New Booth

Well, it's been a year since we built our first booth, it's still in service but felt it was time to make some improvements. We're upgrading to a DSLR camera, touch screen, and a mono light flash to capture a better quality photo. Also just purchased a new printer that will automatically cut the strips in about 7 seconds, about three times the speed of the old printer.


Got started on the case units Monday night, had a couple of design challenges to overcome, but think everything is on track now.


I got the cut-outs done for the equipment and drilled speaker holes in the lower half. The cases will get covered with speaker carpet and case hardware. For the camera port hole, my wife didn't approve of the lens just sticking through a hole, so stopped at the blue borg tonight and grabbed a 4" trim ring for a can light.


Probably about it for the next week, waiting on hardware, but have to have the booth running by the 15th for a holiday party...nothing like a deadline to get things going.

Very cool. Seems like the photo booth business has kept you guys pretty busy.

Looks cool but what is it for exactly? This take pictures of wildlife?

glenn bradley said:

Looks cool but what is it for exactly? This take pictures of wildlife?

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Yup, it's to capture Larry and Dave up in the trees, can't let those moments pass.

It's a photo booth Glenn.

Here is short video testing out the new hardware and software...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exorBMj8ln0

Here is the original thread for the first booth if anyone is interested... http://familywoodworking.org/forums/showthread.php?25816-Road-Case-Hardware

Ah, for capturing pictures of human critters . Very cool indeed.

It's amazing how many of those critters are elusive of a camera.

You're going to have a whole stable of these pretty soon!

Brent Dowell said:

You're going to have a whole stable of these pretty soon!

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Working on it, but running out of space in the office to keep them. Thinking I may have to build an "R&D" room in the shop and let the business pay for it.

So even though I hadn't planned on working on this today, I got quite a bit done.

First up was the Light box. I've had a roll of soffit material in the back of the shop that came with the house. Unrolled it the other day and realized it was just what I needed to reflect the light from my mono light

.

Having a metal brake comes in handy once in a while...


Next up, had to weld up a bracket to mount the mono light


Next was fitting the computer, camera, and miscellaneous hardware I had on hand.


Running some tests, had to move the camera mount a couple of times, I think I've got it where I can capture both standing and sitting positions.


Well, that's it until the road case hardware shows up, have to cut in handles, fans, and fit doors yet, but happy with the progress today.

glenn bradley said:

Looks cool but what is it for exactly? This take pictures of wildlife?

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Oh, Glenn,

You are from a different era kid.

People would have cameras and shoot pics of people in interesting places or maybe just walking down the sidewalk. They would hand the person a card and for money would mail them the picture.

Then there were the photo machines that could be almost anyplace, especially at the beach or on one of the "alcohol rows" (a cloister of bars). The person put in their dime, posed, and then tripped the shutter taking picture of themselves or themselves and date or kids or who and whatever. These "instant" pics were not the best quality and were definitely not "Archival" quality.

Then there were larger units with a live photographer. Again, an enclosed booth. Here the photographer took the pics. It was usually 3 or 5. They were developed in the booth. They were better quality and had a better life span. You could not get copies. The photo paper was in the camera. There were no negatives to make more copies.

Now, don't you know more about this subject than you really wanted to know. All of these pics were purchased and made much like buying a candy bar at the check-out line in the grocery store. People didn't go there to get pictures. They got the pictures because they were there.

Dad

I just have to add that I got a real kick out of seeing this thread. I didn't know that anyone was doing that now with all of the insty cameras.

Lots of luck to you in your photo booth venture.

Enjoy,

JimB

Coming along very nice. Looks like this unit will take less floor space. Where did u get the caster..i like the look of that for mobile bases. Do u think its suitable?

Best of luck with new booth.

Question...those yellow straps look awkward. Do they do the job?
I am guessing they just to keep the screen tight up against the front and u need to remove to transport each time ...right?


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Rob Keeble said:

Coming along very nice. Looks like this unit will take less floor space. Where did u get the caster..i like the look of that for mobile bases. Do u think its suitable?

Best of luck with new booth.

Question...those yellow straps look awkward. Do they do the job?
I am guessing they just to keep the screen tight up against the front and u need to remove to transport each time ...right?

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Thanks. Got the casters at the blue borg, I have the same ones on the first booth. I've found they've worked well for moving and transporting, I lock them when in use. Between all being locked and the weight, it doesn't budged even when pushed.

I've actually got a vesa wall mount on order for the screen which will hold it more permanently. The straps seem they would work very well, but was mostly for a backup in the event the vesa doesn't make it in time for our next event. I've got some thin foam and the speaker carpet as a buffer between the screen frame and case on the front side. Again, I did this on the first booth and it's still holding up.

I got started on speaker carpet covering last night and installed some of the case hardware.



Have to take momma out for her B-day dinner tonight, so will probably be tomorrow before I can get started on the lower cabinet and installing more hardware and equipment. Still need to add a shelf for the printer and UPS and make a couple of safety covers too.

Looking good, Darren.

so what do you do with these booths? do you rent them out to people having parties?
its very cool.

allen levine said:

so what do you do with these booths? do you rent them out to people having parties?
its very cool.

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Yup, we provide them for weddings, parties, corporate events, etc. (http://www.buzzkcphoto.com). We set them up and always have an attendant on site for the event.

These are the base and main units just before I installed the hardware and rear doors.



We used the booth for it's first event last night. Sorry no pics of the equipment, we were immediately busy and stayed that way for 4 hours straight, line was consistently around the corner all night long. My wife and I were suppose to go enjoy the party, but as busy as it was we both ended hanging around and taking turns giving the attendants breaks.


Other than a slight lighting adjustment, everything ran flawlessly. Had about 450 people go through the booth and had as many as 12 people in it at once. Unfortunately it was in the contract that I couldn't use any pics for our use, so can't post any other than some of me and the crew. Was very happy with the quality of the pics.