How To Setup Dslr Camera For Photo Booth

How to build a photograph berth

THE MISSION

Set up a photo booth with your DSLR and a Speedlite

Time needed: One hour

Skill level: Intermediate

Kit needed: Tripod • Flashgun • Cable or wireless release • Photoshop • Lightroom

Download the prototype files for this project

This festive flavor, why not spice up your parties by setting upwardly a simple photo booth? Armed with a bag of costumes, some abode-brewed ale and a few questionable wigs, the PhotoPlus team did but that, descending on operations editor Adam's house for an afternoon of selfie madness.

Anyone can gear up up a photo berth, but if you lot want to become the all-time quality photos then it's worth going the extra mile by calling upon a few simple camera and lighting skills. Over the next few pages we'll explain how it'southward washed, from the gear you lot demand, to the best way to light your guests.

It's the lighting that can really drag your photograph booth beyond the ordinary. Sound lighting will make your guests wait nifty, and that ways they'll keep coming back for more than. At large events and fancy balls you'll often run across a full studio lighting prepare for this kind of thing. Merely a more pocket-sized approach can even so requite great results. Here a single Speedlite – bounced off the ceiling and wall behind the camera – provides a bank of even, flattering illumination.

Another fashion you can impress your guests is by setting up a rolling slideshow, so they can see their antics displayed on a screen moments afterwards they've been taken. Then, once the political party is over, you lot can go through the set of images, edit out any nudity, and put together a festive collage of your favourite shots. Nosotros'll explain how over the folio…

Pace BY Pace: Build your own photo booth

The gear, photographic camera settings and flash controls for great portraits of your party guests

01 Pick YOUR SPOT

Start we need a infinite to shoot – ideally pick a spot that'south out of the way of the rest of the political party. Look for a manifestly backdrop – a clear wall is ideal, but if not hang up a board or sheet.

02 ANGLE YOUR Flash

Set the camera upwards on a tripod and attach a Speedlite. Angle the head up and backside the camera to bounciness light off walls and ceiling to produce softer, more even calorie-free than if the flash was fired directly at the guests.

WHY A HIGH ISO

You might have noticed that our camera settings show an ISO of 800. But why use such a high ISO (and consequently outcome in images with increased dissonance) when our wink is capable of an output that would let ISO100? It's a practical decision. Nosotros want the flash to exist able to recycle chop-chop and we don't want to spend the party irresolute batteries. By using a higher ISO than normal we tin constrain the flash to a ISO800 is acceptable equally we're non going to be making huge prints hither.

03 Set YOUR EXPOSURE

Put the wink in E-TTL fashion then set your DSLR to Transmission exposure mode with the shutter speed at ane/200 sec, discontinuity at f/eight and ISO800; this way the flash output will accommodate to the exposure settings.

04 PUMP UP THE Ability

At this bespeak take a couple of test shots to perfect your settings. Bouncing flash like this can weaken the output and lead to underexposure, in which example apply flash exposure bounty to increment the output.

FLIP THE SCREEN

It'll make information technology easier for the guests if they can meet themselves while shooting, and then it helps if your camera has a flip-out screen. If non, you could perhaps hook your DSLR upwardly to a tablet or TV and display the Alive View feed. When your photographic camera is in Manual mode, Live View uses 'exposure simulation' to testify how the scene will look. Simply information technology only meters the ambient light and doesn't account for the Speedlite, so the feed might be very nighttime. Consider disabling exposure simulation for a clearer motion-picture show, if your DSLR has this option.

05 Utilise A RELEASE

A wireless or cablevision release stops the photographic camera getting nudged and makes it easier for your guests. Some remote controls apply an infrared bespeak that will trigger a variety of DSLRs.

06 PARTY ON

Now with everything set up, sit down back and let the fun brainstorm! If y'all similar, you could make the surface area more than berth-like past screening information technology off from the rest of the political party. Why not add festive decorations and signs besides?

Acme TIPS: Photo booth communication

The correct props and camera settings can make all the difference

01 GET DRESSED Upwardly

A skilful selection of costumes can bring a shoot like this to life, as well every bit add a piffling extra color to your photos. Alternatively, why not add together a chalk board for guests to write messages on?

02 Utilise A PHOTO BOOTH KIT

A simple photo booth set with cards attached to sticks is a fun, inexpensive choice. Kits like this can exist bought online. They usually come packed flat, and then you lot have to stick the cards to the sticks. We were rather surprised at how good they looked in the photos.

03 LENSES AND FRAMING

A fairly wide focal length is best for this kind of shoot – our Tamron 17-55 zoom hither was set to 21mm (on a ingather-sensor 750D). Frame a little loosely as your guests may not always manage to get into the perfect position – you can always crop in tighter later on.

04 EXTEND Machine POWER-OFF

We don't want the camera to turn itself off then go into the card and delay the car power-off to 15 minutes. Yous might also want to alter the image review time to 4 secs so that your guests have plenty time to check out the image once information technology'southward been shot.

Pace BY STEP: ENABLE FACE TRACKING

Modern DSLRs feature face up-detection for automatic focusing wherever your guests announced in the frame

Many newer D-SLR'due south take a hugely useful feature that makes Alive View focusing all as well easy. We simply set up the AF fashion to AI Servo, so the focus is continuous, and then we enabled face tracking in the autofocus carte.

The focus volition notice faces and snap onto them, whether they are close up or further away. If your camera doesn't have face detection try FlexiZone tracking. Alternatively, make a marker on the flooring for guests to stand on and prefocus on information technology.

Pace Past STEP: Set up a slideshow

With EOS Utility and Lightroom, display a rolling slideshow that includes new photos every bit shortly equally they're taken

01 TRANSFER THE PHOTOS

We need to transfer the images to a laptop equally presently as they're shot, either via a USB cable or using Wi-Fi, if your camera has it. One time continued, open the transfer utility and download images to the destination folder on your figurer.

02 AUTO IMPORT INTO LIGHTROOM

Open Lightroom, go to File>Auto-Import and straight information technology to the same destination folder. Then photos volition automatically appear in Lightroom equally they're taken. If yous like you can also cull to employ a preset on import, such as a blackness and white effect or a colour heave.

03 START A SLIDESHOW

Go to Lightroom'southward Slideshow module and hit play. As more photos go taken in the booth they're added to the loop – so everyone gets to see their photos moments afterwards they've been shot. Once done, why not attach your laptop to a Telly for a improve view?

STEP By Pace: Make a Christmas composite

Create photo strips and combine them with a groundwork image using simple Photoshop skills

After the party you're bound to have lots of fun portraits. The question is, what to do with them next? Why non try combining them into a montage, like the image on the previous page? We've supplied a few different backgrounds amidst the project files for you to try out, or y'all could, of course, shoot your own. Selecting and laying out your images in this way is not only a smashing way to display them, information technology likewise touches upon key Photoshop skills like selections, layer styles, filters and masks. You'll find a full walkthrough on the accompanying video.

Make A STRIP

Go to File>New to make a document sized 1150x3500px. Drag 4 images into it. Position them in a line. Become to Layer>Flatten.

DROP THE Background

Repeat Pace 1 to make more than strips. Open up upwards a background (we've supplied a few) and drag the strips in with the Move tool.

Add A SHADOW

Become to the Layers panel. Double-click a layer to open up Layer Styles. Add together a Drop Shadow. Alt-drag to copy the shadow to other layers.

BEND THE STRIP

Go to Filter>Distort>Shear to bend the strip. Next right-click 'Drop shadow' and 'Create Layer', then rotate the shadow slightly.

Add A PIN

Open pins.jpg and catch the Quick Selection tool. Select the pin then copy with Ctrl+C, become to the main paradigm and paste with Ctrl+V.

MASK AN OVERLAP

If areas of background need to be to a higher place the strip, duplicate the 'Background' layer, drag to the tiptop, then select and mask the details.

The atomic number 82 technique author on Digital Camera Magazine, PhotoPlus: The Canon Magazine and N-Photo: The Nikon Magazine, James is a fantastic general exercise photographer with an enviable array of skills across every genre of photography.

Whether information technology'southward wink photography techniques like stroboscopic portraits, astrophotography projects similar photographing the Northern Lights, or turning sound into art past making paint dance on a ready of speakers, James' tutorials and projects are equally artistic as they are enjoyable.

Equally the editor of Practical Photoshop magazine, he's also a wizard at the dark arts of Photoshop, Lightroom and Affinity, and is capable of some genuine black magic in the digital darkroom, making him one of the leading authorities on photo editing software and techniques.