Photoboof! Manual

If you need any help with any of this, feel free to email support@photoboof.com. We want to get you up and boofing, and we'll even talk you through it on the phone if need be or take control of your computer (with your help of course) to get it set up.

Quick Start
Computer Setup
Printer Setup
Camera Setup
Hardware Recommendations
Printed Layouts
Photo Effects (sepia, sketchbook, etc.)
Greenscreen Pictures
Foreground Images
Recording Videos
Allowing Users to Retake Pictures
Vertical Camera Orientation
Live Preview Notes
Viewer Configurations
Dual Monitor Support
Slideshow
Skinning Photoboof
FTP Uploading
Adding Sound To Your Booth
Triggering Photoboof
Touchscreens and Photoboof
Monitored Folder
Controlling Lights and Relays from Photoboof
Interfacing with Bill Acceptors
Data Entry and Emailing Pictures
Running External Commands
Advanced Configurations
Importing Configurations
Rebranding for OEMs
Odds & Ends
Troubleshooting

There's lots of details in this manual, but here's a quick start:

1) Follow the steps in Computer Setup below.

2) Follow the steps in Printer Setup below.

3) Run Photoboof.

4) Go to File --> Show Preferences --> Camera and set your camera controller and restart Phtooboof. If you're using a Canon Powershot or Canon DSLR, using "Photoboof With a Powershot" or "Photoboof with a DSLR" is recommended.

5) If you get any errors, you might need to read the rest of this manual to get started. Or feel free to email support@photoboof.com, attaching your log file (c:\photoboof7\log.txt) if possible. We'd be glad to log into your computer remotely using our GoToMyPC account to help you get started.

6) If you're only using a single monitor, note that the F1 key will close the Viewer, which will otherwise take over your screen. This is meant to be seen inside the booth and can be on any monitor, and it's highly recommended to show this on a secondary monitor so you can see the main program messages, printer messages, etc. on the primary monitor. But using just one monitor works well too, just remember the F1 hotkey.

7) By default F12 is the trigger, so Photoboof will start taking pictures when you press the F12 key. See the section Triggers below for many more trigger options. When you buy a license, we send you an arcade-quality backlit button that plugs into your USB port.

8) Feel free to email any questions, suggestions, requests for help, whatever, to support@photoboof.com.

- Run the installer, which by default will install everything to c:\photoboof7. Unless you have a good reason for doing otherwise, we recommend keeping this setting.

- For Nikon DSLRs, Nikon Camera Control Pro 2 probably came with your camera, install it. Note that this program isn't free, but if you purchase it for use with Photoboof, send over your receipt and we'll deduct its price from Photoboof. Tell Nikon Camera Capture Pro to save its pictures to c:\photoboof7\capture.

- Recommended setup: a Pentium IV or better computer, Windows 2000, XP or Vista32 (not Vista 64-bit!), or any version of Windows 7. Canon Powershots tend to be the easiest to use (pick up a Powershot S5 off ebay, you won't be sorry), or a Canon T2i DSLR if you want to use a DSLR. A second monitor to put inside the booth for people to see their pictures on The Viewer makes your life much easier. There are more details in Hardware Recommendations.

Photoboof works with any printer that works with Windows.

To configure your printer:

1) In the main Photoboof window, click File --> Configure Printer.

2) Select your printer from the "primary printer" pulldown list, then choose "configure", which will launch your printer's configuration dialog. Set the paper size, paper type and print quality here.

3) Then back in Photoboof, set the paper orientation and any margins. If you're having trouble getting the printout to fill the whole page, you might want to experiment with setting the "Print Size" to "stretch (no aspect ratio)", and the margins.

 

 
Canon Powershots

Many people love the ease of use and quality of the Canon Powershots for use in a photobooth. Unfortunately Canon has discontinued remote capture in their newer Powershots, meaning they won't work in photobooths. But fear not, Powershots are still all over ebay, including the ever-popular Canon S5, a purchase you won't regret.

To use a Powershot with Photoboof, go to File --> Show Preferences --> Camera and set the controller to "Photoboof with a Powershot". If you want to use a live preview so your customers can orient themselves to the camera frame, make sure the live preview is set to "yes" as well. Then restart Photoboof.

- See the live preview section of the manual for some discussions on optimizing your camera's live preview, including placement and customizing the text that appears before each picture is taken.

- If you find that the timing of your camera is a bit off, try adjust the "delay before picture is taken" on the Camera preferences screen. This is the amount of time before the end of the Viewer countdown that Photoboof tells your camera to take a picture. In other words, if the Viewer countdown is saying "3 - 2 - 1 - 0" and then there's a pause before the camera fires, you need to adjust this value. If your camera is firing before the countdown reaches 0, you need to increase it. The value will vary from camera to camera, but most are in the range of 2.5 seconds, which is the default.

- You can adjust all your camera's settings on Photoboof's camera controller, called Big Picture.

- You can see a full list of supported Canon Powershots on this page.

 
Canon DSLRs

- In Photoboof, go to File --> Show Preferences --> Camera and set the controller to "Photoboof with a DSLR ". If you want to use a live preview so your customers can orient themselves to the camera frame, make sure the Live Preview is set to "yes" as well. Then restart Photoboof.

- See the live preview section of the manual for some discussions on optimizing your camera's live preview, including placement and customizing the background image. Note that you need to move the settings dial off of "automatic" mode before you can use the live preview on your camera.

- If you find that the timing of your camera is a bit off, try adjust the "delay before picture is taken" on the Camera preferences screen. This is the amount of time before the end of the Viewer countdown that Photoboof tells your camera to take a picture. In other words, if the Viewer countdown is saying "3 - 2 - 1 - 0" and then there's a pause before the camera fires, you need to adjust this value. If your camera is firing before the countdown reaches 0, you need to increase it. The value will vary from camera to camera, but most are in the range of 2.5 seconds, which is the default.

- You can adjust all your camera's setting on Photoboof's camera controller, called Big Picture. Note that with DSLR's you adjust the exposure mode on the camera itself.

- You can see a list of supported Canon DSLRs on this page.

- If you're using an external flash and it won't fire when you're using the Live View, go to Big Picture (the camera controller) and make sure to check Camera --> Live View Options --> Auto Focus Live View.

- If you're having frequent auto focus failures, adding more light can often help, and sometimes changing the AF Mode inside Big Picture helps too. The AF Mode setting is towards the bottom of Big Picture. A good setting is "AI Servo AF", or whichever mode has the word "Servo" in it for your camera. Note that when Photoboof can't focus the camera, it shows the image "focus_error.jpg" from the skins folder.

- if the Live Preview is dark, you can try setting a separate TV (shutter size) value for your Live Preview. In Big Picture, look at the bottom right for "Live Preview TV". Set this to "same as pictures" to use the same value as pictures, or any other value to use a separate value. Note that while you're tuning this you can launch a second, permanently visible Live Preview by clicking Action --> Duplicate Live Preview from inside Photoboof.

