Raspberry Pi Photobooth

This instructable will show you how to make your own Raspberry Pi Photobooth!

This was a http://www.sydneyunimaker.club project for the Sydney Mini Maker Faire

What you will need:

1. A Raspberry Pi (~$35 AUD) (I used a B but other models should probably work)
2. A Raspberry Pi Camera (~$40 AUD) (I used Rev 1.3)
3. An HDMI screen (~$100 AUD)(I used something similar to http://www.ebay.com/itm/7-7-inch-TFT-LCD-Module-w-... but any should do
4. A button (~$15 AUD) (I used little bird big red button from http://littlebirdelectronics.com.au/products/big-d... )

The photobooth takes three photos and generates a bmp photostrip with a header of your choice!

Step 1: Set Up on RPi

To attach the camera watch the video here: https://www.raspberrypi.org/help/camera-module-set...

Then install python-picamera by following the instructions here: https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/usage/ca...

You also need to install the python-pygame package

Make sure your rpi boots to a console rather than a desktop by following this: http://ask.xmodulo.com/disable-desktop-gui-raspber...

Connect the button to GPIO04 ( pin 7 ) and ground on the rpi. Look up which one using this site: http://docs.oracle.com/javame/8.0/get-started-rpi/...

If you bought the same button i did, you can also power the buttons LED from the 5v pin on RPi so it lights up when pushed.

Step 2: Photobooth Script

Run "git clone https://github.com/da-steve101/photobooth.git" from the console after you are logged in. This will download the python script. Now run "cd photobooth && sudo ./photobooth.py" to launch the photobooth app

The images are in "images/"

To change the header on the top of the photostrip replace the makerHeader.png

Make sure it is the same size and has a transparent background. I made these images with Gimp.

I had an 8Gb sd card. This should be enough space for most events (300 strips i reckon but not tested). Currently the script saves the images in /media/disk/Photobooth_images/image_*/* (I had a separate disk mounted but you don't have to have one)

Each folder has the 3 original images in it and the generated strip

I had intended to get a printer and print it (looking at http://www.zink.com/) but ran out of time. Also grab a $100 ottoman for a seat and make a wooden frame to mount the electronics. An ottoman is great cause you can store costume stuff inside it.

That all there is too it :) any bugs or patches create an issue or pull request at the github. It is very hacky and only tested a couple of times.

Comments

[BenP155]

Hey Stephen! Great project! I love the simplicity of the code. That makes it a lot easier to understand for newbies like me.

When I was about to start the Photo Booth with the

"cd photobooth && sudo /home/pi/photobooth/photobooth.py"

command I got this error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/home/pi/photobooth/photobooth.py", line 225, in <module>
import RPIO
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/RPIO/__init__.py", line 115, in <module>
import RPIO._GPIO as _GPIO
SystemError: This module can only be run on a Raspberry Pi!

I hope you can help me!
Thanks, Ben! :)

[kev21holtgrave]

Hey Stephen! Thanks for uploading this Instructable. I'm getting an "ImportError: No module named RPIO" when I run this on my Raspi 3. Any thoughts? Also, it's a bit misleading in your Step 1 when you say to connect the switch to pin 4. Pin 4 on Raspi header is 5Vdc. It would be a big deal if someone were to connect the 5V rail to GND. What I think you meant to say is connect to GPIO04, which is pin 7 on the Raspi header.

[StephenT6]

For RPIO, it should be a python package that you can pip install.
sudo pip install RPIO
I changed the wording as you suggested.