Looking for your thoughts on the Disney...

[NeverSayNever]

Photographers and Photopass from all you experts!

I have been going through many of the threads and pictures on this board and am so in awe of the talents of all of you.

Now, I am wondering what are your thoughts are on the Disney Photographers and how to best use their services, hopefully get some really good family shots, and ideas on neat ways to set-up a shot with them.

Thanks in advance,

 

[JR6ooo4]

"We is experts" Quote from the ali g movie


Mikeeee

I have never used the photopass people. Sorry.

 

[Bugdozer]

Hi,

I have done it in the pass and love it. When you get home you can access all the pictures they took. Then you can add borders captions years so on and save them as new. You can make as many changes you want -different borders so on and save as new. Then buy the cd. Last trip we got the cd with 129 pictures by the time i added stuff to them. It also comes with a certificate giving you printing rights to the pictures.

Here is a link to a thread on the Theme park board that has more info:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1490846

You can also pre-order the cd for $99.95 which I did for my Oct 4th trip. Saves you $30. Here is the link:

http://www.disneyphotopass.com/previsitcdplan.aspx

Hope this helps some.

Bug

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Well, I figure, why not? You don't have to buy the pictures, but they're there if you want them. If you see the photogs, you can go over and ask them to take your picture. They're usually in the key spots. Once they take your picture, they scan your card, then can look at them when you get home and buy if you so desire. I've bought a few good ones that way!

 

[mikamah]

We went in december and whenever the photopass photographers would take our pics, we had them take one with our camera as well, and when I compared the photopass pics with our pics, I had pretty much all the same pics, and only ordered 2 prints, one from typhoon lagoon, since we had a disposable camera there, and their pic was much clearer. It was nice to add embelishments and the year to the photo. I am probably going again in the spring, and if it is just me and my son, I think I'll utilize them more, and possibly buy the cd. I never got a good pic of us in front of the castle, and that will be my goal for the next time. I've heard they will pose you and put tinkerbell in your hands, but never saw that being done. I think you can ask the photographers to do special poses. Have fun.

 

[meliahz]

Subscribing

 

[DebºoºS]

I've had them take our pics quite a few times. Most times they're so so pics.When I get home I add a border or crop them. It's an opportunity to get a shot of the whole group together. Yes, it's expensive but they are worth it IMHO.

 

[mhutchinson]

The past three trips I have made to WDW I always have them snap a few off of myself and my children. The images they capture are either good to so-so. One of the trips I could not even find one that was level or the correct exposure (rarity).

But they are good if you have no one else to take family shots. They are really good for family night time shots, because they are already set up with flash units and tripods.

Mike

 

[mickeyminnie123]

only 13 days until disney!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[minie_meese]

We used photopass last year with the Disney Visa offer with the characters. The pictures were mostly over-exposed and the ones I took during the session were much better exposed and composed We also had a few taken in the Magic Kingdom. Those pictures came out pretty decent and we ended up purchasing one picture because it had our whole family in it. The graphics were really cute too. This was the first year we used photopass. It got me thinking. We've gone to DisneyWold 15 times and I am in maybe 10 of the 1000+ photos.

We are going to use photopass more this trip and are plan to pre-order the CD so we will have some photos of the entire family and yes, I know the CM will take photos with your camera and we may for a few pictures but not every time. After i see myself in a bunch of photos I will probably be willing to go back behind the camera

 

[ukcatfan]

I just got back and here is my take on it. If you want to make it worthwhile, you need to search them out and get a ton of shots. We really did not come across too many of them except at the typical places like Main St., the EPCOT entrance, etc. You need to divide the number of total shots by about four or five to really determine the number of unique shots. I think we have about 60 shots on our card, but only about 12-13 unique situations. They take multiples now just to be sure to get everyone smiling and looking in the right direction. I am really not getting 60 usable shots. It is more like about 15.

Here is another thought on it. If your camera is of high enough quality for the situation, then you can have them take some shots with your camera. For example, Pluto dragged me into a shot at the character meet in EPCOT and I asked the photographer to take one with my camera, but he ended up taking four with it. I already had the the settings I wanted, so all he had to do was frame the shots.

Now, as for the skill of the photographers... Disney is smart and seem to put the better photographers at the more difficult situations (most of the time). The random ones just walking around do not seem to be that qualified. There was one taking hand held night shots at MGM with flash and judging by the shutter speed I heard, there is no way that there was any background visible in the shots. To top it off, he had a tripod, but was not using it. The ones doing the character meet shots seemed very qualified.

Kevin

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

My only real tip is to get a LOT of photos taken. I've gotten some great shots taken by photopass people, and a few not so great ones.

As you walk down Main St, for instance, you'll come across like 5 photographers, each a bit further down the street. I usually try to stop at at least two or three- It doubles/triples the chance that one shot will turn out great, and also gives variety in how far the castle is in the distance.

Also- come up with some fun poses! Looking through our last CD, I was sad to notice that we're just *standing* there in most of our pictures.