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Author Topic: Photobooth for my Daughter's wedding UPDATED 10/28/2011  (Read 16412 times)

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Fordman

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Photobooth for my Daughter's wedding UPDATED 10/28/2011
« on: October 10, 2011, 12:26:49 am »
Hello All,

After seeing a few photobooth projects on BYOAC, I decided to build one for my Daughter's upcoming wedding. I searched the 'net for some ideas and some where so so and others were, well lets say just down right dumb! I wont say I have the best design, but it is portable and sets up in less than 7 minutes.

Here is where it started:





I let Lowes do all the cutting. Its 5/8" (8' length x 4' wide) thick single sided plywood (x3). I was going to use 3/4" plywood but the weight of it was prohibitive. I had 2 pieces of the plywood cut as in the pictures above. I had 12" hacked off the short side and the long pieces are 7' in length and 1 at 30" wide, the 2 smaller pieces are 7' in length and 9" wide (x2 sheets of plywood).



As for the top, I had then hack 12" off the short side and cut the top at 7' in length and 30" wide.
I assembled to 2 uprights with old door hinges I had. You can see them in the pic. The 2 uprights fold right up!

The top was fitted with 1"x2" furing strips for 2 reasons. 1) so the 9" sides dont just fold in. 2) so I get a top that fits right everytime.




I attach the top with 4 - 3" wood screws in each corner of the top. Nice & sturdy!

I made a touchscreen monitor stand out of the scraps from the 3 sheets of plywood that were 4' in length and 12" wide.






Here it is unpainted and without the curtain






I racked my brain with how I was going to put curtains on it. While at work, we have machines made by a German company called Reishour (they stone cut gears) and in one of the machines, it has a curtain that automatically closes to prevent chip from flying out of the cutting area. The curtain follows a bowed rod when closing and it hit me! Just do it like the machine does! Simple!






I cut a couple holes in the uprights 3" from the side and 1 1/2" from the top. I had some 1/2" PVC pipe in 10' sections in the garage, I cut them down to 84", bowed them and set them into the holes. When I placed the rods in the holes, I got a bonus from doing that, it made an already strudy project into one that had no movement to it at all!  :cheers:

I added 2 flouresent lights onto the top for lighting. Works GREAT!




Next: Paint

My Daughter's wedding colors are brown, cranberry red and burnt orange (autumn colors).
I painted the 2 uprights and brown. The monitor stand is painted cranberry red. I was going to make the curtains burnt orange but finding some within my budget has been a difficult task (cant find them at goodwill either).








I decided to attach the monitor stand to the upright (were going to have a lot of little kids and some not so intellegent teens & adults at the wedding) and I had to feed the wires from the touch screen to the computer. In the pic below, you can see the 2 screws attaching the monitor stand through the upright as well as the wire feed hole.


The computer and printer are sitting on a table just outside of the booth.


I added and instruction sheet inside the booth. Easy to use and no need for mouse/keyboard.


After getting a splinter from the back upright when walking into the booth, I was going to just sand the rough edges down and repaint. I found that vinyl siding J-channel pieces have a 5/8" opening for siding, so I bought 6 pieces (12' lengths) to cover any rough edges on the uprights and top that people may place there hand.

Im going to pray paint the J-channels burnt orange (waiting on my Amazon order  :banghead: to get here) to go with the wedding color scheme.

As for construction, thats about it.

Software: I tried about 8 different pieces and 2 stuck out. Sparkbooth and Webcam Photobooth from Breeze Systems. I like Breeze Systems a little better than Sparkbooth, but for the price ($99 a 1 year, 1 machine license and $99 each year after). Sparkbooth was a one time $59 fee with lifetime upgrades (I guess lifetime depends on how long the programmer wants to work on it). I went with price! It is easy to use and setup as well. I did have to add a Griffin Powermate for a cancel process button (Ive been begging the software developer to add a touch button to the screen for cancel, but so far he hasnt). It will post to Facebook or twitter (input your setting ahead of time) and or email. You can have custom backgrounds or overlays. www.sparkbooth.com

EDIT 10/11/2011: The Programmer for Sparkbooth added an on screen cancel button today! YAY! Now I can remove the Griffin Powermate and use it for something else!

