Print PDF
Favorite
Email
While planning for our wedding we decided that it would be great to use a photo booth as our guest book. After looking at rental costs I decided to take it upon myself to build my own, and since I like projects like this I thought it sounded like a lot of fun!
Since our wedding was taking place several states away it had to be easily portable. And since it was our wedding it had to look as professional as possible, and be fully automated. With those basic requirements and a lot of work I ended up with something that everyone was happy with, including my wife!
Overview
1) Photo Booth Software
2) Equipment
3) Start Button
4) Booth Frame
5) Booth Panels
6) Conclusion
If you enjoy this instructable please check out some of my other projects at http://www.laserpup.com
Since our wedding was taking place several states away it had to be easily portable. And since it was our wedding it had to look as professional as possible, and be fully automated. With those basic requirements and a lot of work I ended up with something that everyone was happy with, including my wife!
Overview
1) Photo Booth Software
2) Equipment
3) Start Button
4) Booth Frame
5) Booth Panels
6) Conclusion
If you enjoy this instructable please check out some of my other projects at http://www.laserpup.com
Remove these ads by
Signing UpStep 1DSLR Remote Pro
The first item that I solved was what photo booth software to use. I wanted something that automated the entire process, you click a button and eventually your photos get printed out. That is the limit to the user interaction that I wanted.
Since I was attempting to make due with many of the resources I had around the house I was limited to a windows operating system, and all of the apple solutions were no longer an option. I couldn't justify a new computer for this project!
After looking at the price and features I settled on DSLR Remote Pro. This has a photo booth mode that looked perfect, with just enough customization to get what I wanted. There were versions of the software for both Canon & Nikon cameras, and the price was very reasonable when compared to the cost of the commercial photo booth software I found.
Display Screens
The software allows you to design custom display screens with operating instructions to the people in the booth. These custom screens allowed me to reuse some graphics from our wedding website, and although I'm sure no one noticed I thought that this was a nice touch.
I created 4 screens that the user would see with different static text.
1) Start Screen
Displays a quick instruction on how to start the photo booth.
2) Count Down Screen
The screen image does not contain any text, but the software will display a countdown timer and show what picture it is currently taking.
3) Smile Screen
Displayed before the camera snaps the picture for ~ 1 sec.
4) Processing screen
Displayed after all the pictures have been taken, a progress will show as the final photo strip image is created and sent to the printer.
Print Options
There print options provided by the software were overkill for what I needed, and it really only took a few test prints to get exactly what I wanted. Four photos per page, with the set of four duplicated on one 4x6 print. The idea here was that after the photos have printed our guests could cut the photo in half with a pair of scissors, taking one copy of the print with them and dropping the other copy in a box for us.
We'll take all of the copies and eventually frame them into what will be our guest book. I did get away from one of my requirements here by forcing our guests to cut the print in half. That is more interaction than I originally wanted, but really couldn't figure an easy way around it. In the end it worked out just fine, and no one seemed to mind.
Since I was attempting to make due with many of the resources I had around the house I was limited to a windows operating system, and all of the apple solutions were no longer an option. I couldn't justify a new computer for this project!
After looking at the price and features I settled on DSLR Remote Pro. This has a photo booth mode that looked perfect, with just enough customization to get what I wanted. There were versions of the software for both Canon & Nikon cameras, and the price was very reasonable when compared to the cost of the commercial photo booth software I found.
Display Screens
The software allows you to design custom display screens with operating instructions to the people in the booth. These custom screens allowed me to reuse some graphics from our wedding website, and although I'm sure no one noticed I thought that this was a nice touch.
I created 4 screens that the user would see with different static text.
1) Start Screen
Displays a quick instruction on how to start the photo booth.
2) Count Down Screen
The screen image does not contain any text, but the software will display a countdown timer and show what picture it is currently taking.
3) Smile Screen
Displayed before the camera snaps the picture for ~ 1 sec.
4) Processing screen
Displayed after all the pictures have been taken, a progress will show as the final photo strip image is created and sent to the printer.
Print Options
There print options provided by the software were overkill for what I needed, and it really only took a few test prints to get exactly what I wanted. Four photos per page, with the set of four duplicated on one 4x6 print. The idea here was that after the photos have printed our guests could cut the photo in half with a pair of scissors, taking one copy of the print with them and dropping the other copy in a box for us.
We'll take all of the copies and eventually frame them into what will be our guest book. I did get away from one of my requirements here by forcing our guests to cut the print in half. That is more interaction than I originally wanted, but really couldn't figure an easy way around it. In the end it worked out just fine, and no one seemed to mind.
| « Previous Step | Download PDFView All Steps | Next Step » |
Any ideas?
Thanks :)
I would have liked if the alignment of the photos was a little better positioned (there was alot of negative space) maybe making the curtain area smaller would have helped to have better framed shots.
Cool project though, very nice.
we have all the techonology, but need an easy to set up, portable booth like the one you built. would it be possible for us to buy the one you made or pay you to make one?
thanks and have a great day!
After searching the web for the best photo booth software, I decided that Party Booth was the all out winner. It had every feature I needed, was SO easy to use and affordable. I hope your software gets great attention because it made our reception a blast!
Cost was kept relatively low because things like the printer, software, and high end camera was already owned by the bride's brother, who does event photography. They were even able to use it again for when the bride's brother got married two weeks later. Plus it makes appearances at all the parties.
Another idea is that you could put a dry-erase tablet and tethered marker inside of the booth, so that the subjects could scrawl out a message :-D
What did the software run you? Also can you can you give a Ballpark figure on total costs?
Nice Work!
photo size . Could I ask your help on settings ?
papadoo1atgmail.com
Thanks,
Smitty75
Check out another example Photo Booth from a recent wedding at http://vigorotaku.blogspot.com/ November 1st.
It was a lot of fun and a really big hit! I have some diagrams of what I use with explanations and an example pic. The link to the specific page is here
Check out another example Photo Booth from a recent wedding at
http://vigorotaku.blogspot.com/
November 1st. It was a lot of fun and a really big hit!
I have some diagrams of what I use with explanations and an example pic.
The specific Photo Booth is here
I would like to test this out with my Macbook Pro and the Photobooth software that's already installed.
I need see if this will work at kids party, birthday parties, anniversaries, and baby showers. I see that David Ciine used his macbook as a photo booth.
I am a photographer and I love how my DSLR camera delivers good quality pictures. I am not sure how the print-outs will look from using the photo booth on my Macbook pro.
What's the cheapest camera I can use with
the DSLR Remote Pro software ?
The Canons are a bit pricey.
Smitty
I ended up renting my booth as a side business, mostly to defray the costs of the booth. It will take me 5 or 6 rentals to pay for the booth--certainly not a big money-maker.
Regardless of which way you go, here are the big cost drivers:
--a decent printer. The Sony UPCX1 goes for about $800 and you can buy perforated paper custom made for photobooths. The paper is expensive, $200 a box (enough to do 2 events, usually). This paper and printer setup are better than the photo printers you get at Staples, and faster, too.
--the frame and materials: PVC and fabric are OK, but if you're going to use it multiple times you want something a little heavier duty. We used black iron pipe and brass fittings. But I am impressed by the PVC and fabric setup you built!
--software: the software you used is great, runs about $100
--camera: I used a low-end Canon point-and-shoot I got on eBay for $100, plus an AC adapter from Amazon for another $30 or so. Not as nice a camera as you have, but cheaper, easier, and perfectly fine for the booth. But I would like to step up to something like yours eventually...
--Computer: I bought a touch screen so I wouldn't have to use a physical button, plus it looks nicer than a laptop. Some people use laptops, or laptops with external monitors. Your costs will vary.
So it's hard to see how you could do this with a good printer for less than the cost of a rental, but you will end up with a photobooth if you want one. My bride would probably say you should just rent. I say building it was fun and I've enjoyed taking it to bigger parties and renting it out.
www.thephotobot.com
Love the pictures of your grandparents. Cute!