Do YALL get the Photo CD

[JarrothsMom]

I was wondering...being most of us have very good camera's and LOVE taking pictures. How many of you actually buy the photo CD? I mean I am thinking. I take my own pics...I am not really one that cares to be infront of camera...I would much rather be the one behind the camera. Shoot I dont MIND having my picture. I just want more control over it...I guess so to speak. So what is yalls opp. on that?

 

[Marlton Mom]

If you mean the one from the Photopass photographer I would have to say no. We got one from out last trip in Jan 08.

I was really disappointed in the quality of the pictures that came from their efforts. Pictures were out of focus or incorrectly exposed and most of the time they would just hurry up and snap the pix with out telling us first. So not all of us were looking at the camera at the same time or in my case I was talking and probably asking "please let us know when you are going to take the pic.... never mind".

The things that you couldn't control like how they framed a shot were noticeable too. In some shots we were angled down to one side (Camera not level) or it was too zoomed in and not enough of the back ground was in the pix to my liking.

All this being said it made me realize that they couldn't ~ read my mind ~ and they weren't aware of the shot that I had visualized in my head.

I'm pretty sure that the Photopass photogs will take the picture for you with your camera... Right??? Please correct if I'm wrong.

This being said, when ever I want to get in the shot with the family I will frame the shot first and then ask the Photo pass photog to snap the pix... at least this is my evil plan

I hope that helps.... Just my 2 cents.

Smoochies,
Marlton Mom

 

[Steve's Girl]

Don't buy the CD. But, I do give my camera to the Photopass photographer for a few family shots.

 

[Iwant2BAprincess]

I know they may not be perfect shots but at least I am in them. I found if you actually talk to the PPP's you can get better results, they seem to slow down a bit and do a little more with your party.

 

[WillowBelle]

Another person in the 'no' camp. I do like others have said - set up the shot and then hand the PPP my camera and hope for the best. Sometimes if I see someone with one heckuva set up on their arm, I may stop them (if it's not a PPP spot) and see if they'll snap a picture including me. I know that my picture may come out poorly, I'll take my chances with that kind of stranger vs. one with a cell phone camera (not knocking you guys with 1K mp cellys ). So far, I haven't been disappointed with who I've handed it too.

On a side note, if we pass a family where the dad (typically) is trying to take one of mom and the kidletts, I often stop and offer to take the picture for them so dad can be in it also.

 

[mtdewlarissa]

i did get several years ago. it was nice to have photos with the whole family togather. but i do have to admit that alot of times my daughters eyes where closed. but again she is only child and i have taken a lot of photos of her in 10 years. i thinking of doing it again in june when we go. it does make sense if you have a lot to photes, i think we had a least 80 before i added the boards and things. i hear the price is going up to 150.00

 

[jennyleettu]

This is all good information to know for a newbie!! LOL! I didn't know if we should order it or not since this is our first trip!

 

[scoot241]

I ordered it and split the cost with my parents on our last trip. We got some good pictures and some not-so-good pictures, but overall I was happy with the shots we had, plus you can add as many borders as you want and they will also put those on the disc. We ended up with about 300 files on our disc with all the borders and such. We only paid $100, however. I'm not sure I would pay much more than that.

 

[JarrothsMom]

I ordered it and split the cost with my parents on our last trip. We got some good pictures and some not-so-good pictures, but overall I was happy with the shots we had, plus you can add as many borders as you want and they will also put those on the disc. We ended up with about 300 files on our disc with all the borders and such. We only paid $100, however. I'm not sure I would pay much more than that.

I think as far as borders and what not...I am a photoshop addict...so I can do all THAT AT HOME ANYWAY! so i THINK IT IS A no go FOR ME. i ALSO BRING MY POINT AND SHOOT. i CAN HAND THAT TO SOMEONE...THAT WAY THEY DO NOT HAVE TO TRY TO FOCUS AND WHAT NOT...iLL JUST CROP IT TO MY LIKINGS WHEN i GET HOME...THANKS EVERYONE! UGH..sorry caps lock!

