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David and Jess Photobooth
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!
) 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!
John Borland
www.morffed.com
www.morffed.com
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Comments
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
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.
Agnieszka: what about the colors didn't you like? I wasn't thrilled myself with the white vignette (I blame that on Kelsey entirely
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!
www.morffed.com
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.
(http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/109122-REG/Photek_P_6000_90_P_6000_90_Peoplepopper_Velour.html)
Good points! Thanks!
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!
www.morffed.com