Photos on board

[smogfarmgirl]

Taking our first cruise in about a month...yay!!! Question...I’ve seen a few people talking about the photo packages, and I’ve seen the digital package in my cruise planner. The question is...what kind of photos do they take? Is it posed pics at dinner? Or is this something we’ll want?

[Jim_Iain]

It will be all the photos they shoot of you for the entire cruise.    Posed ones, candid, dinner.     You get them digitally not printed any longer.

[smogfarmgirl]

1 minute ago, Jim_Iain said:

It will be all the photos they shoot of you for the entire cruise.    Posed ones, candid, dinner.     You get them digitally not printed any longer.

Right, I guess my question is, when are they taking photos? I didn’t realize there was a photographer on board that took photos other than, say, a cheesy formal night photo. What are they taking candids of? Are they decent photos?

[sandc4e]

6 minutes ago, smogfarmgirl said:

Right, I guess my question is, when are they taking photos? I didn’t realize there was a photographer on board that took photos other than, say, a cheesy formal night photo. What are they taking candids of? Are they decent photos?

I wouldn't say they are candids, as you choose to allow them to take photos or not.  There are so many photographers positioned around the ship, at port arrival, dinner, etc.

 

We usually get 2 or 3 photos each cruise.

 

 

[DENIE]

We've seen photographers in nearly any public space aboard.  They will also be at every port stop waiting for you to disembark. The annoying ones, to us, are the ones in the dining room - we never care for these, something just never looks right.  We often try the various backdrops on chic nights, and some have turned out quite well.  Others, not so much.  A couple times we were tired of the "traditional" poses, so started doing are own...and like those a lot! 

Edited February 22, 2020 by DENIE
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[leaveitallbehind]

Personally I think they are overpriced and, by default of them coordinating each shot, very much posed.  We stopped purchasing any ship sponsored photo or photo package many years ago finding that our own pictures from our smartphones were far more natural, candid, selective, limitless, of good quality, and best of all, free.

 

As far as them having photographers on board, there are literally dozens on each ship as this is a third party contract service (not cruise line staff) that only makes their money through the photographs that they sell. The cruise line gets their cut from those sales, which is in part why they are IMO so expensive.  This is true with all of the mass market cruise lines.

Edited February 22, 2020 by leaveitallbehind

[smogfarmgirl]

Thanks for the info! I think I’ll skip the package, from what I know of us, lol!

[DENIE]

I forgot to mention in my previous response.... What is SO helpful now is that most photographers will ask to scan your room card before taking photos, so that you can later go to a kiosk in the photo shop and look up all your photos digitally based on your room card.  In previous days, you just had to find your photos printed out an mounted on an endless wall mixed in with everyone's photos.  The walls of photos are still there, but not every photo is there.  When looking at your photos online, you can indicate which ones you want, and pick them up in just a few hours.

 

We were also talked into a photo session on our Constellation cruise last November.  This was their "black and white" studio.  We thought it sounded fun since it was out of the way, in a closed off room, and you had about 15 minutes or so with the photographer. We went back the next day (booked appointment), thinking we would find a few to purchase.  What we didn't understand is that they only sell those by the "package", and the minimum was still about $500.  We had no plan to spend that much on photos, even if they were really good!  There is no option to just buy "just a few", which is what we were looking for. Apparently people routinely purchase 30-40 photos and spend $1,000's.  We do not even have that kind of wall space, and certainly don't want to see that much of ourselves in our home.  Guess that was our "bad" for not asking ahead of time.  We just politely excused ourselves.  Wish that was a bit more explained...

Edited February 22, 2020 by DENIE
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[GastroGnome]

DD loves the photo package (She is an adult now but was a late teen first time we got it...).  DH and I do not when it is just us, but will join in when there are family around.  But it is what you make it.  If you only let them do the 2 or 3 poses they know then it is going to get very repetative - but you can compose your own shots and really have fun with it.  You don't have to buy any shot you don't like.  We always go for the unlimited for DD thought and I can't say I will miss the 300+ hard copy prints we used to disembark with.  It is expensive if you only go for a limited number but if you go for unlimited and really make use of it then its a nice addition.

 

As a side note  - they are not permitted in Luminae so you won't get any table shots there.  I can't recall them every being in the specialities either - but that could just be that we missed them.

[Roger88]

Arent there like individual photographers running around offering their services? I mean I dont think its a problem to find a photographer. Plus they certainly have photo studios or smth

[chemmo]

34 minutes ago, GastroGnome said:

DD loves the photo package (She is an adult now but was a late teen first time we got it...).  DH and I do not when it is just us, but will join in when there are family around.  But it is what you make it.  If you only let them do the 2 or 3 poses they know then it is going to get very repetative - but you can compose your own shots and really have fun with it.  You don't have to buy any shot you don't like.  We always go for the unlimited for DD thought and I can't say I will miss the 300+ hard copy prints we used to disembark with.  It is expensive if you only go for a limited number but if you go for unlimited and really make use of it then its a nice addition.

 

As a side note  - they are not permitted in Luminae so you won't get any table shots there.  I can't recall them every being in the specialities either - but that could just be that we missed them.

 

We have randomly seen photographers in the speciality restaurants but they tend to be discreet and polite. If you do want a photograph at a particular restaurant at a specific time for something like a birthday or anniversary presentation the M’D will arrange it for you. 

 

We don’t usually take many photographs of ourselves on holidays, more of the things we see. On showing family a few of our TP cruise pictures my husband was dryly asked if he was actually on the cruise, I think he was on about 3/70+ Photographs!

Edited February 22, 2020 by chemmo

[anniedave]

It was our first cruise last month. We sometimes had our photo taken when asked by one of the photographers, sometimes politely declined. ( agree - def didnt want it taken at the dinner table!) Always gave our room number and then on the final day went and viewed all the pics we had taken & chose our favourite one for $25. It was printed off for us there & then. It was nice to have one professional pic as a momento but they were expensive! 

Edited February 22, 2020 by anniedave
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[hcat]

We have been very happy with the 12 shot digital/ print  package on EDGE last 2 cruises.    

 

Only issue is the poses taken are  offered with several  diff background  choices..and you may not get 12 diff poses you like!

 

Next cruise we may just order a few shots rather than a package..

[Pickels]

12 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

It will be all the photos they shoot of you for the entire cruise.    Posed ones, candid, dinner.     You get them digitally not printed any longer.

You can order an All Prints package at the Photography Desk, this was indicated by Celebrity Staff!

[yvrbos]

Can you purchase just one photo?

[njsweetie]

18 hours ago, smogfarmgirl said:

Taking our first cruise in about a month...yay!!! Question...I’ve seen a few people talking about the photo packages, and I’ve seen the digital package in my cruise planner. The question is...what kind of photos do they take? Is it posed pics at dinner? Or is this something we’ll want?

I definitely recommend the unlimited digital package! Especially if it is your first cruise. We got it on sale prior to our cruise for $100. Only one of us needed to sign up. This was our first Celebrity cruise and my fiancé’s very first cruise. We ended up with 52 digital photos we can download and get printed anywhere we want for I’m sure a lot less expensive than the ship’s prints. We have quite a variety of pictures... most ports, a few at dinner and many from the ‘stages’ they have set up. The background was a surprise on some of them, meaning they use a green screen at the time of photographing. I liked all but one of the backgrounds. It was the Summit Valentine’s week cruise so got some really great Valentine themed pics. I’m happy we did it!

[cruisin 07]

Our cruise this last January we purchased 4 photos at a cost of $100. Check on the unlimited digital package for our 2 up coming cruises. The 7 day this Nov is $199 and the 15 day Oct 2020 is $130. I just purchased this one.

[m8zenblue]

We have previously purchased the "All Inclusive Printed and Digital Package".

We have been very happy with it until our last cruise.

We did get all of our printed pictures before debarkation but had a very bad time with trying to retrieve the pictures online, it took almost 2 months constantly calling X and trying to work with their third party vendor.

Since they no longer do the printed picture package we will never ever do the online option.

If you can purchase printed per picture at a reasonable price that may be an option.

[Chanbre]

We were talked into a photo session on a Celebrity cruise. The photographer showed us some example photos then he took lots of photos in the studio. He said that he would check them, do some enhancements and choose the best. The next day we spent some more time with him reviewing the photos and choosing what to do. We eventually selected two to be printed at (about 24in x 16in). After signing the payment chitty he gave us a memory stick with all the photos.

 

The two photos arrived a few weeks later (followed by an unexpected demand for UK customs etc payments from the shippers). Several visitors to our house have complimented us on the photos.

 

It seemed a lot of money at the time, but we have two very nice photos of us hanging in pride of place in our house. Plus several more that we can print ourselves.

[JOVERNITE]

Just off the Reflection Fri.  I'm assuming by candid you meant anything that doesn't look "posed".  We had one photographer that suggested poses like look silly, look surprised, kiss, etc. These were in front of a green screen and later they added 5 or 6 different backgrounds. Other photogs on different nights had the standard poses. Port pics are the most candid as they're quick, one shot.  Bar, lounge and around the ship pics are also candid. 

 

We take pics whenever offered. About 50 during this last 11 night cruise. You're not charged until you make a selection or package. 8x10's were $25 & 5x7's were $16. Go through all of the pics at the end of the cruise & decide which to keep. Then decide the best deal for you based on the shots you like. We normally buy one or two pics but we liked so many we went with the 10 for $150 (8x10's or mix with 5x7's) pkg. We're concierge and got a 20% discount so it came to $120. That made our 8x10's $12 each. Advice: take pics any chance you want and don't feel obligated to buy anything!

 

By the way, when taking a green screen pic do not wear green or blue. It causes the background to "bleed" through the clothes. My DH had a medium blue shirt on and the faint image of a tree was on his shirt and another had a faint image of a wall.