 

[DebbieinWA]

I think it depends on your family/group situation as to whether or not it's worth the cost. On our last trip, I bought it -- and I am so glad I did! My DD and her boyfriend went off on their own quite a bit, and it was great to know they had a Photopass card they were adding pictures to. The best part was when her boyfriend proposed --- we weren't around to take pics, but the Photopass photographers were -- we have some awesome pictures of the proposal/engagement -- priceless in my opinion

 

[scoot241]

I think as far as borders and what not...I am a photoshop addict...so I can do all THAT AT HOME ANYWAY! so i THINK IT IS A no go FOR ME. i ALSO BRING MY POINT AND SHOOT. i CAN HAND THAT TO SOMEONE...THAT WAY THEY DO NOT HAVE TO TRY TO FOCUS AND WHAT NOT...iLL JUST CROP IT TO MY LIKINGS WHEN i GET HOME...THANKS EVERYONE! UGH..sorry caps lock!

I can do them in Photoshop too, except I don't have their graphics. Now that I have the pictures, I could probably pull the graphics from them, but I especially liked putting the character signatures on them. Of course I only paid $50 since my parents and I split it, so that $50 was worth not sitting in front the computer for hours to create some sort of border with images from Google.

 

[KarenAylwood]

My mom likes getting them- she likes doing the borders and not having to worry about giving her camera to the PPP's. I gave my camera to a few this year to see how they'd do and I was pretty happy with the shots (I have a Canon XSi). They did fine with the 18-200mm but when I had my 30mm prime on it they got pretty confused. Some PPP's didn't even know what a prime was or when I said "fixed focal length" they were like "why can't I zoom?"

We did have a few night shots on the CD that weren't focused enough.

The little extra's like the hitchhiking ghosts and stitch and tinkerbell are cute little add ons.

Again though, she paid for the CD. If it were me, I wouldn't buy it- but she always enjoys it. If I had kids I'd probably do it (wouldn't pay more than $100) though.

 

[scoot241]

My mom likes getting them- she likes doing the borders and not having to worry about giving her camera to the PPP's. I gave my camera to a few this year to see how they'd do and I was pretty happy with the shots (I have a Canon XSi). They did fine with the 18-200mm but when I had my 30mm prime on it they got pretty confused. Some PPP's didn't even know what a prime was or when I said "fixed focal length" they were like "why can't I zoom?"

We did have a few night shots on the CD that weren't focused enough.

The little extra's like the hitchhiking ghosts and stitch and tinkerbell are cute little add ons.

Again though, she paid for the CD. If it were me, I wouldn't buy it- but she always enjoys it. If I had kids I'd probably do it (wouldn't pay more than $100) though.

I had the same problem. Since I had my 30mm on the camera for most of the trip I eventually stopped giving them my camera.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

No. We had them take a few shots at the waterparks and looked at them online, but we didn't buy any.

 

[JarrothsMom]

I think that is what I am going to do too Mark...just do the Photopass and check them out online. From what I have heard you can actually upload pics to decorate too...heard that in the Themes board.

 

[Poohbear5]

We did buy it for our 25th anniversary this past spring, $99 for prebuy. We were glad we did for this special occasion so we could be in the photos together but I don't think it's likely we'd buy it again in the near future.
Prebuy is no longer available to nondisney resorts guests (we stayed at Shades of Green and would likely stay there again) so the higher price is a con.

We had over 250 photos for our 10 day stay but each photographer pretty much took 6-8 shots that looked the same, many of the photograhpers were too hot and tired to be overly creative.
We did encounter a few though that made extra effort which made the CD worthwhile for us since we have only a handful of photos of us together from the past 25 years.

When we handed off our camera to the photopass people, those photos came out about the same as the ones on the CD.

 

[Kyen]

I do and have every year for the past 2 years. Sometimes the PP photographers get pretty good pictures and spur of the moment pictures. When I took my solo trip last year I ended up with over 200 pictures on the CD. I also gave my camera to the greeter but I still like that ones on the CD.

 

[ogreenlee]

what's the largest print size on these?

 

[Michele]

The only time I bought one was when we took 2 trips close together, within 5 weeks. We also went with a different family on each trip. So there were tons of pics of 3 families that I was able to combine, borders, etc.

Usually I am a NO on the CD.