Photo booth help/advice

[Joefbs]

So my wife wants me to set up a photo booth for my daughters first birthday this week. I have previously done one for a baby shower and I was not happy with the results. The gear that I have available is two flashes, one shoot thru umbrella, canon t5i with kit lens and 50mm 1.8 prime.

Does anyone have any advice on how to set up, good posing ideas, lighting set up, basically any tips from those of you out there that have done this type of thing before.

Here are a few of the photos from my first attempt. I know that they are not great so please don't tear me apart too much. These were done with one flash and the 18-55 kit lens.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[The_Traveler]

these are fine. IMO, these have a bit too much black and thus look a bit 'dusky'
A photo booth isn't for great art.
With >1 flash you can balance out the shadows a bit and you will be OK.

 

[Big Mike]

I agree, don't worry too much about the lighting. A photo booth is about getting good expressions and having fun,

That being said, the thing that stands out for improvement on the examples, is the creases sheet for a backdrop. When you do this again, either hang the sheet better or lose it altogether.

 

[FocussedPete]

Hi Joe,
If you look at the CD's you got with your camera, you should have EOS Utility - this is great for tethered shooting. I've used Lightroom, but the EOS Utility is faster. Do you have a spare battery for the camera? The images will be downloaded to your laptop, so camera storage is not a consideration.

Prefocus the camera, and then switch the lens to manual focus - one less thing for the camera to hem and haw about before tripping the shutter.

If you have a spare screen available, connect it to your laptop. Configure for this screen. Set EOS Utility to display the photo on this screen while the other screen has the technical stuff on it. Turn the spare screen so they can see it from the booth area.

Your lighting is a little underpowered - if you could add a second umbrella to balance the light on either side of the camera, that would be fantastic. You're looking for fast recycle times here, so using lower powers would suit best. Crank up the ISO a little to help here. And keep lots of spare batteries at the ready! I used el cheapo studio strobes so this was not an issue.

For a backdrop, I used the cheapest curtains I could find and they worked a treat. Failing that I always managed to find a suitable wall in the venue.

I gave the person in the booth the remote (I started off with a wired remote and then progressed to a wireless remote) only if they asked for it. Otherwise I took the shots myself. People tend to take too long to pose themselves 'properly', count to 5 or 10, and then press the button. I prefer to just keep clicking! It's amazing how quickly they get in position when the camera keeps firing! Some times they just assumed the camera took the photos by magic. Most times they simply didn't care. If they take the remote, you have a button on the laptop to trigger the camera!

A few hats, funny glasses, boas, toy guns and swords etc. are all the props you need. If you give to much variety, they'll take too long to choose. Fewer choices = quicker decisions.

Mostly, people will get into the swing of it and will require no posing help. For young kids, keep a chair to hand so they can stand on it. Sometimes I have simply picked junior up and inserted him sideways into the frame!

I'm actually writing a website discussing this very topic (PhotoBoothIdeas.net - If you want to build your own Photo Booth - this is the place to be but it's only in the early stages, which is no good for you at the moment.

Good luck.... ENJOY!!!

 

[Joefbs]

Hi Joe,
If you look at the CD's you got with your camera, you should have EOS Utility - this is great for tethered shooting. I've used Lightroom, but the EOS Utility is faster. Do you have a spare battery for the camera? The images will be downloaded to your laptop, so camera storage is not a consideration.

Prefocus the camera, and then switch the lens to manual focus - one less thing for the camera to hem and haw about before tripping the shutter.

If you have a spare screen available, connect it to your laptop. Configure for this screen. Set EOS Utility to display the photo on this screen while the other screen has the technical stuff on it. Turn the spare screen so they can see it from the booth area.

Your lighting is a little underpowered - if you could add a second umbrella to balance the light on either side of the camera, that would be fantastic. You're looking for fast recycle times here, so using lower powers would suit best. Crank up the ISO a little to help here. And keep lots of spare batteries at the ready! I used el cheapo studio strobes so this was not an issue.

For a backdrop, I used the cheapest curtains I could find and they worked a treat. Failing that I always managed to find a suitable wall in the venue.

I gave the person in the booth the remote (I started off with a wired remote and then progressed to a wireless remote) only if they asked for it. Otherwise I took the shots myself. People tend to take too long to pose themselves 'properly', count to 5 or 10, and then press the button. I prefer to just keep clicking! It's amazing how quickly they get in position when the camera keeps firing! Some times they just assumed the camera took the photos by magic. Most times they simply didn't care. If they take the remote, you have a button on the laptop to trigger the camera!

A few hats, funny glasses, boas, toy guns and swords etc. are all the props you need. If you give to much variety, they'll take too long to choose. Fewer choices = quicker decisions.

Mostly, people will get into the swing of it and will require no posing help. For young kids, keep a chair to hand so they can stand on it. Sometimes I have simply picked junior up and inserted him sideways into the frame!

I'm actually writing a website discussing this very topic (PhotoBoothIdeas.net - If you want to build your own Photo Booth - this is the place to be but it's only in the early stages, which is no good for you at the moment.

Good luck.... ENJOY!!!View attachment 84380 View attachment 84381 View attachment 84382 View attachment 84383

Thanks Pete! I really the the idea of tethering so that people can see themselves. I am gonna try and play around with that within the next few days. Thank you so much for the advise!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Designer]

Your examples:

#1 fairly good flash
#2 flash too close to the lens
#3 this is where you would use your second flash for fill (fill only, keep the power down on the one near the camera)

 

[Joefbs]

So I bought another shoot thru umbrella along with a silver and gold reflector umbrella. So now I have two flashes and two umbrella modifiers. Does anyone have any suggestions on lighting set ups for something like this? Also, was thinking of a black background.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk