Photopass - Horrible pictures - waste of money

[dmccarty]

A few months ago, an advertisement popped up on a news page on was on. The advert was for jobs at WDW. Photo Pass Photographers were being paid around $10 an hour to start.

The D90 is a great camera. Some of the photos are not out of focused but are blurry. The first one is interesting because you can see shadows which means there was some light from behind the camera. Don't know if that is just the lights from the gates or a flash. But in the image you can see ghosting of the woman's hair and people in the right part of the photo. That is caused by slow shutter speed so I am guessing the flash did not go off.

It could be the flash did not have enough time to recycle for the next shot. Or was not turned on. Some of the other photos suffered from shutter speed problems as well. Focus problems can also be caused by low light.

I can't believe that Disney is telling the CM's to set the JPG size to 2MB since is not going to allow for a decent sized print.

Later,
Dan

 

[cm8]

I was going to order my PP shots with my 40% off discount, now I am not sure it will be worth it!!!!

 

[Goofdad]

You know what? I'd be upset too. The blurriness is especially unacceptable. I'm sorry they turned out so bad. For the money they charge, they should all be exceptional quality.

I agree with this... somewhat.

I just reviewed my photopass pictures from 2 weeks ago.
Some were good.
Some were not.

IMO, getting the most out of photopass requires a bit of work on your part: you have to take lots of pictures and stop as frequently as possible to get the pictures.

I pre-paid for my photopass CD, so I knew going into it that I had to make an effort to get some pictures taken.
We ended up with about 125 original photos.
After you put borders and novelty effects onto them, well have 250 - 300 pictures on our disc.

@ $150, that isn't too bad... 50cents/per picture on your Disney Vacation?

The thing is, the photopass Photographers struggled under lighting condiitons where most photographers struggle... our sunny day, outdoor pictures are fantastic... our indoor, low lighting photos are not as good.

At first, I too was upset with the quality of some of the photos. But then I considered that I just got my photos for about 50 cents each and it didn't bother me as much.

 

[avahoneybee]

I'd ask for a refund. I think the worst they could say is no, but I bet they would at least give you 1/2 your money back. The blurry and out of focus shots are unacceptable.

We've never gotten the CD, we just normally buy 5 or 6 shots. Even 1 that we bought last trip was blurry though.

 

[justskip70003]

So sorry you got a lot of bad photo's. We've gotten some poor ones, I'll admit, but we've also gotten some truly amazing ones! DH and I got our photos done in Tomorrowland last year and the guy told us to "kiss" at one point. We kind of looked at him funny, but did it. Only after we were done did we notice the castle show was ending and the fireworks were going off behind us by the castle! Those are some great shots! I do play with my photos alot online though, and do a lot of rotating and cropping - usually doubling my photo amount! It helps to know exactly what you've got before printing any! Hope you have better luck next time!

i was going to say, everytime i ordered photopass pics i went online cropped them and added boarders. i have loved them everytime. as far as the shadows on your face it was luck of the draw. you had 2 choices, shadows on your faces or no cool backround like in the tower of terror one.

 

[Tiger926]

I also was disappointed with the photopass CD I purchased from my trip last year. The composition and the focus was decent- I was actually disappointed with the actual photo quality. I think that they are using a very high compression when saving the JPEGs because most of the pictures were about 2 mb in size- much smaller than I would expect the quality of the cameras they are using to produce. The photos were already so compressed and low quality that they didn't hold up to any re-editing in photoshop that I wanted to do (every time you resave a JPEG, the quality degrades, but I would expect the Nikon DSLRs that they are using to produce a picture that could stand one edit and resave). It's too bad- I love the idea of photopass but I probably won't use them this time around since my camera will produce much better quality pictures.

That is absolutely correct - I had some that were even smaller. I have 3 digital cameras, all of which are better than their cameras (although Nikon D90 is a sweet camera, but people need to know how to use properly).

I purchased a download photo as a gift (8x10). Costco wouldn't print it as they said the size was too small for a photo of that size - which I already knew, but I wanted to see what they said (I sometimes print my own photos, as I have 2 Epson photo printers as well, but didn't have time for that). I contacted Photopass, and they originally said no refund. I then contacted them by phone, and demanded to speak to a supervisor. They did grant me my refund as I started talking in technical speak to them. It was hard trying to convince them that 2mbs was not an acceptable file size - they said it absolutely was, but they did grant my refund. I said that obviously they were setting the cameras to low settings in order to store more photos on their cards - this is evident from the file size. Not acceptable when they charge $150.00 for a CD, or $15.00 or higher for an 8x10 photo.

Regardless, as with many things at Disney, the quality has gone down in this department. I feel badly for people who spend money on this program and they get bad quality photos as evidenced in this thread.

Sorry, OP. Perhaps try emailing them and asking to speak to a supervisor?

