Shutters-Any Changes since Wonder Dry-Dock?

[felixdacat]

Just curious.
I was on the Wonder this past May, and I was surprised and disappointed that Shutters was still using film. As a former professional photographer (who is presently transitioning to digital) I can not imagine a photography business situation more advantageous to digital then a cruise.
However, the only time that they could shift to digital would be when a ship is in dry dock for two weeks. You wouldn’t want to train photographers on the fly with a guinea pig cruise. There are technical challenges to overcome.
If it was digital, you could view your pictures on a PC rather then Shutters having to make prints. It would be easier to find your pictures (room number, family name, etc), and should be less expensive then their present setup. It could even be possible to view your pictures in your cabin over the closed circuit TV’s that they have.
They could also store all their images on a server for X number of months, so if you should decide to order later, although it would be more expensive, you could do so. This would be much easier than having Shutters go through a massive number of negatives, no matter what their present filing system is like.
When the Magic was last in dry-dock, Digital Photography was not quite up to speed to create quality family portraits, as well as the wedding photography that Shutters must provide as well. But with the latest cameras and lenses being produced by Canon and Nikon, the quality obstacles have been overcome.
If they didn’t make any changes, perhaps I should put together a proposal to Disney, for the next time the ships go into dry-dock.

 

[jfs9900]

I could be wrong but... I am pretty sure that the Magic was using digital. All of their cameras had the LCD screen on them, none of the photographers ever changed a roll of film out of the camera, and the images have file names printed on the back of each picture.

Installing monitors to view the pictures in shutters, or showing the pictures on stateroom TVs is simply not practical. First by installing the monitors you loose ability to see the picture in your hands. Most people are more likely to buy the picture if it's already been printed out. At this point still there are variations in viewing a picture on a monitor and seeing its printed form. Second having to collect your stateroom information and somehow logging it to each picture is just too time consuming. Most people that had their picture taken, at least want to see how it comes out, and therefore will do a little bit of searching in shutters.

When they print as many photographs and they do everyday it really isn't as costly as you may think. All their supplies are ordered in bulk. The higher cost of the photographs offsets all the pictures that are developed but never purchased (or walk away).

So I think they are using digital cameras at this point, but still developing the pictures on paper.

What I don't understand is why they don't place doors on Shutters and just "close" the area off when the shop is not open. Its very time consuming to take down all the pictures, then put them back up everyday - and your pictures always end up in a different place.

 

[scrapperjill]

I don't think they can put doors on shutters and "close" it off when their not open because it is a through way of the ship...to get from one area to the other on that level you have to go through shutters. I also don't think they take down the photos every day. The walls that the photos are hingedl like doors and they simply shut the photo doors and lock the pictures behind them. They move the photos simply to keep like photos together. They didn't resort our groups that we had set aside to keep them in their like photo area..but only ended up moving our pile if they needed the space for "new" photo groups. Each group had a sign near it of what that photo group was.

 

[mmouse37]

In the early days of DCL onboard the Magic they had a podium in shutters with a monitor that you could view your pics....it has since been taken away. Don't know if it was for technical reasons or what...but you could at one time view your pics and then purchase them. They still had photos on the walls as well.

MJ

 

[felixdacat]

Besides being a professional photographer, I managed 8 photo studios on the west coast. I trained photographers in both portrature and sales.
Not only is it practical to sell images off a computer monitor, it is becoming the norm.
If Shutters on the Magic is doing digital but still printing every image, they are being too conservative. They have 3 major areas of expense. Printing, salaries, and the percentage of the gross that they share with Disney.
I fully realize that they are buying their materials in bulk, but its still a tremendous cost to print out all those images. An educated guess would be that they throw away at least 50%.
There is another effect that this has. I believe that they train their photographers to stop shooting after taking just two pictures. With Digital, it is possible to tether the camera to a computer monitor so that the photographer can see if he got the picture. This is the way we took pictures in the studios that I ran.
Although we trained our people to try to get each portrait sitting in 10 shots, I gave my photographers free rein to take more if necessary. Giving them this freedom allowed them to run a higher sales average without a proportional increase in costs.
Trust me, allowing the photographers to take a few extra pictures will not be significantly time consuming, and with well trained people, would only be necessary less than 10% of the time.
Anyway, does any recent cruiser know if Shutters switched? My friend will be on next Sunday's cruise, but i was very curious.

 

[Belle's Castle]

We were on the first cruise after dry dock (10-17-04) and while waiting in line to get our picture taken one night we watched the photographer change film. My wife and I were very surprised (me more so). So to answer your question...nope no digital. I agree that it would be easier...think of how much money they would save on all those prints that people just throw back into the box. We bought about half or maybe a little less than they actually printed.