Just in time for New Years Eve Just a little late for New Years Eve, Photobooth Creator has gotten it's most-requested feature to date: direct sharing on Facebook Pages. Perfect for office parties or any event with page, this feature was built to make it easier for you to show everyone else in the world how much fun your having. Side benefit: they wish they were having fun with you!

To share as a page, go to your Photos page and log in to Facebook. Once you're logged in, you'll see a button to use Facebook as a Page. Clicking the button will request the required permissions. Once you've allowed Photobooth Creator to "manage your pages" for you (permission-speak for "share stuff on your pages"), you'll get a dropdown with yourself and all of the pages you can post to.

Select the page you want, and any sharing you do will happen as that page.

Happy sharing!

Speaking of Facebook Pages, while you're here you should also like Photobooth Creator's new Facebook Page.

Just in time for your New Year's party, Photobooth Creator has gotten a couple new features! For those of you who have gotten your lighting dialed, you can now turn off the flash to avoid a glare from the screen on your bespectacled visitors' glasses (or, as in my case, on your shiny whiskey glass). For those of you who are having trouble wrangling groups into the shot within the three-second countdown, you can now pick your own countdown timer.

As with other customization options, you can find the new features in the 'Customize your booth!' page from your admin panel. Cheers, and happy holidays!

Let's say you're throwing a party, and you want to have a photobooth, but the basic instructions seemed like too much. Maybe you just had the idea today, and you want to whip up a hot batch of photobooth in time for your wine social later this evening (my GAWD what will your friends think if you don't have a PHOTOBOOTH??). Or maybe, you're like me and your bookcases are too full for the setup we went over. Or maybe, also like me, you're lazy. Or maybe you forgot that your child was turning 9. At any rate, not to fear! Thanks to the ''Super Basic'' booth setup, you can still rock a booth at your shindig with next to nothing.

The equipment

When you see this list, you'll probably have already guessed the punchline. Here's what you need:

• A laptop or desktop with a webcam
• A table
• Somewhere to put it
• Photobooth Creator

That's it. No fuss, no muss.

The setup

Put the laptop on the table. Fire up your Photobooth Creator booth. Donezo!

Seriously though, it's not the most elegant solution. People will have to either get low enough to be in front of the camera, or the camera will have to point up which often creates unflattering shadows or double-chin effects. Without a backdrop, it's hard for the webcam to get the white balance correct. Etc, etc.

In fact, all of the comments from the last post regarding lighting, backdrop, and other environmental concerns still apply, so grab a desk lamp if you've got one.

The point is, even though this solution isn't perfect, it is ''still better than no webcam''. A buddy of mine recently set up a webcam using this exact description and captured images of his family from his recent baby shower. Would they have been better with a more sophisticated setup? Sure. Were they bad pictures? Far from it.

Long story short: ''set your laptop on a table, spend three bucks, and enjoy a webcam at your next party.

We've all been there. You're in a rush to get your photobooth set up for the big company holiday party, and in a moment of brief panic you snap a double handful of embarrassing and poorly lit shots of yourself looking up your nose. No shame here! I'm happy to tell you, I've just rolled out the capability to delete those pictures prior to setting up a slideshow on an 8'x10' projector in the middle of your office. Just go to your photos page, and click the delete button at the bottom of the shot to delete it.

This can also be helpful if you're sharing your photos page with your friends. Delete any bad shots, so you can be sure your overly-facebook-share-y friend doesn't post photos of you looking like a cross between a zombie and Otis Campbell from The Andy Griffith Show.

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.