Building my own Photobooth.

[berrywise]

Ever since I found the site Red Cheese a few years ago I've always wanted to build my own photo booth. I've never really had any reason to do it though. Then, as of about a month ago, I got engaged and talking it over with my finacee we think it would be really cool to have a photo booth at our reception. This way we could have photos of our guests that allowed them to be creative.

I figured I'd start a post here in the chance that anyone has some ideas for doing camera to computer capture, lighting, construction, or any other ideas to make this thing as good as it can be (on a budget of course )

Here is what I kind of had planned in my mind.

1. Design the whole thing so that it can seperate at the middle. I figure this will make it easier to be able to move it through a doorway. If I build it in two sections, each wide enough to clear a standard doorway it will allow more room inside the booth for multiple people to be inside it. I could use some kind of latch on each side to snap it together for strength. This will also make it easier to transport in the back of a pick-up truck.

2. Not sure what color to paint the whole thing but I plan to paint the ceiling white and use an off camera flash shoe cord to bounce the flash off the ceiling providing even lighting inside the room. This is an area I'm not quite sure how it will work if the booth is overly crowded to get good lighting throughout.

3. Have the camera (I have a Nikon D1h with a fish eye lens that I figure to use) hooked up via firewire to a laptop computer to store the photos. I plan to have everything hidden behind a wall to keep people from screwing with the equipment. Based on the sample photos I've seen, everything is in good focus no matter where the person is in front of the camera. I wonder if the camera would be best off being a bit back from the opening in the wall and maybe use a piece of plexi glass to cover the opening to keep people from touching the camera. The opening would have to be wide enough to keep it from showing up in the photo. Not sure about this part.

4. I'd also like to have the laptop (or even a desktop machine) hooked up to an external monitor that could be located inside the booth, maybe even a second on the outside for others to see, so people could see the picture that was just taken for a few seconds. Not sure what kind of capture software that is out there (not to expensive) that could be used to accomplish this. The Red Cheese booth takes five consecutive pictures, all seperated by five second between each. Just like the old school photo booth that you might find at a mall.

5. Use a remote trigger that could be connected to larger button so someone inside the booth can trigger the camera themselves. The camera would be then set on a few second delay before the picture is taken.

4. Have a clock somewhere on the booth and sheets of paper with the website where people from the wedding can go see there photo. On the sheet would be a place where they can write the time they had their photo taken and the website would be setup so pictures were in order by the time they were taken (just like the redcheese site). I'd like this whole thing to be running on its own.

Anyone think I can pull this off? Have any suggestions? Tips for connecting camera to computer, to external monitor so that pictures can be seen after the photo is taken?

Here is a little drawing I came up with for what I think it might look at. Imagine it to have sides with a door and curtain to enter from one or both sides.



Tips? Advice? Am I crazy?

[Pose]

No advice, but I'd like to add that I love the idea, and your design seems very solid. Sounds like a lot of fun. Oh, and congratulations on the engagement!

[ken1953]

I kind of like this idea...rather unique and definitely crazy...but in a good way!!! I might suggest instead of a couch or chair, that you do a couple of stools that can be moved/removed if more than 2 or 3 want to get in at once. Also this would make it easier and lighter to move around. Just a thought.
Ken

[walterick]

I love this. How inventive!

I have a few thoughts:
1.) If you end up building it in sections, make sure it is sturdy when re-assembled for use. Last thing you need is a munchkin getting hurt because the photo booth fell on them.
2.) I don't know enough about DSLR's and computer software to tell you how to do the screen. Though obvioulsy it would be cool if it also acted as a realtime preview, like the LCD on a p&s digi. There must be software out there that you could leave running that would show the people in the booth in real time and then hold the picture after it is taken for a second.
3.) I would recommend a lower flash source, not as high over your subjects. Bounce flash off the ceiling would give shadows in the eye sockets, etc. One of the fun parts of traditional photo booths is the lighting was crappy and overexposed so everyone looked good! I would look into building a "softbox" into the front panel of the room using aluminum foil or similar on all the walls and lighting your subjects head-on. Or at least firing an auxiliary fill-flash at the same time as your main light.
4.) I agree with Ken, use stools or something that people can clown around on and get goofy with
5.) The idea of the remote trigger wired into the box is ingenious. My old 8008s has a setting for the shutter that waits 10 seconds, fires one shot, waits 5 seconds, and fires another. I don't know what your camera has but that function would come in handy. The other possibility is just to let them squeeze the trigger and take the shot whenever they want!

Again, I think this is a very clever idea, and I can't wait to see what you do with it!

GL
Rick

[berrywise]

Thanks Rick!

Good suggestions. I was thinking a few hinges with latches where you could actually put a padlock on it to keep it from opening. I definately want it extra beefy because knowing my friends they will put this thing to the test by trying all kinds of whacky hijinks in it.

I also posted up a thread in the lighting forum in hopes someone there could figure out the lighting needed for such a device.

This should be good

As for shooting tethered to the computer I've been doing some online research and found a program called Bibble that might actually be the program I'm looking for. I'm gonna download the free trial tonight and see how it works.

Tethered Shooting Bibble Pro only Bibble Pro Only

With your supported camera, you can shoot directly to your computer's hard drive and see your images instantly. Captured images are automatically named per your convention and large previews are displayed right away.

[dmm96452]

Canon has EOS capture software that comes with most of the newer DSLRs that allows you to trip the shutter remotely. You may want to get on the Nikon forum and start a thread to see if they have similar software available.

And, like those that posted before me, I love this idea. Good luck.

[freygr]

By all means have a glass between the subjects and the equipment with padlocks! You will not be able to keep an eye on the booth. There will be too many things happening. The bad guys have balls would not think anything about walking in and taking your equipment to get money for the next high, so make it hard to and nosy to take the equipment and it will not grow legs. This all is true for wedding gifts!