If you are thinking of hiring a photo booth for your wedding or party and want to find out just what a modern photo booth can do. Have a quick read through this article and you may discover some hidden gems.
A photo booth takes a number of photo’s usually 3 or 4 and prints the pictures at the end. Today photo booths can do much more than just take a number of photos, green screen, video loops & gif images are additional features most people are unaware of.
The standard photo booth format.
The standard format is what most people come to expect when they hire a photo booth. The hire includes a large selection of props for your guests to choose from. Sounds great but even with the standard format there are extras which unless you ask, you may not know about.
Edit the printed image. – If your photo booth company of choice is up to date. Customising the printed image is up to you. Choose the total number of pictures taken per session. You might want 4 pictures on a 4”x6” you might want 4 pictures in a 2”x4” strip. You should be able to choose how many pictures per print and the format.
It’s also possible to add messages to your prints. This really adds a special touch to your event. Weddings like to have the bride and groom names and the date for example. It doesn’t matter what your event is, having the option is a nice touch.
Filters – Instagram is known for its filters. You can customise the look and feel of an image, just by adding a filter. Your photo booth company of choice should be able to offer you this as an option.
Double prints – this should be a standard option with all photo booth hires. How this works is simple. Each session two prints are produced. One for the guests to take home as a souvenir and the other into a complementary guestbook for you.
Unlimited prints – in addition to double prints, you should have no limit on the number of times you guests use the booth, during your hire time. After all there are lots of props, filters, digital backgrounds etc to choose from.
Fast printing – it’s 2019 now and no one likes waiting around for anything. You can pretty much order anything or watch anything farely quickly. So you and your guests should not have to wait a long time for the prints to come out. We recommend anything less than 35 seconds per print to be fast. It goes without saying but the speed should not compromise on quality.
Using a green screen.
A green screen is backdrop option. With a green screen guests can choose a digital background on the machine.
This makes the backgrounds practically limitless, standing next to the Eiffel tower, walking on the surface of the moon or an elegant waterfall are all possible.
We like to ask our clients if they have a theme for their event, and then we pick backgrounds related to the theme.
Digital copies of images.
I personally expect all companies to give you a digital copy of your pictures. A photo booth machine takes pictures in various formats, you should have access to all of them.
An online password protected gallery is better than a memory stick. In our opinion. You can share the link and your personal code with all your guests. If you lose your copy, just download it again.
Gif images. – A gif is an image which has movement on repeat. Memes are classic examples of gifs an image which has some sort of motion. We include this as an extra most clients don’t realise until they look at the digital copies.
Our gif system works like this all the pictures taken during a session are combined into a gif, it’s a really fast way to look at the at all the pictures taken. Each printed photo will be a session, you will have a gif version for every printed photo.
Printed picture – this is the picture that was printed with all the individual pictures compiled and your special message.
Individual pictures – when the machine takes 4 pictures to make the print, each one of those 4 pictures are also saved.
Sharing/Downloading Station.
Having access for your guests to share or download images live at your event. Creates a real buzz and keeps the people that were unable to attend in the loop.
Some photo booth machines have this function built in (all our booths do). However we turn this off and find it better to have a separate station for guests to share/download images. This cuts down on creating a long line of people waiting to use the booth.
Download stations let people download images to their phones using a special code or by scanning a QR code. A social media station lets your guests share images to various social media channels like facebook, twitter and Instagram.
Faster Shutter Speeds DSLR Cameras.
Some photo booths are equipped with a webcam or use the standard camera built into an Ipad. While these do work, they just can’t match up to the quality of a DSLR camera.
With a DSLR camera the attendant can increase the shutter speed. This allows you to capture pictures with motion better. A great example of this would be to have a group of people jump in the air, and the print show no motion blur.
You can get creative with this and add smoke, bubble and wind machines into the mix. It’s important to note that with faster shutter speeds you need brighter lighting.
Video Booth.
If a photo booth doesn’t seem to fit with your type of event, you have the option to record videos instead. The downside to this is you can’t print a video. With that said these work great for catching people’s reactions or messages at events.
You can record short video clips or have them repeat like a boomerang video. Most photobooth machines have software built in which allows recording videos and boomerang videos.
You could add effects just like photos with props or include smoke, bubble and wind machines.
Conclusion.
Hopefully this has helped you understand some of the functions avliable with photobooth machines. They can do more than just take pictures, the next time you hire a photo booth seek out some of the above features and get more from your hire.
I wrote an article last week which is similar to this. Called “how to get the most out of your photo booth hire” . This article goes into more detail with the extras most photo booth companies don’t advertise. This is either due to the fact there is a surprising amount of them or they just do get requested that often.
