disappointed with photopass photos

[scrapquitler]

Ok, I have an AP, so I get MM included as part of that. I would never pay the $169 or whatever it is for this service because I just don't care that much about all the photos. I'm happy with a few photos taken with my cell phone.

For those that are unhappy that the photographer took 5 photos and they don't like any of them...think about when you got married and hired a photographer. How much did that cost? How many photos did the photographer take? Of the 1000+ that he or she probably took, how many did you think were actually worthy of being framed or put in your photo album? I'd guess that the number of 'great' shots was a small percentage of the ones taken by that expensive professional photographer. Sure, there were probably a bunch of pretty good ones, and maybe an even bigger bunch of okay ones, but there were likely a lot of duds in there, too.

I think it's all a matter of perspective. If you paid that $169, and the individual price of the photos is still $15 like it used to be, then if you got a dozen really good pictures that you would have paid for, you got your moneys worth.

If you want custom poses and great shots that look fabulous, you should probably be booking a private photo session.

Again, just my personal perspective.

 

[greg9x]

Agree the pictures aren't quite as good as they used to be... also taking in to account the price increases (used to be $119...think was $99 at one point, AND you got a CD with all the pictures), everything is automated now and costs them less but the price has almost doubled.

The photographers do seem like it's just a station to work... do you want to run the drink cart or take pictures ? Defiantly not the same skill level when they had to solicit people to get pictures taken (commissioned ?) Now it's 10 deep in line at times and they just grinding them out.

This last trip we did a few magic shot poses that didn't get 'magic'd' ... or the wrong pose got 'magic'd'. Also less photographers..ex: no one taking the Summit Plummet pics this year

We did get annual passes this year, but I don't consider the pictures 'free'... they were a consideration in the cost of the passes.

As with all things Disney, they put out a product that starts out great... then raise prices and lower quality to squeeze as much $$'s as they can out of it.

 

[Shoshana]

I agree that the quality of the photos have declined dramatically. Remember when you got a photo in a beautiful frame at certain character meals?

 

[wgeo]

No idea, just a thought. I remember reading about a college program person who became a photopass CM - does the time of year you go make a difference? Meaning, are there times of year when a lot of the photopass CM's are newer and still learning? Was just wondering if the start of the college year meant lots of new employees?

 

[bigbabyblues]

We have never paid for MM, but we have bought a few of the photos. We've had some good and some bad ones as well. My husband always sets his camera before our turn and asks them to take one with it also, they often turn out better than the MM ones.

 

[melanielll]

No idea, just a thought. I remember reading about a college program person who became a photopass CM - does the time of year you go make a difference? Meaning, are there times of year when a lot of the photopass CM's are newer and still learning? Was just wondering if the start of the college year meant lots of new employees?

I have been 3 times since December - December, March and May. I did not see a difference based on the time of year. I have been many times over the years, and the decline I have seen has been over the past several years and has been a consistent downward trend.

I think the one that makes me the most nuts is the lighting/flash issues in spots that are the same. Number one for this is in BOG. They know the lighting in there and that photographer stands in the same place. They should set the camera differently or add some lighting. They harp on the fact that this is your only chance to see the Beast, and they can't set their camera correctly. Gah!

 

[tnolan]

For the first time this year, there were supposed to be Magical Shots in a number of my pictures and not all of them got them. At Haunted Mansion, the photog told us to look at the ground looking shocked and then made that shot a close up, making the ground unseeable. And at Hollywood Studios, she had us put our hands together and hold them up only to not put anything on them or in them. Was a bit disappointed, but I was glad it was only these two that got shorted.

 

[TJDisneymama]

That's correct. They don't hire photographers. Just like the BBB doesn't hire real hairdressers.

sorry, yes, I do realize they are not professional photographers...I just thought they might be people with a BIT of experience and knowledge taking pictures, even if just as a hobby, lol.

 

[HarperLeigh]

We were disappointed in our PP pictures on our last trip. I am so glad we didn't purchase Memory Maker like we had been talking about previous to our trip. We didn't buy any of the pictures.

 

[housemartin71]

We did Memory Maker on our last trip. We had about 700 pictures taken over 8 days, not including the on-ride ones. I would say a substantial majority of them were exactly what I expected - a nice quality picture in front of a nice background. Like most things, the quality is hit or miss depending on who you get as a photographer. Some took 10-15 pictures of my son during his character meet, including both candid shots and the posed pictures. Others only took the posed pictures. Some cut off the top of the castle or held the camera crooked. Some magic shots didn't come out properly and other photographers simply refused to do them. That being said, I was satisfied with what I got and what I paid, but we made a conscious effort to stop and have our pictures taken, even multiple times in the same spots. We also asked to have different combinations of people done (kids only, parents only, single kid only and whole family). The more pictures you take, the more good pictures you have. Plus, the on-ride pictures and videos are a nice bonus.

