Photopass gripe

[pxlbarrel]

I got my photopass photo cd and could finally look at the photos in full screen. I have to say that they need to get rid of a lot of their "photographers". A lot of the photos were blurry...not out of focus blurry but camera movement blurry. If they can't be still while they take their photos then they should be given another job. And when you watch them take the photo, you have a sense that your photo will be crap because of how fast they're moving. It's a still shot...NOT A VIDEO!!!

And that's only one gripe. The other problem is that they take the photos so quickly that not only is it blurry, your hands and/or feet are cut off. I have so many photos now of being cut off at the knees or ankles but there's a ton of blank space above my head. Goodness, even an 8 year old with a disposable camera can take a better photo than that!!

I can fix photos that have bad exposures (there are lot of those too) but I can't fix the framing or the blur. Ugh....

 

[disneypolybride2008]

some of ours were blurry too.

 

[bradk]

the only way they can suffer from motion blur is if they were night shots. and they should have been on tripods then. otherwise they use an external flash, even during daylight, so unless someone's moving super fast, blur shouldn't really be an issue.

 

[Meeky Mouse]

We purchased the photopass CD last December and were so thrilled with our photos that we prepurchased the CD for our September trip. Unfortunately we were very disappointed with the quality of the photos this time. Almost all of the night shots were blurry and in a couple we looked transparent. The day photos were okay, but many that had people walking very close by which ruined them for us. I don't know if I'd bother getting the CD again.

 

[pxlbarrel]

the only way they can suffer from motion blur is if they were night shots. and they should have been on tripods then. otherwise they use an external flash, even during daylight, so unless someone's moving super fast, blur shouldn't really be an issue.

Not true... You can get motion blur from indoor photos using external flashes. The photos with the worse motion blur were the ones taken at Epcot ... where all the characters are there specifically to get your photos with them. They're using external flashes. External flashes usually mean the shutter speed is set between 60 and 125 which usually means, motion blur is not a problem...EXCEPT if your photographer is moving quickly to take your photos... as they do at Epcot. Even if your shutter speed is fast, you still need to be somewhat still to take the photo. The fact that there is motion blur in the photo tells me they're moving way too much when they take the photographs.

I should also note another gripe.... the photographer that took our photos in front of the castle at Magic Kingdom...looks like she had a foggy camera. It was very humid (we went in September) and we had our photo taken at the opening of the park. When you look at our photograph, you can see half of the photo is fogged up... as if she took the camera from air conditioning to the outside and started taking photos before the camera acclimatized to the humidity...ie, before the the fogged up lens had a chance to defog.

Also...while some are not motion blur, then they're a focusing problem. THAT's still bad. If you can't focus, then you shouldnt' be given the job of photographer. So either way, it still sucks.

 

[bradk]

well i can't really argue too much, especially without seeing the photo in question, but someone would have to be really erratic to consistently give photos like that.

as it is, on dark rides where i'm moving, i'm usually at 1/50 and there's little to no blur.

 

[pxlbarrel]

well i can't really argue too much, especially without seeing the photo in question, but someone would have to be really erratic to consistently give photos like that.

as it is, on dark rides where i'm moving, i'm usually at 1/50 and there's little to no blur.

Actually, it's PHOTOS in question. LOL

Ok, here's one of the photos. I've cropped it to be a little smaller and so that you don't see my name in the Pin Celebration lanyard.

That's definitely motion blur. Goofy's photographer was the worst....out of 10 shots, only 2 or 3 are passable. The rest have the same blur on them.

 

[bradk]

that it is.. i wonder if the flash didn't fire at all. kinda looks like it to me.

 

[seashoreCM]

But can you return the CD for a refund if the pictures aren't satisfactory?

 

[pxlbarrel]

that it is.. i wonder if the flash didn't fire at all. kinda looks like it to me.

You'd think that but I'm pretty sure it fired....I would have been the first to tell them it hadn't fired. Besides, the flash didn't fire on 8 out of 10 photos? Not likely. When you watch some of the photographers, they're moving like they're the stereotypical "fashion" photographer in tv shows. Nobody really takes photos like that. LOL This photographer was a bit flustered if I remember because her little scanning device wasn't working. She was kind of not coping well so I know we walked away from her wondering if our photos turned out. I'm mostly upset about these ones because we had such good fun with Goofy and really wanted these particular photos to turn out.

Well, with all my griping, there were SOME good photos in the mix....AND I have to admit, I was in a Photopass share so I didn't pay the full price for it....but it sure tells me that I will never pay full price for it and if I ever want to do this again, I will participate in a share. If I had paid full price, I would be absolutely livid and be demanding my money back. (Don't know if you can...)

