Shutters quality?

[mike314]

I purchased the 10 photo package and the quality was very good.

 

[Anchors Away 2016]

I'm happy with the quality of photos for sure. They are cookie cutter in that when you get them done, they have very specific poses for people. They get you in, pose you, then out. As a result, I can't say I've liked the way I look in some of them. But that's on me, not the photographer. I will be getting the unlimited once again.

Poses. Yes, they are posed, not spur of the moment, but within reason, they will do whatever you ask. Don't want pictures of you just standing there? Don't just stand there! My favoirte example was on the main staircase on Formal Night. My wife handed me one of her shoes, climbed part way up the staircase, I bent down on one knee, and lifted the shoe up to her. It took a few seconds for us to get ready. The photographer understood and was ready to capture the shot when we were ready. Cinderella at the Ball is one of my favorite shots from that cruise, even if it was posed.

They're okay. (I bought a few of them). I still find it expensive when you can take your own and they will look almost just as good.

Theirs vs. Ours. On our 7 day cruise, I took over 1000 pictures. Between the rest of my family, we took over 5000 pictures. With our unlimited photo package, we got about 100 pictures from them. When I went back over all of the pictures to pict out my favorite 50 or so for printing out (and for a digital album), I ended up with about 20 of theirs and 30 of ours. So yes, we had a lot of our own pictures that we liked, but almost half came from the 100 they took. This to me shows how much we liked what they did.

We use a DSLR camera and my husband doesn't like to be in the pictures, so for the character meets I have both the Shutters and his photo's. I create a photo book of the trip at home with a combination of all the photo's. We edit them in Lightroom, but 80% of the time, I'll go with the Shutters photo's, simply because he can't compete with a professional flash set up. The 20% are the times when I had some really cool interaction, which they hardly even shoot or when there was no decent photo in the batch (it happened a few times).

This is true. I also wanted to mention that some of their pictures were places that we didn't take our own pictures, like most nights they would come to the tables. They'll shoot your whole group if you like, but they also shoot in pairs. We quickly learned to vary who sits next to whom and got some great pairings among our group. Also, they have photographers on Castaway Cay. One of our favorite shots is a group shot of us together IN the water. Great picture.

and there is a border applied on every image, sometimes it is neat, sometimes cheesy.

This is the WORST aspect of the Shutters photos. They pretty much all come with boarders. You mostly can't opt out of them, and some of them are even tough to crop out. If you are picky, this could REALLY bother you. On the other hand, maybe you'll like the boarders. If you know you don't like them, ask them to take a bit wider shot, then you might have better luck cropping the boarders out later.

What ever you do, enjoy! And let us know how it worked out for you.

 

[CaLuCa]

OP here.

Thank you all for your responses. I am still torn. I am a somewhat of a photography nerd, although haven't really messed with it a lot in awhile. (I've got soft boxes and flash units I used to play around with.) I had issues with bouncing my speedlite off the high ceilings in the atrium, and had to crank up the ISO to compensate. I really don't like flashy pics. I am not so concerned about the posing skills of the photographers.

I am really disheartened to hear about these borders. Not my thing. I have a feeling this could be a deal breaker. I didn't even think of this.

The two things that are really pushing me to go ahead and purchase is that I can cancel if it's not working out and that I could be IN a picture with my kids.

I'm still going to bring a DSLR and one or two lenses and my speedlite.

 

[CaLuCa]

IMHO, the photography on the ship is designed primarily to be idiot-proof, not for artistic quality. They want it to be well lit and they want it to be in focus and they want to take only one exposure. So lens stopped down, fast shutter speed, and heavy flash. I thought most were overly exposed and I was much happier with the ones from my camera handed off to cast members.

I am not a fan of the heavy flash. This is probably the main concern of mine.

Do you shot in manual? I am always constantly adjusting and compensating for light and f stop and even ISO if necessary. This is second nature to me and I am quick, but I hesitate to hand off my camera to some one because I don't expect them to do this. Should I switch it to auto?

