The Photo Booth Solutions Blog

Photo Booth International sells a lot of different kinds of great photo booths loaded with both Social Booth and BYO Booth for hashtag printing. Over several years and thousands of events, they've compiled a few useful troubleshooting tips that they wanted to share.

5 Great Photo Booth Troubleshooting Tips

We use Social Booth often for various events. We have found the multiple applications in one piece of software to be convenient. With any software, its effectiveness is limited by your ability to use it well. So we are sharing a few tips and tricks that have served us well.

1. External Flash Mode

When using a DSLR camera with external flash, be sure to select the external flash box in the general settings tab. This should resolve any issues with photographs being dark.

2. Missing Windows Printer 

If your printer isn’t working, take a look at your printer in the Devices and Printer section of the control panel. If it is “greyed out” your computer does not recognize it and is not communicating with it. A good rule of thumb is to plug in and power on all electronics before powering on your computer this ensures that when your computer is booted that it recognizes all components. So following this simple and restarting your computer should fix the problem.

3. Camera Auto Focus

At some point, you will encounter an issue with your Camera not focusing. This is a common issue and is easily solved by making sure your camera is set to M on the dial. Then change your lens to AF(auto focus) then take a picture, doing this allow the lens to set it self at the distance where your guests will be standing. Once this is done you can change the lens back to MF and your ready for your event!

4. Attract Mode

Social Booth offers a number of cool features one we like is the “video attract mode”. You’ll find it under the Extras tab. It allows a short video to be played on the screen when the booth is not in use - think of a screensaver video. You can easily make a quick video with your logo and some text. Store it to ‘my documents’ then head over to the Extras tab and check the box for video attract mode and select the file right next to it. Now when your booth is not in use it will loop that video - there is also a pretty cool generic one built in with it.

5. Green Screen

Social Booth also offers one of the easiest to use green screen software. You can load up to 6 images into a folder on your desktop. Label it according to your theme or something easy to remember. The images must be 1200 x 1800 (we use pixlr.com to resize images) or the software will not be able to use it. Once your images are ready. Select the Green Screen tab then select the GS background folder once this is done, check the box to enable green screen and you're good to go. For more advanced tips on green screen check out http://support.photoboothsolutions.com/support/solutions/articles/3000004745-social-booth-settings-green-screen

This post was brought to you by Photo Booth International check our cool photo booths at https://photoboothint.com/
 

Forbes is reporting today what BYO Booth users have known for years, that Hashtag Printing is hot!  Author, Lauren deLisa Coleman may be preaching to the choir when she says, “ It seems that any and every gathering worth its digital weight is incorporating the hashtag printing station”, but the fact that this is being published on such a mainstream, i.e. non photo booth software related website can only mean one thing for photo booth operators…More people looking to book hashtag printing for their events!

The article focusses on Hashtag Printing as a part of corporate activations and attributes its popularity with what it calls the “Hashtag Printer Effect”

“As focused as an attendee may be on speed-networking, dart-in film viewing, and drive-by panel listening, people will stop and actually take a photo at a designated location if they know that once they place that photo on Instagram or Twitter with a previously assigned hashtag, they can also obtain the same photo from a station in their hands within just seconds. Call it the Hashtag Printer Effect which, although such printers have been on the scene for a bit, seems to be growing in popularity and a making its way as an emerging trend just the last few months.”

Coleman goes on to describe how Hashtag Printing is a win-win for clients as it encourages user interaction with their brand on Instagram & Twitter, while offering the incentive of a free takeaway photo.

“The whole scenario is rather ingenious because the technology encourages social media exposure of an event and/or brand while also offering a printed souvenir from the event. The prints, themselves, can even be branded. More importantly this is about technology driving engagement and impressions. Case studies involving names from Acura to the University of Michigan can range from a reach of a few hundred thousand to half a billion!”

Although the article only talks about corporate events, something all photo booth operators strive for, Hashtag Printing is increasingly popular at other events like weddings and mitzvahs.  Anywhere with young people with phones, or basically pretty much everywhere.

While reported last year as an area-to-watch, it seems that the hashtag printing phenomenon will become a bonafide hit. This could be due in large part to the fact that a large part of the Millennial demographic gravitates toward experience. Millennials, for the most part, are on social media platforms. 

While reported last year as an area-to-watch, it seems that the hashtag printing phenomenon will become a bonafide hit. This could be due in large part to the fact that a large part of the Millennial demographic gravitates toward experience. Millennials, for the most part, are on social media platforms. Thus, capturing experience via social is a a winner. 