Tiger

 

[AmberHeartsDisney]

Mine turned out nice as well I have some on our website weheartdisney .com no spaces

 

[bdiddy]

I thought our pictures were horrible too. My best friend is actually an amateur photographer and she looked into working as a photopass photographer and she said you actually don't have to have any experience. My DH was disgusted with our pictures and he said it looked like a bunch of monkeys took our picture - that's how unfocused and just bad they were. We probably would have had better luck asking a stranger to take them with our nice camera which takes beautiful pictures.

Both of our trips we ran into this problem and it was really disappointing. On this last trip in December I got excited because there was actually one picture of us that looked good so I ordered it and when they sent me the digital file and I saw it larger - it was actually slightly unfocused which I couldn't tell just looking at it on Photopass. I emailed them an complained and they gave me a free order for one but they were all so bad I didn't even want to order one!!

Anyway - I feel your pain!!

 

[bwilcox]

We had some great pictures and some bad ones. All in all, it was worth it to me because we went as a grand gathering and had many pictures that we were ALL in, and also because I got to just enjoy my toddlers reactions at character greetings instead of worrying about taking pictures.

 

[mountdew1]

One thing I was told over on the budget board though is that you can preorder the CD AFTER your trip. So you can check out the photos before even ordering the CD while still getting the preorder price

Not any more. They changed it so you must pre purchase at least 1 day before your trip. However, you can request a refund if you don't like your pictures as long as you don't place the order.

Regarding the picture quality, alot of it has to do with the simple demands of the job. If you are in a known setting, able to control lighting, etc, it's easier to get a consistent quality picture. Having to work with a constantly changing sun, and not being told to get guests through as quick as possible, it's not easy to know how to set your camera unless you know what to do. And it's more than just knowing what to do, it's knowing what to do, when to do it, and being able to make the change on the fly, which comes from years of experience. Other issues, especially ghosting at night, are partially due to them not telling guests not to move. In order to take the nightime shots, they have to use both the flash, as well as a long exposure. Many guests see the flash, and assume the picture is done with, but that is just to illuminate the guests, and then the long exposure is used to properly light the icon in the background. So you get the properly exposed main image, but then also the slightly exposed guest moving. Simply informing the guests not to move will help to eliminate that issue. But taking the extra 10 seconds to give this warning doesn't work real well when they are trying to crank guests through the line. It's a shame when the pictures don't come out, but especially if you are planning on getting the cd, ask them to take more. Or try again at another time with an other photographer, as its better safe than sorry.

 

[Docarino]

Just for fun, I pulled out my photopass CD. 205 pictures, total size 299 mb. There were 7 pictures as big a 2 mb, the rest were smaller, some as small as 905 kb. That is small! They are choosing to set a low quality with those file sizes, the camera is capable of much more That being said, I love the magic pictures (love the one of holding baby Simba!) and so probably will still do photopass this time around but...I wish they would change the camera setting to allow for higher quality printing.

 

[Tiger926]

Just for fun, I pulled out my photopass CD. 205 pictures, total size 299 mb. There were 7 pictures as big a 2 mb, the rest were smaller, some as small as 905 kb. That is small! They are choosing to set a low quality with those file sizes, the camera is capable of much more That being said, I love the magic pictures (love the one of holding baby Simba!) and so probably will still do photopass this time around but...I wish they would change the camera setting to allow for higher quality printing.

I think that Photopass, like many things Disney (eg. toys, clothes, etc.), has gone down in quality as people still buy it. Disney seems to have the mentality of late, that as long as they get the products to as many people as possible, the quality isn't that important. In this respect, many families will buy Photopass, as it's the only way to get their whole family in one photo, or, because they think it is a high quality program. ou know Disney is making money from this program, as Disney doesn't do anything that doesn't make money. So, For as many people who complain, there are tons more who don't, and this is who Disney is targeting.

They have the program staffed with regular people, not photographers, and their jobs are to snap away (their camera controls are actually locked, so they aren't allowed to change any settings). I'm sure it's about volume, and not quality at all. The more photos snapped, the more products sold.

Tiger

 

[bumbershoot]

I actually quite like the one that you first labeled as having no flash, in front of the partner's statue.


For the future, or for those wanting to use PP, during your visit, go to the photo centers to preview them on the big computers. I've read that WDW allows this, and at DLR it's absolutely allowed...the CMs scan your card and you can see them BIG on the screens. That's a good way to see which shots are blurry, which shots need to be redone, etc. Also good for big groups or very important trips, where you just have to have everyone's eyes open in a shot, etc. You can know, before you go, that you need to have those pictures retaken, if they aren't good.

 

[leeh1530]

They have the program staffed with regular people, not photographers, and their jobs are to snap away (their camera controls are actually locked, so they aren't allowed to change any settings). I'm sure it's about volume, and not quality at all. The more photos snapped, the more products sold.

They locked the settings? Oh come on! That can really make or break a photo. I got a new D100 this Christmas, an upgrade from my old point-and-shoot, which was horrid to capture things that weren't at a standstill. This has a bunch of settings on it, including "kid", and it is a godsend. My photo quality has gone up.

