Photopass for our group questions

[PHXscuba]

I am planning to do a Photopass for our group in October. We will be probably 16 people total, touring during the days in 5 different groups. Before I talk this up with the group I want to verify that I understand how this works.

Q1. You don't have to order ahead, just within a month after you get home, for $59.95 plus tax etc.?
Q2. I tell everyone to get a Photopass card the first place they take a PP picture, than hand that card to the PP photog every time another is taken.
Q3. Everyone gives me their cards, which I enter the numbers online after we get home and then make a CD (or several) with all the photos on it. We can then print whatever we want ourselves.

Is that the basics? I need to know what to tell our group, because many are DL newbies and I want them to actually make good use of the PP if I am paying for it (I don't want to get home and find 20 photos total).

PHXscuba

 

[PHXscuba]

OK, I'm going to add one more Q:

Our group is mostly adults -- 3 couples, my fam with 4 kids and a fam with 2 little kids. Will we get enough use out of the PP to make it worth it? Are most of the PP spots "character greeting?"

I ask because I don't think the couples will do much character-line-waiting (one adult is afraid of them), and my family isn't the type to do much waiting for characters either, with the exception of Mickey and Minnie.

So other than the characters and the "castle shot" everyone takes, where will there be PP opportunities?

TIA to all,
PHXscuba

 

[Sherry E]

Okay, I will jump on in here first, and then I assume our other regular PhotoPass users will come on later. First of all, yes, you are correct about all the information in your first post. You don't even need to order the CD within 30 days of your trip. All you need to do is go online to the PP website and create your account (using the numbers on the cards) within 30 days after your trip. Then, from the date you create your account online, you have another 30 days to actually order the CD or order any individual pictures. So technically, you could stretch the whole thing out for 60 days, if you follow that plan. If you order the CD, it will be $59.95 plus $7.00 shipping (because you are in the US; I don't know about international orders), and an additional $19.95 for an extra copies of the CD you may wish to send to family, friends, etc.

I think all of us PP users agree that no matter how many PP cards you guys get among all you, whether or not you split up, everybody should mark their card (put their initials on it or mark it in some way) and jot down the numbers on the backs of the card on a piece of paper or take a picture of the back of the card so you can always make sure the CM hands you back the correct card. Sometimes, if it is a particularly hectic moment, there may be several people approaching the CM for cards, and the cards could easily get lost or mixed in with other people's cards. Most likely that won't hapen, but it could. That's why everybody should mark their cards so you always know you are getting back your card and not someone else's.

Everyone in the entire group can get a card if they want one and create their own PP accounts and buy their own CD's, but it is usually suggested that - to save $$$ - you just create one account using ALL the cards, and one responsible person collects all the cards and creates one account. Then, you go online, view all the photos and edit them, add borders and enhancements, crop, whatever. Each time you make a new version of a photo, it will save as a brand new picture, so you keep increasing your number of pictures on your account. So if you take one picture of you and family pointing at Stitch popping up out of the ground, you can save one version of that with a border, one version of that with another type of enhancement, one version in black and white, etc. It's cool, and you can really get a LOT of pictures for your $66.95!! Back in October, I turned the initial 58 pictures Photopass took into 112 by editing and enhancing. In December, Photopass took 97 pictures, which I turned into 300!!! You can also give your relatives the password to the account and let them go in and edit/enhance whatever pictures they like, as long as they don't delete anything.

When you create your online PP account, you can also opt to send out a Share e-mail to everyone so they can view the photos and perhaps purchase individual ones if they like. Otherwise, once you buy the CD, you can then d those pictures and send them to whomever you want.

There are some PhotoPass character locations - like, for example, Mickey is usually with a PP photographer in Mickey's house in ToonTown. We ran into Pluto with a PP dude in DCA. Sometimes Pooh and friends are with PP people in Critter Country. Sometimes Sulley. You just have to look around - sometimes the characters are with PP people; sometimes not. There are LOTS of PhotoPass people all around DCA - by the Golden Gate Bridge, by Paradise Pier, by Grizzly Peak, in the Hollywood Backlot area, all over. In DL, they are by the Castle, sometimes by Snow White's Wishing Well, by the Rivers of America, in front of the Partners Statue, on Main Street, etc.....

If you haven't already, I strongly suggest you take a look through the Sticky Thread at the top of the page - "Photopass Poses: the Cheesier the Better" - and start from the last page going backwards (rather than from the beginning to the end), and take a look at the different enhancements, poses and borders that either the PP people put in your pictures or YOU can put in. Make notes of what you like and where to find those particular PP photographers so you will know what to to look for when you are there and don't miss anything. The PP people don't always tell you about all they have available, so you have to know what to ask for! The reason I say start from the end and work backwards is because you will see the more recent stuff. Some of the older enhancements are not available now. DizneyDaz has posted many things recently, so you can get a great idea from her pictures. The thread link is: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1954446 Go to the last page and work backwards.