So if you haven't checked out BYO Booth hashtag printing software yet, now's the time, while it's hot!

It's official.  The Mirror Booth craze is everywhere and more and more people are taking the DIY approach, building their own hardware and using Social Booth for their Mirror Booth software. Take long time Social Booth Customer, Selwyne 'Get Bizzy' Browne from Real Time Slomo Video Booth in Barbados.  He was busy building his own DIY Mirror Booth when we announced the new Mirror Booth features in Social Booth.  It was perfect timing for Selwyne, who immediately put the video host animation playback and signature features to good use.  Despite Social Booth coming with built in animations, Selwyne, a professional video editor was also able to also create his own custom animations to create a unique experience for his guests.  He has built both a full size and a table top Mirror Booth and plans to offer both for sale in the near future.  

Where are you located?
Barbados, in the Caribbean. 

How long have you been in the photo booth business?
About 2 years. We started with a Slomo booth, using a BlackMagic URSA recording high speed footage, editing and emailing clips on the spot. Then we went into photo booths because of the number of request we kept getting. 

When did you start doing Mirror Booths?
We were watching the tech for about a year now, but could not get into it because the upfront cost of an off the shelf mirror booth was just too high. I'm a DIY type of guy, and as soon as the curtain was pulled back, I made my move and built my own. We had our first booking with our mirror booth in December, 2016. Since then we have done about 25 events and added another mirror booth that we shipped off to Trinidad and Tobago. 

What made you choose Social Booth for your Mirror Booth over other software?
Although we have not been in the industry for very long, we have done a lot of events and we always update our service every 6-12 months. We are very aware of what our market wants. So after testing other photo booth software, Social Booth had exactly what we needed, plus the developer listens and is so on top of what people want. If a new feature is needed, in a few blinks it's there. So naturally when mirror booths became the thing to have, Social Booth already had the ability to play animations using the host feature as well as being able to add a signature. It made perfect sense. 

How do you create your own animations?
I am a film maker. I shoot and edit so I used Adobe After Effects and do what ever I want. I have so may different animations already it's not funny. I may consider selling some. 

Are you planning to sell mirror booths?
We had so many requests, so yes that's definitely our next move as we plan to fully customize your mirror depending on your market. 
We have the vanity size as well as a full mirror option. 

How can people find out more about your company?
We gare launching our website soon, but for now our Facebook page has a lot of info on the many experiences we offer. 

What is a Mirror Booth?

A Mirror Booth goes by many names, magic mirror, or selfie mirror.  It is basically a photo booth where instead of the users seeing themselves via the live view of the camera, they see themsleves by looking into a mirror.  The physical mirror booth is often set up as a full length mirror with a frame, although smaller table top mirrors have begun to hit the market.  The mirrors tend to play animated prompts to encourage the guest to pose and to display cute, funny sayings after each shot.  The mirror booths are usually composed of a PC, mirror booth capable photo booth software, like Social Booth, a large flatscreen monitor and an IR touchscreen overlay. Many DIY Mirror Booth manufacturers also build some sort of box or exnclosure for the equipment.

Looking for the source files to make your own mirror booth animations?  You can find it here.

Digital Trends has a great article about hashtag printing with BYO Booth.  Author Andy Boxall describes using hashtag printing at a wedding. “Here’s how it works. Say it’s your wedding, and you and all the guests want to take and share photos of the happy day. That’s great, but why wait until after it’s all over to enjoy them? What you need is a way to print them out, plus wouldn’t it be cool to have your own hashtag for the day? That way, everyone could follow along, and pictures wouldn’t get lost out in the ether.”  

That's hashtag printing with BYO Booth in a nutshell.  It's the disposible camera at the reception table for the smartphone generation.  Crowdsourced photos with instant gratification.  Andy then goes on to describe the rest of the hahstag printing process, “It sits in the corner, connected to the Internet, and monitors Instagram and Twitter for your special wedding hashtag. When it finds tagged pictures, it fires up the printer and spits out your own real-world copy of the photo. On the big touchscreen, an ever-updating grid of thumbnail pictures shows all the photos taken already, which can be tapped, enlarged, viewed, and even printed again. Everything is customizable, from the look of the printer and its stand, to the software and the hashtag, and even the surround on the photo itself – making it part of the whole party experience.

Check out BYO Booth Hashtag Printing Software.

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