ineedmyblankie
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Mar 9, 2009
- Messages
- 104
We just got back from Disney 11 days ago and I've been putting together some information for a friend. I sent him all this info about PhotoPass and thought that I would share, in case it would help anyone. (I'm sure most of these tips can probably be found here somewhere, but I already had them typed up all together.)
• Not all PhotoPass photographers are created equal. Just because you had your picture taken in a place one day, does not mean that you should not do that same spot a different day. First off, lighting may be different depending on the time of day. Secondly, some of the photographers are not professionals. Some of them take good pictures, but one of the people didn’t even focus on us. The picture was focused behind us – we are fuzzy.
• We didn’t think we would take that many pictures. However, we ended up with about 130…and that was before we did any edits or added any “frames” to the pics.
• If you get more than one PhotoPass card, you can synch them up at the photo place. I did this, but had to wait 15-20 minutes. The line is not usually short and people are going through every flippin’ picture on that was taken. Some, I assume, are even ordering the pics then. Either way, make sure that you take a pic of each PhotoPass card number. It would suck to lose a card and, as a result, lose those pics.
• Ask for the “magic” shots. If you go to stitchkingdom.com (I think that’s it), it will tell you what the magic shots are, as well as the places and times that they are available. There are some that I didn’t know about and may have tried to get, had I known. We got the Simba and Stitch (although I really don’t care about that one). I thought we got Tinkerbell, but I guess not. They automatically insert the character into the picture.
• In Animal Kingdom, the front entrance area isn’t really the best place for pics w/ the tree in the background. A lot of people are walking past and the distance isn’t that great. However, there is an awesome spot that we saw a PhotoPass person at between Africa and Asia. If you walk between the two, there is a section where you have a great view of the Tree of Life and they pose you right against the wall (so there isn’t anyone behind you).
• If you take pics of the Magic Kingdom at night, have the photographer make sure that both of the top and bottom of the castle are lit up. We have two sets taken at night (one of the whole family and one a different night of just DD and I) and in both the castle is not lit up at the bottom.
• Don’t hesitate to ditch the kids and take some of just you two. All these people are doing is taking pictures. If there’s no one waiting, you could probably ask them to take as many as you want. You can also try to have a couple taken of just the kids.
• At many of the character greeting places, there is a photographer. However, there are not always photographers. Also, at one of the character greetings, the photographer was having problems linking to the PhotoPass system. Don’t hesitate to ask the character’s handler to take pics for you. I'm sure they're used to that.
• At Magic Kingdom, a great place to take a pic is in front of the castle right near the statue of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse. Someone on our photoshare had a pic right there and it looked really cool w/ the statue and the castle together.
• There are a lot of choices to frame the pics. You upload your PhotoPass card number(s) and then you can edit and frame the pics. The frames vary in style. If it is a character picture, you can have the autograph overlaid on the pic. It’s nice that there is no limited to the number of photos on the CD. I have probably tripled my number of pictures by adding frames, signatures, etc.
• Print a map showing where all the PhotoPass photographers are in the parks. It would've been nice to know where they were to see if there were better places for certain pictures. We just happened to stumble on the Animal Kingdom one and I'm glad we didn't miss it. If we had a map, we might have known about it in advance and planned to make a stop there. I think they have maps on the stitchkingdom.com website.
• There really weren't lines for most of them. They also weren't actively asking people to take their pictures. They would just be standing around and you ask them. Only a couple had lines, like the castle at night or that one spot in Animal Kingdom b/w Asia and Africa. Other than those two, I don't really recall any lines. (I don't count waiting for characters as waiting for PhotoPass obviously.)
• Not all PhotoPass photographers are created equal. Just because you had your picture taken in a place one day, does not mean that you should not do that same spot a different day. First off, lighting may be different depending on the time of day. Secondly, some of the photographers are not professionals. Some of them take good pictures, but one of the people didn’t even focus on us. The picture was focused behind us – we are fuzzy.
• We didn’t think we would take that many pictures. However, we ended up with about 130…and that was before we did any edits or added any “frames” to the pics.
• If you get more than one PhotoPass card, you can synch them up at the photo place. I did this, but had to wait 15-20 minutes. The line is not usually short and people are going through every flippin’ picture on that was taken. Some, I assume, are even ordering the pics then. Either way, make sure that you take a pic of each PhotoPass card number. It would suck to lose a card and, as a result, lose those pics.
• Ask for the “magic” shots. If you go to stitchkingdom.com (I think that’s it), it will tell you what the magic shots are, as well as the places and times that they are available. There are some that I didn’t know about and may have tried to get, had I known. We got the Simba and Stitch (although I really don’t care about that one). I thought we got Tinkerbell, but I guess not. They automatically insert the character into the picture.
• In Animal Kingdom, the front entrance area isn’t really the best place for pics w/ the tree in the background. A lot of people are walking past and the distance isn’t that great. However, there is an awesome spot that we saw a PhotoPass person at between Africa and Asia. If you walk between the two, there is a section where you have a great view of the Tree of Life and they pose you right against the wall (so there isn’t anyone behind you).
• If you take pics of the Magic Kingdom at night, have the photographer make sure that both of the top and bottom of the castle are lit up. We have two sets taken at night (one of the whole family and one a different night of just DD and I) and in both the castle is not lit up at the bottom.
• Don’t hesitate to ditch the kids and take some of just you two. All these people are doing is taking pictures. If there’s no one waiting, you could probably ask them to take as many as you want. You can also try to have a couple taken of just the kids.
• At many of the character greeting places, there is a photographer. However, there are not always photographers. Also, at one of the character greetings, the photographer was having problems linking to the PhotoPass system. Don’t hesitate to ask the character’s handler to take pics for you. I'm sure they're used to that.
• At Magic Kingdom, a great place to take a pic is in front of the castle right near the statue of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse. Someone on our photoshare had a pic right there and it looked really cool w/ the statue and the castle together.
• There are a lot of choices to frame the pics. You upload your PhotoPass card number(s) and then you can edit and frame the pics. The frames vary in style. If it is a character picture, you can have the autograph overlaid on the pic. It’s nice that there is no limited to the number of photos on the CD. I have probably tripled my number of pictures by adding frames, signatures, etc.
• Print a map showing where all the PhotoPass photographers are in the parks. It would've been nice to know where they were to see if there were better places for certain pictures. We just happened to stumble on the Animal Kingdom one and I'm glad we didn't miss it. If we had a map, we might have known about it in advance and planned to make a stop there. I think they have maps on the stitchkingdom.com website.
• There really weren't lines for most of them. They also weren't actively asking people to take their pictures. They would just be standing around and you ask them. Only a couple had lines, like the castle at night or that one spot in Animal Kingdom b/w Asia and Africa. Other than those two, I don't really recall any lines. (I don't count waiting for characters as waiting for PhotoPass obviously.)
You will get a copy of every Disney's PhotoPass image in your account, no matter how many CDs they consume. Each CD will contain a maximum of 500-700 photos (each CD containing multiple folders with 20 images each), so if you have 1200 images in your account, you will receive it on 2 CDs.
