portrait

[robfkline]

We will be on Oosterdan May 5th,How much are the portrait they take on formal night?

[RuthC]

We will be on Oosterdan May 5th,How much are the portrait they take on formal night?

Are you sitting down? IIRC, one portrait is $40. :eek:

[robfkline]

Good thing I WAS sitting down, will have a nice fellow passenger take some pic with my camera of me and the wife in formal stuff, then the wife will talk me into getting one by them anyway, I do Love her and that will take care of X-mas card pic.

[Photojunkie_I_am]

Can you have the pictures taken on both nights and then choose if you want to purchase one after seeing them both? Hope I have my question clear :)

[Photojunkie_I_am]

Never mind, just saw my question answered in the other photo thread that Ruth posted to ;)

[Northshorecruisers]

There are many times to have your photos taken on the ship. There's the embarkation photo if you choose, if you leave the ship when it docks there will be someone dressed in a costume for the port that you can have your picture taken with, the photographer will walk through the diningroom on formal nights, there will be the formal portraits, plus there will be several casual photo sessions around the ship as well.

 

You can buy the photos individually or as package deals. We have always bought some to celebrate our cruise and it's the only time we get a photo of us dressed up. Yes, the prices are high, but it's just one of our cruising costs.

 

On our 5th anniversary trip, we decided to do one of the casual photo sessions after dinner one night. The photographer spent so much time doing tons of different poses and it really was fun. Have to say they are some of the best pictures we have of the two of us and shows how much we were enjoying the cruise. Really glad we bought a few!

 

Let them take as many pictures as they want and the second to last or last day of the cruise find your pictures and see if there are any you want. They don't put any pressure on you to buy while you're looking at them and it's fun. You might just find a gem!

[robfkline]

Thanks' :)

[jaguarstyper]

Are you sitting down? IIRC, one portrait is $40. :eek:

Have you priced the cost of a portrait at a professional studio? $40 is a bargain. I just recently had to have a portrait done for my job and I would be embarrassed to say how much my company was charged for it. Lets just say, it was a whole lot more than $40.

[dvcmember]

I am not photogenic. On a 5-night cruise on RCCL, I had no success. Everyone else in the photo gallery had at least a few good pics. The photographer was convinced that he could capture a nice photo. Finally on the last night, he said "sir you do not take good pictures.". I nevr laughed so much. To this day, I have never had a cruise photographer waste his time on snapping pictures ever again.

[Krazy Kruizers]

I am not photogenic. On a 5-night cruise on RCCL, I had no success. Everyone else in the photo gallery had at least a few good pics. The photographer was convinced that he could capture a nice photo. Finally on the last night, he said "sir you do not take good pictures.". I nevr laughed so much. To this day, I have never had a cruise photographer waste his time on snapping pictures ever again.

 

I am the same way -- any picture that has ever been taken of me -- horrible -- no matter how much I try to change my pose or facial expressions.

[Tabbymom]

I splurged for two portraits on my March cruise because I had lost almost 50 pounds since my previous cruise and wanted it documented. :p On two of the three formal nights, I ran around to every possible station getting my picture taken and bought one picture from each night after I saw them all. I did wince when I paid the $80 but it was worth it; I worked so hard to look the way I did on those nights! (Not just the weight but the dress, hair, makeup, jewelry, etc.) A "sheet" of formal pictures includes one 8x10, one 5x7, and two wallet size.

 

But it was disappointing that all you could get was a "sheet" of each picture ($39 formal, $19 casual) or packages ($199 for six formal, $99 for six informal) or everything for $349. The packages include a DVD of the photos in the package. On RCI you could buy a variety of packages of both formal and informal in various sizes. So you could get five different pictures (a couple of 8x10's of your formals and maybe three 4x6 of informal) for the same $80. I didn't really need four copies of each of my portraits!

[suelaine]

Have you priced the cost of a portrait at a professional studio? $40 is a bargain. I just recently had to have a portrait done for my job and I would be embarrassed to say how much my company was charged for it. Lets just say, it was a whole lot more than $40.

 

I disagree this is a bargain but then again, no I would not pay some high price for a portrait for my job. I have had pictures taken at Sears and they are very nice and inexpensive.

 

I was ready to pay about $20 for a formal portrait on my recent Holland America Cruise but when they told me I could not get the formal for less than $40 I said go ahead and throw them in the trash. I did offer them $20 for a 5x7 but they would not make any other "deal" other than charging $40.

 

I work hard for my money too and I'm not going to agree to throw it away like that. I have a decent camera and did get some pretty good pictures. My cruise was great but those prices are higher than other cruise lines and I just don't think it is reasonable.

[suelaine]

You can't get the formals for less than $40. I thought it was ridiculous so I told them to go ahead and throw them in the trash.

 

Ironically, you could get the cruise DVD which had over 30 minutes of video on it for around $35. Now I thought that was fairly reasonable and bought one.

 

Thankfully, I have a decent camera and got some good pictures and video in addition to the cruise video.

[VermeulT]

IMO it's a complete ripoff. I stated as much in the review I sent in a few days ago.

 

I've worked for a professional photographer. And $40 for a sheet (which includes like 1 -8x10" 1 (or 2?)-5x7" and a bunch of wallets. Especially given that now there is no developing film, chemicals, etc.

 

Yes - it's an opportunistic purchase. Like Tabbymom - we all often have something to celebrate or document. Last cruise was possibly the last family vacation with mom, and we didn't have a family picture for years.... etc.

 

$20 for the 8x10" casual shots (like boarding the ship or getting off at each port) is also ridiculous.

 

If they charged half as much, like suelaine said - it wouldn't be cheap but it would be reasonable. They will still make a huge profit and actually sell more because people wouldn't feel like their wallet was just raped.

 

Maybe they'd make enough to get photographers that know what they are doing. I find some of their shots completely shameful... ie cutting off half of the "welcome to half moon cay" sign, not in focus, edge of the backdrop visable. And the video they produce... I think they used a high school intro to video editing class. Sad.

 

This is one area that HAL has really let down the customer.

 

 

BTW - I went into this past cruise with the thought that I would buy lots of the pictures, perhaps even the every-picture-package. We really had fun with each shot and spent time and effort planning something fun and unique for each one. The shots came out OK. But in the end, they weren't great. And to completely insult my interest - because we were in 2 cabins, we could not do any of the bundles. They are priced per cabin only. So even tho every picture was taken with all 4 of us, each picture was priced individually. Sorry HAL - huge fail on your part.

[1of4]

The posed formal portraits with the backdrop are $40 each. The photos taken at each port and around the ship with no backdrop are less expensive. We bought a package that included 5 of those pictures which included the pictures taken in the dining room for $99.

 

The last night of our cruise the photography studio had a 1 hour special for buy 2 get 3 so that is why we bought the formal portraits.

 

Also, if you have a formal portrait taken with the captain or officers the it costs less than $40.

Edited March 15, 2014 by 1of4

[momatibm]

I told the photog we were going 'Green' -- she looked at me -- I said I am saving your paper and toner -- don't bother to take and print them, we aren't going to buy them -- then she understood.

[sapper1]

We used to have a formal portrait taken on every cruise until I looked at our roque's gallery lineup on the shelf one day and decided that all those portraits were just showing an age progression. The novelty wore off.

[Boytjie]

I am not photogenic. On a 5-night cruise on RCCL, I had no success. Everyone else in the photo gallery had at least a few good pics. The photographer was convinced that he could capture a nice photo. Finally on the last night, he said "sir you do not take good pictures.". I nevr laughed so much. To this day, I have never had a cruise photographer waste his time on snapping pictures ever again.

 

Keep trying! I too had the problem of not getting any good pictures taken. One day I was looking at the pictures and must have muttered something because a woman next to me asked what was wrong. I told her I that there were no good pictures of me. She said that wasn't possible since I have a very nice smile. So, I grabbed a sampling of pictures and showed her. Her response was: "Oh, my!" She told me I should practice smiling - but that was always my problem: trying to smile turned out to be a grimace. Lo-and-behold, on our last HAL cruise the photographer took the usual embarkation pictures and then did a few casual head shots and they turned out great! All of a sudden I was doing better in pictures; once in a while there are still a few doozies but overall it isn;t too bad.