DIY Photo Booth

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Photo booths are incredibly popular,  and with good reason: they’re a fun addition to any event. Any time you have a group of people people dressed up and enjoying themselves is a good opportunity to take some great photos.

While hiring a professional photo booth operator can be an easy and low-stress way to add a booth to your event, it’s not always within your budget and often does not give you the results you want.  With traditional photo booths, image quality can be low.  And with a photographer hired to take photo booth style headshots, your guests may feel less comfortable being themselves, usually can’t see the images right away, and typically can’t share them via social media on the spot.  However, if you have access to a DSLR camera and an android device, you can solve these issues, save yourself a lot of money, and have a great experience with SLR Booth for Android which lets you create the ultimate DIY photo booth.

What you need:

  • The SLR Booth Pro App
  • Canon or Nikon DSLR camera with Live View capability
  • Android phone, tablet, set-top-box or all-in-one PC
  • Something to hold your camera and device
  • A flash unit (optional)
  • A wifi photo printer (optional)
  • External input device such as a remote, or USB foot pedal (optional)

The SLR Booth App

Available on the Google Play Store

Camera:

IMG_0267

SLR Booth should work with any recent Canon or Nikon camera with live-view capability, but to be sure check the official supported cameras list

 

 

Android Device:

SLR Booth will run on any device running Android 4 or above with a USB port. Most devices have a micro-USB port, so you will likely need a USB on-the-go (OTG) adapter to plug your camera’s USB cable in. Each of the following types of devices can work, but will have pros and cons.

Phone

  • e.g. Samsung Galaxy S, Google Nexus 4 & 5
  • Can be mounted directly on the camera
  • Built-in cellular data means no need to find a Wifi or Ethernet connection.
  • Built-in battery means no external power required
  • Small screen is difficult to see from a distance
 nexus5

Tablet

  • e.g Samsung Galaxy Tab, Google Nexus 7 & 10
  • Bigger screen is easy to see from close up, but still can be more difficult to work with at group-shot distances than bigger screen options
  • May or may not have built in cellular data
  • Must be mounted separately from camera
  • Built in battery means no external power required
 nexus10

Set-Top box

  • e.g. Minix Neo X7
  • Can be connected to any monitor or TV, from 17″ to 80″ – standard VESA mounts exist.
  • Most external monitors do not have touch capability, so an extra input device is required
  • Need to use Wifi or Ethernet connection
  • No battery, requires external power
 cs918

All-in-one / Smart Monitor (ie, AOC mySmart, Acer DA220HQL)

  • e.g.AOC mySmart, Acer DA220HQL
  • Large screen easy to see from a distance
  • Touch-enabled
  • Can be mounted using VESA mount
  • Need to use Wifi or Ethernet connection
  • No battery, requires external power
 aoc

 

Mounting:

For the best photo booth setup, you’ll want your camera and screen up around eye-level, and as close together as possible – people tend to look at the screen rather than the camera. There are a variety of ways to mount your camera, device and flash, check out suggestions for mounting options based on your device

Printer:

IMG_3154

For a true photo booth experience, you’ll want to be able to print out the photos as they’re taken.  The SLR Booth app comes loaded with templates for  single 4 x 6 prints, a group of four photos in a 2 x 2 layout, and the popular filmstrip option.

The SLR Booth app will work directly with any photo printer that can talk the IPP protocol. One of the best options is a Canon Selphy wifi printer – these portable Dye-Sublimation printers will spit out a 4×6 photo in about a minute, and the prints are print-lab quality, dry and ready to handle right away.

Regular USB printers can also be made to work directly with SLR Booth by sharing them from a Macintosh or Linux computer.

Flash:

yn-560-iii

To get the best photos, you’ll need an external flash. A basic manual hotshoe flash such as the Yongnuo YN-560 is an inexpensive option with the same power as a flagship Canon or Nikon TTL flash, but around 1/10 the price. The important features are manual settings (for consistent brightness shot after shot), and tilt & rotate to allow you to bounce the light off of a nearby wall or ceiling for better quality.

 

abr800

The downside to hotshoe flashes is that they take batteries, which tend to run out when it’s least convenient. The other option is to use a plug-in studio flash. The benefits to the plug-in units is that they don’t require a battery, and can produce much more light than a hotshoe flash. The downside is that they typically need to be mounted separately from your camera. One exception is a ring flash like the Paul C Buff ABR800 – the camera is mounted within the flash, so the whole kit and caboodle can be mounted on one stand.

 

Trigger:

If you are using a touchscreen device such as a phone, tablet, or all-in-one, then you don’t actually need a trigger – the app can be operated from the touchscreen. But if you’re using an external monitor, or your subjects will be far enough away from the camera that they’ll have to walk up and back, you might want another trigger option. One option is to use a USB foot pedal – they’re cheap, stay out of the pictures, and simple to operate. Make sure you get one that is programmable, and set it to the spacebar key. These work especially well when your camera is set to manual focus, as you can guarantee that your subjects will be standing in the right place when they hit the trigger.

