Upgrade your next reunion, wedding, corporate event, bat mitzvah, or house party from fun to unforgettable by setting up a professional-style photo booth. You don’t need tons of expensive equipment or an enclosed box with curtains; you just need a, minimal lighting and background supplies, and some willing participants. These instructions are for a basic booth, but it can be modified and personalized. Share your own tips and recommendations in the comments. Grab your camera First and foremost, you will need a digital SLR camera and a tripod. Since you’re shooting stationary subjects with a strong flash, you don’t need a high-end camera to get good images—most consumer level DSLRs will work. For this example we used my trusty.

Choose a backdrop Start with a flat white or gray background. You can use a blank wall, muslin or fabric (which give a textured effect), or for the best results, seamless background paper. These inexpensive rolls of paper are typically held up by a (two stands and a crossbar). Are used for keeping the backdrop from unrolling too far, and for weighing it down on the floor. You can get seamless backdrops in almost any color, but be careful not to overshadow your subjects. Simple and clean is usually the best bet.

Rent or buy lights There is more than one way to successfully light a photo booth. For this example we keep it simple and cost-conscious by using one-light—a monolight flash unit in a soft box. You’ll need the following equipment:. Monolight flash unit. Soft box. Light stand. Sync cord and safe voltage sync adapter A monolight is an all-in-one strobe flash unit that plugs directly into a the wall via an AC power cord.

For these basic shots you need a or stronger. A goes over the monolight, diffusing the light to create a flattering effect. The assembled unit mounts on top of the adjustable light stand. The connects your camera to the monolight. If you have one of the many consumer-level DSLRs that don’t have a PC sync port, get a compatible hot shoe to PC sync adapter. You can buy most of these items together in. The cost of this type of kit starts at $160 (not all kits include sync cords).

Diy Photo Booth Mac

If your photo booth is going to be a one-time-only affair, consider renting a light kit from a local camera store like. Rentals start at around $25 per day and the rental desk will even show you how to set it up. Most monolights have an infrared receiver that can be triggered wirelessly by your on-camera flash, but this doesn't work very consistently. A better option for working wirelessly is to invest in which trigger the flash without requiring a direct line-of-sight. If you want to take your photo booth to the next level, you can add additional lights.

Extra flashes can be pointed at the background to eliminate shadows and fill lights can be used to eliminate any strong shadows on your models. Hot shoe flashes work great for both of these. Build your set Pick a spot against a wall, near an outlet, and away from too much traffic (one errant foot could bring your lights crashing down). If it’s daytime, you can set up next to a window to take advantage of the natural light.

Set up your backdrop, move three feet in front of it and tape an X on the ground. This marks the general area where people should pose. If you want shadows behind your subjects, move the marker closer to the background. If you prefer less shadow, bring it closer to the camera. The camera and soft box will be approximately the same distance from your subject. What that distance is depends entirely on how you want to compose your photos. If you have space, full body shots are great for capturing colorful outfits and giving people room to goof around.

A tighter crop (waist up) gives you that old-school photo booth feel and it works great in cramped events. When you’re shooting with just one light, shoot your subjects straight-on to avoid unflattering harsh shadows. A good rule of thumb is to line up the bottom edge of your soft box up with the subject’s chin and place the camera directly below that. This should give you even lighting with just enough defining shadows. Select the right camera settings The top image was taken with one light, the second with an additional fill light pointed at the background, and the third with props. While you can set your camera to automatic, the results won’t be consistent from person to person. For optimal images turn the dial to Manual, set your aperture to F8, and your shutter speed to 1/250 (this is the for most DSLRs but make sure to double check your camera’s documentation).

If you have a hand held light meter, use it to test your lights and go by its recommended settings. Next, look at the test images and tweak your aperture until you have your desired look. Tether to your Mac Give your photo booth extra appeal by shooting tethered to a laptop. Each image will instantly pop up on your screen much to the delight of your guests. This is also a handy arrangement if you want to save images directly to your hard drive instead of swapping out memory cards all night. It’s best to have the screen facing away from the set, or else you’ll have a party’s worth of pictures with everyone looking distractedly off to the side.

You can use programs such as and in conjunction with your camera’s proprietary software. Each camera is different, but typically you must set it to PTP (Picture Transfer Protocol) and connect it to your computer over USB or Firewire. For detailed instructions on shooting tethered, visit your camera manufacturer’s site. Add bonus features Unless you are working as a paid photographer, chances are you would like to mingle and enjoy your event instead of being glued to the camera.