 
Webcams

Webcams have some advantages over stills cameras: they're rock solid since there's no power supplies or power buttons, and compared to a digital stills camera they're extremely simply to operate. And if you use Photoboof's ability to trigger a relay you can even rig up a flash. Or you might want to experiment with Photoboof's experimental "screen flash", which will turn the whole screen white (or any color) before taking a picture. In Moving Images, have a look under the camera menu at "Screen Flash".

If you're looking for a webcam recommendation, the Logitec Orbit webcam is excellent and works very well with Photoboof.

That said, their quality is still significantly lower than a Canon Powershot or DSLR. If you're looking for an inexpensive Canon Powershot, you might have a look on ebay for a Powershot S5. But with the right lighting a webcam can produce excellent results.

To use a webcam, set Photoboof's Camera Controller to "Photoboof with a webcam". You do this by clicking File --> Preferences --> Camera --> Camera Controller. When you launch Photoboof you'll now see Photoboof's webcam controller, which is called Moving Images.

Now go ahead and start a photobooth session, which you can do either by clicking the "Boof" button in the main Photoboof window, or by clicking the F12 key. You may have to adjust the timing slightly. If the moment your webcam is taking the picture doesn't coincide with when Photoboof's "say cheese" graphic appears, you can go to Preferences --> Camera and adjust the value for "Delay Before Picture Is Taken". By default its set to 2.5, but for most webcams you might want to change that to 2.8 seconds or 3 seconds.

TROUBLESHOOTING:

- If you get low frame-rate, set the "Snapshots Size" to something small like 640x480 to start, and go to Camera --> Camera Options and set the Video Size to the same setting, and set the "frames per second" to 30. Now note the frames per second shown in the statusbar of Moving Images.

Note that some webcams slow down their framerate in low light situations. For example, the Logitech webcams have a setting called "Right Light" which lower the framerate in low light. If this is a problem for you, you can disable this setting in the webcam's configuration. Note that it can be useful though for getting better pictures in low light. But often with photobooths you want to disable the automatic brightness, contrast, focus and light adjustment.

- if you have problems initializing your camera, try disconnecting any other webcams, cameras, scanners, etc. from your computer.

- verify that your webcam is working in other applications. Try AmCap.exe, which you can download here, or Webcam2000

- make sure no other application is using the webcam when Photoboof is trying to.

- if the webcam is taking a picture at the wrong time in the 3-2-1-0 countdown, go to Preferences --> Camera in Photoboof, and change the "Dealy Before Picture Is Taken" value. A value of 2.8 seconds seems to work well for most webcams.

- if you're using an HD webcam and getting incorrect aspect ratios, email me.

 
Nikon DSLRs

- Install Nikon Camera Control Pro 2, which probably came with your camera. If it didn't, you can download it here.

- To make your camera remote controllable by the computer, go to Menu on your camera, then select USB, then select "PTP" instead of "Mass Storage".

- Tell Camera Control Pro 2 to save the pictures to c:\photoboof7\capture by going to Tools --> Download Options.

- In Photoboof go to Preferences --> Camera and set the camera controller to "Nikon DSLR", then restart Photoboof.

- If you get permission errors, add a prefix to the filename in Nikon Camera Control Pro. For example, you could make the prefix be "photoboof".

- Make sure to provide enough light for your camera's auto focus. If Photoboof can't focus your camera, it will display the image "focus_error.jpg" from your skins directory, which by default is c:\photoboof7\assets\default.

 

Computer

Photoboof loves laptops since they're cheap, easily portable, and most important usually have a VGA output for a second monitor. Personally I prefer XP, but Vista works fine too, and Windows 7 works extremely well. Note that 64 bit versions of Vista don't work with Canon cameras, so seek out Vista 32 bit or XP or Windows 7.

When you buy a license you get a free super high quality arcade-style backlit button that plugs into your USB port (or serial port if you prefer).

As mentioned above, a dedicated second monitor for people inside the booth is highly recommended.

If you're going to be using Photoboof's slideshow feature, you might consider using a desktop computer, which will give you the option of having 3 monitors (one for Windows, one for the Viewer, one for the Slideshow).

As far as system specs, everything should work well on any semi modern computer, meaning a P4 or better. If you're using a slow computer such as a netbook with a Canon camera, you might decrease the image size in Big Picture so assembling the strips takes less CPU resources. And as always the more RAM the better.

Camera

Any of the supported Powershots and any of the supported Canon DSLRs work well. The cadillac route for Powershots is the Canon Powershot S5, G9 or G10 series since they have flash hotshoes. Those are nice since they let you connect external flashes. And the fact that they have great light sensitivity/color quality, are very fast, and stable doesn't hurt. If you're looking for something cheap, consider getting an old G2 off ebay. They're commonly available for around $60 and are great cameras, especially since you don't need super high megapixels for a photobooth. They were "prosumer" in their day and work just great for our purposes.

If you go the Canon DSLR route, make sure to get one that supports live preview so people inside the booth can see themselves before the pictures are taken. The best for this is the Canon T1i or T2i.

Printer

The big consideration with a printer is how much attention you want to spend on it. If you'll be attending the booth, meaning will be nearby and don't mind loading in new paper every 40 or so prints and dealing with an occasional printer jam, an ink jet works great. They have an additional huge advantage: they can print to 2.13" x 6" strips. Actually not all inkjets can print that narrow, but the Canons can. I love the Canon IP2600, which can be had for all of $50 at most Best Buys. Its an incredibly good printer, but they make their profit on the inks.

If you need unattended use, you want a dye sublimation printer. My big favorite is the Mitsubishi CP-9550DW or CP9800 (available at fotoclubinc.com), which can load 600 sheets and has never jammed on me yet. Another common option is the Sony UPDR150, but those tend to be a bit less maintenance free.

Photoboof comes with built-in layouts that range from single pictures to classic 4-picture strips to modern larger layouts. But to really unlock the power of Photoboof, you should take a few moments to master its Layout Editor, which is extremely flexible and powerful.

You select the layouts from Preferences --> Layouts, and click the "test" button to preview the layout or the "edit" button to edit the layout using the Layout Editor..

Some notes on using the Layout Editor:

- launch the Layout Editor by clicking the "edit" button from Photoboof's Preferences --> Layout, or by clicking File --> Layout Editor.

- select the layout you want to edit in the Layout pulldown at the top fo the Layout Editor. Click the "preview" button to be sure.

- the secret to using the layout editor is to click the "preview" button after you make any changes to your layout, to preview your changes. Don't be afraid to click that preview button every few seconds.

Layout Editor - General

On the "General" folder tab of the Layout editor, you set the basic elements of your layout such as the layout size (which is probably your paper size), background color, background image, and an optional image mask (i.e. an image laid over your completed layout, which makes possible some extremely intricate layouts, see the "advanced tip" below for more info on this).

Note the "picture decoration" area at the bottom of this tab, which lets you add sloppy photo backgrounds to your pictures, or round the edges, or add a stroke. To add a stroke, specify some shape for your picture border (for example, "rounded3"), then set the width to something like 7 pixels, and set the outline color to some color other than your layout's background color. Click "preview" to see how it looks.

