I have never photographed well, but my god. My picture is positively frightening. Not quite in focus, yellowish lighting that makes me look waxy and dead. The left side of my face “hangs” ever-so-slightly, and while I look normal enough when I’m moving and talking, somehow in still photos I always look like a stroke victim… or the Elephant Man. Jeez!
I’d find some way to post the photo so you can see for yourself, but a) I like you all too much to upset you this way, and b) I’d probably damage the Internet somehow.
Really! I’m a normal, healthy person! Not this hideous thing on my ID.
Also… he asked me if I’m an organ donor. I… well, not yet…?
And he asked me what weight I “wanted” to be. I lied and gave my actual weight. :rolleyes:
I too photograph poorly, and I’m not all that face-to-face. Something about a still photo drains me of animation, and my eyes often seem heavy-lidded and dark. End result is that I wind up looking vaguely like a drunken Stalin with the moustache shaved off.
The last time I got my license renewed, I brought a little makeup bag along to do my makeup while I was waiting. I figured it’d be a long wait, after all.
Nope. At no time did I get any sit-down-and-wait time. I took a number, got called up immediately, confirmed my info, did the eye test, sat down to wait for a photo… and within maybe 90 seconds I got called up. Oh well. I ‘only’ have to wait 3 more years for this to expire.
I think they do that on purpose. If someone looks good in their photo, it’s an obvious fake.
A few years ago at work we switched over to new IDs. Everyone (that’s something like 20,000 people) had to wait in line to get a new one. It would pretty much kill your afternoon. And the cameras sucked, but there was on that was far worse than all the others. It was a little heavy on the red.
I don’t mean pink. I mean I came out looking like a candy apple.
I finally got a new DL last year. The one before it had an absolutely horrible photo.
What happened was, I was standing in the appropriate spot for the photo and the DMV lady was saying “OK, are you ready? On three. One…two…” when some guy just obliviously walked between me and the camera. DMV lady just watched him walk by with a slightly annoyed look on her face, turning her head to follow him as he walked on through. When he was a few steps beyond us she adopted this deliberately fake smile and made what I assume was her standard little quip for this situation. “We don’t do group photos” she said quietly, shaking her head slightly. AndthenCLICK!
No warning at all, she just turned back to face me and clicked the camera button. I was completely caught off guard. And it showed. For the next six years.
What was that Erma Bombeck book - “It’s Time To Go Home When You Look Like Your Passport Photo”? I don’t think I’ve ever had a red ID, but I’ve been green in photo ID more than once.
I don’t photograph well, but my latest passport photo is horrendous; they had the white contrast turned up too high, making my skin look undead white-grey. So all you see are eyes, a red slash for my mouth, and blotchy red on my cheeks. The people at airport security on both sides of the Atlantic usually do a double-take, and I’ve been told several times to get a new photo taken as it’s one of the worst they’ve ever seen. But I’m stuck with it until 2016. My previous passport photo was taken by a friend at a newspaper, and it was one of the best photos ever taken of me.
One of the few pictures I have of my partner is from an old ID badge of his; he has the intense starey-eyed look of an axe murderer. I like it, because the alternative was his driving licence photo, which, in his words, makes him look like Carlos the Jackal, or a 20 year old youth railcard photo wherein he looks like a long-haired, stoned Cillian Murphy.
I think the California DMV must have different colored filters that they use randomly for their photos. On the day they did mine, the filter was orange, and as a consequence i look a bit like an Oompa Loompa. My wife, on the other hand, got her license on a “green” day. There’s a distinct green cast to her photo.
As a contrast, the picture in my passport is so good that I have been known to take it with me when I’m having my hair cut and ask the nice person to cut it “just like this!”. My driving licence is somewhere in the middle; at least it’s a black and white photo. My work ID on the other hand makes me look two stone heavier, ten years older, 90% weirder and at least twice as stoned as I was when it was taken.
You too, eh? My driver’s license makes me look distinctly orange in a way that that I doubt even fake day-glo tan could. As a bonus, it looks like I have a rash between my eyebrows. I’ve had a few double takes when I presented my license.
Maybe 20 years ago I went in to get my DL renewed . . . and was waited on by Shrew McBitchcakes. No, I mean really. DMV workers have a rep for being unpleasant, but this woman put even the worst stereotype to shame. By the time I was to have my photo taken, I was thoroughly pissed off – and it showed. BAD.
Fortunately a nice young man was handling the completed photos, and he discreetly called me over, showed me the picture, and asked, “Would you like to have this retaken?” Oh God yes, and may I bear your child?
Now WI has gone to 8-year renewals. My current DL photo (which is actually pretty decent) was taken in 2006 and will be replaced in 2014. At least my DL weight is no longer an outrageous lie.
When I had mine done it showed up on the computer screen and they allowed for a re-do. I don’t take great pics so because it would be small, it’s ok. I later realized, however, that should something ever happen to me this is really the only photo of me in any system and would be the one in the newspaper and on the news. LOL! Guess if it gets to that point though, I really won’t care.
I have a great drivers license photo…it was one of those things
I waited too long to renew by mail so I had to go to the DMV. I did not think they were going to photgraph me, if I had renewed by mail they would’ve used the old picture…BTW, the old picture sucked and I tried to look good.
I had a horrible day, it was pouring rain, I got lost on the way to my client meeting, the meeting didn’t go well, then I got totally and completely lost on the way to the DMV. Somewhere in there, I pulled into a parking lot and had a good cry.
So I’m a total wreck by the time I get to the DMV, then I find out they want to photgraph me. I asked them to use the old one but they told me if I showed up they had to take a new one. So I let them snap and click…and much to my suprise it was one of the best photos I’ve ever taken, I wanted to ask for an 8x10.
My passport photo however is horrid, and I had it taken 3 times before I totally gave up and picked the best of 3 totally awful pics.
My first driver’s license was a little over-exposed. This would be okay except I am a pale-skinned redhead with very little contrast or color in my lips or cheeks. So all you saw was pale eyes, the faintest hint of nostrils, and a smooth expanse of skin the my chin.
My current ID is just brutal. My complexion isn’t very good to begin with but the light used looks like something in an operating room, a really harsh white/blueish color that makes me look like a cadaver.
If for some reason I only had that picture to get a date online I would be a very, very lonely man.
I renewed my passport a couple years ago, and apparently they don’t laminate in the original photos you provide anymore; they digitize the photo and print it in the passport. Wouldn’t be so much of an issue except that the ink they used is very bluey-purple, so I look like a Smurf. The photo also immortalizes one of the worst haircuts I’ve had in years, alas.
My bus pass photo is worse. I look like I’m blanching in fear and/or disgust. Yay.
My previous passport photo was taken by a friend at a newspaper, and it was one of the best photos ever taken of me.