Also, I have many photos on the Photopass thread, but you can also see a lot of my PP pictures in my Trip Report. The link is: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1979268:

Plus, there was an old thread from last year with a lot of PP locations listed on it. I will find it for you and post the link here. Some of the locations are outdated and no longer available, but it is a good guideline to use! Here is the link: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1764912

Have fun! You will definitely get your money's worth if you just go up to every PP photographer you see!!!

 

[Brady's Mom]

We used photopass in Dec. through a share. We had 8 people in our group - 2 different family groups. The PP people would do one or two shots of each group and then we would get a pic together if we felt like it. I made it a point to ask every PP what enhancements they had. We have pics of us with Mickey and Minnie enhancements, a soarin'/golden gate bridge, stitch, and tink. We missed Darth and Capt. Hook.

One thing to check out - when I was adding borders and editing my photos I did it over a few days and when I started some stuff was available that wasn't available the next day. I was bummed, because it was Mickey or Goofy hangin' out in the pic sideways and waving. I loved that, but only got it on a few photos. So, if you like some kind of border or whatever, make sure you put it on everything you can - you don't have to print it off the CD, but you have it if you want it later.

 

[Sherry E]

We used photopass in Dec. through a share. We had 8 people in our group - 2 different family groups. The PP people would do one or two shots of each group and then we would get a pic together if we felt like it. I made it a point to ask every PP what enhancements they had. We have pics of us with Mickey and Minnie enhancements, a soarin'/golden gate bridge, stitch, and tink. We missed Darth and Capt. Hook.

One thing to check out - when I was adding borders and editing my photos I did it over a few days and when I started some stuff was available that wasn't available the next day. I was bummed, because it was Mickey or Goofy hangin' out in the pic sideways and waving. I loved that, but only got it on a few photos. So, if you like some kind of border or whatever, make sure you put it on everything you can - you don't have to print it off the CD, but you have it if you want it later.

That's an excellent point to make (which I obviously forgot to put in my long post above! ) - the same thing happened to me. With my December pictures, I started the PP account and began editing soon after, and I added in some borders like the Mickey or Goofy waving, etc. So I did get them on some pictures. BUT, I stopped editing and enhancing for a couple of weeks, then went back on to continue and found some other pictures I would have liked to have certain enhancements on and they were no longer available! I thought I imagined it, but now I see this happened to other people!! I mean, I still got a good selection of them, but you are right - they do take them off of the site after a while. And for some specific character pictures, they add in extra borders and enhancements to the selection - like the characters' signatures - which you can't use with any other pictures.

And yes, I see we both agree that it is definitely a good idea to ask the PP photo for the enhancements or effects you want (which is why I think it's an excellent idea to comb the Photopass : Cheesier the Better thread and jot down as many ideas from that as possible, because locations can change too. People could get pictures sitting on the bench with Mickey or Minnie in one location but not realize they can ask for it in another location too. Same thing with Stitch in the ground and Tink in the hand - you can get those effects in lots of different locations around DLR, which adds some variety and more opportunities to get that one perfect shot.

The best thing is to just have the PP people take as many pictures as possible in as many locations as possible. Even if you are sick to death of the Stitch in the ground pose by the end of the day, it is better to get as many versions of that in as many places as possible, because some of them will be brighter than others, closer-up than others, clearer than others, etc. And do nighttime shots as well as daytime too, for contrast!!

 

[Sherry E]

So, PHXscuba - what do you think? You think that doing PhotoPass seems worth it for your guys when you go? I did most of my 'people pictures' on PhotoPass in December, freeing up the cameras I brought for scenic/landscape stuff. But a lot of people have the PhotoPass people take pictures on the PP nifty Nikon cameras as well as on their own cameras, just for back-up. Of course, you can't get the cool Disney effects/enhancements that they add (like Tinkerbell in the hand and Stitch in the ground, etc.) in your own camera's photos, but you may want to have them take back-up shots anyway. I think it's worthwhiel for everyone to do it - because, after all, you don't have to buy anything. You can just get the photos taken and then look at then online later and see if any of them are worth getting the CD for. Just have as many PP pictures taken as possible - even if you have already hit a certain location one day (like in front of the Castle) and had PP pics taken, hit it again the next day and get more taken. You can't have too many shots taken and one picture taken on Main Street one day may be better than the one on Main Street taken the day before. That's what we did. Plus, some photographers are better and more creative than others, so you may get a really nice, pleasant picture in front of the giant pumpkin one morning, and then a zany, wacky, crazy pose in front of the pumpkin with a different PP photographer the next day.