Photopass people. . . No flash for you!

jimim

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jan 4, 2011
so this was a first. I roll up to the chewy meet and great. The cast member tells me put my flash away. I have my typical canon flash with my demb reflector. Been using this now for oh 15 plus years. Never and issue. She said reason was I would mess up the flash of the photopass person. I’m sorry my flash is bigger than urs. Lol. So we walk in. And guess what. No photopass person even! Whatever. So we leave so I grab a cast member team leader forcthst area. They say. Sorry. But they don’t have anything to do with the photopass people. I said it was one of ur cast members no photopass person even in there.

What gets me even more mad is the fact that I swear the cast members try to mess up ur own pictures. We give them my sister in laws cell phone. We literally have pics that the cast member cut off our heads. Character sides. Really. Pretty sure when they take pics with their own phone to post on social media every 5 mins they don’t do that. How hard is it. I can see a pic being blurry or not what we here expect. But really I cut someone’s head off or don’t even include the whole character.

This trip I’m really noticing the cast members just really don’t care. Like they literally r just going through the motions. U can’t joke with them. U barely get a sentence out of them. The Kylo meet and greet was more akward due to the cast members vs Kylo even.

Oh you know what else I noticed. They used to let u get by the mighty photopass person now u have to be all the way over. I think I’m done with my camera with character meets. I’ll jist see if the photopass person kicks out anything worth while. So far it’s pretty bad 2 days in. And it’s just not me being picky. This is coming from my sister-in-law who doesn’t know a thing and uses a cell only. She goes. People pay for these. Yup and good money. We have just been making sure all the pics r on my band since I have photopass and I’ll give her whatever.

Not really a rant. Well kinda of but I figured u all here would understand.

It’s really more sad than mad. Cause every trip it changes a little bit more for the negative.
 
That's ridiculous. All of it. Especially as they are on the verge of gutting their own Photopass system with automated boxes in the permanent indoor locations.

I'd follow up with an email or a stop by guest relations.
 
Guest relations will be a whole day camp out. Lol

Ya no pride with photography in Disney. 99 percent of the population doesn’t even get it. Only the people on this forum here does. Lol.

I’m done though. I’m not dealing with the stress of it. Plus we r a group of 9 so they don’t even want us in the line as that size of a group
 
That's ridiculous. All of it. Especially as they are on the verge of gutting their own Photopass system with automated boxes in the permanent indoor locations.

I'd follow up with an email or a stop by guest relations.
I have a feeling this is only just the beginning of unintended consequences.
 


We just got back. No talk of the automatic camera system when mentioned to photopass people. My brother in law asked a few.

So we ended up switching up our meet and great routine with pictures. I gave up and having cast members using my camera. I took a few pics. Asked my parents to hop in with the kids since no cast member ever did. If I wanted to get in I would drop my camera and jump in with my wife and let the photopass person shoot.

Meet and greets were so akward this trip. Prob cause we were a group of 9 total.

Oh well.
Only had the flash issue the 1 time though.

We will see.
Jimi
 
I always just ask the photos person if they will use my camera as well, they have never said no and have gotten some incredible shots.

But at Disneyland our passes include Photopass downloads, so I never bother there any more and we usually buy Memory Maker for Disney World.
 


The cast member doesn't know what he/she is talking about. If that was true flash photos would be banned when politicians pictures are taken. If true Photos would come out over exposed on the verge of white.Flash is so brief it would not affect other flashes. It could be possible but if you were young it may happen when you are a very old age.

I started taking flash in my early 20s. Now in my mid 70s and never had it happen,
 
I have been using a flash for 20 years now on the trips. This was the very very first time ever being told to put it away.
 
I was very disappointed with our PhotoPass experience in October. We purchase the Memory Maker package so that I can enjoy the time with my family and see the smile on my sons face rather than making sure I'm not clipping a head or arm, exposure is correct, etc. Many shots were very noticeably crooked or underexposed (especially Kylo Ren...He practically faded into the background.) but it was a lot of the little things that bothered me the most. Most PhotoPass members seemed very "nonchalant" like it was just a job. Most stood in one spot and didn't move, they simply held up the camera, shot, and said "Magic Band..." Sometimes we received 2 or 3 pictures, sometimes 8-10. Another was with Sorcerer Mickey at HS. The PhotoPass member was a tall individual, probably 6'3" or so. Well, my son is 5 and typical 5 year old height. The PhotoPass member was nice enough, but stood there with the camera 6 feet off the ground and shooting downward so my son is looking upward....it just looks awkward. Sorcerer Mickey was one shot that I really wanted and I'm glad that I took a couple of shots. I got down on my sons level and, IMO, it made for a much better angle. Some slight tweaking in Lightroom when I got home, and I love the shot I got.

On the same note, I've also had wonderful experiences from PhotoPass members before. A few years ago we were at MK in June and ducked in to see Talking Mickey to cool off. We decided to enjoy the AC and see Tinkerbell as it was like a 15 minute wait. Tink was the best interaction of the trip with a character. She got on his level, interacted, and the PhotoPass member was right there with them. He was on the ground, squatting, on his knees, standing, moving from side to side, and we ended up with about 15 pictures from that interaction.

I think a lot goes back to any training or instruction that the PhotoPass members receive. Guests pay a premium for the Memory Maker package and the way Disney oozes customer service and magic, they really need to do a better job of capturing those memories. The little details make a huge difference. In a controlled environment, take a few test shots to hone in your settings, keep a notepad of settings based on who/where you're photographing.

I've uploaded Kylo Ren fading into space and the two shots of Sorcerer Mickey as examples.
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So if flash is still going to be a problem, am I going to have to resort to using a nifty-50 and hope the CM or whoever operates the camera knows how to use it?
 
So if flash is still going to be a problem, am I going to have to resort to using a nifty-50 and hope the CM or whoever operates the camera knows how to use it?
I think the OP ran into a rogue CM setting their own rules. I really don't think flash will be a widespread problem.
 
totally! rogue! i was just posting it all cause it was such a poor overall experience and something i never encountered. wait yes 1 other time in princess hall cause they said i was messing up the photo pass persons flash. no no issue at all take ur flash! please don't let me change ur plans. but as said above overall the photo pass pictures, just cause it's included in our AP, were pretty bad. people cut off even. some care but a lot don't. or don't know any better i think.
 
So, this is a big issue with wedding photogs and it happens all the time for them - yes, you can mess up another person's flash - usually not with a DSLR, but the monitor preflashes on Sony mirrorless and most compact cameras (Nikon CLS capable cameras seem to be the sole exception) are very invasive, and cell phone cameras can have their LED flash on for up to a full second. And if I accidentally leave my flash in commander mode? boy howdy can that muck up somebody else's photo. It shouldn't be an issue very often at WDW, but it is definitely an issue.

Since modern digital flash systems use pre-flashes, and the shutter sync is usually 1/200 or so, that leaves upwards of a 1-2 second window where the flash exposure can get messed up by somebody else firing in that same 1-2 second window. To avoid it almost entirely (except cell phone cameras, yuck!) an older film TTL system works wonders, but that of course requires film since it measures the reflectance of the flash off the film as it fires and sends a quench signal.

Disney uses Nikon to get around 90% of it (pretty much everybody else is more susceptible to problems, even Canon) but it's not foolproof.
 

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