Note that the sloppy picture borders usually look best against a white background color. The "sloppy2" picture border is the most traditional sloppy photo border, and note that it uses a slightly different sloppy edge around each picture for a realistic look.

 

Layout Editor - Picture Placement

This tab is where you set the number of pictures in your layout (usually 4 in a traditional photobooth layout, but it could be any number of pictures), your camera orientation, the size and position of the pictures, and the rotation if any.

Note the "Auto Fit" button: this lets you distribute the pictures evenly on your layout. Decide how many columns of pictures you want, and click the "Auto Fit" button and the Layout Editor will place the pictures on your layout automatically. Note that you'll probably still want to adjust the placement of the pictures using the Picture Placement area.

The Picture Placement parameters are pretty straight forward: you set the X ("left") and Y ("top") position of each picture, as well as its width and height. Remember to click that "preview" button often!

Cropping / Trimming

Sometimes you might want to use only a portion of a picture to make it fit onto your layout. Photoboof goes one better than simple cropping, allowing you to trim however many pixels you want off the left, right, top or bottom of the pictures. For example, open the layout called "double strip with 2 logos", and go to the Picture Placement folder tab. Note the area at the bottom labelled "Trim some pixels from each pic", and note that this layout trims 20 pixels off the bottom of each picture, allowing two logos and 4 pictures to fit on a single 4" x 6" print. What's nice about this feature is it lets you trim the pixels from the bottom of the picture, where people don't generally notice, instead of forcing you to trim pixels evenly from the top and bottom.

Layout Editor - Text Folder Tab

The simplest way to add text captions to your printed layouts is by using the Text folder tab. This lets you write text directly to your layout in any font installed on your computer, with rotation and even outline. That said, its always more powerful to make your captions in a graphic design program like Photoshop, and insert the logo using either Logos folder tab, or using a background, which you set on the General folder tab. But using the Text folder tab has the advantage of being convenient and easy to edit.

If you have any problem setting your captions, feel free to email us your layout file (its in c:\photoboof7\layouts) as well as any text you want to appear, to support@photoboof.com.

Layout Editor - Logos Folder Tab

This is where you place your logo files anywhere you want on your printed layout. Usage is pretty simple: browse to your logo file, set the X and Y position, and the width and height. You can also rotate it if you'd like.

Note that if you need more control over logo placement, you might want to create a background image or a mask image, which you set on the General folder tab.

Printing Picture Codes on your Layouts

If you want to put a unique picture code on each layout, go to the "Extra Parameters" folder tab of the Layout Editor and paste in the following. All the lines starting with a number sign are comments, read them for usage instructions, and feel free to email if you can't figure it out:

# number of characters the code will be
code_length = 4

# font name with file extension.
# Go to windows/fonts and view folder
# with details to find out file extension.
# For example, Arial is "arial.ttf".
code_font = ARLRDBD.TTF

# point size (80 is a good starting point)
code_size = 80

# what color? For now use color name, but soon
# will add hex color values
code_color = red

# x and y pixel position of the code.
code_position = 900, 500

Photoboof will then save a coded version of the layout in c:\photoboof7\strips-coded. For example, if the code is 4tyg5, it'll save a version of the strip called c:\photoboof7\strips-coded\4tyg5.jpg. All the picture codes are unique and non-sequential. If you ever want to reset the picture codes, delete the file photocodes.txt in your Photoboof directory.

Layout Editor - Advanced Folder Tab (and double strip layouts)

The most common action on the Advanced folder tab is being able to set a second pictrue column, as in double strip layouts. For example, open the layout called "double strip with 2 logos" and have a look at the Advanced folder tab. Note that the checkbox "2nd picture column or row?" is checked, meaning the layout will include a second set of all the pictures. Note that the "X Offset" is 600 pixels, meaning the second set of pictures will be offset by 600 pixels. That layout is 1200 pixels wide, so it makes sense that the second set of pictures would be 600 pixels (half of 1200 pixels) to the right of the first set of pictures.

If the above didn't quite make sense yet, try changing the X Offset to 500 pixels, and then click the "preview" button. See how the pictures moved closer to the first column? And now you know how to change the spacing between the two strips, which can be useful when you're trying to give people more room to cut the strips in half. And of course if you want to move the first strip farther to the left, you'd go to the Picture Placement folder tab and change the "Left" position of each picture.

Also note that the second set of pictures can have a second set of logos and captions if you'd like. This gives you the option of having a single set of logos/captions for everything, or a set of logos/captions for each strip.

On a more obscure note, you can also set multiple Image Masks for your layout on the Advanced folder tab. If you specify more than one, Photoboof will choose a random mask from the list each time your layout is constructed. This makes it possible for people to get a different layout each time they use the booth, which can add a nice element of variety to your booth.

Specifying Printers and Paper Size

- if you want your layout to use a specific printer, paste the following line into the Extra Parameters folder tab of the Layout Editor. Note that these are case sensitive, and the printer name should be exactly as it appears in Windows Control Panel:

printer = Mitusishi 9880

If your printer has any number signs, you need to put a "\" character before the numbers, like this:

printer = Mitusishi 9880 \#2

- if you want your layout to use a specific paper size, copy the exact wording of the paper, case sensitive, and paste it in like this:

paper = 2x6

Specifying Greenscreen Backgrounds and Foreground Images

- if you want your layout to use a specific greenscreen image, paste this into Extra Parameters. This lets you let users choose their own greenscreen background by assigning a different version of the layout to each region of the touchscreen, and setting a different background for each of those layouts.

greenscreen_background = c:\photoboof\backgrounds\whatever.jpg

- if you want your layout to use a specific foreground image, paste this into Extra Parameters. This lets you let users choose their own foreground images by assigning a different version of the layout to each region of the touchscreen, and setting a different foreground image for each of those layouts.

foreground_image = c:\photoboof\backgrounds\whatever.png

Rotating Your Layout

- if you want to rotate your layout (for example, if your printer demands the layout be oriented a certain way), paste this into Extra Parameters.

rotate_canvas = 90

The above would rotate the canvas 90 degrees.

Miscellaneous

- if you're creating a new layout, find a layout that's close to what you're looking for and click the "duplicate" button to make a copy of it.

- you can change the sample pictures that appear when you click the "preview" button by swapping them out in c:\photoboof7\utils\test_pics. From there you'll see subfolders for 1.3 aspect ratio pictures (most webcams and Canon Powershots) and 1.5 aspect ratio pictures (DSLRs and some webcams), and then more subfolders for vertical or horizontally oriented pictures. Note that Photoboof doesn't care what the files in these folders are named, it uses them in alphabetical order, which makes it nice and easy to swap them out.

- if you ever need help with your layout, simply email your layout file to support@photoboof.com. Note that your layout text file is located in c:\photoboof7\layouts. Try to include any assets such as background images, logos, etc.

 

 

Photoboof currently has the following photo effects: black & white, sepia, negative, sketchbook and oil painting. If you want to set these effects for all sessions, go to Preferences --> Camera and set the "color mode" value. If you want a different effect for different ways of starting the photobooth session (for example, maybe you want one button to start the photobooth session in color, another to start in black & white, and another to start it in sepia), go to Preferences --> Triggers. If you want different areas of the touchscreen to start the session with different color modes, go to Preferences --> Touchscreen.

