DMV Ability to Re-Shoot Photos Has Drivers Smiling

Fingerprinting over, Terry Anderson of Huntington Beach fluffed the curl of her sandy-red hair and hoped she still looked the same since her last glance in the mirror.

“Please take off your glasses,” the camera operator told her. “One, two, three, now smile.”

Anderson did as she was told, then rolled her eyes. The dreaded driver’s license photo had been shot.

“I thought about having my hair styled before coming here,” she said at the state Department of Motor Vehicles branch in Westminster. “But in this lighting, let’s face it, we all look like convicts anyway.”

It’s the one picture we carry in our purse or wallet that we show dozens of times--at the bank, the grocery and sometimes, on unfortunate occasions, to the police.

Yet most people do not take any special care to prepare for their driver’s license photo, DMV officials say. Mainly, say the front-line DMV employees, it’s because people just want to get through the long line and get it over.

Now, however, people can have their picture taken again if they aren’t happy with the first shot. The DMV uses digital cameras, and the processing clerk can show you on a computer screen what your driver’s license photo will look like.

“If you don’t like it, and the lines aren’t too bad, we’ll be glad to re-shoot for you,” agency spokesman Steve Haskins said from the DMV’s state headquarters in Sacramento.

Quite a few people ask to peek around the desk at the computer screen to see their image--and some ask for new shots, said Yvonne Rowden, manager at DMV’s Fullerton branch.

“We draw the line at five or six times,” she cautioned.

What if you hate your driver’s license photo, but you’re not up for renewal? With renewal by mail, you can go as long as a dozen years without having a new driver’s license picture. You can still get a new one, the DMV says.

Just call for an appointment, shell out $12, and have your picture retaken for a new driver’s license. (It will be labeled “duplicate.”)

A couple of reminders for anyone headed to the DMV for a license: no hats, turbans or facial scarfs for the picture, except for religious purposes. A woman in Idaho successfully fought the DMV there recently for refusing to shoot her with a face scarf. If you wear glasses, they’ll ask you to remove them because of the glare. The license, of course, will state whether you’re required to wear them for driving.

About the hair: If for any reason you choose to make it purple, that’s fine. But the DMV will ask for your real hair color, to place that information on your license. The reason underscores one of the main purposes of accurate driver’s license information: The police may need it.

“We always take our time looking at the photo, to make sure the driver we stop is the same person with a license to drive,” said Denise Medina, traffic information specialist for the California Highway Patrol in Irvine.

But even in a setting as impersonal as a traffic stop, people’s vanity shows when it comes to the driver’s license photo.

“They’ll say as they hand it over, ‘Oh please don’t look at the photo, it’s so terrible,’ ” Medina said.

Police say some people have laminated over their license photos with photos they think show them in a better light. But far more prevalent, they say, are those who supply a new picture for illicit reasons. Or fake licenses altogether.

“We get lots of teens with fake licenses so they can drink alcohol,” said JoAnn O’Hair, spokeswoman for the CHP’s Santa Ana division. “Or people without driver’s licenses who show us one from a relative, hoping the picture is close enough to fool us.”

As long as the police know it’s you, it doesn’t matter to them if you’re smiling or looking sad when the picture is taken. But it certainly matters to many standing in line at the DMV. Until they lose patience.

Jorge Ventura of Anaheim wanted a good picture at the DMV in Fullerton last week. But because of a computer glitch, he had to write his name with the computer pen four times. By the time he was done, he said, he didn’t care what his picture looked like; he just wanted out of there.

“It’s not like it’s going to be on TV,” he explained.

Primitivo Perez of Santa Ana, a young man with full arm tattoos, was more concerned.

“Smile,” the camera operator told him.

“I don’t want to smile,” he said tersely. “I want the tough-guy look.”

His stare was plenty rigid, until someone distracted him and he cracked a smile.

“Gotcha,” the camera operator said, grinning after the shot.

Perez said he was glad it worked out that way.

“Too bad they couldn’t get the tattoos,” he said. “But that’s cool. Anybody needs to see this, I’ll be cool.”

Terry Anderson, who says she winds up showing her license constantly, just hoped for the best. “I guess I’ll be satisfied if I just don’t look red and puffy.”