PhotoPass Info Please!

[jenseib]

Phew! Done! Three hours later. While a chore, I'm glad that after all the work of adding in those borders, I won't end up having them all chopped off when I print them off at Costco!

For all of you out there approaching your first Photopass CD order, definitely save yourself some time by formating them in 4x6 while you are putting on the borders. Unless you plan to print them off as a 5x7, of course! I did leave a few as 5x7 for around the house display, but the 4x6 size will be much more convenient for scrapbooking purposes.

So do you make them 4x6 before adding the border then?

 

[4d5ofus]

I'm so glad I found DISboards! First, thanks everyone for all the helpful ideas about photopass.
Do they change the borders that are available and are there only a limited number of borders available? I started adding borders to some of my pictures a couple of weeks ago and got on today to finish up . . . I do not see one of the borders that I was able to use before. I also would like to add "autographs" and do not see them anywhere . I'm hoping someone here will be able to help me. Thanks!

 

[Sherry E]

I'm so glad I found DISboards! First, thanks everyone for all the helpful ideas about photopass.
Do they change the borders that are available and are there only a limited number of borders available? I started adding borders to some of my pictures a couple of weeks ago and got on today to finish up . . . I do not see one of the borders that I was able to use before. I also would like to add "autographs" and do not see them anywhere . I'm hoping someone here will be able to help me. Thanks!

They do periodically change or remove borders on the PP site - sometimes they are removed while you are in there, editing your photos (I have had that happen, where all of a sudden borders disappear before I get a chance to apply them!!). You will see all the borders available for each photo when you click on each photo. The 'autograph' borders you refer to are not available for every photo - generally those are only available for photos taken with characters or photos taken in front of the Partners statue, or sometimes the photos with the image of Mickey or Minnie sitting on a bench next to you.

Make sure you see my thread about the $15 off discount on the PP CD - it expires on Sunday, January 17, but it is a great deal if you can get your photos edited and finished by Sunday. Paying $46.95 is much better than paying $61.95!! Discount code is: JAN15CDT

 

[4d5ofus]

They do periodically change or remove borders on the PP site - sometimes they are removed while you are in there, editing your photos (I have had that happen, where all of a sudden borders disappear before I get a chance to apply them!!). You will see all the borders available for each photo when you click on each photo. The 'autograph' borders you refer to are not available for every photo - generally those are only available for photos taken with characters or photos taken in front of the Partners statue, or sometimes the photos with the image of Mickey or Minnie sitting on a bench next to you.

Make sure you see my thread about the $15 off discount on the PP CD - it expires on Sunday, January 17, but it is a great deal if you can get your photos edited and finished by Sunday. Paying $46.95 is much better than paying $61.95!! Discount code is: JAN15CDT

Thank you, Sherry for your quick response and explaining the borders to me. Sure enough, I clicked on different pictures and had different borders show up, including an 'autograph' one. The one other border that I had used is gone - I'll just be grateful that I got it added to one of my pictures.
I also saw your thread about the $15 discount . . . I'll definitely be taking advantage of that . Thanks!!!

 

[Sherry E]

Thank you, Sherry for your quick response and explaining the borders to me. Sure enough, I clicked on different pictures and had different borders show up, including an 'autograph' one. The one other border that I had used is gone - I'll just be grateful that I got it added to one of my pictures.
I also saw your thread about the $15 discount . . . I'll definitely be taking advantage of that . Thanks!!!

You are welcome! I was so frustrated when I was editing my October PhotoPass pictures because the borders were literally changing before my eyes. At that time, there were Halloween, Thanksgiving and a few Christmas borders avaialble, as well as some 'Celebration' borders in honor of the Celebration theme from 2009. So on one day, I used a certain Christmas border (even though my trip was in October), and when I went on the site the next day to continue editing, that Christmas border was gone - for the same exact photo! Sometimes, too, I would be in there applying borders and all of a sudden the website would lock up and I would have to either refresh or sign out and then sign back in, and when I got back on, I would see that the borders had moved around and some of them were gone!! It got to the point where, whenever the screen locked up, I was thinking, "Oh, they must be removing borders again!"

