PhotoPass Info Please!

[laura&fam]

Thanks for this thread. I was trying to figure out how to save my edited photos in 4x6 format and was getting so frustrated I knew I had read on a thread here how to do it. After just a minute of searching I had the answer. I love the DIS!

 

[DisCookie]

Does anyone know what resolution size images do they give on the CDs? Is it the original from the camera or 5x7 sized?

Just wondering if I should be saving a copy of my images in 8x10 or 16x20, just in case I would like to make a really huge print.

 

[jenseib]

They are 5x7

 

[bumbershoot]

Does anyone know what resolution size images do they give on the CDs? Is it the original from the camera or 5x7 sized?

Just wondering if I should be saving a copy of my images in 8x10 or 16x20, just in case I would like to make a really huge print.

I have saved them in the big sizes.

FYI, though, the 16x20 will not show saved to that size...it just shows that it saves to 8x10 when you try it. (I figure that's b/c it's double 8x10)

 

[DisCookie]

I ended up saving a copy of everything in 4x6, these are the least cropped images it appears.

 

[bumbershoot]

You can save them in multiple sizes, fyi.

 

[DisCookie]

There are only a few images that I would think I would ever want in a huge print, so I did select the 16x20/8x10 for those.

I'm hoping the 4x6 will just give me the original uncropped image and I can just do with that whatever I need to in the future.

I'll report back when I get the CD .

 

[alyssa810]

Along with marking your card(s) in some way, it's also a great idea to either take a clear digital picture of the card number, and/or write it down and keep the paper separate from your card.

Since the pictures aren't actually ON the card (they are merely associated with the card number), just having the numbers will help.

But marking it with a sharpie pen is probably the best idea.

This is one of the best Disney tips I have ever seen on the boards! You only lose one photopass card and then you never forget to do this! I speak from experience!

 

[beachphotog]

I think my one beef is how much it costs to order the CD. $149.99 is an awful lot of money for 123 pictures... Most of them we had taken with my camera too, which look just as good, if not better. There are a few that we missed, though and to order the 6 photos, it comes to 92.95
Sorry, venting for a moment!

 

[bumbershoot]

This is one of the best Disney tips I have ever seen on the boards! You only lose one photopass card and then you never forget to do this! I speak from experience!

I think my one beef is how much it costs to order the CD. $149.99 is an awful lot of money for 123 pictures... Most of them we had taken with my camera too, which look just as good, if not better. There are a few that we missed, though and to order the 6 photos, it comes to 92.95
Sorry, venting for a moment!

WDW's CD is so expensive! We're talking about the DLR CD right now, and it's 59.95 then $2 shipping...someday come on out to Disneyland! That, at least, is a bargain in Anaheim.

 

[Disney Dreams]

I think my one beef is how much it costs to order the CD. $149.99 is an awful lot of money for 123 pictures... Most of them we had taken with my camera too, which look just as good, if not better. There are a few that we missed, though and to order the 6 photos, it comes to 92.95
Sorry, venting for a moment!

We took our 70 some-odd photos from our 8 day WDW trip, added borders, edits, etc... and ended up with over 400 photos. We love having the CD, owning the rights to the pictures, and being able to use them in a variety of ways - not just in a memory album. For us, it was worth it, but if someone doesn't have many pics, I can completely understand.

- Dreams

 

[beachphotog]

I think this might be a good reason to get to DLR!!! It's definitely on my list to visit!!!!!

 

[Sherry E]

I made a one-day trip to DLR in October and took 30 original photos and turned them into 559 photos by using all the different borders and effects, cropping, making B&W versions, etc. So the $61.95 I paid (shipping price went down to only $2.00, and I got my CD faster than I would have using the old UPS ground shipping method!) was well worth it. Now if it had only been the 30 photos and I didn't edit them at all, then the CD price may have seemed too lofty. I just made another day trip to DLR one week ago and turned something like 19 pictures into 200+ by editing.

As a rule, it is expected that the PhotoPass pictures will be slightly better quality than the average pictures taken by guests, because the cameras are good Nikon DSLR models. However, some of the photographers are on the amateur side and have not quite mastered lighting and night shots and things like that, so every now and then you may get a photo that is out of focus, too far away/too close or too dark/too washed out. On the other side of the coin, some of the photographers are great and they really take the time to make sure you get the best shots, moving people out of the way, making sure everyone's eyes are open, making sure you look fun and interesting in the pictures, etc. Plus, you get the "magic shots" and the special Disney borders and effects with PhotoPass which you do not get on your own camera.

Also, PhotoPass is a good tool to use as a back-up. Just in case something goes wrong with your camera or the memory card is defective, or the photos don't look as great on the computer as they do in the camera, or just in case the family camera gets lost (and all the captured memories along with it), the price of the DLR PhotoPass CD (or even the WDW CD) seems well worth it in that case. In fact, one of our DIS-ers - Yakety76 - recently had a situation where her camera was lost at DLR (and inevitably stolen by whomever found it) and she lost all the great photos she had taken on that camera. Even though her husband had another camera he was using, they also used PhotoPass to kind of fill in the gaps and get some extra pictures. I think it is a great service. If my camera broke or got stolen at DLR, I would be thrilled to have the PhotoPass pictures. The great thing is, if most of the photos are similar or identical to ones on your own camera (minus the magic shots), they don't have to be purchased. But if there is one really spectacular shot in the bunch, you can buy just that one.

