disappointed with photopass photos

[123SA]

I'm currently look through my photopass photos. I've been using photopass/memory maker for every trip I can remember going back to 2007. This is the first time I've been actively displeased.

I have 994 photos, so clearly I hit a bunch of different photographers throughout the parks.

Among the problems:

blurry photos
too dark
character not looking at the photographer -- which I blame the photographer for, not the character
not enough photos -- one photo from the Olaf meet & greet
photos in only one direction -- I usually get both vertical & horizontal photos, but not this time
humans not looking at the photographer - -which I know can be difficult with young children, but that doesn't apply to my group. A simple "look here" would work


But my biggest complaint is just poorly composed photos at character meet and greets.
For example, Flik's antennae are cut off in all of the photos.
Sorcerer Mickey photos shows a lot of ceiling
Elsa photos -- I guess the photographer wasn't centered? The photos are from the side and the backdrop just looks weird at this angle



Yes, I have lots of good photos, but I am nevertheless very surprised by the number of unacceptable photos in this trip as compared to previous trips.

 

[DeterminedOne]

I hope you will share the feedback with them. There is no excuse for blurry pictures, tops cut off, etc. A five year old could do better than that.

 

[mom2rtk]

I hope you took some photos on your own camera as well. I've seen too many reports of missed shots to ever rely exclusively on Photopass.

I'm surprised at the one shot with Olaf. That's unusual. Maybe there were tech issues with the others?

The Sorcerer Mickey should be easy to crop.

To dark or too blurry is probably a lost cause.

I'm sorry you had such bad luck with it this time.

 

[momof2n2]

I'm sorry to hear this.

We used PP for the first time last year. I wanted to make sure we got a good ROI so I went out of my way to ask for locations and speak to photographers. That being said, I think only 30% of them were actually "good" to "very good." Only 10% were "excellent." The other 60% were "bad."

We found a photographer on Tom Sawyer Island and she seemed very interested in taking photos of our family. With six kids, I was really excited about some of the pictures she tried to coordinate. Unfortunately, many of them were rather blurry. Maybe the lens was dirty? I didn't end up printing any and only out a handful in a photo book.

 

[biondagirl]

I have to admit, this is the first year I wasn't thrilled either. And I have been purchasing it for as long as I can remember. Most of the pictures are decent. We didn't get too many magic shots, which is okay. (We did ask often.) My main issue was that we went to BOG and ALL of my Beast pictures showed up too dark to see. When I emailed them, they said it was a camera malfunction and they would alert the photographer. Meeting the Beast was the reason I booked BOG. I know it's not a huge deal, but it's still disappointing.

 

[LittleMissMagic]

I've had some bad Photopass photos in the past, too - out of focus, overexposed - unacceptable stuff. The Photopass photographers are of varying skill levels. But whether they're amateurs or very experienced, they're photographing hundreds of guests per day, so they're bound to make some mistakes. I just don't understand why they don't chimp all of their shots so they know they have at least one good photo per family.

 

[cgattis]

Have you called about the Olaf shots, just to make sure there aren't others out there somewhere? Might not be, but may be worth a call.

My biggest disappointment has always been photographers just standing around (taking a break in place, KWIM?) and missing ALL the candid interactions up front. Missed all the fun we had with Dug and a fantastic staredown I had with Darth Maul (hey, Sith or not, don't mess with mama's little padawans!! LOL). But in general, I've been pretty lucky.

Although at Aulani, we also got one photographer that left a bunch of space at the top, even though none of those borders go at the top. YMMV, obviously.

 

[brockash]

I'm currently look through my photopass photos. I've been using photopass/memory maker for every trip I can remember going back to 2007. This is the first time I've been actively displeased.

I have 994 photos, so clearly I hit a bunch of different photographers throughout the parks.

Among the problems:

blurry photos
too dark
character not looking at the photographer -- which I blame the photographer for, not the character
not enough photos -- one photo from the Olaf meet & greet
photos in only one direction -- I usually get both vertical & horizontal photos, but not this time
humans not looking at the photographer - -which I know can be difficult with young children, but that doesn't apply to my group. A simple "look here" would work


But my biggest complaint is just poorly composed photos at character meet and greets.
For example, Flik's antennae are cut off in all of the photos.
Sorcerer Mickey photos shows a lot of ceiling
Elsa photos -- I guess the photographer wasn't centered? The photos are from the side and the backdrop just looks weird at this angle



Yes, I have lots of good photos, but I am nevertheless very surprised by the number of unacceptable photos in this trip as compared to previous trips.

Yes, I agree we just returned and disappointed with photopass. In my opinion it's really declined the last couple years. Last year we went to Blizzard Beach and there were absolutely no photographers. We didn't see any, so I finally asked and the CM just said there were none that day - this was the Sat. of Labor Day weekend (not that it should matter, if you pay for a service it should be there.) This year we did see them at the water parks, but they didn't have any at the rides like usual (like the big slides, crush n gusher, the little photo ops with the Mickey heads). Heck a few years ago they had photopass ppl in the lazy river taking pics...havent seen that at least the last 2. While we found plenty of photopass ppl. on main street, like you many of our photos are blurry and almost all are just vert., hardly any of our week trip are horizontal and yes even some without the full character.