 

[Silvermist999]

We've purchased Photopass/Memory Maker on all of our five trips. We had amazing quality photos before, but this year I noticed most of the shots were rather "haphazardly" taken. I'm not talking Magic Shots. I'm talking regular standard quality photos, where the photographers took reasonable time and care before taking the pic. Something I would do before taking a photo for a stranger who hands me his camera to help him take a family photo.

We had a few photos at Epcot where all the pics had this one family with a stroller walking directly behind us. And there was noone else around us other than them. If he had just waited a couple seconds before taking the photo, the family would have walked away, and not be in our photos! I know this because each of the shots show them gradually moving out of the shot! Many of our night shots were really disappointing and totally blurry. Our iPhone pics we took ourselves at night turned out better, but of course they were always missing one of us.

I realize that these photographers aren't professional, but at least they should know or be trained on the basics of how to take a good photo for the guests.

 

[camnhan]

Ugh...I am really hoping for some good magic shots at the Halloween party we attend It is my DS's actual bday the day we are going and want some nice pics...will also be our first party....

 

[TJDisneymama]

I noticed on my recent trip there were more than a few bizarre, close ups of us. They were hideous, lol.

 

[dizluvah]

• Wishing i had read this thread earlier today. I just paid for MM today when I purchased our MNSSHP tickets. At least my expectations have been appropriately set. Still excited for DD6 first trip

 

[bethbuchall]

I just received a survey about Memory Maker and PhotoPass. I had most of the same complaints that many here did. We also had more than one photographer who was just standing around but acted completely put out when we asked for a photo...just a regular photo, not a magic shot. One photographer in AK definitely had the camera set completely wrong, and all those photos are very overexposed and unusable. Eventually, we just stopped going out of our way to get our picture taken.

 

[michelle06]

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.

I agree. For the kind of money you are paying, they shouldn't be amateurs who don't know how to use the camera. My last photopass, I didn't buy MM but looked at the photos when I got home. I was so glad I had taken my own photos and not paid. My pics (and I am an amateur) were so much better! We have a large group going this time so we are buying MM this time. However, after my previous experience and these posts, I don't have a lot of hope. But, again, for $169, you really should get decent photos and they should make an effort to capture more than just the poses at the end of a character interaction.

 

[disneyvoice]

Holy cow! I can't get past the fact that you have 994 photos!!

Clearly you need to provide me instructions on how to accomplish that as we never end up with as many photos as we would like. Do you spend most of your time waiting in line for the characters?

I'm sorry you didn't have the best of luck with photos this time. I have rarely had a photo that I haven't been able to crop or adjust to make it better if it wasn't all that great. We also take quite a few of our own photos but that is purely for vanity reasons - at least I can look at a picture after we take it to make sure I look good!!

 

[DreamIsaWish]

We did Memory Maker on our last trip. We had about 700 pictures taken over 8 days, not including the on-ride ones. I would say a substantial majority of them were exactly what I expected - a nice quality picture in front of a nice background. Like most things, the quality is hit or miss depending on who you get as a photographer. Some took 10-15 pictures of my son during his character meet, including both candid shots and the posed pictures. Others only took the posed pictures. Some cut off the top of the castle or held the camera crooked. Some magic shots didn't come out properly and other photographers simply refused to do them. That being said, I was satisfied with what I got and what I paid, but we made a conscious effort to stop and have our pictures taken, even multiple times in the same spots. We also asked to have different combinations of people done (kids only, parents only, single kid only and whole family). The more pictures you take, the more good pictures you have. Plus, the on-ride pictures and videos are a nice bonus.

You definitely have to try a few different ones for the key photos. I make my family stop for at least 3 different PP on Main Street, especially at night. So glad I do that. Many years it's just because you get something awkward in the background or someone in my family with eyes closed. But this year one set was unusable. Night shot on Main Street and no flash. At the time I just thought it would be OK because they must have a better camera/setting/shutter speed/etc. than I have. But nope. Terrible dark pics. And that was the one with the longest wait. There had to have been a lot of disappointed folks in that line. Thankfully we also went to the next PP photographer up the street and those were great.

 

[maryj11]

I was disappointed in some of our photos too. There were some blurry, ones taken at Pandora were way to light, some to dark. I think the worse ones we got were during the day at Pandora, they were so light or overexposed the plants in the back ground did not have much color. I only got a few that were good.

 

[123SA]

Holy cow! I can't get past the fact that you have 994 photos!!

Clearly you need to provide me instructions on how to accomplish that as we never end up with as many photos as we would like. Do you spend most of your time waiting in line for the characters?

I'm sorry you didn't have the best of luck with photos this time. I have rarely had a photo that I haven't been able to crop or adjust to make it better if it wasn't all that great. We also take quite a few of our own photos but that is purely for vanity reasons - at least I can look at a picture after we take it to make sure I look good!!

1. 2 week trip (well, 12 days, we left 2 days early fleeing Irma)
2. party of 5 means that every ride photo shows up 5 times, and if the ride has a video too, that means 10 added to the count.
3. yes, I do make an effort, but no I don't stand in a line of more than 2 groups
4. yes, we meet lots of characters
5. we spend most of our time at the parks, from opening to closing time.