Sorry, I am still confused. Here is my understanding so far - you get the card when you first arrive at Disneyland or DCA -
*Where do you get the card? From the photographers?
Next, everytime you see a photographer at photo op places, they scan your card and take your picture. I hear there are many more photogs at DCA than Disneyland.
*What areas are they at in Disneyland?
Then, what do you do at the end of your trip? To get the best price, do you pay for the card before you leave? Where do you pay for it? Can you wait and decide depending on how many good pictures there are?

Thanks -

Every photographer has a stash of cards. When you see one, you wait until they are available, then give them your card and they will tell you where to stand (you can have some input, too). They take a few pictures, they scan your card and give it back, you go along your merry way.

During our trip in September, the first couple of days I could barely find any photographers, but as time went on either I could spot them easier, or there were more as we approached the weekend. They seemed to be all over DL, not just in one spot, though we were there as it turned into Halloweentime so they were there taking pix at the big pumpkin. They were also at the entrance area (inside the entrance) to take pix in front of the big Mickey face made of flowers. Saw them in front of the castle, too... At DCA they were at the entrance area to take pictures in front of the GG bridge, over in front of Grizzly Peak, and so on.

Many of our character encounters included a Photopass photographer as well. Tigger, Pooh, Eeyore, Jack Sparrow on TSI...those all had a photographer there, which made things SO much easier on me.

You can buy the CD ahead of time; I think it's about 99 dollars that way. Once you're done you can log in and see if you actually liked the pictures. If you don't, you can get a refund, but if you do, then you can edit them (crop and such) and put pre-made borders and little things like that onto the pictures. Each time you do that it saves the edited one and the old one. I have some pictures that I put each border, etc, onto, so one picture turned into 5 or something like that.

You can also buy the CD at the park, but the editing/adding you can do to that CD is more limited. Good for scrapbookers who use photoshop, etc, though, b/c they don't necessarily WANT tinkerbell flitting about in their pictures. :)

I would have thought it was a ripoff either way, but once I saw the shots they got of DS with Captain Jack, and realized the expense of buying just a couple of 5x7s, the amount for the CD (even the full amount!) would have been less than those 5x7s, and you get the license to make prints, and can make prints to your heart's content!