One fun option is to use a wireless remote for your camera. Guests can take their own photos with the press of a button. Remote controls are affordable, especially if you go. Another highly recommended photo booth addition is props. Put out a box of hats, boas, sunglasses, fake mustaches, silly outfits, and whatever else you can find. Your subjects will take much more relaxed and entertaining pictures.

Now you just need to post your images to an online gallery like Flickr, Picasa, or Facebook and share the goods.

It seems diy photo booths are all the rage these days. But have you noticed that most of the tutorials out there aren’t all that easy or affordable? For, I was determined to figure out how to make a diy photo booth without a lot of money or effort. I think I succeeded. My method was really easy and affordable, and we were thrilled with how it all turned out. After a little research, I came up with a plan for creating a diy photo booth that met our particular needs – i.e., one that could withstand the acrobatics of 10 tween-aged girls! Here’s how I’ve organized this diy photo booth tutorial: The Required Materials The Process.

Step 1: Location in your home / party venue. Step 2: DIY backdrop material. Step 3: Photo booth decor. Step 4: Photo booth props. Step 5: Photo booth rules. Step 6: Photography – camera, lighting, etc.

Step 7: Photo viewing / sharing. Required Materials: Here’s what I used (the important stuff, anyway):. Backdrop material: 3 cute plastic tablecloths from the Dollar Store!.

Props: a basket of masks, mustaches, hats, etc. Camera: my Nikon DSLR mounted on a tripod, with a shutter release remote. (I’ll explain!).

Photo booth decor – string lights, cardboard chandelier, etc. Poster board for the ‘Photo Booth Rules’. A bench for sitting.

The Process: Part 1 Step 1: Choose a location in your home / party venue. A lot of tutorials show you how to actually make a physical photo booth. But since this busy mama ain’t got no time for that, I decided to just use a location in our home that mimicked a photo booth set up.

Our basement mudroom is a long and narrow space, so we decided to set up the photo booth there. You can get a sense of it in the following photo. (Sorry about the fuzzy shot!) You will also want to consider natural lighting when picking the right spot in your home / party venue. Lighting was definitely the biggest disadvantage in our location (i.e., the basement). However, keeping the tween party confined to the basement far outweighed my need for perfect photos! If you don’t have a long narrow space like this, you could easily just set up a backdrop (without covering the sides) on any wall in your home.

Just make it wide enough that you don’t get any wall in the shot, or move your tripod in closer. (Covering the side walls here just decreased the chances of getting empty walls in the pictures.). Step 2: The DIY Backdrop Material I wanted do the backdrop as inexpensively as possible since it was just for a child’s birthday party.

I opted to make it from 3 large (9ft) plastic table cloths. They cost a grand total of $6. Gotta love it.

I doubled them over so that you couldn’t see through them, and attached them to the ceiling using painter’s tape to make it easy to take it down without ruining the paint. They worked perfectly fine, however the plastic did cast a bit of glare in the photos, so if you have a bigger budget (say, for a wedding), I’d definitely recommend using fabric table cloths instead. Step 3: Photo Booth Decor Depending on the theme of the party, you might also want to decorate the space a little. I hung a cardboard chandelier from the ceiling, and strung some lights (which also served as additional lighting).

I also hung Broadway musical posters since the birthday party had. Step 4: The Props You’ll need a stash of photo booth props that party-goers can have fun with. Since our daughter has been amassing a collection of costumes since she was little, it wasn’t hard to find a bunch of great stuff around the house.

But also purchased a few at the Dollar Store and Michaels, and I couldn’t resist making some mustaches-on-a-stick. I organized everything on a little table so that you could find a prop you liked without too much searching. If you don’t have a stash of costumes hanging around, no need to worry. There are literally a tonne of places to find printable, free diy photo booth props on the Internet. All you have to do is search Google using “free diy photo booth props” or “free photo booth printable props”. Just to get you started, here are few cute ones.

Step 5: The Rules I wanted the diy photo booth to be fun. But let’s face it, I wanted my camera equipment in one piece after the party. As well, I didn’t want any of the girls feeling left out. So I put together a few photo booth rules for the ‘rule-follower’-types, and hoped they’d help sheriff the others, lol. I’d highly recommend doing the same thing!

OK, so now your diy photo booth is simply gorgeous. But what about the photos, right?.Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered!