If there was one thing that I might want to modify on the photo booth it would be the background or rim light. I would like to get some strip lights with egg crate grids and place them on either side of the background facing them towards the subjects at a 45 degree angle or less. This would help separate the subjects from the background better, giving them a nice edge of light around them. I don't want to change from the black background, which looks sweet!
See -
Photo booth
Having a photo booth at our wedding was the best decision we made! See the video I made below. What a great way to remember the perfect day.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7gYSEpy_y0
These are awesome set-ups! One question -- have you thought of a way to have the photos print then and there for guests to take home?
ReplyDeleteThanks!
I have thought of the setup for printing. I have found that printing on site can be one of the most time consuming and frustrating aspects. In most recent cases I have not had any printing on site. Yes, I know it is a bit shocking. What I found was that there would always be a large backup when it came to printing. Even if every aspect of the printing works perfectly, the time that it takes to print usually caused "hey, it's my turn!" backups.
ReplyDeleteThe setup that I use with Nikon Camera Control Pro starts up and runs whether that camera gets reset or switched out, or even if the computer runs out of batteries or is rebooted. I only have to check on it every once in a while for my own reasons because it just keeps on going. I would most likely spend my whole night fixing printer problems if I put a printer back in the mix.
I have lucked out that many people don't want prints anymore, but they would rather have the pics for their Facebook page or on their iPhone. To this end what I do is post the images on my smugmug page in a password protected directory so that the guests can download the files immediately after the wedding. I thought about using Capture One Pro instead of Nikon Camera Control Pro (so that users could use Capture Pilot and immediately see the pics on their iPhone), but there are too many things to play with on Capture One that I think that it would be sure to take a bit more attention than straight Nikon CCPro. The more that people can play, the more they will as the night goes on, which is why a simple, stripped down interface with no frills and just one button to push works well. Plus, a cheaper MSI wind computer that can get destroyed works just fine.
My idea was to have a simple, but elegant lighting setup as opposed to the front lighted photobooth standard look that needs little attention and is fun to use. The main comment that I got is "I love the lighting." I could have set it up to light everything so that they could pile crowds in front of the camera, instead of having to be almost aligned due to the lighting, but I found that most shots were of one to four people and once they got the hang of it the had a blast. The setup must be fast and provide immediate feedback to each user and if one is trying to print or play with photos while the next is trying to see the picture they just took it ruins the experience.
One thing that I might try in the future is to use my mac with Nikon Camera Control Pro and set Capture One Pro 6 to use a hot folder to watch for new files deposited by Nikon CCPro. Then I could have several iPads to pass around the wedding that people could see the pics that others were taking all night, bringing everyone into the experience. It is all about fun and bringing people together at an event. Being able to see the photos as they are shot at the event will encourage others to try it out and people will talk even more about their photobooth and the wedding or whatever event.
Another thing (not sure of the app name) you can do is have the guest text a code (to your site) and their images will automatically download to their phone. Or they can enter their phone numbers (once they finish taking their picture) and it will load it to their phone. This way instead of passing around several expensive ipads, you will have one stationed and locked for them to use and view. Otherwise, those ipads will work out! LOL!!!
DeleteI tried Nikon Camera Control Pro with Capture One and Capture Pilot. It works great!
ReplyDeleteSee - http://vigorotaku.blogspot.com/2010/12/move-over-lightroom-here-comes-capture.html Updates.
I have to try this. I want a light-weight photobooth kiosk-stand system ever!!!!
DeleteThe dye sub printers weights (forever) 25 lbs plus. So, I need to go ahead and make sure my setup is easy... One of those SET IT - FORGET IT!
What I do is this:
ReplyDeleteI use a Nikon D600 which shoots on 2 cards. One is set for Raw, and the other for lower res jpg. The raw card stays in the camera all the time.
I shoot about 10 shots, take the jpg card to the printer (Hiti P510s), hit print, pop another card into the camera, and get back to shooting.
By the time the pictures have been printed, I'm ready to swap the cards and repeat the process.
It's not by any means automatic, but I get to control which shots I print, and in which quantity, which helps keep the customers happy.
Don't bother replying to this post, because I will probably never see it again.
Thank you