Renewing your driving licence photo just got harder

I respect professional photographers but equally I am aware that their days are numbered. Anyone can take photographs and many amateurs can take very good ones. As with phone boxes and cinemas, the demand is falling.

Is the fact that “demand is fallin” a reason, a justification to accelerate it?!
The reality is that the provision of ID pictures is helping the photographers in continuing to offer the great services people like: wedding picturs, posters, canvas, personnalised albums etc… and even if less 4×6 pictures are printed, europeans still printed 16 billions of them last year! just don’t kill an industry that has been built on so much innovation and creativity!

I look at it from another way. I see it as fantastic that so many have a worthwhile hobby that does not need to be expensive. Taking photos for a driving licence has nothing whatsoever to do with innovation and creativity. As I said, I have a great respect for photographers but the demand for their services is falling. I had assumed that weddings would continue to keep photographers in business, but I have seen some good work done by enthusiasts with decent equipment.

@wave change
Well actually you are mistaken…ID pictures have to go by heavy international regulations (the ICAO norm), these did evolve a few years ago and are stating many requirements including format, head size, position, print quality, paper quality…. So photographers (be it the booth or your local) have had to invest accordingly to ensure conformity. So not the most glittering part of the job but still requiring professionalism and investment in equipment and softwares.

I’m well aware that there are detailed requirements, Gimpel, but that has nothing to do with innovation and creativity. It is very well known that if you submit a photo that does not comply with a passport application, it will be rejected.

Just had my license stolen trying to find a method of renewal is unbelievable I am not very computer literate being born too long ago and the whole process of finding a means to be legal I am just having a sob out of frustration what a mess we are in Help !

I agree completely Cliff, we need to save our photographers. Also, I’d like to challenge anyone to print a supposed official ID photo on a home printer and get that by the passport office!

A friend has done passport photos for several people and the photos were all accepted by the Passport Office. It’s just a case of reading the requirements and following them. If an automatic machine can take a passport photo then it’s not that hard for a competent person to do the same.

i think passport photos are outdated bureaucracy that the sooner it’s replaced by something digital the better. A few years back I renewed my driving licence I used a photo booth, apparently the image was too feint. Then went to the photographer who used flash and then the reflection of my glasses was not good enough (who never warned me and didn’t give me a refund!), then took another set which finally were good enough apparently. I ended up with 11 really bad pictures of myself that I spent over a tenner on (not to mention 5 trips running to and fro on an afternoon taken off work, before the post office shuts!) What a palaver.

Last time I did it, went to the post office, it was done by the same person who took it and signed it off, so no arguments, no time wasted. If a photographer relies on this to stay in business then perhaps it is the wrong profession? Or perhaps there should be a tickbox for £5 to be donated to a photographers guild in the driving licence application form, I’d happily tick it to save myself the bother.

Rather like Jeremy Clarkson in the programme in Japan, the solution to this is to drive wearing a cardboard cutout face of a prominent personality of your choice. As to the issue of driving license photographs, you can be really curmudgeonly like me and insist on keeping your paper license for as long as possible. It really causes consternation (but I need to carry other photo ID sometimes)

No Isidore – the solution is to drive with due care and consideration and comply with the rules of the road. Tinted windows in the front part of the vehicle and quirky number plate characters have been outlawed yet drivers persist in trying to find ways of driving dangerously with impunity.

This is very true. If everyone takes great care in their driving and parking then the government will get screwed over because they will lose out on billions of pounds. plus if you let your licence run out of date then the only way the police will get you is if you have a crash so drive safely and carefully and government wont be theifing as much money from us. PLUS insurance might actually go down a conciderable amount if there are a lot less acidents

Forgive me but your appreciation is Ill founded and the comment a tad absurd.
Of course driving licence’s purpose is not to save jobs, but the fact that an ID picture is required is a valuable source of income for photographers. Amusingly, driving licences are also a good way to generate revenue for the government .
ID pictures, and in particular for passports are governed by strict international regulations and as an individual you will struggle to conform with it, your suggestion that people could take their own picture can’t be a solution. A professional is required.
Scanning a high resolution printed ID picture is actually very efficient and cost effective for the tax payer (and by the way, once scanned, the pictures are being “re printed” in the sense you imply.
Last but not least, good on you if you really printed for 32p and that your pictures were accepted as ICAO compliant by IPS….do you believe you will be able to continue to do it at such a cheap rate in the future when the only place you will be able to get the service from will be post office, we all know the sort of impact monopolies have on prices!
It will be well in your interest to help preserving the British photographic industry and support coexistence with post office

I totally agree. This stupid idea of producing a paper photo, sending it to DVLA (or the passport office, you only have to do one btw), where they then scan it to produce an image far inferior to the origional of even the most basic digital camera is a total waste of time money and effort. The last time I tried to renew my passport on line they said they could not accept a digital file as there were ‘so many different types’, what utter nonsense. There are very few raw file types, most cameras handle TIFF or BMP files. If the don’t they soon would if they could be used for the intended purpose. Getting it done by an expert photographer was a disaster, the prints had printing on the back, a big no-no, requiering going to another to get them done again. Renewing my photo licence at the PO was much easier, but would be easier still it you could send it by file.