Another funny thing is that the 'autograph' borders always seem to pop up for photos taken in front of the Partners statue. Well, usually it is Mickey's autograph, which makes sense as he is part of the Partners statue!! However, the last time I edited a Partners picture (can't recall if it was for my December photos or my October photos), Minnie's autograph popped up!!! Why? She has nothing to do with Partners!!! I don't know if that was a PhotoPass glitch or they just decided to switch up the autographs, but it was funny!!

 

[mareed]

Another funny thing is that the 'autograph' borders always seem to pop up for photos taken in front of the Partners statue. Well, usually it is Mickey's autograph, which makes sense as he is part of the Partners statue!! However, the last time I edited a Partners picture (can't recall if it was for my December photos or my October photos), Minnie's autograph popped up!!! Why? She has nothing to do with Partners!!! I don't know if that was a PhotoPass glitch or they just decided to switch up the autographs, but it was funny!!

I can explain this one! It's because the photographers by the Partners statue can also do the magic photo on the parkbench nearby where Mickey or Minnie are added, and when they do that one the autographs show up as border options. The photographer just forgot to change the code associated with the Partners photo and it must have still had the Mickey or Minnie magic shot code with it. We've done Partners photos and then Mickey magic shot on the park bench done right after the other one, and the photographer talked about how he had to change the coding for the picture and pushed some buttons on his little screen in between the pictures.

 

[lulukate]

what are the "magic" photos?

 

[Disney Dreams]

what are the "magic" photos?

The PhotoPass photographers can do special effects when they take your photo that results in a character appearing in your photo when you view it. For example, the ones reference above have Mickey or Minnie sitting next to you in your picture. There is one where you can sword fight with Captain Hook. There is one with Stitch coming out of the ground. And many others. Somewhere there is a thread with some samples. Someone will post it, I'm sure. I don't have it bookmarked.

- Dreams

 

[Sherry E]

Thanks for the 4x6 photo tips, bumbershoot!!

I found that in general, the shots taken by the photopass photographers were horrible! My husband's eyes were closed in almost all of them, as were my son's. I am going to try to ask them next time to see if all of us have our eyes open.

The pumpkin night shot we had a blurry one. The photographer that evening was SO not into it.

We had one photo where we are pointing up into the sky but she made us look right into the camera, and then Mickey and friends are hang-gliding, but it looks ridiculous in the shot as who wouldn't be looking up at the sky when they point to something, LOL!

It's still worth every penny, overall... we got a great shot of beautiful snow white with our daughter on our photopass cd. A very good cast member she was, she even fooled me that she was snow white, she SO looked the part!!

We have had that same situation, with the odd photographer who insists on someone in our group pointing up and looking at the camera, while the other person in our group is looking up. It makes no sense to me, either, and it looks really awkward on camera. It doesn't photograph well. I think everyone should just be looking and pointing up - or even if someone is not pointing, they should be looking upward and maybe looking shocked, covering their mouth in horror - whatever. But looking UP. The last time we did one of these "Soarin'" shots in December, the photographer had us both looking upward, I think, but one of us pointed while the other one (yours truly) had to crouch down in sort of a protective stance (yes, I will do anything silly for a picture! I am not ashamed!!). I am waiting on that CD, which should be here any day now.

The main problems I run into with PhotoPass photographers are that some of the photos come out too dark, a bit too far away, not cropped or framed quite well, too bright/washed out, and occasionally blurry at night. Also, here and there one of us (usually yours truly) will have closed eyes. OR, if we are intentionally trying to pose in front of something, like the giant Mickey Pumpkin, the photographer won't get enough of the Pumpkin in and will zoom in for a close-up when we really want more of the Pumpkin. Also, especially on the last two trips, we encountered a few photographers who were just not enthused, so even when we told them we were willing to do crazy things for the photos and that we wanted Magic Shots, they didn't care and barely had us do anything. (One time I said, "We will do whatever you want us to do. Point up, point down, look scared, hands on hips, kicking legs up, making silly faces - what should we do?" And the PP guy said, "Uh....I'm confused.")