If you're using Photoboof as the camera controller, the sepia, black & white and negative effects will appear in the live preview from the camera. In other words, the customer will be able to see the effect before a picture is taken.

Note that the oil painting and sketchbook effect are very processor intensive, so Photoboof shrinks the pictures to 1600 pixels on their longest edge before processing. That's an experimental value, please let us know if that's too small for you.

 

Photoboof has extremely powerful and flexible greenscreen photography support that works with any webcam, any supported Canon Powershot, and any supported Canon DSLR. The user sees themselves interacting with the background during the live preview, and the printed results are spectacular. Some features in no particular order:

- you can use any color as your background, it doesn't have to be green. Another popular background color is blue. But remember, white and black won't work, you need some saturated color like blue or green.

- since your flash will radically change the background color, you can assign a different key color for your live preview and your pictures.

- choosing your background color is fantastically easy: you can use a color picker to choose a color from a picture, you can assign some numerical color value using the Windows color dialog, or you can even have Photoboof pick the color automagically, using the most common color in the picture.

- you can set a specific background image for all the pictures, or you can use random backgrounds, which adds a nice dynamic touch to your printed layouts. I like to call this "improv mode", and it can be fun watching people adjust to their new background and decide what pose they're going to use.

- you can use any image file as a background, or a movie file, which can be interesting.

- you can optionally save the unmodified pictures, meaning the pictures without the background overlaid. This is useful if you want to do post-processing in Photoshop or whatever later.

Setting Greenscreen Mode

To set the greenscreen mode, go to Phortoboof --> Preferences --> Greenscreen. From there you can set the greenscreen mode, which currently is either "Static Background", meaning it uses a single background, or "Sequential", meaning it cycles through the greenscreen backgrounds in c:\photoboof7\backgrounds in order, or "Random Backgrounds", meaning it picks random background from c:\photoboof7\backgrounds.

Configuring Greenscreen Color

To set the greenscreen background color, click the "Configure" button from Photoboof's greenscreen preferences. That will launch a dialog box in either Big Picture (if you're using a Canon camera) or Moving Images (if you're using a webcam). From there you can set both your color for the live preview, and for the pictures themselves. Note that you should uncheck "use same for live view and pictures" if you want to use different color modes for each, which is highly recommended if you're using a flash.

To pick the color using a color picker, click the "Pick" button. Note that you can press the F5 key to take a picture in Big Picture without applying any greenscreen effect, meaning you can easily use the color picker.

To pick the color using the Windows color dialog, click the color itself. In other words, click the square color swath immediately to the left of the "Pick" button.

My favorite method is to use the "detect" button, which picks the most common color present in a picture. Make sure no one is in your booth, and press the "detect" button. This is especially useful for quick tuneups during events as the lighting changes.

Configuring Greenscreen Noise and Tolerance

Adjusting the noise and tolerance can help compensate for non-ideal lighting. In basic terms, noise is the distance from the border of the area that is keyed out, and tolerance is the variation in color of the key color. In other words, increasing the noise will make areas that are physically near your keyed out color be removed as well, and increasing the tolerance will make areas that are slightly different colors (shadows for example) key out as well. But don't let that explation confuse you, the easiest way to get the hang of it is to just experiment with it.

For starting value, I recommend noise and tolerance values of about 25.

Greenscreen Lighting

Good lighting is the most important part of greenscreen photography. You want a nice even lighting on your backdrop, and if possible minimal shadows. Since you probably won't be installing a full photographic studio in your photobooth, one way to cut down on shadows is to position people as close to the backdrop as possible. If there's no space between them and the backdrop, they can't cast shadows.

Greenscreen Fabric

To get any kind of greenscreen effect, you need a color saturated piece of fabric or paint. That means white or black absolutely won't work. Many people test it with a white sheet and think it doesn't work, but trust me, pick up some greenscreen fabric or paint from a photography supply store and you'll be amazed at the results.

As far as colors, the two main colors for chromakey photography (aka "greenscreen") are green and blue. The gospel is that green is better for brunettes and blue is better for blondes, but I say blue is better for everyone since people with frizzy hair are going to get a bit of a halo and I'd rather the halo was blue than green, and blue just looks much better when your booth isn't in use.

Letting Users Choose Their Backgrounds

If you want users to be able to choose their own greenscreen backgrounds, you'll need to make multiple versions of your layout, each with a different background specified. In other words, suppose your layout was called "double strip", and you have 4 different backgrounds you want your users to be able to choose from. You'll make 4 versions of the "double strip" layout, and specify a different background for each one. To specify the different background for each, you'll go to the "Extra Parameters" folder tab of the Layout Editor and paste in this line:

greenscreen_background = c:\photoboof\backgrounds\whatever.jpg

Obviously adjust that to the location of your background image. Then assign each layout to whatever trigger the user will be clicking. For example, if you're using a touchscreen, you'll set each touchscreen region to a different version of the layout.

Finding Images

A great source of images for greenscreen backgrounds is Google Images. A good tip is to set the image size to "large". In general, images that are 1024x768 look good as greenscreen backgrounds. Of course you're on your own for clearing any copyright issues with any images you use.

Miscellaneous Greenscreen Notes

- when in random mode, you can always change the greenscreen background image by pressing the pause/break key on the keyboard, or the scroll lock key.

Greenscreen Troubleshooting

If your pictures aren't being processed for greenscreen, make sure "Enable Greenscreen" is checked in Big Picture's Camera menu.

If your live preview isn't showing your greenscreen image, make sure "show in live view" is checked in Big Picture --> Camera --> Greenscreen Options.

When you use Photoboof as the camera controller, you can set a foreground image like a frame. The customer then sees themselves in this foreground image. This is especially powerful with single image layouts.

You can set the foreground image either by going to Preferences --> Greenscreen from within Photoboof, or by specifying a foreground image in your custom layout file. The latter method is especially powerful since it allows you to let the user choose from multiple layouts, each with a different foreground image.

Letting Users Choose Their Foregrounds

If you want users to be able to choose their own foreground images, you'll need to make multiple versions of your layout, each with a different foreground image specified. In other words, suppose your layout was called "double strip", and you have 4 different foregrounds you want your users to be able to choose from. You'll make 4 versions of the "double strip" layout, and specify a different foreground for each one. To specify the different foreground for each, you'll go to the "Extra Parameters" folder tab of the Layout Editor and paste in this line:

foreground_image = c:\photoboof\backgrounds\whatever.png

Obviously adjust that to the location of your foreground image. Then assign each layout to whatever trigger the user will be clicking. For example, if you're using a touchscreen, you'll set each touchscreen region to a different version of the layout.

