Category5 Technology TV - Building A Photo Booth

Building A Photo Booth - Part 2

S06E25
March 12, 2013

Robbie is joined by Abigail are her fiance Kyle as they design and create a working photo booth for the upcoming wedding for around $200.

This video is provided free of charge. If you enjoy what we do, please consider becoming a Patron so we can continue offering more great content.
Support This Free Content

This episode is sponsored in part by: netTALK DUO, Netflix, Eco Alkalines and Cordery Electric.

Topics Covered:

Robbie Ferguson and Abigail Smith present from the Category5 studios in Barrie, Ontario.
{play 4:13}Upcoming Event: Sunday March 17 @ 8pm - Meet and Greet with Category5 Team + Live Music by Eric Kidd at Wickie's Pub in Barrie, Ontario. Event Pages: Facebook, Google+.
{play 8:37}Feature: Building a Photo Booth - Part 2
- Cost of Build (including HD 1080p camera, trigger button, hardware, software, drapery, etc.): ~$200, plus software (we offer a free software solution).
- Final Requirements for Our Build:
  - 5x dark drape panels (We chose Rod Pocket) for perimeter
  - 2x light drape panels (We chose Grommeted) for backdrop
  - 7x 10' 3/4" PVC, all cut to 5' lengths (Requires 13 5' lengths).
  - 4x 3/4 PVC end caps (to assemble 90° T-joints).
  - 8x 3/4 PVC L-joints, 4 used to create angled T-joint by screwing the end-caps to the center.
  - 2x 3/4 T-joints.
  - Microsoft Lifecam Studio 1080p Webcam
  - A Tripod (we already have one).
  - A laptop computer (we already have one).
  - Lighting (we used a studio lamp, but you can buy a table lamp and put a flood bulb in it).
  - USB Button trigger.
  - 10 door hooks (optional).
- Renting a photo booth for your wedding or special event costs a lot more than our DIY project.
- Designing our photo booth to be built with 3/4" white PVC pipe and curtains. [View the Initial Design Spec]
- Our considerations when designing and building our photo booth: stability and inexpensive.
- Why a photo booth is a great addition to a wedding reception.
- Viewer Question: Will you be recording audio and video?
- Purchasing the curtains for about $45.
- Why a room divider would not work for our photo booth.
- Some of the reasons we chose 3/4" PVC.
- Visiting our friends at Allandale Home Hardware Building Centre in Barrie to build the PVC stand for our photo booth.
- Our final build (in stop-motion).
- Software options to run our DIY photo booth:
  - Cheese - Free software, available for Linux only, in your repositories.
    - Configuring Cheese to operate as a photo booth.
    - Viewing the photos taken by Cheese.
  - Sparkbooth - $60 for consumer license, available for Windows only.
    - Configuring the settings in Sparkbooth to suit your event (be it a wedding or other special event).
    - The advanced features of Sparkbooth, with great features such as automatic uploading of photos to Facebook or other web services, or printing to a connected printer (optional).
    - Setting up widescreen mode in Sparkbooth.
    - Instant display of photograph previews.
  - Final thoughts about the software.
- Our photo booth is very easy to setup and tear down, and easily transportable.
{play 46:21}Top Stories from the Category5.TV Newsroom.
{play 54:36}Activating the Compiz plugin Enhanced Desktop Zoom on Ubuntu 12.10.