 

[Numtini]

Do you shot in manual? I am always constantly adjusting and compensating for light and f stop and even ISO if necessary. This is second nature to me and I am quick, but I hesitate to hand off my camera to some one because I don't expect them to do this. Should I switch it to auto?

I'm one of those freaks with a Fuji. They are known for being "retro" in style and having old style mechanical controls. So instead of setting a mode that sets what the control dials do, you have a manual aperture setting ring on the lens and a manual dial on the top of the camera for shutter speed. You set what you want or leave what you want on auto. Most of the time, that means you're shooting in what I think is called Program Mode where you set aperture and shutter speed, then let ISO go on automatic to give you the right exposure. I was using a 35mm/F2 lens, set aperture at 2, shutter speed at 60, and handing it off. The ISO floated between 400 and 1000 and I got generally good shots, at least good enough to clean up. The only real problem I had is a few of the ticketed meetups had colored lighting, and I'm rather rubbish at Lightroom, so I've never been entirely happy with how they came out and I suspect the lighting was tuned to an expectation of a real heavy flash.

 

[d3boyz]

We did the photo package that included all the photos taken by the on-board photographers, and we got a flash drive at the end with about 100 pictures from our last 7-day cruise. Maybe I'm not that fussy about them, but I thought they were GREAT!

 

[Texas_Buckeye]

I apologize, in advance, if this has been asked before. We are scheduled to cruise on the Fantasy this Fall (2 rooms, same family, 1 child in same room as grandparents). Has anyone done or it or even allowed or worth it, to purchase the all inclusive package AND one of the cruise photo books? Thank you for your assistance. I read these boards everyday, just like the morning paper!

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I apologize, in advance, if this has been asked before. We are scheduled to cruise on the Fantasy this Fall (2 rooms, same family, 1 child in same room as grandparents). Has anyone done or it or even allowed or worth it, to purchase the all inclusive package AND one of the cruise photo books? Thank you for your assistance. I read these boards everyday, just like the morning paper!

If you (your room) purchases the full digital package, it will include any photos taken that have you, anyone in your room, and the minor child in a second room in them. It will not include any photos take of grandparents alone.

Only thing I know about the photo book is that the photos for specific pages must be taken at certain locations. You can't just put any photo on any page.

Certainly you may purchase both a photo package and photo book, if you wish.

 

[Ralph&Pam]

I am not a fan of the heavy flash. This is probably the main concern of mine.

Do you shot in manual? I am always constantly adjusting and compensating for light and f stop and even ISO if necessary. This is second nature to me and I am quick, but I hesitate to hand off my camera to some one because I don't expect them to do this. Should I switch it to auto?

Handing a DSLR to a cast member, auto would be best. They probably take 95% of their images with phone cameras, so just adjusting the zoom on a DSLR to frame the shot can be challenging enough, particularly if the viewfinder is the only way to do so.

 

[Numtini]

Handing a DSLR to a cast member, auto would be best. They probably take 95% of their images with phone cameras, so just adjusting the zoom on a DSLR to frame the shot can be challenging enough, particularly if the viewfinder is the only way to do so.

I generally turn the screen off the save batteries and at the first meet on our last cruise realized this was not an option. They get weirded out by a viewfinder. I dialed in the settings rather than using manual while we were in line and specifically told them it didn't zoom, and they just needed to click.

 

[dtk07]

So would it be best to put the dslr on auto and turn on the Live view on the rear screen so the cast member doesn't need to use the viewfinder?

 

[Ralph&Pam]

So would it be best to put the dslr on auto and turn on the Live view on the rear screen so the cast member doesn't need to use the viewfinder?

Just home after the Panama Canal cruise on the Wonder, followed by 4 days at Disneyland. Yes, this is the way to go. Most cast members taking pictures for passengers are used to taking pictures with phones.

 

[scrapbookjulie]

I am a scrapbooker. I always buy the photos. I've found the quality of them to be just fine. The lighting is good, everybody is centered, has their eyes open, etc. LOL The only thing slightly irritating on some of them are the decorative borders that can't be removed. I crop some of them off. But a lot I just leave on and work that color/design into my scrapbook page!