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Comment by stockboss | Hacker News Reader

the answer is - you don't need a professional grade kit.

in the past, i used to have to pay more than $10 to take some physical photos designed specifically for passport dimensions. and then, ironically, i have to then scan it in to submit for a passport application.

now? i download a free app with all the right settings that gives me instructions on how to take a proper passport photo, and then applies some filters to brighten it up, remove some imperfections on my face, etc and it looks every bit as good as any passport photo i've ever had. and it cost me $0.00.

the delta in quality between "professional" shots with professional equipment, and smartphones with increasingly capable cameras and software is becoming so small for most everyday use purposes, that the professionals are going to find it very hard to justify their rates in the future.

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The parent comment did not talk about a passport shot, but something that you can use in a professional setting to represent yourself.

I think OP was talking about professional portraits made by a photographer in a studio in a roughly hour long session. Photo shoots like that typically cost 100-200€ and the resulting portraits are not at all comparable to a 10€ passport photo.

Correct. I was indeed.

Although this particular round fell somewhere inbetween "passport mughots at Snappy Snaps" and a full "subject all dolled up" session. IIRC the photo session was about 20 minutes and a week later I paid (IIRC) 25€ for each processed photo I eventually wanted to buy. She burned the selected high-res JPEGs on a CD while I waited.

I'd be happy to pay £120 to £150 for a fresh set these days, assuming they'd serve me for a decade again.

[Funnily enough, we ended up going to her studio for our official wedding photos a couple of years later.]

At the same time, the two photographers in my neighbourhood are doing better than ever. When it comes to memories (like newborn photos) surprisingly many people are willing to pay a premium.

Often the event being photographed has the participants fully involved, they don't have time to think about photos. Hence the need for a professional. DIY has limits, people are single-threaded. You need to hire professionals for extra threads.

My neighbourhood photographer charged me approximately the same for taking a passport photo and auto-submitting it via a quality-checking app as I'd have paid to use the quality-checking app myself...

She also recognised my name from the prints of my baby nieces she'd sold.

I see discussion that the OP was about headshots for a different frame of reference, but passport/visa photos are an interesting comparable. Every country has their own standard (dimensions, framing, glasses/no glasses, smiling/not, etc). Although they might not vary too much, it used to be easier for an international traveler to go to a "passport photo" shop (as I did, years ago), but now, as you point out, it's a problem that can be solved with a computer.

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