 

[Eeee-va]

We got about 60 Photopass shots and I've turned them into nearly 200 with effects, borders, cropping (do not forget to crop!) etc.

Unfortunately, several of our photographers did not seem to work very hard to get good shots. My only picture from Photopass with Tiana and Naveen and me has me looking off to the side at my friend's camera instead of the Photopass photographer. One picture with my friend and me and Tiana and Naveen, Naveen has his eyes closed (they did take portrait and landscape both, so one of those is OK). The picture with my doll and Tiana, Tiana has one eye mostly closed (so it looks fine on screen not zoomed in, but the cropped picture was not very flattering and I'll bet the photo itself will not look very good). I think all my "portrait" oriented pictures with Princess Jasmine (in two locations!) are set up so that the shot is mostly the floor with us only taking up the top 1/2 of the shot! That is where cropping comes in handy.

There were some nice photos, but I was disappointed that the Photopass people we got never took any pictures of the character interactions, as I've heard some photographers might do, and almost never took more pictures than just the standard two (portrait and landscape) before having us move on. Our "Mickey Floral" pictures are totally off-center and pretty hideous.

There ARE some nice pictures--some of the character photos turned out OK to good, and a couple photographers that took shots in standard non-character locations appeared to know what they were doing and made sure to arrange us properly, etc. We'll still be buying the CD. I don't know if we just got mostly mediocre-to-poor character photographers, or if the better ones among them figured that since we were adults there was no need to take more than two pictures with characters.

But I'd say in many cases, if you're going with someone who is the designated photographer (i.e. parents taking kids to meet characters) and your point-and-shoot camera has "burst" mode (to take a ton of pictures at once), there's a good chance you'll end up with better shots on your own camera. The Photopass shots were mostly better than ones the Photopass photographers took with our own cameras, though. I agree that Photopass is at the LEAST a great backup.

 

[DisCookie]

I recently went solo, turned the ~70ish photos into about 500 after all the different borders (and saving a copy of everything everything in 4x6). I haven't gotten the actual CD yet, but I was disappointed that some of the pictures did not turn out that great. I also really wish I viewed them while I was at DLR, so I would of known I should go back to redo the pictures.

They do usually take at least 2+ shots, so 1 of them is likely to be good or at least acceptable.

First 2 days, it was cloudy out so they were using flash, but to much of it! I look like MJ in some of those pictures , maybe when I get the full resolution photos I'll be able to salvage those with some photo editing...

Aside from the holding tinkerbell, there really weren't that many magic shots offered. I would have to ask for them and unfortunately my reaction isn't quite right for some of them (despite having reviewed some of the posted magic shot PP pics before!).

I also wish I just had the CM take pictures in addition to the PP ones, because those I could view right away (or at least I would review them when I downloaded them to my laptop at the end of the day).

Edit: Just wanted to add that the PP site is almost always very slow or error prone!

 

[3TinksAndAnEeyore]

Definitely. When you add a border, it makes the picture default to 5x7. So if you leave it like that, when you print a 4x6 the border will be lopped off. As you're going through, when you do a border, use the drop down (it looks like you're actually ordering, but it saves the picture as that size) box to choose 4x6, and it will resize it for you.

Molly, thank you!!! We had 50 photos on our photopass and with editing and adding borders, I'm now up to 219. Something made me come back over and read up about photopass before completeing my order. I'm now in the midst of going back over most of my edited photos and resizing to 4x6. You're right...it does seem like you are going to order! Thanks again for the information.

Steph

 

[laura&fam]

I recently went solo, turned the ~70ish photos into about 500 after all the different borders (and saving a copy of everything everything in 4x6). I haven't gotten the actual CD yet, but I was disappointed that some of the pictures did not turn out that great. I also really wish I viewed them while I was at DLR, so I would of known I should go back to redo the pictures.

They do usually take at least 2+ shots, so 1 of them is likely to be good or at least acceptable.

First 2 days, it was cloudy out so they were using flash, but to much of it! I look like MJ in some of those pictures , maybe when I get the full resolution photos I'll be able to salvage those with some photo editing...

Aside from the holding tinkerbell, there really weren't that many magic shots offered. I would have to ask for them and unfortunately my reaction isn't quite right for some of them (despite having reviewed some of the posted magic shot PP pics before!).

I also wish I just had the CM take pictures in addition to the PP ones, because those I could view right away (or at least I would review them when I downloaded them to my laptop at the end of the day).

Edit: Just wanted to add that the PP site is almost always very slow or error prone!

A surprising number of our photos were bad too. I expected alot from their photographers since that is there job, but we could have taken better photos our self. We looked o.k. in them usually (even if the background didn't), I liked the magical shots, and how else are we going to get all of us in them; so for me it was still worth it. But I would definately recommend supplimenting the photos they take with your own.

 

[bumbershoot]

Molly, thank you!!!

Aw shucks, glad to have helped you.

 

[3TinksAndAnEeyore]

Aw shucks, glad to have helped you.

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.

 

[jory29]

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!!