New guy with questions

[jhyslip]

Hi very new here, like just found the site yesterday. I wanting to build a booth and this site has been very helpful but I do have some questions. I currently own a portrait and wedding photography business and want to had a booth to my business.

For those of you using a DSLR like the Rebel what lens are you using? I recently purchased a 5D Mark II and it will not focus in Live View without me pressing a button. Would I be better off using a G9 or G10.

I was thinking I could run the Breeze software from a laptop with another monitor attached for in side the booth, will that work?

Thanks in advance for for your help. I google most of these but there just is not a whole lot of info out there.

[dfinkel]

See responses in your message below


Hi very new here, like just found the site yesterday. I wanting to build a booth and this site has been very helpful but I do have some questions. I currently own a portrait and wedding photography business and want to had a booth to my business.

For those of you using a DSLR like the Rebel what lens are you using?
Any Canon lens will work. On my photo entertainment cameras since I use a strobe for lighting, I don't need a fast aperture. One one camera I use a basic Canon lens. Just bought a Sigma 18-55 from AbesofMaine for $79 inc. shipping which works great.

I recently purchased a 5D Mark II and it will not focus in Live View without me pressing a button. Would I be better off using a G9 or G10.

For a photo booth, a 5D Mark II is way overkill (though a cool camera - I love mine!) I use a Rebel XT and an old 20D for the photo booths - work great and they are cheap. I've also tested with a G9 which works fine, but its a little harder to control the zoom on it compared to a DSLR. Canon Live view apparently won't continually focus when in use.

I was thinking I could run the Breeze software from a laptop with another monitor attached for in side the booth, will that work?

Yes - I do this. I have setup the 2nd monitor as an extension of my desktop. The laptop screen is used for viewing output images, reprinting, etc. The 2nd screen is used in the booth as the user interface. Works great.

Thanks in advance for for your help. I google most of these but there just is not a whole lot of info out there.

[snapshot]

I use a G9, and I think it works very well for a photo booth.


I use a laptop with an external monitor as well to run my booth. It has always worked perfectly.

[jhyslip]

See responses in your message below

dfinkel thanks for the info, I have an old Rebel XT and a 30D that are just back up bodies now. So I could use them even without Live view, or does the software take care of that?

I also have a nifty fifty that I don't use since I picked up a 50 1.4, so I would be able to use that correct? Does the software also take care of the focus, like if four people are in the booth and one set forward and the rest are back will all be in focus or will I need to adjust for that with my aperture?

On the Laptop and the other monitor we would both be looking at the same screen shot right? So when they see the count down in the booth I would see the same

Also I was planning to use an old Canon speed light for flash and just building a defuser panel to put in front of it, is that what you did.


Thanks again for all the help. I will be sure and post some pictures when I get it finished.

[jhyslip]

I use a G9, and I think it works very well for a photo booth.


I use a laptop with an external monitor as well to run my booth. It has always worked perfectly.

I was going to pick up a budget laptop from Best Buy or Wal-Mart to run the software. The printer seems to be the biggest expense. I was looking at a Sony printer any recommendations on that?

[snapshot]

If you use a laptop and external monitor, you wouldn't be seeing the same thing on both monitors. The one inside the booth would show the countdown screen, while the laptop monitor would just show your desktop.

I didn't use a canon speedlite, but using one with a defuser would work.

As for printers, I use a a sony up-cx1. I have been very pleased with it. The quality is good, and it is fast enough for a photo booth at about 15 seconds for a 4x6. Plus, it is one of the least expensive dye-sub printers out there.

You could definitely get a faster printer like the Sony updr150 or updr200, but you will have to pay for it.

[Chris Breeze]

If you use a laptop and external monitor, you wouldn't be seeing the same thing on both monitors. The one inside the booth would show the countdown screen, while the laptop monitor would just show your desktop.

This isn't necessarily the case and depends on the laptop and the display drivers. All of my laptops allow the main laptop display to be repeated on the external monitor (in which case you see the same display on the laptop and the external monitor) or the desktop to be extended to span both screens (in which case you see different things on the two screens).

[jhyslip]

This isn't necessarily the case and depends on the laptop and the display drivers. All of my laptops allow the main laptop display to be repeated on the external monitor (in which case you see the same display on the laptop and the external monitor) or the desktop to be extended to span both screens (in which case you see different things on the two screens).

Chris is one way any better than the other or will it matter?

[jhyslip]

If you use a laptop and external monitor, you wouldn't be seeing the same thing on both monitors. The one inside the booth would show the countdown screen, while the laptop monitor would just show your desktop.

I didn't use a canon speedlite, but using one with a defuser would work.

As for printers, I use a a sony up-cx1. I have been very pleased with it. The quality is good, and it is fast enough for a photo booth at about 15 seconds for a 4x6. Plus, it is one of the least expensive dye-sub printers out there.

You could definitely get a faster printer like the Sony updr150 or updr200, but you will have to pay for it.

The cx-1 is the one I was looking at to start with, any online dealers you recommend?

I looked at your site and the booth pictures, are you using continues lighting, I was think of maybe using a few of the new daylight florescent because of the life of use and cost. To get a battery pack for my 430 speedlight is costy, that way I could just plug in one cord and use the speedlight as backup in case of total light failure.

Again thanks for all the info.

[Chris Breeze]

Chris is one way any better than the other or will it matter?

It depends what you want to do. Having the same display on the laptop and the external monitor is useful if you want to be able to monitor what the users see. Extending the desktop to use the external monitor is useful if you want to run a slideshow of the shots outside the booth and have the photobooth screen inside the booth. The full screen photobooth display can go on either monitor - simply move the main window on to the display you want to use before selecting fullscreen photobooth mode.

[dfinkel]

jhyslip, here are my responses to your various questions:

a. XT or the 30D should work great for the photo booth. Live View and Focus are hardware features. In this case neither of these cameras support LiveView so you just won't be able to use that feature. Focus is determined by the camera, so as long as you are using an autofocus lens and you have autofocus on, the camera should focus before it takes the photo. If you have sufficient depth of field (i.e. bright enough light) you might prefer to set the focus point and set the focus to manual. This will make the process a tad quicker. Also, I have once in a while run into a problem where the camera could not lock focus because a subject got really close to the lens. If you are on manual, worst that will happen is that the person will be slightly out of focus. In autofocus, the software may stop with an error.

b. If you have an external monitor what you see on the internal screen of the laptop vs. the external monitor depends on how you have the video settings arr arranged. The simplest thing is to have the two be identical, but I have my mine set up so that the external panel (the one inside the booth) is setup as a 2nd monitor and as an extension of my desktop. This means the real estate of that screen is separate from the panel internal to my laptop, allowing me to display the Photobooth screens on the external panel and keeping the internal panel for other uses, e.g. viewing the output files, reprinting, etc.

c. Lighting. I would NOT recommend using a Speedlite for several reasons. For starters you can't power these from an a/c adapter (if you find one, let me know!) so you have to use batteries. You can buy an external power pack (which I use for roving event photography) but they are pretty costly. If you take a lot of images, you may not have enough juice for a long event. By the time you take the cost of a decent Speedlite and the external battery pack (actually even just the cost of a 430EXII or 580EXII), you can buy an a/c powered monoblock. I think the continuous light fluorescent lights are a little more. Anyway, either of these should work fine - the monoblocs will put out more power allowing a smaller aperture and greater depth of field and color saturation, but a decent powered continuous light should also work. I guess this is partly whether or not you want to have a flash pop, or have continuous light. Personally I think the flash pop adds a bit to the fun. Just make sure that whatever you use you have sufficient quantity of light for the area you are lighting such that you don't need to jack up the ISO setting. I've seen another photobooth vendor using a basic fluorescent light in their booth and the images looked pretty poor to me.

d. Printers. If you are doing this professionally, don't even think about anything other than a dye-sub printer. I use Sony UPDR-150s. Now that the 200s are out you can pick up a 150 refurb or B stock for under $800, or about the same price as the smaller UCX-1s. The benefit of the UPDR-150s is that they are much faster, hold more prints per roll, and the images come out laminated and are very tough. The downside is that they are larger and heavier and the media rolls are more expensive since they hold more prints (although cost per print is about the same).

In terms of where to buy, there are many vendors selling them. Personally I have had great pricing and support from Imaging Spectrum in Dallas.

[snapshot]

I buy all my printer supplies from imaging spectrum as well. They have always been great. Highly recommended.