While I've striven to make Photobooth Creator as intuitive and easy-to-use as possible, I'm sure many people still have questions about how to get started and what exactly you can do with the photobooth once you have made one. In this post, I'm going to explain the steps needed to make your homemade online photobooth with Photobooth Creator, and provide some hints to get the most out of it once you have it.
The steps
There are many ways you can make this process shorter, but these are the steps I use when I create my own photobooth.
1. Create a photobooth
When you create your booth using Photobooth Creator, you will have one week (7 days) before the booth expires; for most parties that means you have plenty of lead time to get the rest of the setup done before your party kicks off. I create my booth the morning of the party, so that I have several hours to physically set everything up and test it before people start showing up.
The creation process itself is pretty straightforward.
On the first creation page, you are encouraged to test out your webcam. This is a good idea, because the last thing you want to do is scramble around having to find a spare webcam at the last minute. Follow the steps to enable your webcam, and click the picture to take a test shot. You'll probably have to enable your webcam again once your booth is created, so it's good to familiarize yourself with the process.
Once you've taken a test shot, go to the next step to check out. You'll be prompted for your credit card info, as well as an email address and password. Make sure to use a real email address and don't forget your password! You will receive a unique link to your booth via the email, and you'll have to type the password in to access the booth.
2. Log in and look around
After you submit the creation form, you'll be taken to your booth -- but wait, you'll need to type in your password first!
This is the same password you created as part of the checkout process. Once you've successfully entered your password, you'll be taken to the booth admin page.
This page serves as the hub for all of the features of Photobooth Creator. Each of the options has a description, but here are a two of the most important:
- Check out your booth! This takes you to the photobooth itself, where you can start taking pictures.
- See your pictures! This takes you to a page with all of your photos you've taken (so far).
3. Customize your booth and check it out (optional)
Another option on the booth admin page is Change your styles! If you click the associated button, you can change the title, colors, and other stylistic details of your booth. Head there now to pick out a style that fits your party.
You'll see a preview of the style you've chosen on that page, but to get the full effect, you'll need to go to the booth itself. Head back to the booth admin page and choose the option under Check out your booth!
When you get there, you'll need to enable your camera like you did during the checkout process (you didn't skip that step did you??). Afterwards, hit the button to go to fullscreen mode. You're in your booth! If you don't like your styles, you're free to change them again as needed.
4. Set up the physical aspect of your booth
There are lots and lots of different physical presentations for your booth. I've already outlined my preferred set up, 'The Basic' and simpler but less satisfying, 'The Super Basic', but there are many other options to choose from. Regardless, you should check out the notes in the article for 'The Basic'; it includes helpful tips on things like lighting and backdrops.
5. Set up a slideshow (optional)
One of the neat features of Photobooth Creator is the Set up a slideshow! option on the booth admin page. With this feature, you can set up a random slideshow of photos you've taken so far with your booth using another computer. This works particularly well at office parties, where you can set up the slideshow on a projector in the party. Seeing the pictures come up as they are being taken encourages folks to go take more pictures.
Setting up the slideshow is easy. On another computer, head to the booth URL that you received in your welcome email. Since this is a new computer, you'll need to type in the password you created again. Once you're logged in, click on the button under Set up a slideshow!
On this page, you can choose a new slideshow interval, then, like in the booth itself, go into fullscreen mode. For better results, hook this slideshow computer (hopefully a laptop or tablet) up to a television, projector, or other large screen in sight of the main party location.
6. Share your photos (during/after the party)
In an earlier article, I described the various sharing options you have with Photobooth Creator, from downloading the pictures yourself to doing automatic sharing via Facebook. Choose the appropriate level of sharing for your party, but make sure to share! Everyone wants to see the pictures from the booth, and maybe particularly so if the alcohol is flowing freely.
7. Let me know how it went! (optional, but recommended :) )
Did you enjoy your photobooth? Did you run into any trouble? Did you think of anything you wish it could do but didn't? I'd love to hear from you. Just send me an email at photoboothcreator (at) gmail (dot) com.