As of Photoboof v7.3, Photoboof can record videos with the following Canon DSLRS: Rebel T2i (aka 550D), 1D Mark IV, 5D Mark II, and the 7D. The results are spectacular: full 1080p HD video (1920 x 1080 pixels) at 30 fps. And since the videos are recorded to the camera card and then transferred to the computer you don't need to worry about dropped frames or overloading your computer's CPU. A few notes on video:

- since the videos are recorded to your camera's card, of course you need to have a card in the camera. And it needs to be relatively fast: an SDHC card, "class 6" or faster. The card's "class" is usually written on the card inside a small circle. The higher the class, the faster the card. If Photoboof stops recording prematurely it probably means you need a faster card in the camera.

- for now set the video length in Photoboof's configuration file. Click File --> Edit Raw Preferences and search for "video_length". For example, if you want to record 30 second videos you'd make the line read:

video_length = 30

- the background files shown during video recording are inside your skin folder, which by default is c:\photoboof7\assets\default. The files used in video recording should be clearly labelled.

On Photoboof's Preferences -> Layout folder tab, there's a checkbox labelled "Picture Confirmations?". If checked, Photoboof will ask the user whether they want to keep or retake each picture.

Note that the graphics displayed (the yes button, no button and the dialog) are all in the skin folder, which by default is c:\photoboof7\assets\default.

 

There are two options for vertical camera orientation: rotating only the camera, or rotating the camera and the monitor. Each method has its advantages: rotating the camera and the monitor gives you the option of using your entire monitor to display the pictures, but rotating only the camera gives you the option of switching between vertical and horizontal camera orientations without having to reposition your monitor.

Make this configuration in Photoboof --> Preferences --> Camera --> Camera Orientation.

If you rotate the camera but not the monitor, choose "vertical - unrotated monitor". You may want to use the skin called "vertical2", which you set in Photoboof --> Preferences --> Layout --> Skin.

If you rotate the camera AND the monitor, choose "vertical - rotated monitor" for the Photoboof --> Preferences --> Camera --> Camera Orientation, and you use the skin "vertical" in Photoboof --> Preferences --> Layout --> Skin. And remember to rotate your camera 90 degrees counter-clockwise, and your monitor 90 degrees clockwise. You might want to do some tests before cutting any holes for your monitor.

The Live Preview lets your customers orient themselves to the camera before the picture is taken. Not every camera support live preview natively: all the supported Canon Powershots do, most of the supported Canon DSLRs do, and all webcams do. But note that even if you're using a camera that doesn't support live preview, you can install a webcam in your booth and use that for the live preview.

Like most camera configurations, you adjust the live preview in Preferences --> Camera in the main Photoboof window, which is shown below:

Next to "live preview", you can set the live preview to one of three modes: "intro", which shows the live preview only before the first picture is taken, "yes", which shows the live preview before each picture is taken, and "always", which shows the live preview before each picture is taken and stays on the screen a bit longer than the "yes" mode. Most people prefer the "yes" mode, since the live preview freezes while the picture is being taken, and in the "always" mode you see this freeze.

Photoboof gives complete control over where you'd like to place the live preview on your viewer screen. You set the position using the "live preview X position" and "live preview Y position" above. If you decide to specify the position instead of centering it, you might want to use the "Test" button to test the current placement. Photoboof will show you the live preview for a few seconds so you can verify the position.

If you want to change the background image for the live preview, including the border surrounding it, edit the file msg_start-preview.jpg in your skins directory, which by default is c:\photoboof\assets\default. See the advanced tip below to use a different graphic for each picture.

Note that Canon Powershots send a very low resolution live preview (320x240 pixels), but Photoboof stretches it to a usable size. Photoboof can't help that its somewhat pixellated. One thing that greatly improves the live preview image quality is some ambient light in your booth. With sufficient light the live preview from a Canon Powershot works very well to help the customers orient themselves in the camera frame. Also remember to take a picture after changing your camera settings or the amount of light, which updates the camera's live preview settings.

Canon DSLRs send a much higher resolution live preview (928x616 pixels), but they still like lots of light to make the image clear. And not all Canon DSLRs can send a live preview, there's a list on this page.

At the bottom of the Camera tab of Photoboof's preferences, is a checkbox labelled "use webcam for live preview". If you'd like to use a webcam for your live preview even though you're using some other camera as your main photobooth camera, check this box.

 

The Viewer is intended to be seen by people inside the photobooth, but isn't necessary to run Photoboof. In other words the people inside the booth don't need to see themselves, especially if you enable sounds. But its nice to let the people inside the booth see themselves, and that's where the Viewer comes in.

I highly recommend getting a second monitor to place inside the booth for the Viewer. Have a look at the dual monitor section for notes on that.

See Skinning Photoboof for notes on customizing the graphics in the Viewer.

See Live Preview for some notes on tweaking the live camera preview inside the Viewer.

One important note is that the F1 key closes the Viewer, which is very important to know when the Viewer launches on your main monitor...

If the you're having trouble getting the Viewer's "say cheese" (countdown-0.png) graphic to appear at the same moment your camera is taken a picture, go to Preferences --> Camera and adjust "delay before picture is taken".

 

 

Photoboof has a slideshow feature that can be run from the same computer that's running Photoboof, or from a networked computer. The Slideshow looks beautiful on a monitor on the side of your booth, or better yet through a projector. It cycles through past pictures when no one is using the booth, and shows new pictures fullscreen as they're taken. It really is quite beautiful if I do say so myself.

Some notes on how it works:

• to enable the Slideshow, go to Preferences --> Slideshow from within Photoboof. After enabling it you'll need to restart Photoboof.
• you can launch the Slideshow on any monitor by clicking File --> Launch Slideshow from within Photoboof.
• if you'd like, you can also access the Slideshow through a web browser, which means you can access it over a wireless network. Install a wireless router in your booth and make your own wireless network (no internet connection needed) and you can access your Slideshow wirelessly. Note that if you're connecting using a webbrowser, you can even use a Mac. See the "Advanced Tip" below for more notes on connecting through a network.
• to edit the pictures shown in the Slideshow, edit the folder c:\photoboof\pics_slideshow (assuming Photoboof is installed to c:\photoboof). Note that you can delete anything you want without affecting the pictures that are saved by Photoboof. In other words the pictures in that directory are *only* used by the Slideshow. After you delete some pictures you'll need to tell Photoboof to update the Slideshow, which you do either by running a photobooth session, taking a preview picture, or clicking Action --> Force Slideshow Update.
• note that Photoboof only produces the pictures for the Slideshow if the Slideshow is enabled. So if you expect to use the Slideshow later in an event, you should keep it enabled the whole time in Preferences --> Slideshow, even if you're not displaying it.
• note that the computer displaying the Slideshow must have Flash installed. A good way to make sure Flash is installed system-wide is to visit flash.com with Internet Explorer and let it install from there.

Advanced Tip: Remotely Accessing the Slideshow. If you're going to connect to Photoboof over a network using a web browser, there are a few things you should be aware of. Most importantly, Photoboof acts as a webserver to allow the remote computers to connect, which means you'll need to leave port 80 open in your firewall.

