Portable, collapsible, (yet another) DIY Photo Booth

[nickels]

I am in the process of building a portable and easily collapsible photo booth for parties. At the cost of around $350 per event, building one seemed like more fun than renting one. The main frame of the booth is 3/4" PVC pipe. I am going to add one screw per connector to make it sturdy when set-up. The sides will be wrapped in fabric which is attached by Velcro straps on the sides and curtain rings up top. My dimensions are 5 feet long, 4 feet wide, and 6 feet tall. The 6' piece will be made from PVC cut to 4' and 2' to make it easier to store, break down, and transport. The photo part is my old Canon A620 controlled by PSRemote software. There will be two buttons, a giant red one to take the photo (left mouse click) and a yellow rectangle one to switch between black and white and color (right click). I have a portable photo printer and an extra old PC to run everything. I'll get into more specific details about the build if anyone is interested. This project is pretty specific to my skills and current equipment so I am not buying much equipment, just PVC, wood, and a few buttons. I already figured out how to make the buttons work with a simple dissected mouse and some solder. More photos and detailed build instructions coming soon.

[UFO]

Sounds interesting --- yes, photo's please! 

Bookmarked ...

[Drnick]

Always nice to see a non arcade project on here.  It sounds a lot like how someone on here setup their skeeball net. Bring on the Pics.   

[nickels]

My skeeball net was built using the same materials. Weird! Once you go PVC I guess...

It may be non-arcade, but it uses a lot of the same techniques. It also uses a little creativity to getting buttons to work without an iPac or some other key encoding device. The directions for opening a Microsoft mouse and connecting buttons directly to it are probably the most useful tips I can bring with this project.

I'll take lots of photos and show some sample booth shots. I have about 45 days to complete this project and have it working perfectly. I have my PVC, buttons, and now it is time to take a trip to JoAnns to get lots of fabric and velcro. Hope this works out, my wife has a big party coming up and I want this to be a big part of it.

[DaOld Man]

Two words:
Pict Uers!!

Well, you know what I mean.
Good luck on this, I have thought about building one but knew I wouldnt have anywhere to store it in the long times that it wouldnt be used. Looking forward to seeing your ideas.

[mike boss]

A member of my wife's family is in the Photo Booth business.
They do weddings and really any event that someone would want a photo booth.
It's a nice unit and they gave me a tour of the unit before, how it works, etc.
It has an external monitor and that creates a slideshow of pictures taken on said event.
They have the ability to run an advertisement on the monitor also, or even add a logo to the pictures.
So say "company X" put on the event there add would play on the external monitor, and when your photos print "company X" logo would appear.
They told me the software is what separated this booth from others they looked at.
None the less I was really interested in it, and I'd love to see how yours turns out.
Seems like a cool fun project.

[brihyn]

I wanted to build a photobooth for our Relay for Life events, but realized that there was no freeware (or even cheap) software to do the job with Windows.
I decided that it was time to put my development classes to use and wrote my own program. It's quite obvious that it's not up to commercial levels, but it does a good job...you select your web cam to set it up, and then every time you have a new set of photos, hit a button on the screen. It takes 4 pics (with 10 seconds in between) and then automatically assembles them to a single photo and prints out to a 4x6 print (configurable to auto-print or not)
So the reason I bring this up is...if you need free software to do the trick and this sounds like it'll work, shoot me a message and it's yours. Just share your plans for the booth itself as a trade

[floriske.nl]

Nice to see a photobooth build here!

Building one is a lot of fun!

I built one out of scaffolding planks in 2010 for our wedding.  It wasn't lightweight but consisted of 4 separate parts:



We sold it after our wedding and it changed owners a few times since than but it's still in use.

Good luck building yours!

[talkgeek]

just saw this project, my daughters on at me to build one for use at her wedding in Feb, so keen to see how this progresses

[matsadona]

Could someone make a list of good software? Yes, I can Google but since there are tons of them out there it would be nice to hear about actual experience within this audience.

I know Sparkbooth has been discussed in previous trends, and it seems great. Still interested in alternatives though.

[Rick]

Interesting! I'll be watching this build!

[mcseforsale]

I build all kinds of crap with PVC....bike storage, soccer nets, etc.  Interested and SUBSCRIBED.

AJ

[nickels]

I learned a new rule with this project - never think to yourself, this is pretty much just a simple box, how difficult can it be?
So far, DIFFICULT! The PVC frame for the booth was a breeze. The box for the PC, monitor, and buttons - not so easy.
Here is a gallery of my images to date:

http://imgur.com/a/043F3#0

The box is coming along, and I have one week to finish this now. The software is called PSRemote and it controls my Canon A620 camera. I used an iPac and AutoHotkey to make the buttons act as left and right mouse clicks to control the software. A left click (the big red button) starts the photos, and a right click (orange button) changes from B/W to color.

