Tell me about Shutters -$$ worth it? - Pro's and Con's

[MunFam]

Well, it does seem to say that you will get a hard copy of all photos, but the website says "Print option includes one copy of your photos displayed in Shutters." Not all photos are displayed in Shutters. Some people have reported that they did, indeed, NOT receive ALL photos on the CD in hard copy, only those that were already printed out for display. Now, it is possible that all your photos may be printed for display. There's no way of knowing until you see what's actually printed.

Not all photos are 8X10 size (printed) the character photo ops are 6X8.

Yes, you can change whatever package you purchase, as long as you do it by the last full day of the cruise.
It's not really a change, they will credit back the package you originally purchased and charge you for a whole new package.

We have quite a few character portraits in 8x10, but no "formal portraits" in 6x8.

I purchased the CD and prints package in advance for our 14 night WBPC cruise a few weeks ago. There were quite a few photos that were not printed. The manager of Shutters on board our ship taught me how to order the prints to our folder. She also showed me how to recover "lost" photos that the facial recognition system did not get...like pirate night with patches or pictures where DD was hugging a princess. We added those to our cart, then had them printed to our folder. I would go in every evening and "audit" our folder to ensure that we had no unclaimed pictures and that all our prints were there. Additionally, there were pictures that were taken that did not show up in lost photos, but I know they had taken them, so they tracked those down for me and added them to our folder as well. The Shutters crew became like family to us and they got the highest markings on our review card. We even brought them gifts at the end of the cruise and have since stayed in touch with a few of them!

We came home with just shy of 400 prints and 400 pictures on the CD. For $429 total, that works out to be about .50 for a print and .50 for a digital copy.

I was thinking about canceling our package, but 1) there were so many really great family pictures and 2) their lighting is SOOOO much better. Even with an external flash on my Nikon, I just could not compete with their lighting quality. We got lots of "studio-style" portraits of our DD, myself, my DH, each individually and also our whole family on the various white, blue, and black backgrounds set up in the lobby as well as character pictures and formal pictures. I could not have purchased the studio prints/session for less than $400 in Southern California anyways, so I was very happy in the end.

 

[runswithscissors]

- I hate the cutesy borders they add on to the digital images now - blech. They always seem to cover up part of a person.

My sentiments exactly. The photo borders are not for me and, in all honesty, I hate the backdrops for the posed photos on the ships. I prefer candid shots so the posed photos don't appeal to me.

We've only purchased one photo from shutters and did so because it was so bad of each of us that we had to own it.

 

[Jersey Dad]

How do the photographers know what stateroom you are in so they get on the right CD? Do they just ask you or do they scan your KTTW card?

 

[sexyrx]

How do the photographers know what stateroom you are in so they get on the right CD? Do they just ask you or do they scan your KTTW card?

Your KTTW card gets scanned with the character photos. The pictures taken from MDR dinners are sorted with facial recognition. Pretty cool, right? But if you get a chance during the cruise, look through your photos at Shutters. We had pictures of another family in our portfolio and I imagine some other family had pictures of us too.

 

[New Cruise Gal]

Is your son in a different room?

No he's in the same room.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

No he's in the same room.

Well, if your room purchases the CD, all photos taken with at least one person from that room will be on it. You don't have to have photos taken with everyone in the room in each photo. So you can do just photos of you and your son. But any photos also taken with your sister and her son will be included on the same CD. Maybe you could split the cost of the CD and then sort out the photos once home who gets what (although once you buy the CD you can print out however many of whatever photos you want).

How do the photographers know what stateroom you are in so they get on the right CD? Do they just ask you or do they scan your KTTW card?

They scan you KTTW card as well as using facial recognition software. BUT, it's a good idea to check with your folder at Shutters periodically to confirm that all your photos have made it in there.

 

[New Cruise Gal]

Well, if your room purchases the CD, all photos taken with at least one person from that room will be on it. You don't have to have photos taken with everyone in the room in each photo. So you can do just photos of you and your son. But any photos also taken with your sister and her son will be included on the same CD. Maybe you could split the cost of the CD and then sort out the photos once home who gets what (although once you buy the CD you can print out however many of whatever photos you want).

They scan you KTTW card as well as using facial recognition software. BUT, it's a good idea to check with your folder at Shutters periodically to confirm that all your photos have made it in there.