I agree the flash probably didn't go off as well as it should have in the first photos, or recycle as someone said. I don't buy the "movement" argument, especially if it was just a stand and smile photo.

So sad to see the quality of things like that. I've never gotten PP, and had considered it for the future. Now, maybe not.

 

[maxsmom]

Well, we had them take a few last yr w/ both the kids. I was not impressed and would not order one. Maybe others have better luck, but I cannot justify the cost for such mediocre pictures. I didn't think they were much better than any other snapshots that anyone could take. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Tiger926]

They locked the settings? Oh come on! That can really make or break a photo. I got a new D100 this Christmas, an upgrade from my old point-and-shoot, which was horrid to capture things that weren't at a standstill. This has a bunch of settings on it, including "kid", and it is a godsend. My photo quality has gone up.

I agree the flash probably didn't go off as well as it should have in the first photos, or recycle as someone said. I don't buy the "movement" argument, especially if it was just a stand and smile photo.

So sad to see the quality of things like that. I've never gotten PP, and had considered it for the future. Now, maybe not.

I've spoken to many PP CMs and this is what they told me, as well as it's been reported many times on these boards. Perhaps now they've made a change with new Nikons, but the old Nikons were locked at specific settings, and could not be changed. CM explained they did this to speed things up, and less wear and tear on cameras.

Like I said, we don't really get many Photopass photos as we do better ourselves, but once in awhile, like for in front of castle, we will ask a CM to take our photo. The last 3 times, we had PP CM take one with their camera, and then use one of our cameras as comparison, and our photos came out better each and everytime.

Tiger

 

[auntfrannie]

On my last trip in october of 2009, I noticed a lot more photopass photographers but the pictures were mediocre. I think there are quite a few inexperienced photogs out there who are learning on the job, which really stinks for people expecting to see good photos when they return home.

 

[pilotwife_02]

I found that some of our pictures that looked fine on the photopass website were blurry and out of focus once I got the CD as well.

However, since I'm usually the one behind the camera, I'm just happy to be in some of the pics and happy that at least a few pictures came out nice. I'm sure I'll get suckered into purchasing it again in May when we go for that very reason.

So I can totally see how you thought they were fine on their website but once you got the CD they weren't.

That is absolutely correct - I had some that were even smaller. I have 3 digital cameras, all of which are better than their cameras (although Nikon D90 is a sweet camera, but people need to know how to use properly).

I purchased a download photo as a gift (8x10). Costco wouldn't print it as they said the size was too small for a photo of that size - which I already knew, but I wanted to see what they said (I sometimes print my own photos, as I have 2 Epson photo printers as well, but didn't have time for that). I contacted Photopass, and they originally said no refund. I then contacted them by phone, and demanded to speak to a supervisor. They did grant me my refund as I started talking in technical speak to them. It was hard trying to convince them that 2mbs was not an acceptable file size - they said it absolutely was, but they did grant my refund. I said that obviously they were setting the cameras to low settings in order to store more photos on their cards - this is evident from the file size. Not acceptable when they charge $150.00 for a CD, or $15.00 or higher for an 8x10 photo.

Regardless, as with many things at Disney, the quality has gone down in this department. I feel badly for people who spend money on this program and they get bad quality photos as evidenced in this thread.

Sorry, OP. Perhaps try emailing them and asking to speak to a supervisor?

Tiger

So I'm trying to learn about this stuff so hope you don't mind me asking, what effect does the size of the phone have? I mean I understand that if it's really small it won't be able to print well, but I just purchased a Nikon d5000 a few months ago and I want to make sure I have the settings correct so I don't mess up my ability to print them out later. I checked my pics from photopass last year and yep, none are larger than 2MB, but all my point and shot Sony cybershot pics are well over 3MB - go figure.

I don't have any of our Nikon pics on my computer yet, they are all on DH's laptop, I'll have to check them out to make sure he them set up ok.

 

[MissionMouse]

...I just purchased a Nikon d5000 a few months ago and I want to make sure I have the settings correct so I don't mess up my ability to print them out later. I checked my pics from photopass last year and yep, none are larger than 2MB, but all my point and shot Sony cybershot pics are well over 3MB - go figure...

You should reference your D5000 User Manual - Starting at Page 62-64. You are most likely shooting at a normal quality level, if you haven't made any changes.

If you have issues with out of focus you should reference autofocus settings and if this is not an issue look at the shutter speed of the photographs not in focus along with the focal length of the lense you were using.

 

[lucyem]

We were there in Feb and I agree that there are a ton more photopass people about. When I saw the photos it was obvious some people taking the photos were clueless. My DS did the jedi training and those photos were fabulous. But the photographer was a professional. Some others were absolutely horrible and it was obvious the person was just clicking away and not paying attention to us or the background.

I am sorry but at $14 ish for a photo is a bit steep IMO. I skipped it.
In the future we will avoid photopass and only use our camera.