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.
> 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.
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.
You are vastly underestimating how vain people are. Will 10% of people change their appearance on official documents just to look better? Yes, certainly.
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.
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).
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.
You can take your own photo in the US. Requirements: https://travel.state.gov/en/passports/apply/help/photos.html
Is it a requirement to pay $25 to get a passport photo in the USA?
My passport photo is taken by the police authority when I go there for renewing my ID card + passport.
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.
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Yeah but on the US government website [1] it says
> 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] https://travel.state.gov/en/passports/apply/help/photos.html
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.
You are vastly underestimating how vain people are. Will 10% of people change their appearance on official documents just to look better? Yes, certainly.
Might as well as name this "immediately get arrested"
Don't understand why this was allowed to be submitted to HN.
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.
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.
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).
There’s been sites that do this for years.
Didn't work for me((((
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