DIY Photobooth

I admire your enthusiasm! Looks good so far - look forward to updates!

I'm very interested in seeing how your project develops. You may find the spotlight doesn't give enough light or that it could get far too hot. Instead you may want to look at getting a cheap flashgun and a sync cable to trigger it. This I think would be safer than a spotlight and give a better quality of light.

How are you intending to light it? It will yield quite grainy images without some light.

You might need to add a large translucent panel across the top (above where you have cut the hole) so that lights can be placed behind it.

Thanks Martin, I was looking at getting 2 either side of the booth above the iPad and aiming them down to were the guests will be sat but I'll definitely look into that. Do you know of any iPad compatible flash guns? Thanks again

Thanks for your reply, as mentioned above I was just going to buy 2 spotlights put them out the way and point them at the guests. But I'll look into the flash gun idea Martin mentioned.

another idea maybe put some tube lights either side of the screen instead? Ill be placing the chairs/seat approx 1.2-1.4m away from the iPad itself.

Apologies, i misread and thought you meant you were using a DSLR. I don't have an ipad mini but I am not sure the front camera will be enough of good enough quality to take decent photos.

From what I've read a lot of people are using a tablet like the Asus T100 which is a Windows 8 based tablet then tethering it to a DSLR and software.

Making a photo booth is something I considered last year but I soon realised that if I wanted something of professional quality then the costs soon mount up. Especially once I factored in the costs of props. We had a booth at our wedding last year and I paid £495 for three hours so I'm gutted you managed to find someone for < £300! lol

I guess it depends on what sort of end result you are expecting. But keep me posted on how you get on.

I'd go for continuous lights as I'm not sure the ipad will be able to focus well without some help? You should be able to get a decent light off ebay and site it outside the booth. Take out the top front and replace it with translucent fabric or plastic.

I suspect in the end you will save very little money and will still not get results like you'd get if there was a proper camera in the booth. Cheap photo booths usually use small DSLRs like a Canon 600D. That has a pop up flash and the flash fires through the translucent panel.

Hi Adam,

The booth is looking good and its nice to see your including one for your special day, they really are great.

I don't know if you would still be interested in a professional booth attending (it might save you the time in building one, and there really is nothing like a professional photo booth) however it you let me know where your located we may be able to help you out for the full day as you mentioned, obviously depending on availability. You can contact us on 03335 77 57 35 or email ****@************.*** our website is www.SwirlStudios.com if you want to see how great our photo booth looks!

I hope this can be of some use to you.

p.s. We are also currently giving away a free photo booth hire just by entering via our website

I think it looks great, and yes the outlay of it will be expensive but you get to keep it and use it again for other parties. Think it's looking fab good luck and keep us updated.

The windows setup with a camera was my other choice but purely to keep costs down I chose the ipad and it's something I can use out of the booth. The camera is surprisingly good for a front facing camera and it records in 720p and the auto focus is also very good I've never struggled with newer ipad/iPhone cameras. I'll be using an app that will take the photos in a vintage/rustic look too.

exactly my point on making one it will cost me around £400 to make and it's mine to keep. Our eldest is 2 a month later so I'm sure it'll be used again at her birthday party! Will definitely keep post updated. Thanks for replies.

You have done well Adam? I used to be a cabinetmaker a long time ago which is coming in handy at the moment with a few projects on the go, taxi photobooth and a french van photobooth is coming soon? also have you looked on youtube for ipad photobooths, there are loads of them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhBHxXivBZg oh and I have been roped in to making a folding candy cart that folds down in to the boot of a car???? if I ever get any time.

I've bought some old style wall lights and wired a plug to them so I can easily attach them to my booth leaving the plug to go inside the booth hidden and easily accessible to be plugged in to an extension lead along with the ipad charger and printer and the extension lead will discretely come out the bottom on the hidden side to be plugged in! I am going for a vintage look. Pictures below

Good luck with the project, I hope it works out for you.

We charge in the region of £450 for our booth which is very reasonable for a piece of equipment which cost £15,000 at your wedding. Not to mention all the extras like the leather album, unlimited prints, usb stick, an attendant, online gallery, professional prints using a dslr camera and dnp printer.

Got my shelf for the printer on, top and bottom on and conjured a device to hold my ipad in place. Nothing genius but it works! Behind the piece of square plywood I've glued an ipad case on so it slots in and sits flush against the face of the booth. It can't go anywhere when in place it's rather secure!! Next job is to hinge the door on the back, install my curtain pole and then it's ready for paint!

Fair play! So impressed I just bought some props and an instant Polaroid camera with film! Haha puts me to shame!

I'm well impressed, can you make one for me?

lol it's the same outcome I guess! I guess it comes down to how much time you wanna spend preparing things etc. It's not a quick job! Was your props expensive?

Thank you! I wish it was good enough to make and sell would be a fun little side business! Keep checking I'll be completing it this week or very near to completing it apart from a few tiny details!

thanks again

Got 2 coats of white paint on this weekend, next job is to sand it then stain it to make it look nice and aged! I've also bought some "chalkboard paint" I'll be painting a square above the photo tray side and putting a nice border around it so it looks proper! We will use that for either a message on like our names and the date etc or maybe just a couple instructions on using the booth? Not too sure yet, I've also purchased the wedding booth app, I'll upload some pics of the menu etc soon pics of booth below!

The guest book is optional I haven't decided wether I'll keep that on or not yet! The app saves all 3 separate photos on my ipad and the collage with message.

This is fantastic! It's the sort of thing my OH would do if our venue would let us have a homemade photobooth or if we had room in the house for yet another project.

Brill love it! But my oh made me two sweet carts so im into this kind of thing!! Well done

Thanks for All the positive feedback. This takes up all my shed space!!

Out of curiosity did you sell the things he made after? I'm unsure as to what we will do with it after the wedding as it's quite big and I don't have room to keep it forever!

Ha! Funny you should ask.. i now run a little sweet cart hire buisness

Got the pole on (need to put the end of it on still), lights are on and wired in. I have tried sanding the corner to then stain it all to look aged but the Velcro sand paper keeps falling off so that's been put in hold for a week! Next job to paint a square on the side with my chalkboard paint and border it and purchase the curtain. Not long to go now!also got a new prop box sorted. Pictures below.