Thanks for the info. I'll get with my other family members and see how we want to handle it.

 

[disnmom]

I have a question I am a first time cruiser, if I prepurchase the all prints only package will I have copyrights to get copies of the prints when I get home for Christmas cards? Thanks

 

[turtle27]

I don't really figure I am out much other than being out the money before the cruise. We are doing the EBPC soon, so I went for it, thinking if we didn't take enough or didn't like enough of them, get a full refund. But it is 15% cheaper now than it would be on the ship, so if I do like enough, or we end up taking enough, we are set. The photo ops add up fast, especially if you are not going to some of the shows and get the pics done while most others are eating or being entertained!

 

[bdi]

I don't think it's worth it. Way too expensive. The lines were really long and we didn't want to spend that time in lines. We did get a couple pictures though but not enough to fill a book. We ended up getting a CD for a few of the family pictures we liked. We have many more pictures that we took ourselves that I think are better memories than only professionally posed ones. I'm going to upload my pictures to photopass (the pictures they take in the parks) and make my own album with some of the posed pictures and candid ones. I think on my next cruise I will ask someone in line to take a picture with my phone or camera while the photographers do. Then I will have my own copy without paying that crazy price.

 

[turtle27]

I don't think it's worth it. Way too expensive. The lines were really long and we didn't want to spend that time in lines. We did get a couple pictures though but not enough to fill a book. We ended up getting a CD for a few of the family pictures we liked. We have many more pictures that we took ourselves that I think are better memories than only professionally posed ones. I'm going to upload my pictures to photopass (the pictures they take in the parks) and make my own album with some of the posed pictures and candid ones. I think on my next cruise I will ask someone in line to take a picture with my phone or camera while the photographers do. Then I will have my own copy without paying that crazy price.

No need to ask someone in line, the CM tending the character is more than happy to take a pic with your camera. Not the photopass photog, but the CM. They even offer at times. But if they don't just ask. Sometimes theirs turn out better too.

 

[MinnieSweetheart]

I have a question, also. Is photo selection something that has to be done on board, or is it like when you go to the park and given the card to go online and order photos? I know it's a different company that does it, but we aren't planning to buy photos on the boat, but might want to after we've had time to look when it's not an impulse buy.

If you do the digital pictures, then NO. You will unlock them from your CD at home. I spent a long time picking which of certain shots I wanted, only to have to go through and try to figure it out again when I got home. You do need to have a general idea of how many photos you want to be able to unlock, but if you go over they are $20 a piece.

 

[MinnieSweetheart]

One great thing about getting the all digital package is that you'll have those imperfect/duplicate shots that you would never pick if you were selecting a limited number. I find that in more than one situation a rare photo op would have been ruined by for example somebody having eyes closed in the first shot and somebody else making a face in the second shot - but with software I can combine the two less-than-ideal shots taken consecutively (which is relatively easy and looks natural as they have the same lighting/mood/etc.) to recreate the perfect, frame-worthy shot.

I'm not sure if you realize this, but that is technically copyright infringement. That's why there is the word doc that has the print release. You are only given the rights to reprint, not to change.

 

[MinnieSweetheart]

Well, it does seem to say that you will get a hard copy of all photos, but the website says "Print option includes one copy of your photos displayed in Shutters." Not all photos are displayed in Shutters. Some people have reported that they did, indeed, NOT receive ALL photos on the CD in hard copy, only those that were already printed out for display. Now, it is possible that all your photos may be printed for display. There's no way of knowing until you see what's actually printed.

Not all photos are 8X10 size (printed) the character photo ops are 6X8.

Yes, you can change whatever package you purchase, as long as you do it by the last full day of the cruise.
It's not really a change, they will credit back the package you originally purchased and charge you for a whole new package.

One of the reasons for that clarification. On the Fantasy for sure, you get a picture taken on the Aquaduck that they match to you using facial recognition. Shutters doesn't have the print, but it will be on your CD if you get matched.

 

[MinnieSweetheart]

As for the OP, I personally wouldn't recommend the unlimited. Maybe it's because we live in an area with a lot of semi-professional photographers who do couples shoots for around $150. The shutters pictures felt high, even though I bought the 20 count.