To access Photoboof's webserver from another computer, you'llneed to know either the name or the IP number of the Photoboof computer. To find this out, click Start --> Search (if using Windows Vista or 7) or Start --> Run (if using XP), then type the word "command" followed by the enter key, and you should be looking at a black DOS console window. Now type the word "ipconfig" followed by the enter key, and your IP number will be displayed. For example, it might be 192.168.1.1. Now in the computer that will be displaying the Slideshow, you'll type "http://192.168.1.1" into the address bar of your web browser. If you have a problem, make sure port 80 is open in the firewall of the Photoboof computer.

I don't recommend usingthe venue's wireless network to connect to the Slideshow remotely since a weak wifi signal will make the Slideshow jerky and unpredictable.

And if you're using a webbrowser, you'll probably want to run your browser in fullscreen mode. Most browsers let you do this by clicking View --> Fullscreen. If you're using Firefox, you might want want to install the Full Fullscreen plugin and configure it to hide the tab bar, which gives you true fullscreen. Or the Opera webbrowser does a great job without any plugins, and is fullscreen even on Macs.

 

Photoboof works best when you have two monitors connected to your computer, one on the front of your booth for the customers to see, and another inside your booth for you to see program messages, printer messages and usage info. You can plug a second monitor directly into the VGA jack on the back of most laptops, or you can get a dual head video card for your desktop computer.

Note that there are two different dual monitor modes in Windows: "clone mode" where both monitors show the same thing, and "extended desktop mode", where the second monitor is unique and shows an extension of the main monitor. In "extended desktop mode" if you drag your mouse to the right, your mouse will appear on the second monitor. This is the mode you want. Here are some notes for setting this up in Windows:

1) reboot with the second monitor attached. This may be all you need to do, but if your second monitor isn't displaying an extension of your desktop (you shouldn't see the Windows taskbar across the bottom of the monitor), continue with these steps.

2) go to Control Panel

3) in Windows XP, go to Display. In Windows Vista, go to Personalize and then Display. In Windows 7, go to Control Panel and then Hardware and Sound and then click "Connect to a Projector", then "Extend". In Windows 7, that's the last step you'll need to do, but Vista and XP will have to continue to the next step below.

4) Click the "Settings" folder tab, and you should see two monitors. Click on your second monitor and then click the checkbox "extend my desktop to this monitor". On some computers you'll have to adjust the screen resolution using the slider on this dialog, make sure your screen width is at least 1024 pixels wide.

5) When you click the "Identify" button you should see a "1" on your primary display, and a "2" on your secondary display. If you see "1" on both, you're in clone mode and you need to go through these steps again.

If you're using a touchscreen, you'll need to run the manufacturer's "multi monitor configuration utility" after performing these steps.

 

Photoboof can upload each picture and/or strip as they're taken by the booth. If your booth is off-line, it will be an upload queue and process the uploads whenever it finds an internet connection, and this queue will survive even after you restart Photoboof.

Currently you need to enable and configure FTP uploading via the config file, so click File -> Edit Raw Preferences from within Photoboof and modify the following values:

# Do you want to upload? (yes/no)
ftp_upload = no

# Your ftp server
ftp_hostname = yourwebsite.com

# Your ftp server's port (this is almost always 21)
ftp_port = 21

# Your ftp username and password
ftp_username = yourftpusername
ftp_password = yourftppassword

# Remote directory where the pics & strips will go.
# For example, home/username/yourwebsite.com/sessions/
ftp_directory = sessions/

# Do you want to upload the strips? (yes or no)
ftp_upload_strips = yes

# Should we resize the strips before uploading? Options are "full"
# (no resize) or the width in pixels
ftp_strip_width = full

# Do you want to upload the pics? (yes or no)
ftp_upload_pics = yes

# Should we resize the pics before uploading? Options are "full"
# (no resize) or the width in pixels
ftp_pics_width = 800

# Would you like to make separate subdirectories for the pics
# and strips?
ftp_make_subdirectories = yes

Every part of Photoboof that the customer sees, both inside the booth and on the printed strips, can be customized. And I don't just mean that you can change the wording, you can change the entire look of all the assets, using your own custom graphics. Its all very easy once you get the hang of it.

Assuming you haven't yet created your own Photoboof skin, all graphical assets are by default in the c:\photoboof\assets\default folder.

Here's a list of assets that appear inside the Viewer. These can be any pixel dimension you want. As always, Photoshop source files are included:

msg_initialize.jpg - shown when Photoboof first launches.

ready.jpg - shown when Photoboof is ready for the next customer. The "press the button to begin" graphic.

msg_start.jpg - shown right after the customer presses the start button if you're not using a live preview from the camera.

msg_start-preview.jpg - shown during the camera's live preview. See the live preview section if you'd like to use a different live preview background for each picture of the photobooth session.

countdown-3.png, -2.png, -1.png, -0.png - these 4 files are the countdown shown before the pictures are taken

developing.jpg - an optional file shown after countodown-0.png but before the fullscreen picture is displayed. Note that this file isn't present by default, but you can add it to your skins folder if you want to show a "developing" graphic.

msg_finished.jpg - shown at the end of the sequence. The "your printout should be ready in a moment" graphic.

If you're using a bill acceptor and money mode, the credit#.jpg files are shown when money is inserted. For example if 3 credits are inserted the credit3.jpg file is shown. And while there's not enough credits to start, the file not_ready.jpg is shown.

Note that the sound files also appear in this folder. See the Sounds section below.

Photoboof sings! On the simple side you can play a camera click when each picture is taken, which is handy if you're not using a camera flash. Or you can get fancy and play sounds throughout the photobooth session.

Have a look at Preferences --> Sounds in Photoboof. You'll see a checkbox to enable the camera click sound, and a way to add a delay before the sound is played. Experiement with the delay until you get the sound aligned perfectly with the moment your camera takes the picture. Decimals are fine. Note that this sound lives in c:\photoboof7\click.wav if you want to change it.

You'll also see a checkbox called "play picture sounds". This lets you play sounds at various moments throughout the photobooth session:

intro.wav - played at the start of the photobooth session.
picture#.wav - played before each picture is taken. For example picture1.wav is played before picture 1 is taken.
finished.wav - played at the end of the photobooth session.

Note that the included sounds are meant as starting points, you'll probably want to record your own. These sounds are located in your skins folder (by default c:\photoboof7\assets\default). Let me know if you need sounds played at any other points in the sequence. And if you don't want a sound played at a given point, just delete the sound file.

You can start the photobooth session using keys on the keyboard, a mouse, a touchscreen, joystick buttons, from some other program, with an Eco Button, Griffin Powermate, or using arcade buttons attached to your USB port, microphone jack, or serial port. By default Photoboof starts the sequence when the F12 key is pressed on the keyboard, but it's *highly* recommended that you use an arcade-style button attached to your soundcard, serial, or USB port, which, incidentally, is included when you buy your license.

Note that you can also assign any button to start Photoboof in different color modes (black & white, sepia, color, negative, oil painting, sketch), any layout (maybe you want one button to produce a double strip, the other to start a 6-up layout), or to reprint the alst session.

To configure the buttons, go to File --> Show Preferences --> Triggers.

