rtphokie
Photo board moderator
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2006
- Messages
- 3,607
Just returned from 7 day days at WDW, still going through the 2500+ frames I shot and just went through what the Photopass Photographers took.
I like the idea of Photopass since I'm rarely in any of our family's vacation photos, however the quality has really gone down over the years. Disney has significantly increased the number of photographers, probably due to the availability of Memory Maker. The quality of the photographs from each cast member taking them varies significantly. Issues include:
crooked photos. This happens to all of us, especially when rotating from landscape to portrait, but few of the results from Photopass Photographers were anything close to level.
over exposed. Fill flash very necessary in shady areas and when the sun is behind the subject. Based on some conversations with Photopass Photogs, they are required to use fill flash at all times. This includes when the sun is the subject's face or when the camera is a meter or less from the subject. These are external, decent quality Nikon flashes though they appears to be set on full flash 100% of the time. For comparison the first example below was taken with my camera, by a cast member (the character handler, who offered to hold my camera and took this without my having to ask), the second is the PhotoPass Photographer's image.
Based on the photopass photo I had printed at Epcot, this overexposure may be to compensate for the really dark results produced by the photo printers there. The resulting print looked much much darker than what we'd seen on screen. Just a theory.
Colors are inaccurate, highlights are blown out, facial features are gone and there is an overall pink hue coming from somewhere.
odd framing I get that photos are framed a bit wider than usual to allow something to work with when it comes time to crop them to what the guest would ultimately prefer. However, some of the framings chosen by the photographers was just weird. Portrait shots cut off at the knees, shots of our family in front of the park weenie (castle, tree of life, spaceship earth, etc) that were obviously trying to get everything in but still cropped out the top 10% of the weenie. Just odd.
I dont think I'm being a photo geek here. Others in my party that are perfectly happy with the snapshots from their cheap digital cameras turned their noses up at 75% of the Disney Photopass results. These could be so much better with just a bit more instruction and practice in exposure techniques. If use of fill flash is really a rule, it needs to be relaxed. Even with all the automation today's DSLRs offer, they aren't magic wands, the photographer needs to be involved in making the photo.
I like the idea of Photopass since I'm rarely in any of our family's vacation photos, however the quality has really gone down over the years. Disney has significantly increased the number of photographers, probably due to the availability of Memory Maker. The quality of the photographs from each cast member taking them varies significantly. Issues include:
crooked photos. This happens to all of us, especially when rotating from landscape to portrait, but few of the results from Photopass Photographers were anything close to level.
over exposed. Fill flash very necessary in shady areas and when the sun is behind the subject. Based on some conversations with Photopass Photogs, they are required to use fill flash at all times. This includes when the sun is the subject's face or when the camera is a meter or less from the subject. These are external, decent quality Nikon flashes though they appears to be set on full flash 100% of the time. For comparison the first example below was taken with my camera, by a cast member (the character handler, who offered to hold my camera and took this without my having to ask), the second is the PhotoPass Photographer's image.
Based on the photopass photo I had printed at Epcot, this overexposure may be to compensate for the really dark results produced by the photo printers there. The resulting print looked much much darker than what we'd seen on screen. Just a theory.
Colors are inaccurate, highlights are blown out, facial features are gone and there is an overall pink hue coming from somewhere.
odd framing I get that photos are framed a bit wider than usual to allow something to work with when it comes time to crop them to what the guest would ultimately prefer. However, some of the framings chosen by the photographers was just weird. Portrait shots cut off at the knees, shots of our family in front of the park weenie (castle, tree of life, spaceship earth, etc) that were obviously trying to get everything in but still cropped out the top 10% of the weenie. Just odd.
I dont think I'm being a photo geek here. Others in my party that are perfectly happy with the snapshots from their cheap digital cameras turned their noses up at 75% of the Disney Photopass results. These could be so much better with just a bit more instruction and practice in exposure techniques. If use of fill flash is really a rule, it needs to be relaxed. Even with all the automation today's DSLRs offer, they aren't magic wands, the photographer needs to be involved in making the photo.
