Everyone’s Talking About Prince’s New Passport Pic

Michael Zhang

princepassport

People often complain about how terrible they look in their passport photos, and it doesn’t help that the US government has some pretty strict requirements regarding the layout, lighting, and composition. That’s probably why everyone seems to be talking about Prince’s official passport pic, which the musician shared with the world recently.

Prince took an updated portrait to update his travel documents for a concert tour in Australia and New Zealand. That same day, he took to Twitter to share it:

Now everyone’s talking about how Prince was able to achieve such a “perfect” portrait while staying within the government’s guidelines.

The photo should be taken “in front of a plain white or off-white background,” the US Department of State says. The studio lighting in Prince’s photo has created some shadows on his face and on half of the background, but apparently they’re soft enough to not be considered unacceptable.

So, if you’re planning on renewing your passport photo sometime soon and don’t want to look like a deer caught in headlines, try recreating the look and lighting of Prince’s shot.

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