Save $: Do It Yourself Passport and Visa Photos

I almost flipped my lid when I saw that I was going to have to pay $7.99 a pop just to get  four 2×2 visa photos.  So, I thought to myself, there has to be another way for me to do this.  With a little searching around I found out there was! 

I paid .19 cents per 4×6 sheet at Walmart.com’s one hour photo and instead of two photos, I received 5 passport photos for that price!  I saved over $31.00 doing it myself. 

Want to know how I did it?  It’s pretty simple:

1.  Take your digital camera and find a white background…if you can’t find one in your house then hang up a sheet on a well lit wall.

2.  Use as much light as you can for the photo and snap a head shot from about 4 feet away.  Shoot from about the collar bone up and give a few inches of space above the head.  Don’t cheese it up…just take a normal face shot.  For more info on the proper technique click here.

3.  Download the pic to your computer and save.  Open it in an image editing software.  I used a very simple program and hit the auto edit feature.

4.  Go to www.epassportphoto.com and upload your pic.  Follow step two and ensure compliance. 

5.  Go to “next”…then to “Do It Yourself”…”download and print”…click “here” at the bottom of the page if you don’t want to email your friends…then download the passport photo image.

6.  Save the file on your desktop and print it from home if you have a photo quality printer and paper.  If not, go to Walmart.com’s photo center.

7.  Upload the file to the site.  It will be a 4×6 print on luster paper for .19 cents a copy for one hour photo pickup at your nearest location.

8.  Cut the photo and rejoice that you stuck it to the man! LOL!