All in all, though, I think PhotoPass is a really good service to use for several reasons. Sure, sometimes the photos don't come out the way we hope, BUT there have been lots of times where my photos did not look all that great when I edited them, but when I got the CD with the finished product and opened them up, they looked fantastic and I was very pleased.

 

[Sherry E]

what are the "magic" photos?

The thread Disney Dreams was referring to shows lots of different types of Magic Shots, a wide variety of borders and enhancements and also the different 'poses' that are sometimes fun to do. Occasionally, aside from the Magic Shots with the special Disney effects, the photographers will have a group of people put their hands on their hips (the 'look sassy' pose), all look as though they are going to sleep, "look scared," pretend they are getting run over by a train, make silly faces like sticking out your tongue or rolling your eyes back iin your head, kicking your legs out like the Rockettes, striking the "Charlie's Angels" pose (that works if you have 3 women), etc. All kinds of silly and fun things!

Here is the link:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1954446

A tip - I would recommend starting at the end of the thread and working your way back to the beginning rather than the other way, because some of the Magic Shots shown towards the beginning of the thread are no longer available. So if you start at the end and work backwards, you will see the most recent things available.

 

[pbbecker]

There's a lot of really great info here. I've gotten 4 CD's so far but never knew about the 4x6 crop. The tip about taking a picture of your photo pass card # is great! I learned the hard way but fortunately it worked out okay.
I had my god DD8 at DL and she was having a hard time listening so I wouldn't buy her anything and I did for my DD9. GDD was really mad at me so I decided to take them to see Goofy who was in town square to cheer us up. Right when we got to the line Goofy had to go in. The photo pass photographer and the character handlers stayed out to talk w/ us till the next set of characters came out. GDD was siting on the curb pouting while the rest of us were chatting it up. A few moments later I noticed she had laid down on the curb and fell asleep. The PP photographer thought this was so funny he wanted us all to lay down and pretend we were sleeping. We did, the pictures are hilarious. The 2 cast members asked if we would want a private meeting w/ Capt. Hook, Peter Pan and Wendy of course! Long story short we left to meet w/ the other characters. Later I went to get my PP card and it was gone. The PP photographer never gave it back to me and he was off for the day. I got a new card and thought I had lost all my pics. I found out since I had an idea of the time and the location I could go to the camera shop and they were able to look up my pictures. Sure enough the next pics on the card were two other kids w/ Goofy. They transfered all my pics to the new card. If you ever lose you card and don't have a picture of the # (which I always do now) they can find your pictures in the computer.
I've had some great photographers and some not so good ones but there always a few pics that make it totally worth it.

 

[Sherry E]

I can explain this one! It's because the photographers by the Partners statue can also do the magic photo on the parkbench nearby where Mickey or Minnie are added, and when they do that one the autographs show up as border options. The photographer just forgot to change the code associated with the Partners photo and it must have still had the Mickey or Minnie magic shot code with it. We've done Partners photos and then Mickey magic shot on the park bench done right after the other one, and the photographer talked about how he had to change the coding for the picture and pushed some buttons on his little screen in between the pictures.

Ahhh...thanks! That does explain it! It is a simple coding issue. The funny thing is, I enjoy the autographs on my Partners pictures, but I thought the Minnie one was so odd because she isn't even part of the statue. SO now I know the reason why that's there! Also, we would like to do the 'sitting on a bench with Mickey or Minnie' Magic Shot, as we have only been able to do that once before at the entrance to DL, but I think a lot of the photographers assume that adults with no kids will not be fun and, therefore, they do not ask us to do anything silly, even when we tell them we will be silly. It is sometimes hard to get the full Photopass experience out of these photographers because I think some of them just don't care about making sure you get the best, most fun, photos, whereas others go above and beyond the call of duty to make sure you get the best ones, are positioned exactly right, etc.

