Photobooth fun

Last year, one of my BFFLs — best friends for life — began planning her wedding. Fellow gadget girl, Ness and I, were the bridesmaids and there began "The Committee" of bride and bridesmaids, as we were referred to, meeting regularly to discuss venues, music, outfits and entertainment. Ness proposed that we should have a photobooth, but given the cost of renting a commercial one, she thought that it was worth setting up one of our own. Over the year, we did just that, setting up booths at events, refining the setup for the big day.

Ness is the photography buff between us and wanted to use an SLR for a better result than we could get out of a tablet or PC webcam. She volunteered her equipment, complete with external flash attachment, hooked up to her Acer ultrabook and controlled through DSLRBooth. She even used a wireless SD card to automatically transfer photos to her iPad so people could look at the pics throughout the evening. We chose not to worry about print-outs, although there are instructions on the web if you'd like to go that far.
Photo Booth Software for DSLR Cameras - dslrBooth | Photo Booth Software for your canon/nikon dslr camera & pc/mac laptop. FREE Trial. Most straightforward and loved photo booth software out there.
There are many how-to articles if you do a google, so I'm not going to do that over. What I wanted to discuss was more around the environmental aspects of making this a success.

1. Create a dedicated space: by the time you have the tripod(s), the masks and hats, a nice backdrop, the camera and controlling computer that's a lot of paraphernalia. We learnt early on that having a walled area to create the booth hides a lot of mess and also releases the participants to really get into the fun out of sight of non-participants. 
2. Lighting is important: even if you have a flash, reasonable lighting is helpful so the quality of the pics is good and you won't need to do a lot of processing after. 
3. Have signage: tell people where to look or they have a habit of looking at the laptop screen instead of the camera. 

Over time we've improved it. The wedding booth photos were great and everyone had a lot of fun but Ness has continued to set up booths at parties and now it's looking pretty slick. But for a one-off, family event, you don't have to get as fancy as we have to get a lot of fun and some pretty awesome mementos.

Some of the additional kit we've added include three backdrop stands, of the kind used by photographers, that you can purchase for around $50NZD each from online stores on TradeMe and eBay. Although it's fun to use colourful backdrops, if lighting is poor, try using a lighter background: recently we resorted to an off-white blind. Ness has also added a foot-pedal trigger purchased from DealExtreme. USB Foot Switch Keyboard Mouse Control Foot Pedal

Take your pic... Bluetooth remote shutter

One of the other websites I maintain is a blog on style. It's not so much a fashion blog because I don't bother to follow the trends, more a compilation of random thoughts interspersed through tips, tricks and photos of cool shoes. But despite the lack of fashionista, I do take photos of my outfits — over 400 of them across various social media channels — and very few are mirror-selfies or have been taken by other people.

The Style File

So how do I manage to get these increasingly arty shots without a photographer? It's this handy little Bluetooth gadget that helps me out these days.

In the past, I used a couple of apps and used my iPod Touch as a remote for my iPhone. This worked fairly well but since an iPod Touch is fairly large it's quite obvious when my hand isn't tucked behind me. So when I spotted this when looking for studio lights in the photography section of TradeMe, I thought it was worth a try for a mere $18NZD.

Being designed for use with either iOS or Android Bluetooth capable devices, I was quite excited at the thought that I would be able to use the remote shutter with my HTC One because the camera on the HTC is so crisp and the colours always look great. However, although it worked (using the iOS button, not the Android one) it was rather sporadic and had a tendency to drop. I'd end up taking maybe a couple of shots before I had to reconnect the devices. This was the case regardless of using the native camera app or the Camera360 one that's suggested by the manufacturer of the remote. Frustrating.

I decided that I would try it with my iPhone 5s before setting it aside. Now that was a game changer. Using the native iOS camera, this works very well. The Bluetooth auto-connects easily and the camera's auto-focus works so the majority of photos are quite clear. The lack of auto-focus function had been a real challenge with both Remote Shutter Pro and Camera Plus with Airsnap: a number of each set of shots would always come out blurry.

That's not to say it works perfectly. Occasionally it triggers a rapid shoot and I'll get 20 versions of the same pose but the majority of the time it works really well and is now my primary method of #ootd capture.

You can find these types of remotes from a variety of resellers including through eBay, TradeMe and DealExtreme.

Take your pic... Android

Yesterday, I covered how to use Remote Shutter Pro to remote control the camera on an iOS device from another. Today, let's talk about Android.

Take your pic... iOS | Gadget Girl Files

Finding an app for Android was a little bit harder. Not that there weren't any, there are a number of options. The issue is finding an app that's compatible with both hardware that you intend to use. It's much easier if you're using two HTC One, for example, but not so easy if like me you're running one Acer Iconia and a Nexus 7.

Finally settling on Camera Remote by Busy WWW, I went ahead and tried to replicate what I do with Remote Shutter by using the Bluetooth capability. Those aren't the only connectivity options for Camera Remote but is the one I'll talk you through today. You can also use Camera Remote from a web browser or PC but for this I'm looking at one Android device to another.

Although more secure, perhaps that iOS, for ensuring that you are explicitly connecting two devices, I found connecting quite a bit more time consuming and frustrating. First you have to make the two devices discoverable, then connect, then agree the pairing once you've checked they're publishing the same key.

Once you've managed all that, you can switch between front and rear cameras, toggle photo or video mode and manipulate zoom.

For all its capability, if you're in a hurry and not so proficient technically, I wouldn't suggest depending on this app. However, it is free and does offer you the capability on Android. I'll certainly give it another go once I've bought an HTC One in a week or so and get a little more proficient with it.

Camera Remote - Android Apps on Google Play

Take your pic... iOS

Ever want to use your iPhone to take a group shot, not so obvious selfie or photo from an awkward position and wish you could have a camera remote? Well, if you have another iOS device handy, you can.

There are a number of app options that let you use Bluetooth to control the camera from one device to another but the one I've settled on and happily used for nearly a year is Remote Shutter Pro by i-App Creation Co., Ltd.

For NZ$2.59 you get all the convenience of a live streaming view from the camera on the remote device but if you only need the remote capability and maybe a timer function, the free version, Remote Shutter - Camera Timer with Lens, might be enough. Certainly, it's worth trying the free version to sample the app.

This app is compatible with iPhone, iPod and iPad on iOS 4 or greater, as both remote and camera.

As well as the remote camera function and timer, Remote Shutter can apply a number of filters to add special effects to your shots. Remote functions include toggling of flash, multi-pic snapping, camera light, front and rear camera switching, and timer. With the Pro edition you can save to the camera rolls of both the camera and remote device, handy if you and a friend both want copies.

Remote Shutter - Camera Timer with Lens filter