41hJ8VOMg9L IMG_3150

Another option is to use an android photo remote trigger. These are also inexpensive and easy to operate, and have the bonus of no cords to trip over. The downsides are that they require batteries, are easy to misplace, and might appear in your photos.

 

 

85 Comments

  2. Hello Greg,

    I have an Acer DA220HQL and it say that my device is not compatible, although I am not sure why?

    Thanks you,

    Jeff

    • Hey Jeff – that device looks to be running Android 4.0, which is too old unfortunately. Any chance there’s a firmware update available to bring it up higher?

  3. Hi, I found your site/software and I’m intrigued. I know it says “DSLR”, and this is probably a dumb question, but, will your program work with a Canon Powershot camera?

  5. Hello

    Cannot print on a Epson L 805 printer whit the app. I make the setting right and i have an error. The app send picture to print but printer not responding.

    Can you help?

  8. Just bought the Lenovo 10.1 and have a Rebel T6i and connections are fine, but app keeps saying that no photos were taken and it constantly just keeps retrying. I dont understand what im doing wrong. I have it on manual focus, battery is charged….and i dont see the photos in a 4/4 format like ive chosen, they show up individually in the gallery. Sorry, but I am very displeased so far. Have a wedding tonight to use this for and dont know what im going to do.

  11. Hi, so far i like ur app a lot, i paid for the full version, and i used the sms to send people the pocs but a lot of people would click on the link and nothing came up

    • Hi Sergio,

      Since the SMS link (like the QR code) doesn’t have any security around it, it is only active for a few minutes until it is downloaded for the first time. This is for privacy reasons to prevent people from guessing URLs and being able to download other people’s photos.

  12. Hello Greg,

    I do also have this problem with printing pictures within a certain time frame. I had to set the countdown time to 50 seconds to avoid losing print jobs.

    I use the Canon Selphy printer via wifi and it’s quite annoying for the users to wait 50 second until the picture will be shot… 🙁

    How is it possible to get rid of this issue??? Is it a setting mistake??

    Except from that, it’s an very good app!!!

    • Hi Mel,

      The next version will have a basic print queue built in, so you won’t lose a print job on your Selphy if the previous print hasn’t finished.

  14. I’m using your app and it works pretty good so far. But I have a problem with the printer. Whenever someone makes photos very quickly it sends the photo to the printer. But the printer (Canon Selphy via wifi) prints only the first photo and the others not. How can I solve this problem? I want to leave the photobox alone therefore it should work properly.

    Thank you for your resond.

  15. hello. if i want to use your software and i do not want to use the android photo button and i want to use an auxiliar button something like a big PRESS button, how can i do ? if i take a pedal where do i need to connect for working ? on the camera or to the tablet because i whould like also to have continue power on the tablet.
    Waiting your reply
    thanks

    • If you wanted to use an auxiliary button, the best option is probably a bluetooth one that can be configured to send the spacebar key. For a USB foot pedal, you’d need a splitter or USB hub if your device only has one USB port.

  16. Hi I love the app and when i tested it out at home it worked great, but when i was running a booth for a party and the house did not have wifi i could not get the app to recognize the printer even when it was plugged into the tablet. Do you have to have wifi to be able to get the app to find the printer?

  17. Hi Greg, I’ve downloaded you app and the issue what I have is that I can’t see the pictures that I’ve took in the gallery. And if I use the 4/4 template it will only show the last picture at the last position of the 4/4 template. I am using a Nexus 9 with the latest update and a Canon 7D. Cheers, Guenter

    • Hi Guenter – if you’re running Android 6 you’ll have to manually grant permissions to the app in your device’s settings screen. This will be cleaned up in the next version.

  19. Hi Greg,
    Just checking before I buy and try the app, I’ve got Canon 650D camera with Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (not sure USB OTG compatible). If I use the app and take photos of an event, where would those photos be saved. I would like to have all of them saved on the tab (preferably microSD) for later print or share. Please advise.
    Cheers

  20. Do you have a recommendation for which usb foot button to use for the trigger? I have found a few on Amazon that are
    programmable but they need software to do that? I assume you program the foot pedal and the button choice stays with it?

    Here are the ones I’m looking at and am unsure if they will work for android.

    http://www.amazon.com/Computer-Video-Racing-Pedal-Switch-Controller/dp/B0098PLPOI/ref=pd_cp_147_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=1MDRTSR6W9F761TV8S2K

    http://www.amazon.com/USB-Foot-Switch-Keyboard-Pedal/dp/B008MU0TBU/ref=pd_cp_147_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1MDRTSR6W9F761TV8S2K

    Thanks for your help in advance!

    Shane

    • Both of those look like the same one I used for testing – I had to program it to send the spacebar key using a windows PC, but the software for doing that was included.

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