One photographer even explained how they have to make sure someone in the group has the right color shirt to be a background for the Tinkerbell-in-the-hand Magic Shot. If a shirt is white or too light in color, or if it is too busy with too much of a pattern, they will generally not do the Tinkerbell shot, or they will just pick whoever in the group has the best shirt for the background and postion everyone's hands against that shirt, so that Tink will appear.

Bottom line is, always ask the photographer for any magic shots they have, because a lot of times I think they may just be too uninspired or unmotivated to suggest them (or sometimes they will not offer anything if there is a long line of people waiting for pictures too).

There's a lot of really great info here. I've gotten 4 CD's so far but never knew about the 4x6 crop. The tip about taking a picture of your photo pass card # is great! I learned the hard way but fortunately it worked out okay.

I had my god DD8 at DL and she was having a hard time listening so I wouldn't buy her anything and I did for my DD9. GDD was really mad at me so I decided to take them to see Goofy who was in town square to cheer us up. Right when we got to the line Goofy had to go in. The photo pass photographer and the character handlers stayed out to talk w/ us till the next set of characters came out. GDD was siting on the curb pouting while the rest of us were chatting it up. A few moments later I noticed she had laid down on the curb and fell asleep. The PP photographer thought this was so funny he wanted us all to lay down and pretend we were sleeping. We did, the pictures are hilarious. The 2 cast members asked if we would want a private meeting w/ Capt. Hook, Peter Pan and Wendy of course! Long story short we left to meet w/ the other characters. Later I went to get my PP card and it was gone. The PP photographer never gave it back to me and he was off for the day. I got a new card and thought I had lost all my pics. I found out since I had an idea of the time and the location I could go to the camera shop and they were able to look up my pictures. Sure enough the next pics on the card were two other kids w/ Goofy. They transfered all my pics to the new card. If you ever lose you card and don't have a picture of the # (which I always do now) they can find your pictures in the computer.
I've had some great photographers and some not so good ones but there always a few pics that make it totally worth it.

I have had that happen, where we are waiting in line for Photopass pictures with characters and while we are in the line, the characters go inside!! We don't even have kids, but it is still frustrating!!! This happened in December. We were waiting in Critter Country for our pictures with (what I call) Christmas Pooh, Christmas Tigger and Christmas Eeyore (which basically just meant that they were all wearing Santa hats and maybe a neck scarf). After we had been in line for several minutes, Christmas Eeyore decided to take a break, and Christmas Tigger decided to follow him. Soon, Christmas Pooh was right on their heels (or tails!). Well, I didn't want a Photopass photo simply standing in the spots where they were. Someone in line asked the photographer if anyone was coming back and she said they were, but only Pooh returned. In truth, I love Pooh but I wanted Christmas Tigger and Christmas Eeyore in photos more! They never returned!

This also happened in October, as we waited in line for Villains photos in Fantasyland, and Maleficent (the one my friend really wanted in a picture) decided to leave, with a PP photographer in tow, before we got to her.

I wanted to get Photopass photos with the 'Winter Sweater Characters' (generally that is Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto and Goofy, sometimes Daisy or Chip and Dale too) on Main Street, but the lines to get them in photos were sooooo long that I knew there was no way I could get my friend to wait in one line for one character, let alone each line for each character. Sometimes we have had better luck with the Winter Sweater characters in ToonTown, believe it or not!

 

[DisneyNic]

On our trip to WDW in Sept, literally every character line we got into, the character went on break either as soon as we got in line or right after seeing the person in front of us. I am not exaggerating either. Every character did this!! On day 5 of our 10 day trip, we got in line for Mary Poppins at MK, and of course the CM came over and said she was going in for a break after seeing the family in front of us. My mom and I both started laughing and said "Of course she is because we got in line." The CM looked at us very confused so we told him the story. He told us to just stay in line and he would let us be the last family instead. It became the running joke through our whole trip not to get in line behind us if you wanted to see characters!

 

[4d5ofus]

I spent the last 2 days editing my PP pictures and finally ordered my cd!!! Of course, even after I thought I was extra careful, I messed up . After I placed my ordered, I saw that there were a couple of pictures that I must've skipped while editing. You can't cancel an order, so I quickly edited those pics. My order doesn't show how many pictures will be on my cd, so is there a chance that those newly edited pictures will be on the disk? Would it be helpful to send an email or call guest services?
Even if I don't get those extra edited pictures on the cd, I'm happy with all the ones I am getting! Thanks again to everyone for all the great info and help!!!

 

[Sherry E]

I spent the last 2 days editing my PP pictures and finally ordered my cd!!! Of course, even after I thought I was extra careful, I messed up . After I placed my ordered, I saw that there were a couple of pictures that I must've skipped while editing. You can't cancel an order, so I quickly edited those pics. My order doesn't show how many pictures will be on my cd, so is there a chance that those newly edited pictures will be on the disk? Would it be helpful to send an email or call guest services?
Even if I don't get those extra edited pictures on the cd, I'm happy with all the ones I am getting! Thanks again to everyone for all the great info and help!!!

Hmmmm....Well, I have never had that happen before although I can easily see how it could happen. My first guess is that, if you edited the photos right away after ordering the CD, chances are they will probably make it onto the CD. After all, you would be paying the same price for the CD whether you added in another 10 or 25 or 50 or 100 photos. It's all the same price (with the $15 discount, of course). But, there is somewhere in the ordering process - like when you are first starting to view the cart or check out or whatever - where it does tell you how many photos are on the CD. I was just noticing my number last week when I ordered. So the website is reading how many photos are there before you check out. Again, I don't think it should be a problem, but if you feel better contacting the PhotoPass people to be sure, you may want to try. It will probably take them a couple of days to get back to you, though, and you should make sure to remind them that you are trying to take advantage of the $15 discount that expires today.

 

[mareed]

I spent the last 2 days editing my PP pictures and finally ordered my cd!!! Of course, even after I thought I was extra careful, I messed up . After I placed my ordered, I saw that there were a couple of pictures that I must've skipped while editing. You can't cancel an order, so I quickly edited those pics. My order doesn't show how many pictures will be on my cd, so is there a chance that those newly edited pictures will be on the disk? Would it be helpful to send an email or call guest services?
Even if I don't get those extra edited pictures on the cd, I'm happy with all the ones I am getting! Thanks again to everyone for all the great info and help!!!

Unfortunately, I don't think you'll get the extra pictures. At the time you add the CD to the cart, it takes a few seconds (depending on how many photos there are), and it displays something like "there will be 249 photos on your CD". I believe the way the programming would work is at that time, the photos are captured and included with the order. Anything you edit after that will not be included. Everything is completely automated. You might be able to get them to send you another CD that would include the additional pictures also, but it would take contacting them and asking and getting someone nice & willing to bend the rules. It's possible!

Glad you're happy with the photos even without the extra ones!

 

[Disney Dreams]

I spent the last 2 days editing my PP pictures and finally ordered my cd!!! Of course, even after I thought I was extra careful, I messed up . After I placed my ordered, I saw that there were a couple of pictures that I must've skipped while editing. You can't cancel an order, so I quickly edited those pics. My order doesn't show how many pictures will be on my cd, so is there a chance that those newly edited pictures will be on the disk? Would it be helpful to send an email or call guest services?
Even if I don't get those extra edited pictures on the cd, I'm happy with all the ones I am getting! Thanks again to everyone for all the great info and help!!!