I think you will definitely want formal pictures if you dress up. We didn't prefer their character pictures, but the formal ones they took are much better quality than ours because they have the perfect lighting.

 

[Shelley Chiarats]

Wanted to add that if you have a second room that is non nuclear family and the first room purchases the all digital photos package then the second room can purchase on board the all digital photos package at 1/2 price. I can verify that this is true as we have done it twice - once on the Dream and once on the Wonder. I would purchase the full price package with prints pre cruise so we got all pics of my husband and I. Then Mom would purchase the 1/2 price version of the exact same thing which at 1/2 price was actually cheaper than the 20pic price.

As a side note, we had a third stateroom that chose not to purchase any pics but the ones that had my husband and his mother and sister were in our package because they had my husband in them. And we got the hard copies of the ones that were my mother and I because we got the digital and prints package and she only got the digital package. Because any pic that included one or the other of us was included in our all inclusive package.

Though we did have to keep an eye out and check Mom's folder for hard copies because a lot of our pics where in her hardcopy folder. But Shutters said it was no problem to just move them over.

Michelle

 

[Keyser]

We've had a couple of cruises where it was certainly not worth it, and one (where we did get the CD, not prepurchased unfortunately) where we felt it was worth it.

As others have said, there are some big advantages - you get your whole family in the picture, you don't have to worry about spending your cruise time doing selection of which one(s) to buy, you don't have to cut down on which ones you want, etc. But, it's mainly "worth" it if you know from the start you will get all the pictures, and take advantage of the photographers.

I know I have seen chances to take pictures:
- Before you board, both with characters, and with a printed background
- At each dinner (photographers visit the tables), or at least once in each dining room
- In Palo at dinner (don't think we had one at brunch)
- With any character interactions (lines for these vary)
- Some on Castaway Cay (in the Bahamas) or on deck during the glacier visit (in Alaska)
- In the main atrium area around dinner time each night (sometimes need to stand in line for these, though often we found no/short lines on some)

For one of our cruises, we decided early on we would get the CD, and so we took advantage of lots of photo opportunities. We got family photos, both dressed up on formal night, and more casually. We had photos of kids taken individually (much better than school photos). My wife and I had photos of ourselves taken on our 20th anniversary. We had great family photos in front of the glacier in Alaska. In theory, we could have found someone to snap most of those pictures for us (and my wife did get some good ones of the kids), but realistically, the only way we were getting most of these pictures was with a 3rd party photographer, and knowing we had the photos purchased made it easy to plan and take advantage of any opportunities we saw. We had no hesitation about getting our picture taken when there was little or no line, for instance.

On another trip, though, we didn't ever go to the setups in the atrium area, we didn't see anyone on deck or in Castaway Cay, didn't have but maybe one or two character photos, and didn't even have all the dinner photos. There's no way that would have been worth the CD.

Oh, and as far as lines, I think the longer cruises on smaller ships (e.g. Wonder to Alaska) probably have shorter lines than the shorter cruises on bigger ships. So, factor that into your decision.

One other hint: there are a few Shutters photographers per cruise, and if you try a few out early on and look at their photos, you might find (as we did) that one or two are actually very good (we found most of them to be OK, but nothing special, but found one really good one on our Alaska cruise). You can then look for them later in the trip when you plan the photos you really want, and be more likely to get some really good ones.

 

[squirk]

Honestly, I am a one-and-done kind of person with the photos. There will be one photo at dinner with the whole family that we will buy, and the rest? Meh. If there's some other good ones of the kids, then maybe we will pick those up, but in four cruises, we have never found enough good photos to spend more than $100 at Shutters each time.

I find it more satisfying to take the photos on our iPhones and later play them at home on a slideshow via AppleTV on the 65" TV. The candid photos are a lot more fun, there's a lot more of them, we can crop and tweak to our heart's desire, they didn't cost us an arm and a leg, and none of them have those stupid borders.

 

[PenskeSth1]

We never have a single photo in our book, even though they take our pictures during dinner. We don't do the photos opts before dinner anymore. We just never understood why there was never any pictures in our book. Saves us tons of money. We just take our own pictures now.

 

[lhk617]

I was just on a RC Cruise this summer and bought the photo package. They ran a deal that you save $50 if you bought the first 2 days of the cruise. Does DCL offer a discount like this as well?