Is State applying some kind of filter to submitted photos for US passports?

[GBCW 397]

To anyone who has had a new US passport book and/or passport card issued recently: are they applying some kind of weird filter to the photo? The pictures on the documents look nothing like what I sent in. And the picture on the card looks like it's some kind of B/W.

[Hypnos 6,576]

I recently applied for US passports for my son and daughter. My daughter's came back fine, but my son's had a very strange effect on the photo where the right side of his face was translucent, almost ghostly. After checking that I wasn't watching Ghostbusters I contacted the Department of State, who advised that I return the passport to the issuing agency, together with a new photograph (I just sent another of the same I had already sent them), a completed DS-5504, a covering letter explaining the problem, and the passport itself. I was also told to mark the envelope "Urgent Attention: Correction". In my case the issuing office was the passport centre in Houston - despite Dallas being closer - so I sent it back to Houston since that's where it had come from.

They received it on a Thursday, and inside a week I had a new passport mailed to me, this time with the photograph looking as it should have. It seemed to be a printing error that was not caught in their checks (if they do check all of them - it was a fairly obvious error instantly noticeable when you looked at it).

Perhaps this is the problem you have?

Edited October 6, 2014 by Hypnos

[carocaro 22]

I had mine done at Tucson passport rush office in person and I was surprised at the strange looking glaze over the photo too. They told me that's the new security screen.