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Archive 2014 · Self-service photo booth?

  
 
thefloyd
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Self-service photo booth?


hey everyone -

Hopefully you guys might have some ideas here. I'm getting married in about 3 weeks, and being a camera geek and tech guy I had a really clever idea I wanted to set up for my guests. Basically, I wanted to throw my surface pro on a table with one of my cameras (I have a sony nex 5r and a canon 5d/mark2 - preference here goes to the sony for price concerns, it also has wifi built in that might be usable here) and allow guests to take pictures of themselves/others, use the surface pen to mark them up/write notes/etc, and save the photo to a "camera roll". Bonus points if there's a solution that allows the guests to email the photos to themselves afterwards.

Obviously there are some important points here:
- gotta be easy to use. I'll be busy being a groom, and I can't troubleshoot technology!
- really want to leverage pen input of the surface pro to allow guests to write notes and/or draw on/mark up photos
- as stated before, wifi tether to the sony would be ideal. USB tether to the sony a second best, and USB to the canon the final option

Does anyone know if there's anything out there that does this sort of thing? I've googled a bit and came across a few things that I might need to experiment with, but I'm quickly running out of time and I really did want to put this together for the "fun factor".

thanks in advance!
-Patrick



Jun 13, 2014 at 10:37 AM
joelconner
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Self-service photo booth?


I do not know any booth software that integrates the ability to edit the photos as such...not sure it exists.


Jun 13, 2014 at 10:59 AM
Tony Hoffer
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Self-service photo booth?


I'm not sure that I can help with the tech, but I'll throw one nugget out for you.

We've had a few people make DIY photo booths and when you mix drinking and a DIY project, it almost never works out. People either can't figure it out or it gets dangerous. We had a recent wedding where they spent tons of time making a huge backdrop that was awesome, but then just put a camera out on a tripod with instructions. No one got it and no one did it.

Just my .02



Jun 13, 2014 at 11:06 AM
thefloyd
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Self-service photo booth?


@joelconner - indeed, the pen input seems to be what's disqualifying most software I've found..

@Tony - yeah. I thought about that (and agree). Which is why I'm not too committed to spending a lot of time on it. I kinda figured I'd throw it out there, and if people use it - great. If not.. well, no real loss.



Jun 13, 2014 at 11:29 AM
VothPhoto
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Self-service photo booth?


Backdrop setup + one hot light + a bunch of dollarstore swag = selfie photobooth


Jun 13, 2014 at 11:45 AM
hendrikm
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Self-service photo booth?


Two things:

You are the groom. You donīt have the time.

And while people paint/write on their photos, nobody else can use it...



Jun 13, 2014 at 01:08 PM
jeremy_clay
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Self-service photo booth?


sounds like wayyy too much work to end up with a broken Surface and/or camera. Just pay some college kid to run something IMO


Jun 13, 2014 at 01:29 PM
robots4joey
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Self-service photo booth?


We run a photo booth as part of our business. They are a huge ammount of work and I can't imagine not having someone there as an attendant. I'm not saying it can't be done, it could, but it would be pretty hard to have any time to set it up or get people to use it when you are the groom. You might be able to get some help from your friends, but they want to be part of the wedding too.

The "easy to use for the guests" software is expensive, and it's not easy to set up on your end. I do think you can make something happen, but 3 weeks is goign to be difficult. A minimalist solution would be a camera with softbox, and a shutter release cable with a few second timer. But adding the computer into the mix will make things more complicated for you.

Good luck, I hope you figure something cool out- if you do be sure to show us!



Jun 13, 2014 at 04:00 PM
MRomine
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Self-service photo booth?


For the cost of hiring a pro that is the way to go. They are not super expensive. In fact many DJ (if you are hiring one of those) will give nice discounts if you book both their DJ services and their photo booth.



Jun 13, 2014 at 06:21 PM
MazeRunner
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Self-service photo booth?


If you're willing to pay for a photobooth, let me know.


Jun 14, 2014 at 01:59 AM
D. Diggler
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Self-service photo booth?


thefloyd wrote:
- gotta be easy to use. I'll be busy being a groom, and I can't troubleshoot technology!


Just hire someone to bring in a photo booth and be done with it. They're not that expensive. Honestly, this is ridiculous what you're considering.



Jun 14, 2014 at 03:56 AM
glort
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Self-service photo booth?



I did a Photobooth thing for my nices 21st a few years ago.
I found some free software on the net and set up the camera, computer and printer in a big heavy and stable box I made out of MDF I got a local timber place to cut up for me and screwed it all together. Cut a hole for the camera lens to stick out, sat the monitor on top and had a pole with a studio head and an umbrella over the top. I made a USB button/ switch from info I found on the net and an old mouse I cut the cord off and wired to the momentary switch from the loacal electrinic store. Think my investment in the whole thing was about 25 bux.

The guests just had to hit the button as prompted on the screen and the thing had a countdown to each of the 3 shots.
They printed 2x2 images on a 6x4 print with the 4th area being filled by a text message.
There were several layout/ size options but that was the easiest for non attended operation. there was also an option to do double prints so the guests could have a copy and another copy could be stuck in a book and guests could write a message under that.
Seemed like a potential problem at a 21st so I just gave my niece all the images on disk later.

Only thing I had to do on the night was put in a 2nd and 3rd load of 100 sheets of paper in the printer. Other than that, much to my surprise the thing ran faultlessly and nobody killed it.

I agree with forgeting about the message writing thing. If that is really important then I would be 2nd hiring a booth and attendant that provides it.

I didn't worry about building a booth, I only came up with the idea a couple of weeks before hand after my nice mentioned another party she went to that had one. I was pretty surprised and Impressed with myself I got the thing up and running at all though it was very straightforward. I just hung a backdrop on the wall and the big box in front in as out of the way location I could and that was it.
My brother in law put a load of bricks in the bottom of the thing to make it harder to be knocked over by drunks but despite no shortage of them, people seemed pretty protective and careful of it.

There really isn't a need for screening off a both I don't think. People seeing what other people do are more enthused to do it themselves particularly the older part of the crowd.
By just having a single box with everything in it you save yourself loads of work and I feel potential pitfalls in things getting bumped, knocked over and falling on people.

I forget the name of the software now but it was basic though reliable and everyone thought the setup was fantastic and it certainly got used well.



Jun 14, 2014 at 06:32 AM
SloPhoto
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Self-service photo booth?


At the very least, sign up a guest to help you setup/teardown and to check on the thing every once in a while.




Jun 14, 2014 at 02:37 PM
D. Diggler
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Self-service photo booth?


SloPhoto wrote:
sign up a guest to help you setup/teardown and to check on the thing every once in a while


Put the guest to work when they should be relaxing and enjoying the event.



Jun 15, 2014 at 03:55 AM
SloPhoto
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Self-service photo booth?


D. Diggler wrote:
Put the guest to work when they should be relaxing and enjoying the event.


Better than the groom.....



Jun 15, 2014 at 11:37 AM
D. Diggler
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Self-service photo booth?


SloPhoto wrote:
.
sign up a guest to help you setup/teardown and to check on the thing every once in a while

Put the guest to work when they should be relaxing and enjoying the event.

Better than the groom.


Neither the groom nor any guest should be "working" at the wedding. Professional photo booths can be hired for very reasonable.



Jun 15, 2014 at 10:17 PM
thefloyd
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Self-service photo booth?


Wow! Lots of replies.. thanks! Especially thanks to those of you who reminded me that I am a bit crazy to leave that sort of kit out around drunk guests.

I guess I should clarify a few things.. Perhaps the use of the term "photo booth" was a bit too specific (in retrospect this does bring to mind a very specific combination of hardware and software and setup). What I had in mind was leaving my NEX camera on a table, tethered via WiFi to my surface tablet. Anyone could pick up the camera, take selfies/pictures of other guests, and hopefully mark up the photos (maybe write a little note?) on the surface and save it. Basically shooting tethered to the surface with some app that auto-imports the photos and allows for markup with the pen. Kind of like a photo guestbook.

As for hiring a photo booth, unfortunately our wedding is taking place in a remote place in the Adirondack mountains. We have had to pay a premium for any kind of professional because frankly, it's out of the way for them and due to it being pretty rural local professionals for many things were hard to come by. Hiring a photo booth was something we discussed but, sadly, it's not in the budget.

I won't lose sleep if my idea can't be implemented in a sane/easy way - just thought it would be kind of cool.



Jun 16, 2014 at 09:53 AM
jeremy_clay
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · Self-service photo booth?


Honestly, I think you overrate how much fun people will have using your setup. Even as a photographer, I would find it a hassle; you'd be better off leaving a few modenr Polaroid bodies around and plenty of packs of refills with a marker for them to sign.


Jun 16, 2014 at 09:57 AM
Giules
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · Self-service photo booth?


thefloyd wrote:
What I had in mind was leaving my NEX camera on a table, tethered via WiFi to my surface tablet. Anyone could pick up the camera, take selfies/pictures of other guests, and hopefully mark up the photos (maybe write a little note?) on the surface and save it. Basically shooting tethered to the surface with some app that auto-imports the photos and allows for markup with the pen. Kind of like a photo guestbook.


Actually a cool idea if works could be quite fun for guests involved. Few potential problems though:


    Possible damage to your NEX from drunk/careless guests.
    Slow transfer from WiFi could mean delay/frustration of guests waiting to see/edit pictures.
    Editing pictures might create a backlog of guests waiting to use the booth - unless it's a very small crowd and they're all quite close.
    Any lights involved means added hassle in setup as well as danger to both guest & lights in terms of damage.
    Theft of tablet/nex/lights? Not an issue if small/close crowd.


Could be easier if you have someone to sort of 'manage' it at least and if it can be done in natural light, you won't need strobes and such.

Good luck!



Jun 17, 2014 at 02:28 AM
formula4speed
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · Self-service photo booth?


My brother (a computer engineer) built his own photo booth for his wedding. It included a digital Rebel using the on camera flash, a laptop, printer and an "Easy Button" from staples. I designed a photo strip template for him. People would enter, hit the Easy Button, it took 3 photos and automatically printed 2 copies and pushed them to Twitter. One copy went into a scrap book where people wrote notes, the second copy was for the guests. It worked great and was a huge hit.

So it can be done, but I'm sure there are easier ways to go about it. Being a computer genius probably helps. I thought the Easy Button for a trigger was a stroke of genius as well, even the elderly guests knew exactly what to do.



Jun 17, 2014 at 11:16 AM
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