I'm surprised passport offices don't care more about photo quality. I submitted a reasonably clear photo with good contrast correct colour balance, and the image on my UK passport (both printed and on the chip) is blurry, washed out, and badly tinted yellow/green.
I guess they scanned it in with crappy settings and didn't care enough to fix it.
To be fair, if you see what they turn it into on the card itself, "quality" is not a selecting criterium. It's pretty much purely "contrast" and "framing" to make sure your entire face ends up on the fact, with enough contrast that a two-tone presentation still looks vaguely recognizable.
I guess they scanned it in with crappy settings and didn't care enough to fix it.