Microphone Jack

One of the easiest ways to build a photobooth button is by connecting a button to your soundcard's microphone jack. Simply connect the two wires that come from the button to an audio jack such as Radio Shack part # 274-274. Then use any 1/8" male-to-male audio cable to connect the button to your soundcard's microphone jack. For a button, ideally you'd use an arcade button, but in a pinch you could even use a doorbell button available at any hardware store. Here's a picture:

You'll then need to set your microphone as the recording device in Windows. There are a number of ways to do this, but I think the simplest is to go to Control Panel --> Sounds --> Audio, and click the "Volume" button under "Sound Recording", which should launch your soundcard's recording mixer. Make sure "microphone" is checked, and that the volume level isn't muted.

You can test your button by opening any sound recording program such as Windows Sound Recorder or, better yet, Audio Level Meter. When you press your button, you should see a spike in the sound levels.

To tell Photoboof to listen for button presses on the microphone jack, go to File --> Show Preferences --> Triggers and check the box that says "mic jack".

Serial / USB Port Buttons

The best way to trigger Photoboof is a button or buttons that attach to your serial or USB port. The big advantage here is that not only can you use regular arcade buttons, which look very professional and are built to take tons of abuse, but you can have multiple buttons connected, each starting Photoboof in a different mode. This is the type of button that comes free with your Photoboof license, but if you'd like to build one yourself, here are some instructions.

Even if your computer doesn't have a serial port (most modern laptops don't), you can use a USB to Serial adaptor. When you buy a license, let me know your button choice and we'll mail you out a button assembly, wired and tested and ready to plug into your USB port.

Go to Radio Shack and get part number 276-1538, "9-position female d-sub connector", also known as a DB9 jack. I like the solder style. Then connect the pins of the DB9 jack to the buttons like so:

For example, if you only want a single button, you'd wire the common pin of your button to pin 4 on your serial port, and the NO (normally open) pin of your button to either pins 1, 6 or 8 of your serial port. Using 24-guage speaker wire available at Radio Shack fits in the db9 jack nicely.

If you want multiple buttons, you'd connect the common pins of each button to Pin 4 of your DB9 jack, and the NC (normally closed) pin of each button to either pins 1, 6, 8 or 9 of your DB9 jack. Only one button per pin, so you'd be wiring the NC pin of each button to a different DB9 pin.

You can also wire your bill acceptor to your USB harness. Most bill acceptors have wires that pulse when bills or coins are inserted. Wire these to pin 4 of the DB9 jack and either pins 1, 6, 8 or 9. Note that buttons and bill acceptors can share pin 4 of the DB9 jack.

If you're connecting this to a USB port, as most people do, use a USB to Serial adaptor.

To test your button harness, you can either use Photoboof, or the Serial Tester program in c:\photoboof7\utils\Serial Tester. If using the Serial Tester, open the program and tell it which com port your button harness is connected to (to find that out go to Device Manager by going to Control Panel --> System --> Hardware --> Device Manager --> Ports) , then run serial_tester.exe and press the button... If it says "button pressed!", its working.

When you're done, tell Photoboof what com port your button is attached to by going to File --> Show Preferences --> Triggers in Photoboof. Note that you can select "auto" and Photoboof will try to detect it for you.

Note that if you're using a button sent to you with your Photoboof license, here's the driver.

 

Stealth Switch

The "StealthSwitch" is a foot pedal marketed as a way to hide whatever is on your screen at work. It works well as a photobooth start button though, since its very durable. It has the added advantage of being available at many Staples and Office Max stores. Its big disadvantage is that it doesn't illuminate, and is only available in black.

Griffin Powermates

A note about Griffin Powermates: The Griffin Powermate works well as an external (and cheap) button trigger for Photoboof, though they're not nearly as durable as a regular arcade button. There's a special program included with Photoboof that's meant to work with Griffin Powermates, it's in c:\photoboof7\trigger.exe. To use a Powermate with Photoboof, install the software that came with your Griffin Powermate, then open the Griffin utility from either the Windows Control Panel or the System Tray (the area by the clock) and set it so the Powermate runs c:\photoboof7\trigger.exe on both "click" and "long click". You may also need to check the "Global Only" box. Here's a screenshot of the Griffin Powermate utility configured to work with Photoboof:

Eco Button

Photoboof can also be started using an EcoButton. These are usually avaialble on ebay for around $20, and work pretty well for triggering Photoboof, but they're not nearly as solid as an arcade button, and you can only use one at a time so no separate buttons for color and black & white modes. But they're cheap, easy, and work fairly well. To configure your EcoButton go to Preferences --> Triggers and use the EcoButton pulldown menu to set the action for the EcoButton.

Note: if you're using the EcoButton with Photoboof, the Windows keyboard key on your keyboard won't work while Photoboof is running.

  

Touchscreen

See the touchscreen section, there's lots of options here.

Keyboard Triggers

By default, the F12 key starts the photobooth session, F6 opens the last strip, F7 reprints the last strip, and F8 takes a preview picture.

 

Joystick Buttons

You can use joystick buttons as start buttons. You can even use the different buttons on your joystick to start Photoboof in different modes. For example, one button could start the session in color, one in b&w, one with the double strip layout, etc. See the "Advanced Tip" below for notes on assigning different buttons to different modes.

To enable or disable your joystick, go to Preferences --> Triggers. The joystick option is at the bottom right.

If you're handy with a solder iron, you could easy open up your joystick and solder any button you want to the joystick's buttons, for a more professional look.

 

Other Triggers

On the Triggers configuration screen (File --> Show Preferences --> Triggers) you can also have Photoboof start on left or right mouse click. Let me know if you need some other trigger.

Remote Triggering

You can trigger Photoboof from other programs, scripts, or even computers by running the program c:\photoboof7\trigger.exe.

Alternatively, you can simply place a text file in c:\photoboof7\utils called go.txt. If the file is blank Photoboof will simply start the photobooth sequence, but if the contents are "b&w" it'll start the sequence in black & white, if its "color" it'll start in color, if it's "reprint_last" it'll reprint the last strip, and if its the name of some layout it'll start Photoboof and produce that layout.

Photoboof watches the folder c:\photoboof7\monitored_folder for pictures, and when enough have been placed in that folder, it processes them using the currently selected layout and printer settings. This can be very useful at events where you might have a roaming camera away from your booth: simply copy the pictures to the monitored pictures folder and Photoboof will process them.

For example, suppose you're using the "double strip" layout, which is a 4 picture layout. Once the 4th picture appears in c:\photoboof\monitored_folder -- either from being copied there from a network share, or from a thumbdrive, or whatever -- Photoboof will process the pictures into double strips and then print them.

Note that it saves the pictures after processing in c:\photoboof7\monitored_folder\archived pictures, and it saves the printed strips in c:\photoboof7\monitored_folder\strips.

 

Photoboof has extremely flexible touchscreen support. Users can choose to use the default options; or do a session in b&w, color, sepia or negative color mode; or choose their own layout. Allowing the user to choose from a few layouts means people can choose different foreground images, different backgrounds, different color modes, different number of pictures, choose between a double strip or a 4-up layout, etc. The flexibility is huge.