 

[perriwinkleblue]

Unfortunately, I was unhappy with some of my photos too. I ordered calendars online and based on the poor quality previews (designed, I think, so people can't print from the screen) the photos looked fine. When I received the calendars some pictures are blurry and some are "blown-out". I'm not sure if it's worth calling customer service or not. Another thing that got me was the fact that after waiting over 30 min. to see a particular character, the photographer got a picture of the back of the kids walking towards the character . (I got the shots, though )
To end on a positive note, MOST of the pictures were very nice and I'm sure standing in extreme heat and dealing with sometimes difficult subjects, all the while being pleasant can't be easy. For the most part, they do a good job.

 

[fhirleighinn]

actaully the flash did fire, you can see the shadow from the flash the would have been on camera right. Perhaps they had the camera set to manual and where using a setting slower than 60 or 125. is there any EXIF data on the shots?

 

[AJKMOM]

The main complaint I had with Photopass is that they take so many of the same shot. When we went thru the character connection, we had 4 or more photos of us with each character. I wondered how we could have 90 photos on our pass, then I knew.

 

[Lynn5700]

I have to say some of mine were messed up this Oct trip..In May honest to God they were all perfect! That is because May is the best LOL.

Umm what I tend to do is stick with the photo people I remember seeing from past trips. I remember them and I remember who takes good shots. There is this one spanish guy who I love. He is always there. When he takes your pics he asks to see your "piano" Smile in spanish.

 

[palpluto]

I would never complain that they took too many pics. The more shots taken the more chances of a good one. And, there is always the delete button. I love it when they take more than 1 or 2, especially with little kids.

 

[bumbershoot]

Another thing that got me was the fact that after waiting over 30 min. to see a particular character, the photographer got a picture of the back of the kids walking towards the character .

This has nothing to do with photopass, but even truly professionals can make that kind of mistake. We realized too late that our wedding photographer was poised to get shots of MY face as I walked towards hubby.

Don't most photographers take pix of the GROOM's face as he sees his bride in her expensive gown and fancy make up and hair?

And many nowadays have two photographers (we had the main guy and one of his assistants, who opened her own studio the next year with his blessing) so they can catch both, but not this guy, they insisted that they had NEVER heard of catching the groom's face. I wanted to say "um, open ANY wedding magazine, perhaps?"



Sorry some of your pix were blurred, OP. That humidity has got to make things so hard for everyone!

 

[pxlbarrel]

actaully the flash did fire, you can see the shadow from the flash the would have been on camera right. Perhaps they had the camera set to manual and where using a setting slower than 60 or 125. is there any EXIF data on the shots?

Alas, no EXIF data. (I've never seen a photo with so little EXIF data...it only has the date it was taken. LOL)

I wondered too if they had a lower setting but I would have thought it would be overexposed more if it had been slower. And out of the all the shots, one was sharp. So I think that's when she stopped moving. LOL

As for taking so many photos of the same pose or whatnot, if they hadn't, I wouldn't have any photos of myself and Goofy. I think that's their strategy....take a gazillion shots of the same thing and at least one will be ok.

 

[pxlbarrel]

Sorry some of your pix were blurred, OP. That humidity has got to make things so hard for everyone!

Hmmmm...except the Character photos at Epcot are inside a very air conditioned building.

Goofy's photographer was the worse but she wasn't the only one in that building that took terrible photos. The best photographer was Pluto's. We have some pretty blurry Mickey Mouse and some really odd Chip and Dale photos. Oh well.... just another excuse to go down again and get it done right....right?

Oh, I had to add that we adored one Main Street photographer. She took some great photos. We were waiting for the parade and she was standing in front of us....so I just got up and asked her to take photos of me in front of the castle. She obliged and they were wonderful. She then took a photo of my friend eating the most giant looking cinnamon bun...and other photos as we horsed around with said bun. She was very lovely. And the Captain Hook photographer near Pirates was also great. We loved her too and those photos turned out magnificently. They need to hire more of those people.

 

[bradk]

the shadow from a flash would actually be going to the right

at least it always seems to in my case after looking at several photos (so much for bouncing the flash)

I honestly don't believe the flash fired. there's a dullness to the lighting that's the main indicator for me.

i guess i could be crazy though.

assuming i'm not though and the flash didn't fire, it would explain the problem, especially if the camera was in auto mode. a 1/60 shot wouldn't produce that much motion blur unless the photog was really shaking. although there may be a new challenge.

 

[fan1080]

bradk,

I think the reason your shadow is to the right is because you took the photo in portrait mode (camera tilted to the left 90 degrees). Doing this will place your flash to the left of center of your lens and cast a shadow to the right due to the light projecting from the left.

As for the blurry photos the OP has. That could be a flash sync issue, but I'm not positive.

I too have not been real happy with the photopass photographers. I'm not sure they are all "photographers", so to speak. There seems to be some who know photography, but I'm not convinced they all understand photography.