Sunday, August 16, 2009

project: photobooth love !

b and i are no strangers to photo booths! we jump in and take some shots whenever we can. some of our favorite hangouts happen to have booths, and one of our friends (who is also the fellow who introduced us!) is an awesome photo booth artist.

a recent strip, and a couple of older strips as well!

having a real, old fashioned photo booth was one of my priorities (after venue, food, music and regular photography). i really wanted a black and white booth that would spit out at least one copy of photos (preferably two). unfortunately, renting such a contraption here in LA was out of our budget. like, waaaaay out of our budget! we could have rented a digital booth for about half the price, but that just didn't sit well with me. i don't like the typical 2x2 print style - if I cant have an old fashioned photo strip, i don't want anything!

after pouting over the cost for a while, i started noticing really cool DIY photo booths. set up a tripod, hang up a sheet, grab a couple of props and you are good to go. i didn't want to take on the entire project, however, so i contacted our photographer to see if she could set something up for us. luckily, she could! check out an awesome example of jordana's photo booth skills here.

since we can't afford the real deal, this is a seriously awesome substitute. in some ways i feel like you can be much more creative with your own photo booth setup! i am trying to personalize it as much as possible. we have an assortment of props, and a chalkboard/whiteboard. i am trying to construct a background that can easily be changed. i want to have a few fabrics hanging (like in a real photo booth) so that guests can choose. maybe one printed background and one plain. i really like these fabrics from ikea:


(Photo: Ikea)

(Photo: Ikea)


(Photo: Ikea)

i hope that our guests spare a minute to have their photo taken, and that the kids aren't too shy to pop in! i am making table signs to remind people where the booth is located, and to help encourage them to check it out and get creative!

did you have a DIY (or rented!) photo booth or are you planning one out now? what unique props and ideas did you come up with?

2 comments:

  1. For our wedding, we did a DIY digital photo booth. Old-fashion ones are great, but getting one out the middle of no where (on grass, middle of a field) is not easy. Especially when the groom is setting it up just an hour before the ceremony(!!!).

    However, ours printed out 2x3 strips (tear in half vertically, two identical strips). It would've been nice to have the traditional 4-vertical strips, but doing it this way actually ended up being better. First, it was easier to source 4x6 photo paper and perforate it. Second, each guest had one to take home and one to leave in the guest book.

    Definitely not the same as the old school ones, but everyone still loved it. I actually appreciated not having the traditional physical "booth" as well, see the pics on my site for what we ended up with... I think it came out nice!

    Last, I thought we'd get some younger people using it... turned out almost *everyone* at the wedding used it, and there was a line the whole time. It's great to see grandparents participating in this... and even a sneaky caterer or two!

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  2. I want a photobooth too! Most likely DIY since the real deal doesn't fit our budget.

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