Computer: You need a decent dual-core computer to run just about any of the photobooth software choices there were. Mine is a 2.8ghz Intel dual-core, 2gb ram, W-Vista ( :P) machine. I had taken it down to XP-SP3 but Sparkbooth was created with a Mac and actually made for Win7, so it ran on XP, but not that well. Back to Vista we go (I have a Dell OEM Vista DVD).

Printer: HP-F300 Series. Its a decent printer and will work well for what it is being used for.

Parts List:
4'x8' sheet of 5/8" think single sided sanded plywood (x3) @ $21.00ea
door hinges (x12) @ $1.85ea
undercounter lights (x2) @ $6.00
1/2" PVC 84" lengths (x2) @ $1.95ea
72" white shower curtains w/hooks (x4) @ $3.00 includes price of hooks
brown paint (1 gallon) @ $18.00
cranberry paint (1 quart) @ $9.00
burnt orange spray paint (1 can) @ $10.00
Vinyl J-channel (x6) @ $2.25ea (on clearance at Lowes)
2.8 ghz Dual Core computer w/Vista @ $85.00
Elo 15" Touchscreen @ $60.00
Microsoft LifeCam Cinema @ $70.00 (overkill for webcam needed)
HP F300 Printer @ $15.00
Griffin Powermate (for cancel process button) @ $20.00
Cheap-o set of speaker @ $5.00
My time for this project (about 14 hours build and computer/software configuation) @ $PRICELESS$

Here are some of the results after adding custom backgrounds and a few hours tweaking:
Here I am making faces and some are with my boy!












I'll get some pics folded up for storage in the next day or so!

UPDATE: 10/19/2011 Here are the folded up pics of the photobooth. I'll take some of it in place at the wedding reception.






Fordman
 
« Last Edit: October 28, 2011, 06:37:46 pm by Fordman »

eds1275

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Re: Photobooth for my Daughter's wedding
« Reply #1 on: October 10, 2011, 11:25:27 am »
That's excellent! It's probably better you had white curtains on it in the end because it will help brighten up the photos. The pics look pretty good even with the fluorescent lighting, and if she doesn't know about it yet she will be proud when you unveil it!

BobA

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Re: Photobooth for my Daughter's wedding
« Reply #2 on: October 10, 2011, 05:51:43 pm »
Nice idea getting it to collapse for storage and movement.  Lots I have seen are just to big and too heavy to be handy.   I bet lots of people will be interested in using it for their up comming weddings.  :applaud: :applaud:

Fordman

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Re: Photobooth for my Daughter's wedding UPDATED 10/19/2011
« Reply #3 on: October 19, 2011, 11:24:40 pm »
Thanks for all the kind words!

Ive added pics of the photobooth all folded up and ready for transport.

I had some guest come to the house and try it out and it was a hit!

Fordman
« Last Edit: October 19, 2011, 11:32:17 pm by Fordman »

Fordman

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Re: Photobooth for my Daughter's wedding UPDATED 10/28/2011
« Reply #4 on: October 28, 2011, 06:41:48 pm »
Here is the photobooth at the wedding.





All went well at the wedding with 211 photo sessions, all were printed and 79 were posted to a facebook page we created for the wedding. Plus I used my laptop to project the photobooth pics on the projection screen while the wedding reception was taking place!

Now, what does one do with a photobooth when your event for making it is over?

Fordman

BobA

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Re: Photobooth for my Daughter's wedding UPDATED 10/28/2011
« Reply #5 on: October 28, 2011, 09:45:39 pm »
Rent it out. 

Dazz

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Re: Photobooth for my Daughter's wedding UPDATED 10/28/2011
« Reply #6 on: October 31, 2011, 01:50:59 am »
Rent it out. 
I was about to say this same thing.... Rent it out to other weddings.  Easily a quick $100-150+.  People put in crazy amounts of money into weddings and receptions.  Renting out photo booths like this would be a great thing to bring in a little extra $$.



BobA

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Re: Photobooth for my Daughter's wedding UPDATED 10/28/2011
« Reply #7 on: October 31, 2011, 12:54:44 pm »
$1500 will not even get you proofs from lots of wedding photographers.   I'd say given the scale of weddings now days a fee of $500 plus $150 delivery and setup plus supplies would not be out of line.