TIFF by all means and low compression JPG would be fine, but why BMP – a Windoze-specific format?

Hi,

I wanted to mention about my experience updating my photocard license to warn others.
My license was due to expire in July so, being efficient, when I received it in June I completed & sent it back straight away.

A week later it arrived back but I lost out on a month’s validity as they issued the new dates of when they had processed it! Needless to say I was annoyed so I emailed them questioning why this had been done as it penalises me for being prompt & lawful.

I received a poor letter saying I wasn’t penalised & my license wouldn’t be amended as I asked.

I’ve since destoyed the letter but I feel like I can’t let this happen to myself & others.

Does anyone know of any further action that can be taken as it’s not fair on motorists at all! I’m always insured, taxed & legal so it’s only right that the DVLA should play fair too.

Thanks : )

That’s a good point David, yes if this were to go through then the PO would not be able to cope with the volume.

I can’t see them investing in the quantity required to fullfill the demand, as I have seen their inability to meet the demand of current customer demands.

I mean, what is your experience of going to the PO, mine is that you have to patiently queue, regardless, so what do you think will happen if they acquired this extra workload.

Although I’m sure many photographers will take umbrage to the comparison to ‘heating a can of beans’, it is true that taking a passport photograph can be very simple with basic photographic knowledge and the ability to follow the DVLA guidelines.

On a side note, this is not the first threat to the bloated photographic industry, nor will it be the last. Photographers need to adapt to the changing landscape of the trade or die. Simple. It is absurd to insist that the government should be obliged to install contrived protectionism in an era when the sands are shifting beneath our feet in all directions.

I admit that my comment was a little provocative, Daniel. 🙂

There are plenty of other examples of the need to move with the times. Pubs are an obvious example. Many are struggling and many have closed, but some are doing well. In the photographic world, Kodak is a good example of what can go wrong.

Sorry, but I imagine you visited a (barely) legal scam website.

If you Google renewal of driving licence, passport, EHIC etc. you will be given numerous sites which will assist with supplying them for a fee, glossing over the fact that you can do it direct either for free (for an EHIC) or at least with no service charge if you do it directly. They are very well crafted to look official and many people are drawn into parting with money that they do not have to pay.

The sites are legal, because they will not actually say anywhere that they are official and they are genuinely doing something for the money you give them, it’s just that you could do the same thing yourself for no greater effort without paying them.

David is right. Have a look at a recent Conversation to learn more about the problem and how to avoid being cheated again: https://conversation.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/trading-standards-beware-new-copycat-website-tricks/

I didnt have to pay to renew mine online. Did it throught the dvla in 5mins and they used a digital copy of my passport photo so didnt have to worry about that either. I got my new licence (with a new paper copy) within 4days. All they asked is that I cut up my old one and send it to the dvla. Dont kno why you are all making it hard and expensive for yourselves.

Oops. I mean Brian is right.

My comment will make no sense until the previous one with a link to another Conversation is approved.

Why can’t I edit my careless posts and why do links to pages on this site need to be approved? 🙁

I look forward to being able to edit comments, even if this is only available for a short time after posting.

I understand the need to approve links but was suggesting automatic approval of comments that are already on this website. Maybe that would be technically difficult.

Sorry for the off-topic comment, Patrick.

J the problem is that they will only accept passport photo if its taken winin 5 years. my 15 year passport is going to expire next year so i cant use it which means i gotta go post office get them to take my picture costing me £4.50 then post it to DVLA with £20 cheque. I dont even have a cheque book ! hassle and waste of money ! just another way for government to theive cash from us. besides the card licence and postage does not come close to costing £24.50

Not until it expires or needs to be replaced. That means that unless you move house, are given endorsements or want to add any new categories to it, you can keep with the paper one until it expires when you reach the age of 70. If you have to send your licence in to have any changes made to it, then the replacement would be a photocard one and that would need to be renewed every 10 years, essentially just to keep the photo up to date.

Daniel Bryan: YES! YES! YES!

Because you are probably on the wrong website. I renewed mine last month for 10yrs and it cost me £20 came within 4days and it came with my passport photo on it so didnt need to fuss around getting a photo done

Beware of sites like drivinglicences org. Although they are legal, they are trying to charge you for filling in the forms on your behalf and then posting them out to you. They do state this on the home page, declaring themselves “an application assistance service” or a “checking service” and clearly stating that they are “not connected to any UK Government body” and then they charge you, in this instance £85. If you wish to avoid any unnecessary fees and charges, make sure you only go to the official DVLA / GOV.UK sites e.g. http://www.gov.uk/browse/driving/driving-licences

To be honest I’m surprised Which haven’t done more to highlight this companies.

[This comment has been edited to align with our community guidelines. Thanks, mods]

I am impressed by what Which? and Google have done to help raise awareness of the problem and to address it.

A Google search no longer lists copycat sites for passport renewal, at least on the first page. The distinctive yellow labels identifying sites that advertise seem to be here to stay. On the other hand, a Yahoo search pulls up copycat sites and it is difficult to tell which have paid to advertise.

The message would get over to many more people if the BBC gave Which? the opportunity to publicise issues such as this on TV.