at CVS to rip me off and do extremely little work. They also are not knowledgeable about the passport photo requirements of all these countries and they don't deserve $25.
This is IMO one of those jobs that should be replaced by AI.
This explicitly documents that it modifies the image. Passport authorities typically explicitly tell you not to do that. They modify the images in a standardised way.
> And no I'm not paying $25 for some idiot at CVS
Neither am I. Don't do this. Just send the passport authority your image as they tell you to do.
No, but people in the USA love overcharging for stuff, charge 10% taxes on top of it (that should have been paid out of the overcharged price), then ask you for 18%, 25%, or 30% tips on top of that with puppy face, then ask if you want to round up to donate to some no-name children's foundation.
You can take your own photo in the US. Requirements: <a href="https://travel.state.gov/en/passports/apply/help/photos.html" rel="nofollow">https://travel.state.gov/en/passports/apply/help/photos.html
This is a super fishy site. No point of contact other than a form.
Site looks AI generated by itself.
Technically, the site can add hidden biometric data to the photo that allows multiple people to travel on the same passport.
They also give you incentive to choose the passport you’re going to use it for, pretending the picker is about the specific regulations of your country’s passport. So they even know what passport to fake that most likely belongs to the person uploading their picture.
You will then likely use the photos you downloaded from their website
to get official papers and that’s the jackpot for them.
That’s the main reason you should not use a service like this to save 25 bucks. You might be aiding organised crime and/or foreign governments in obtaining travel documents which allow them to hide their true identity.
In Mali, for example, many people want to flee to Europe. They buy a passport with a morphed photo that belongs to someone around the same age, having the same skin colour and citizenship in a European country.
They also know you must be close to obtaining new documents for whatever reasons, as you specifically are looking for their service, and they can retain a copy of the morphed image to sell a passport with your photo to someone around the same age and skin color in a third-world country for a few thousand dollars, or to hide a Mossad hit team from entering the country to murder one of your fellow citizens.
> That’s the main reason you should not use a service like this to save 25 bucks. You might be aiding organised crime and/or foreign governments in obtaining travel documents which allow them to hide their true identity.
If foreign governments is the threat model, then my government should offer a free passport photo service that supports all countries' specs, and put the $25 guys out of business.
Okay, then I will just use the website then. Their choice. I'm just picking among options offered to me, and I'm not exactly swimming in cash.
Maybe they can start with a $50 tax deduction for every $25 passport photo I take at CVS.
If you trust your government to be competent enough to treat you fairly if your face ends up on the news because someone left a copy of a passport with your face on it at a terror scene, then save the money, if you are happy with the service.
> Do not change your photo using computer software, phone apps or filters, or artificial intelligence.
and many other countries have similar requirements.
EDIT: I just read the "Common Questions" that says: "This editor crops and centers the photo you provide and can replace the background. It does not invent or beautify a face." I guess that's not as bad then. Still mildly iffy and weird marketing though.
You are vastly underestimating how vain people are. Will 10% of people change their appearance on official documents just to look better? Yes, certainly.
I used it a few weeks ago for a renewal. You upload the HEIC from your iPhone and it turns it into a jpeg with the appropriate resolution. The editor gives you the ability to make minor adjustments to the algorithmic changes it made, and then tells you that a human will review to ensure it meets the standard.
To be honest, the process was very well done, and the new passport was in my mailbox 5 days later without paying anything for expedited shipping.
Here in India you don't carry your photo to the passport office. They click your picture onsite and that's what's printed on the passport.
I would assume most of the countries nowadays do this at least if you apply in home country, it can be different in embassy abroad, I remember taking photos of my year old kid born abroad, good luck with that in embassy (the trick is taking photo from above while kid is looking up laying on some white sheet).
In the US the passport applicant must provide their own photos as part of the application. I recall having to do this in Ukraine and Hungary for residency applications as well but in those countries they take the photo that ends up on the document. By contrast the US prints the actual photo you provide onto the physical passport.
For this reason vain people (like me) may pay a photographer a few dollars to take a photo that is at least well lit and doesn’t appear to have been taken in a morgue.
I would not risk using an AI tool to adjust the photo. If the photo were to fail a facial recognition match against my actual face for some reason I would not enjoy having to explain myself at every border crossing for the next ten years.