 

[MickeyWaffles]

Ours were generally okay last week, except in 4/5 of one set our family photos in front of the castle, my son's body and half of his head is cut off! He's 1yo and I was holding him sort of low in front of me but I would have held him higher off the side if I knew he wasn't in the photo! We did them again with another Photopass photographer later and all 4 of us are in them

 

[paradesintherain]

I'm usually pretty happy with photos, but sometimes the character photos can be lacking. My favorite are the candids and sometimes the photographers just sit there during the interaction and then take a couple posed snaps. But it's ok, it's not like they're really professional photographs, and in general they're still better than I could get on my phone.

 

[MelanieRI]

I'm currently look through my photopass photos.

But my biggest complaint is just poorly composed photos at character meet and greets.
For example, Flik's antennae are cut off in all of the photos.
Sorcerer Mickey photos shows a lot of ceiling
Elsa photos -- I guess the photographer wasn't centered? The photos are from the side and the backdrop just looks weird at this angle
.

Haha! At least you're in your photos. That's my biggest complaint. When I go to look at them and it's some family I don't know. It was really bad this summer. The ride photos hardly ever actually featured us. As we go three, four times a year, I just don't care enough to try to call and get the photos back.

 

[buzznina]

I'm usually pretty happy with photos, but sometimes the character photos can be lacking. My favorite are the candids and sometimes the photographers just sit there during the interaction and then take a couple posed snaps. But it's ok, it's not like they're really professional photographs, and in general they're still better than I could get on my phone.

For $150+ I expect much more then just better then a cell phone photo. We try to get as many "special" photos as possible, they seem to always be real good shots. I download them all, but once we go through them, we may keep only 60% of them, we get rid of duplicates, blurry etc. photos.

 

[paradesintherain]

For $150+ I expect much more then just better then a cell phone photo. We try to get as many "special" photos as possible, they seem to always be real good shots. I download them all, but once we go through them, we may keep only 60% of them, we get rid of duplicates, blurry etc. photos.

That's a bummer you're so dissatisfied with the photos! Hopefully Disney will continue to improve their PhotoPass cause I think it's a really great idea.

 

[auntfrannie]

What I find even more frustrating is that Disney sells the Photopass service but they don't have photographers at all character opportunities. I've had hit or miss luck with photographers but it's only been one or two that are off per trip. I'm going back in 15 days so I'll have to see how it compares to last year's trip.

 

[Dumbo7]

Sorry to hear. I think it's hit or miss. We used it this summer and got some really great shots. Plus we had one photographer in Asia that was awesome!!

 

[melanielll]

I have seen a noticeable decline in photographer skills over the past several years. Some of the now common problems we have encountered - the picture being taken to include the interior of the building and not just the decorative background, pictures taken when the camera is not being held level (up to a 15% list), POOR use of flash (Beast at BOG), and just really bad composition (I am not talking a long staging process - just getting the short people in front of the tall ones).

To better describe the first one - Olaf - we see him, us, the beach scene and the walls of the building above the backdrop. The same with Moana.

I think they are putting anyone in a vest who can barely operate a camera and telling them to hurry. I am not against efficient use of time, but cutting off Goofy's hat in a long shot is a problem that should not be happening.

And I am not even going to mention the problems with the Magic Shots.

 

[rangerxenos]

Why I have a problem paying what Disney is charging for MM.

 

[fbarker]

This is all very interesting to me. I have never done Photo Pass and one of the reasons was I was unsure of the quality, especially for the price. Reading all of these posts kind of confirm my concerns. Its hard to make a photographer out someone who you pay near minimum wage to and has no camera expertise just by giving them a decent camera. Thanks all I will continue to take my own pics.

 

[mom2rtk]

I have seen a noticeable decline in photographer skills over the past several years. Some of the now common problems we have encountered - the picture being taken to include the interior of the building and not just the decorative background, pictures taken when the camera is not being held level (up to a 15% list), POOR use of flash (Beast at BOG), and just really bad composition (I am not talking a long staging process - just getting the short people in front of the tall ones).

To better describe the first one - Olaf - we see him, us, the beach scene and the walls of the building above the backdrop. The same with Moana.

I think they are putting anyone in a vest who can barely operate a camera and telling them to hurry. I am not against efficient use of time, but cutting off Goofy's hat in a long shot is a problem that should not be happening.

And I am not even going to mention the problems with the Magic Shots.

They don't even pretend to hire photographers. A real photographer would be frustrated in a job like that. They aren't even allowed to change the settings on the camera.

FWIW, I have some bad shots going back years. It's hit or miss. But then so are the ones I take on my camera. And I do change the settings! Fortunately though we take a lot (both on Photopass and on my camera) and end up with some keepers. And without it, I probably wouldn't be in any of our trip photos.

 

[kniquy]

Wow I can see how you would be disappointed. It is a great service but i guess when they hire inexperienced "photographers" that is the best you are going to get. I hope you do or have already shared your feed back. Maybe it is something photopass can consider discussing when training. A few years ago we had a great experience with pretty much all our photos and photographers. Some photographers were just so-so, but a few really took the time to make some great family shots-I made sure to write a comment about the exceptional ones. I only used for a few photos this past April -- no real complaints, but it was a trip with a co-worker so i didn't scrutinize the pics as i would with family.