This is from the PhotoPass Help section (I added the bold):
"Note: We suggest you review all of the images in your account and make any edits to your photos prior to purchasing your PhotoCD to ensure your photos include the borders and signatures you desire. The PhotoCD includes all Disney's PhotoPass photos in your account at the time of purchase but will not include any of your personal uploaded photos. The price of the PhotoCD is the same regardless of the number of photos in your account."

My guess is your late-added pictures will not be included on your CD, based on the above. However, I would definitely send an e-mail as SherryE suggested and see what they say. I just would not have my hopes up based on the above.

- Dreams

P.S. Welcome to the DISBoards!

 

[Sherry E]

Unfortunately, I don't think you'll get the extra pictures. At the time you add the CD to the cart, it takes a few seconds (depending on how many photos there are), and it displays something like "there will be 249 photos on your CD". I believe the way the programming would work is at that time, the photos are captured and included with the order. Anything you edit after that will not be included. Everything is completely automated. You might be able to get them to send you another CD that would include the additional pictures also, but it would take contacting them and asking and getting someone nice & willing to bend the rules. It's possible!

Glad you're happy with the photos even without the extra ones!

See, I am not sure if Photopass will allow the PP to get those last minute photos on the CD, but as I was saying in my earlier post, I have a feeling they make it onto the CD anyway. When I 'checked out' while ordering my CD just a few days ago, I did not see "There will be X number of photos on the CD." What I saw was something like (and I am paraphrasing), "There are X number of photos in your album." (I may have missed something, though.) That implies a different thing, like if extra photos are added to the album after that, they may make it onto the CD anyway. Even though I tend to agree with you that the website automatically reads the number of photos and that is what they will put on the CD, I am not entirely certain that the PP's extra edits will not make it on. I think there may be a fluke and they make it on anyway if the edits were done quickly enough. Now if you go on and make the edits a day later or even hours later after you have ordered, then I think there is no hope, but if they are made immediately after the order is placed, I wouldn't be so sure that they won't make it on by some fluke. We will all wait and see what happens!!!

ETA: Now, after reading Dreams' post above with the Photopass text from the site, it looks like those extra photos will not be on the CD, but we can all hope for a fluke to occur....

 

[Sherry E]

This is from the PhotoPass Help section (I added the bold):
"Note: We suggest you review all of the images in your account and make any edits to your photos prior to purchasing your PhotoCD to ensure your photos include the borders and signatures you desire. The PhotoCD includes all Disney's PhotoPass photos in your account at the time of purchase but will not include any of your personal uploaded photos. The price of the PhotoCD is the same regardless of the number of photos in your account."

My guess is your late-added pictures will not be included on your CD, based on the above. However, I would definitely send an e-mail as SherryE suggested and see what they say. I just would not have my hopes up based on the above.

- Dreams

P.S. Welcome to the DISBoards!

Ahhh...okay. Great to know! Thanks, Disney Dreams, for digging up that verbiage! It's funny, because just as I was typing my last post (which appeared right after your post!) I was thinking, "It must be mentioned in the fine print somewhere on the site." You read my mind!!

Okay, so yes, it looks like the PP will probably be out of luck unless the edits were made SO quickly that it confused the system and by some fluke, they make it onto the CD anyway. But it seems like emailing the PhotoPass folks would be the only real way of making sure they get on there, and that doesn't look fool proof!!

 

[bumbershoot]

I think the question is...what does 4d5ofus mean by she missed some photos? Since you don't actually choose the photos to go on the CD (only thing you could do would be *delete* the photos from the account), I would bet a million dollars that the plain and simple photos will be on that CD. But maybe not ghd *edited* versions.

Unless 4d5ofus means that s/he skipped a photopass card, and quickly put that onto the account.

But I don't really get that from 4d5ofus's post. So I bet the plain unedited photos will be there...and it will be interesting to find out if the edited-post-order pictures are on the CD.