I am needing to get a id card done for my daughter. She is two years old and I am finding it very difficult to get a decent photo of her by myself that would be accepted. Does anyone have any advice about how to take a good toddler photo for passports and ids. I am also open to any suggestions that anyone might have for professionals that can take good id photos, especially when it comes to children and around the Zürich area. Any suggestions I would greatly appreciate. Thanks in advance.
Hello everyone,
Ask at the Embassy of your choice. They will tell you what to do.
We took a load of photographs of our son when he was a baby and put them on a CD - took them to a local photo shop who had a list of requirements for each of the different countries' passport requirements. They picked the best one and printed it the right size. Worked for UK and Netherlands passports.
What are the rules that you can't meet? Most ID requirements are less strict for young children.
All you need is an off-white wall and plenty of light (don't use a flash, too many shadows). It's also easier with a narrow aperture on your SLR or a nowadays a good phone camera, you don't want depth of field on this sort of factual picture.
Possibly she is reacting to your stress which is only going to get worse. I'd suggest sitting her in front of the necessary background and playing with her for a bit, then move back to get the camera, get her to look up, and shoot.
TBH my kids looked like grumpy criminals in all their early ID photos - I think that's normal, then they can look back at them and complain later
And I've printed them all myself - a good inkjet printer gives photos that are perfectly adequate for that purpose.
It is for the Swiss id. It is very possible that she is reacting to my stress. Thanks for your suggestions and I will keep on trying.
If it is for the Swiss ID, they have everything set up at the passport office and some more senior ladies are always really excited to help with the baby/toddler pictures. They have lots of tips on taking their picture
We just made a Swiss ID + Pass for our son. Since we also ordered the passport, they had to make a special photo (I guess with some biometric data in it). The photo was taken at the official place where adults give their finger prints and get their photo taken. The seat where an adult normally sits folds away and there is a place where you can lay down your baby, with a camera mounted from above.
So I guess one possibility, although an expensive one, would be to order the "Kombi" IDK+Pass, 78chf instead of 35chf, then you don't need to bring your own photo.
Biometric data can be taken from any photo, nothing special. Just measuring proportions of eyes nose & face.
Yes, but I guess they prefer to take it with their special cameras. It's clearly stated in the instructions, that if you are ordering a passport, you need to take the photo at the passport office and you don't need to bring your own.
But make sure you use the right paper. For UK passports for example, the photo must be "on plain white photographic paper."
We had the same problem with our then 2-year-old son and went to Foto Beyeler (or something similar) near Stadelhofen. The lady, probably the owner, was very patient and she managed to take a good photo after cca 5-10 minutes of preparation and crying =).
Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I ended up taking her to the passport office in Zürich and having them do it there. The woman that took the photos did it very quickly with no problems. I only had to stand in the photo booth with the little one and tell her a couple of times to "look at that" to get her to look at the camera directly. The woman took 3 photos and two of them were acceptable. The whole process was very fast.
I have been taking the pictures of my son.
For that I use a white wall and ensure there is no shadow.
Additionally, I use lightroom to edit a little bit (e.g. decrease possible shadow or centralize the picture).