[deleted] · · focus · HN ↗
[deleted]
wsm123456 · · focus · HN ↗
[dead]
danpalmer · · focus · HN ↗
Passports are likely the strictest, most important ID that most people will ever own. The reason the photos have strict requirements is to ensure that the ID can be effective. Putting a photo of not you on your passport is such a huge self-own.
It's also not just about whether your passport authority accepts the photo, it's about whether every single border you cross accepts it, and crossing a border in a country you aren't a citizen of is about the worst place to have your ID questioned.
qurren · · focus · HN ↗
And no I'm not paying $25 for some idiot at CVS to rip me off and do extremely little work. They also are not knowledgeable about the passport photo requirements of all these countries and they don't deserve $25.
This is IMO one of those jobs that should be replaced by AI.
danpalmer · · focus · HN ↗
> And no I'm not paying $25 for some idiot at CVS
Neither am I. Don't do this. Just send the passport authority your image as they tell you to do.
[deleted] · · focus · HN ↗
[deleted]
piva00 · · focus · HN ↗
My passport photo is taken by the police authority when I go there for renewing my ID card + passport.
qurren · · focus · HN ↗
jmye · · focus · HN ↗
[dead]
sjs382 · · focus · HN ↗
Jamesbeam · · focus · HN ↗
Technically, the site can add hidden biometric data to the photo that allows multiple people to travel on the same passport.
They also give you incentive to choose the passport you’re going to use it for, pretending the picker is about the specific regulations of your country’s passport. So they even know what passport to fake that most likely belongs to the person uploading their picture.
You will then likely use the photos you downloaded from their website to get official papers and that’s the jackpot for them.
That’s the main reason you should not use a service like this to save 25 bucks. You might be aiding organised crime and/or foreign governments in obtaining travel documents which allow them to hide their true identity.
In Mali, for example, many people want to flee to Europe. They buy a passport with a morphed photo that belongs to someone around the same age, having the same skin colour and citizenship in a European country.
They also know you must be close to obtaining new documents for whatever reasons, as you specifically are looking for their service, and they can retain a copy of the morphed image to sell a passport with your photo to someone around the same age and skin color in a third-world country for a few thousand dollars, or to hide a Mossad hit team from entering the country to murder one of your fellow citizens.
qurren · · focus · HN ↗
If foreign governments is the threat model, then my government should offer a free passport photo service that supports all countries' specs, and put the $25 guys out of business.
Jamesbeam · · focus · HN ↗
Hell freezes over before the government lets go of those taxes and puts the guy out of business who is collecting your tithe for them.
qurren · · focus · HN ↗
Okay, then I will just use the website then. Their choice. I'm just picking among options offered to me, and I'm not exactly swimming in cash.
Maybe they can start with a $50 tax deduction for every $25 passport photo I take at CVS.
Jamesbeam · · focus · HN ↗
If you trust your government to be competent enough to treat you fairly if your face ends up on the news because someone left a copy of a passport with your face on it at a terror scene, then save the money, if you are happy with the service.
Who am I to tell you what you can and can not do.
dllu · · focus · HN ↗
> Submit the original, unchanged photo.
> Do not change your photo using computer software, phone apps or filters, or artificial intelligence.
and many other countries have similar requirements.
EDIT: I just read the "Common Questions" that says: "This editor crops and centers the photo you provide and can replace the background. It does not invent or beautify a face." I guess that's not as bad then. Still mildly iffy and weird marketing though.
[1] <a href="https://travel.state.gov/en/passports/apply/help/photos.html" rel="nofollow">https://travel.state.gov/en/passports/apply/help/photos.html
[deleted] · · focus · HN ↗
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spwa4 · · focus · HN ↗
stockresearcher · · focus · HN ↗
To be honest, the process was very well done, and the new passport was in my mailbox 5 days later without paying anything for expedited shipping.
[deleted] · · focus · HN ↗
[deleted]
GloVin · · focus · HN ↗
comrade1234 · · focus · HN ↗
itsrajju · · focus · HN ↗
Markoff · · focus · HN ↗
anelson · · focus · HN ↗
For this reason vain people (like me) may pay a photographer a few dollars to take a photo that is at least well lit and doesn’t appear to have been taken in a morgue.
I would not risk using an AI tool to adjust the photo. If the photo were to fail a facial recognition match against my actual face for some reason I would not enjoy having to explain myself at every border crossing for the next ten years.
VCFundedGenYer · · focus · HN ↗
Don't understand why this was allowed to be submitted to HN.