I think I found a way to make my Photo Booth a little more versatile than anything I've seen yet - the camera aim is adjustable. I am connecting a mini-tripod to the top of the box so that the camera sits on that. Tall or short people can adjust the aim so it is perfect for them. This will also be good to aim it lower for the kid parties. This also allows me to remove the camera from the photo booth when not in use. The cords coming from the box are the power cord and the USB control cable for the camera.

Still working out some kinks, but this is almost finished. I am going to put the box on a small entertainment center covered with a black sheet or table cloth.  We now have tons of props. A few screws, some vent holes, and a coat of black paint and I am finished. Oh yeah, have to cut a hole in the one black felt panel so that the camera and box are inside the booth.

Final photos coming next week.

[UFO]

Was thinking about this build the other day... looking forward to seeing the final images! And some test shots from the booth!

[DaOld Man]

I like the idea of the adjustable camera, all the photo booths Ive seen make the subject adjust for the camera.
It would be neat if you could incorporate software that automatically adjusted the camera frame for the subject. You wouldn't have to worry about people breaking your camera trying to adjust it. But I know you don't have time for that.

I too, am looking forward to finishing and action photos.

[nickels]

Here is a teaser from the weekend. I cut the hole in the fabric for the photobooth:


Here is a shot of me taking a photo of the photo booth while it is running so that i can see where to put all the graphics for on-screen instructions.


I hate photos of me so I stuck out my tongue at you for looking at it

A coat of paint and some test prints and we are good to go!

[nickels]

Sorry for the delay, busy busy busy. The photo booth was a success! Leson learned, don't wait until the last day to test the printer. It kept jamming so I went with no print-outs, online only. That was a bummer but people still loved it. Here are some sample shots:

Me and my kids testing it out


My friends and kids being silly


That is how the print-outs would have looked if they worked. I have individual high-res shots of each photo. The props were a hit. Any questions let me know and I'll try to answer them. Sorry, no photos of the booth itself but it is a boring 4'x5'x6' tall black box. Not much to look at but it did the trick.

Thanks!

[johnpwilton]

Maybe I overlooked it but, what software are you using? I'm planning a jukebox for my bar and would like to incorporate a photo booth into it as well. Having trouble finding a good (preferably free) software though.

[brihyn]

John-
I created a photobooth app last summer for our relay for life. It's nothing glamorous, but takes 4 pics 10 seconds aparts, and prints them to a 4x6 (I think that's the size I had) photo, with some onscreen directions.
It's nothing incredible, but it worked well, using just a webcam
I'm more than happy to share the app if you want it. Consider yourself a beta tester for an app that will never really be public?
shoot me a message if you're interested.

[nickels]

Maybe I overlooked it but, what software are you using? I'm planning a jukebox for my bar and would like to incorporate a photo booth into it as well. Having trouble finding a good (preferably free) software though.

The software that I am using isn't free, but it is fantastic:
http://www.breezesys.com/PSRemote/

This is very specific for the camera that I am using. I got lucky, as my old camera happens to be a Canon A620, which works perfect for this software.

Some of the features of PSRemote:

Control Software with only mouse clicks - This is how my buttons work. My buttons simulate left and right clicks.
Green Screen with custom backgrounds.
Custom (adjustable) layouts for printouts.
Ability to add custom graphics for onscreen directions, slides between photos, and what to do at the end. All of the slides are customizable for the photobooth.
Add a logo to the printouts.
Adjust camera exposure and flash options.
Adds a live display, and options to show shots taken between photos.

They have software for other cameras as well:
http://www.breezesys.com/Photobooth/index.htm

This software isn't cheap but it is certainly full of features and works amazingly well.

[nickels]

John-
I created a photobooth app last summer for our relay for life. It's nothing glamorous, but takes 4 pics 10 seconds aparts, and prints them to a 4x6 (I think that's the size I had) photo, with some onscreen directions.
It's nothing incredible, but it worked well, using just a webcam
I'm more than happy to share the app if you want it. Consider yourself a beta tester for an app that will never really be public?
shoot me a message if you're interested.

I appreciate the offer, and this may work for johnpwilton! The software that I am using works for me and is fully loaded with features. Good luck with your app!

[nickels]

My final update (unless someone asks a question) - sorry for the self bump. We just had a Halloween party so I set the booth up again in my basement. This time I remembered to get a photo of it in action.


and here it is with some 6-7 year old kids (faces blurred) around it so you can get the scale of it: