David and Jess Photobooth

coldclimb

My wife and I touring Asia for the winter cost us the main photography job at our friend's wedding last weekend (It was so nice to be able to go to a wedding and NOT have to shoot everything ) so I volunteered for the opportunity of setting up a photobooth at the reception. This is the first time I've tried this, and the only printer I was able to procure was one of those cheap gimmicky photo printers you'd buy your grandma, and my laptop is dead so I had to set up my desktop on a picnic table, but overall the photobooth idea is awesome, and we were able to give the guests and the happy couple some fun shots while building some experience for ourselves.

If you're curious about the photobooth idea, I got it from Joe Federer: http://www.federerphotography.com/blog/?p=282
And there's a good article from him in the member forums at http://www.theprofessionalphotographyforum.com/

David and Jess had their wedding outdoors in the only few hours of sunlight we've experienced here lately. We rolled in a little early and scoped out the venue, which was the Museum of Alaska Transportation and Industry. I didn't want to mess around with setting up a backdrop outside, and I knew nobody was going to be inside the museum unless it rained, so I elected to use the reception itself as my background and sort of set the scene. Kelsey was leary of our printer's longevity, so we went for a white vignette to save ink, and I threw in some desaturation for a touch of fun. As a final touch, we threw in a pile of ridiculous props for the folks who didn't want to be normal. Once people figured out what we were doing, traffic picked up and our poor printer was put to the test pumping out its prints as fast as it could.

This is a learning experience for us as we intend to build this into a product worthy of selling, so if anyone has done this or just notices something we can do better, do feel free to speak up! We certainly learned a lot, but we're never finished learning either.

And now for some photos!









One of the groomsmen brought his own prop. He has the entire costume and is working getting himself gigs locally as the "Valley Stormtrooper".




The bridesmaids jumped into the fun with great enthusiasm.




These two are brothers. The posing was startlingly realistic and I had to shoot fast... :rofl




So that's it, our first shot at doing this for clients in the future. On the shopping list now is a laptop and a fast quality printer. Hope you enjoy the photos!

Agnieszka

Oh my, I'm sorry .... but I'm going to be honest, this did not work at all. The idea of a photobooth is great, and .... I'm not 100% sure (I'd yet have to see any good "other options") but I'd say #1 thing you need is the BOOTH / or a backdrop ... something cozy where people feel comfortable doing silly things.

Your background is WAY too busy, there is too much stuff going on. It doesn't give one the feeling of a photobooth, it just looks like you were standing there with a camera and taking photos.

So I'd say get yourself a backdrop, make it cozy ... and as for the post processing (and that's just my opinion), get rid of the white edge burn & watch the colors

sweet caroline

I agree with Angie. The background is VERY distracting. Here's an example of a photo booth I did using a canvas drop cloth at a fundraising gala:







Now, I had some issues with wind, and couldn't set up in the orientation I had planned, so I was fighting some direct sunlight. In other words, not a perfect example. But it does illustrate what can be done pretty simply. I used a portable background system that I got for $120. The canvas was $30 on the local home improvement store. I placed props on a table and on a coat rack. I had to set up my flashes without umbrellas because of the wind on the rooftop location.

coldclimb

Thanks for the honesty both of you! Okay, I do want to make sure you know that I know that there's a lot I can improve on. Most of that is stuff I can already see, but don't be shy about pointing stuff out anyway, cause I'm sure there's stuff I'm not considering too.

Agnieszka: what about the colors didn't you like? I wasn't thrilled myself with the white vignette (I blame that on Kelsey entirely ) but I thought the colors were nice for a sort of surreal processed look, rather than an ordinary studio look. I'm curious what you think can be done better?

I do understand that not having a backdrop is certainly less than ideal, but as for setting up a real one I elected not to in this case due to the uncertain weather conditions and all-around hassle of doing it outdoors with the wind and uneven ground and such. There was an awesome piece of machinery there that would have made a great rustic antique backdrop, but I would have had to set up in the driveway with cars driving by, so I settled for the dance floor in the background to give it a feel of the wedding, rather than the parking lot or the plywood back of the catering booth. If I shot this indoors I'd definitely do a backdrop though, and I see what you mean about it being busy.

I'm curious about framing for setups like these. I went with full body because it fit the action we were getting, but I notice a lot of people who have done this go for 3/4 or just torsos.

Anyway, thanks for the replies, and don't worry about being honest with me, I appreciate it!

sweet caroline

The reason I didn't do full length shots is that I would have had to get far back or have wide angle lens! Then, there's the issue of how much background you'd need. I like the idea of full length, especially if you are getting action, but the execution seems more difficult. Of course, it's also kind of fun to do the traditional small space photo booth thing. It forces people to get close!

The color... hmmm.... looks dreary, as opposed to edgy. It looks like a bleak, overcast day. I would either go black and white or saturated/high contrast with the colors, if I was not wanting to do more natural processing. That's what the party/club photographers do around here.

smurfy

Here are a few from my first photobooth at a wedding in April. I didn't take any of them; my second shooter ran it. The background is a Phototek that came with a stand and posing bench from B & H. It took about two minutes to set up and was really worth investing in.
(http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/109122-REG/Photek_P_6000_90_P_6000_90_Peoplepopper_Velour.html)

coldclimb

sweet caroline wrote: »

The reason I didn't do full length shots is that I would have had to get far back or have wide angle lens! Then, there's the issue of how much background you'd need. I like the idea of full length, especially if you are getting action, but the execution seems more difficult. Of course, it's also kind of fun to do the traditional small space photo booth thing. It forces people to get close!

The color... hmmm.... looks dreary, as opposed to edgy. It looks like a bleak, overcast day. I would either go black and white or saturated/high contrast with the colors, if I was not wanting to do more natural processing. That's what the party/club photographers do around here.

Good points! Thanks! I can see how getting people closer is good, especially for the families at the wedding that are more interested in a nice portrait than beating each other with boxing gloves... I think I may have gotten focused on the fun part of the photobooth and not paid enough attention to the portraiture aspects.

And Smurfy, I had a couple backdrops with me at the time and could have set them up, and now that I see a few more examples I guess I probably should have taken the effort. Stepping back and looking it this impartially I can see that the photos others have taken with backdrops definitely have turned out better results, so maybe I made the wrong choice. Lesson learned!

Thanks again for the comments everyone!

asprin

nice, the 3rd one is my favor