Hello,
My fiance and I are getting married in October 2011 and we decided we wanted to build a photobooth for the wedding. We saw that the photobooths out there were nice but $1000 was too much. I asked her if I could build us something dorky for our wedding and she said only if it's not tacky. So I figured what better than this. We decided we could use it as the guest book and we could make our own picture frames and give them out as the wedding favors.
This instructable is broken down into 5 parts
Steps 2-19 are building your own mini itx PC
Steps 20-56 are building the photobooth
Steps 57-58 are schematics for building a serial button for the booth
Steps 59-63 is how to setup the software so you can run this on your laptop or pc
(sorry windows users only for now, also you must have webcam and speakers)
Steps 64+ are future upgrades I'm still working on
I work as an electrical engineer by day so carpentry, software, art and computer aided designs are not my strong point, but I figured it would be fun. So we gave it three months and we wound up designing everything from software to hardware ourselves. There are still a lot of details I'm working on. One big one is the robot that cuts the photostrips and how to access the twitpic api so I can correctly upload these to twitpic rather than using emails. But the basics are working. Any tips or ideas I would gladly pursue.
Keep in mind I will be working on this for ten more months so this is the beta release. I hope you enjoy my instructable. If you are interested in downloading the software just skip ahead to step 60.
For updates and samples go to
http://twitpic.com/photos/diyphotobooth
V0.22 available at Step 60
beta release
-voice enabled
-webcam enabled
-limited config editing enabled
-gui in progress
-tweeting in progress
-printing disabled
[video compressing]
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http://www.openphotobooth.com/index.php
It may be of use to you, in working out the bugs in your own program. :)
It's tough fitting updates in between work. At this point I have the twitter/email feature and splash screen working. I figure the twitter feature will be a nice way to share the digital copies.
Alternatively, you could use another standard page size--e.g., 4 x 6--and arrange the 4 shots in two columns.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHgxIzcepxc&feature=player_profilepage
If it fails,I'll probably have to precut them. There really isn't a problem either way. I just felt a little robot would look interesting.
Suggestion: Don't forget to incorporate a controlled light source into the final design.
- The lighting at the reception venue may be unpredictable and more subdued than you're testing the unit with now.
- The black curtain will greatly reduce the amount of ambient lighting, and greatly impair the exposure.
It was a lot of fun designing it and a lot of time to write up. I'm glad you like it.
Right now I rely on the monitor, which is a poor illumination source. Hopefully when I find the money to upgrade this to use a canon power shot camera the internal flash will be sufficient. If not I'm gonna sacrifice some of the space up top and use it for illumination.
The black curtain is my default, but I have a white and red one as a backup.
You could certainly upgrade to the Canon PowerShot, with its internal flash, or simply retrofit the cabinet with a daylight balanced fluorescent tube, so there's a steady level of light.
Personally, I would explore the possibility of using the constant light source, over the strobe (flash) method:
- Better, precise and predictable control of uniform exposures for each guest.
- Almost complete prevention of red eye, and hot spots.
- Consistency of light source during entire venue.
- Strobes can sometimes misfire and underexpose if the capacitors is not fully charged, when the shutter is tripped.
The black curtain would not impair exposures, once a light source is in use.
The red curtain would be very much like the black, and would not impair exposures.
The white curtain would reflect light back to the camera, and exposure will be effected to some degree.
One thing you could also consider incorporating would be a white FoamCore panel above the seat area. This reflector could be flat, or in a domed configuration.
With the existing light source, this would function very much like a hairlight, and impart a very professional look to the captured images.
I could permanently install the light source onto the top module. It would still be nice and enclosed. I'm not sure what you mean by daylight balanced.
The foam board maybe difficult to mount. how do you feel about repositioning the white curtain as a top reflector and using the red curtain as a privacy stand, like in angryredhead's comment? I have a feeling I may lean towards this design. I may have a way to make it all integrated if its in that manner.
"...I'm not sure what you mean by daylight balanced..."
Here's an example of a standard incandescent screw mount:
http://www.porters.com/flash-studio/studio-lighting-bulbs/daylight-balanced-85w-spiral-fluorescent-lamp.html
There are a variety of tube configurations that might work, as well.
The main thing to remember is that you want even lighting on your subject(s):
- Single (or double) horizontal tube
or
- Two or three screw mounts evenly spaced.
Chalk up another vote for the Ultimate Photobooth.
I saw you screwing and unscrewing the shelves, and that might be a nightmare on the wedding day when you pass the task off to someone else. I think french cleats would help immensely while still keeping everything secure. You would need to attach them to both sides and the back, but then setup is a matter of hanging shelves rather than screwing them in. They'll also improve the durability should you want to take this to parties and other gatherings. It would be great for family reunions!
The curtain is probably going to get pulled off a couple times which means reattaching it during the night. It might be easier to use a folding privacy screen that's detached from the booth itself. It would be cheap and easy enough to make out of pipe or "sticks in a can", and then, if you do have someone over 6' tall, no one would have to duck to enter. It will add to the foot print, but privacy screens are also popular home decor items.
Congrats and best of luck on wedding preparations!
French cleats would be much faster. The center module keeps the two halves from splitting apart so I'm not sure they would work there. I do need additional shelves to hold props so french cleats may do the trick for those.
Now that I actually built this thing, I doubt I really need screw bolts, some cotter pins would have probably been enough.
Privacy screen is a better idea. The only reason I stuck with the curtain idea was the traditional look of a photo booth. I've tried to swing the idea, but for some reason, without the curtain, people just don't count it.
Thanks for all the advice. I still have another ten months of improvements to make.
As for privacy screens, I meant a black fabric privacy screen which would look more like a curtain sort of like this. It will still give the classic photo booth look but perhaps less troublesome. You could even make the exterior fabric red and the interior fabric black. I don't think a solid or wooden privacy screen would work so well.
That's pretty cool. It would also keep it light weight. I can probably just re-purpose the PVC rods from the original curtain, It should be long enough too.
Surprisingly since the photo strips are so small the web cam quality photos are acceptable. I do want to incorporate this into my wedding albums so I'll be purchasing a canon power shot when I see one come down in price.