Configuring Photoboof

If you only want a single region, meaning you simply want users to touch the screen to begin, no configuration is necessary. But if you want multiple regions, each starting Photoboof with different color or layout settings, you'll need to configure things a bit.

To configure Photoboof's touchscreen support, go to File --> Show Preferences --> Touchscreen. The first step is to set the number of regions: this is the number of different areas of your touchscreen that will have different actions. For example, if you want the user to be able to start the sequence in sepia or color, you'd choose "2" from the regions pulldown list, since that's two different options. If you want the user to have the choice of b&w, color or sepia, you'd choose "3" from the regions pulldown list. If you want the user to have the choice of starting the sequence with the double2 layout or 3x1a layout, you'd choose "2" from the regions pulldown list.

The regions are hard-coded into Photoboof, but vary with the number of regions. For example, if you're using two regions, the location of the regions is different than if you're using three regions. You can see where the regions are by clicking the "Show Region Map" button on the Touchscreen Preferences page. For example, if you have three regions, the left third of the screen is Region 1, the center third is Region 2, and the right third is Region 3. Note that the regions are based on a proportion of your touchscreen and not strict pixel dimensions.

After selecting the number of regions, you can assign an action to each region in the "Touchscreen Region Actions" box below the area where you chose the number of regions. For example, if you want to have three different touchscreen regions, and Region1 to start the sequence in color, Region2 to start the sequence in sepia, and Region 3 to start the sequence in b&w, you'd choose "color" from the "Region 1" pulldown, "sepia" from the "Region 2" pulldown, and "b&w" from the "Region 3" pulldown.

After configuring your touchscreen regions, you'll need to make a ready graphic that instructs your users where to touch the screen. See the Skinning Photoboof section of the manual for more notes on this, but the gist is you'll replace the file called ready.jpg in your Skins directory, which by default is c:\photoboof7\assets\default. For example, if you have 3 regions, one for color, one for b&w and one for sepia, your ready graphic might look something like this.

Also note that on the Touchscreen Preferences page you can choose to hide the mouse cursor when its over your touchscreen, which means your users won't see the mouse cursor. This is very nice for polish, but when you're troubleshooting your touchscreen you might not want to have this option enabled.

Configuring Your Touchscreen Hardware

Its important to realize that a touchscreen just emulates a mouse. In other words, if you touch somewhere on your touchscreen, the mouse cursor should appear at that point. If it doesn't, you need to run your touchscreen's calibration utility.

And note that if you're using your touchscreen as a secondary monitor, you'll also need to run the manufacturer's multi monitor configuration utility. There's a few notes on configuring your monitor as a secondary display here.

[As of December 7, 2009, this section still needs to be expanded]

Photoboof uses a Phidget relay board to interface with external lights. By using Photoboof's external commands, you can flash a light in your printer chute to let your customers know their printout is ready, or to turn on a light when your printer is out of paper, or to turn on the button light when enough money has been inserted, or any other lighting need you might have.

Here's a picture of the Phdiget relay board:

As with all relays, this board has a "normally open" (aka "NO") connector, and a common, which is the middle connector on each relay. You'll need a small electronics screwdriver to screw down the tiny screws on the relay connectors.

A nice way to control multiple lights off one relay is to splice one wire of an extension chord, connecting one wire to the NO ("normally open") connector and one wire to the middle connector. In other words, the relay functions as a simple switch. When the relay is engaged, your extension chord (and any lights plugged into it) are turned on. Obviously you should be careful with your wiring so you don't electrocute yourself or others.

Note that the Phidget relay board requires you to install the Phidget driver package. You don't need to leave the Phidget utility running to use the relay board.

Please see the External Commands section of the help file for some hints on controlling lights from within Photoboof. As always, please email support if you need any help, or need any more control added.

 

The easiest way to use Photoboof with a bill acceptor is to connect the wires on the bill acceptor that send pulses when they receive money to Photoboof's button harness. See this page for more discussion on which bill acceptors work particularly well with Photoboof. See the section Triggering Photoboof for notes on how to wire a bill acceptor directly to Photoboof's button harness.

Let me know if you need a ccTalk interface for your bill acceptor, I have a beta system that works quite well with ccTalk.

Photoboof can also work with any bill or credit card acceptor that directly edits a text file with the number of credits. If that's the case, point it to c:\photoboof7\credits_file.txt.

To put Photoboof into money mode, set the variable money_mode = yes in the configuration.ini file. Note that changing this while Photoboof is running requires restarting Photoboof.

You can add and remove credits (i.e., increase and decrease the number in the credits text file) from Photoboof under the Actions menu. Or just edit the credits file directly.

When money is inserted, The Viewer will load the graphic file at c:\photoboof7\assets\[skin]\viewer_credits[#].jpg. For example, if they've inserted 2 credits and you're using the default skin, it would load c:\photoboof7\assets\default\viewer_credits2.jpg. You can make as many graphics files as you'd like for this. For example, if there are 40 credits inserted, The Viewer will load c:\photoboof7\assets\default\viewer_credits40.jpg.

When the number of credits inserted is at least the number you set in credits_to_start, the customers will be able to start taking pictures by pressing the start button (i.e., whatever you have set as a trigger).

Note that until the correct number of credits have been inserted, the viewer will display c:\photoboof7\assets\[skin]\not_ready.jpg, and after the correct number of credits have been inserted it'll display c:\photoboof7\assets\[skin]\ready.jpg.

You can also have Photoboof start automatically when enough credits are inserted by setting the variable money_mode_start_automatically in configuration.ini to yes.

Notes on Capturing Email Addresses

Photoboof can capture email addresses and other information, and send emails right from your booth as people use it. If your booth is off-line it'll wait and send the emails the next time it finds an internet connection.

To enable enable entry, go to Preferences --> Data Entry and check "Enable Data Entry".

To set the data you'll be capturing, choose one of the templates from the "Data Entry Template" pulldown menu. As of July 28, 2011 this is a new feature and there are currently only two templates, but this will be expanding.

The "Data Entry Position"determines where the data entry screen is shown. Set it to "1" to show it at the beginning of the sequence, "2" to show it after the intro message, or "3" to show it after the final picture.

The "Validate Emails" value determines whether Photoboof will check for improperly formed email addresses.

The "Allow Bypass" value determines whether or not people will be able to skip the data entry screen. If its set to "yes", a "no thanks" button will appear on the screen, letting people bypass it.

The "Timeout Seconds" is the number of seconds Photoboof will wait before considering the session timed out. Note that the countdown gets reset whenever someone types, so it shouldn't time out on slow typers.

the "Abort on Timeout" value determines whether Photoboof considers the session cancelled if someone times out on the data entry screen. For example, if you're showing the data entry screen at the beginning of the session, you probably want to abort the session if they time out, since it probably means that the customer walked away. But if you're showing the data entry screen after the photobooth session, you probably want to set this to "no" so it produces the layout and prints it.

Note that all the graphical assets for the data entry templates are in your skin folder. For example, if you're using the "data1" data template, the graphical assets are in c:\photoboof7\assets\default\data1.

Also note that all the data from each session is stored in text files in the folder c:\photoboof7\text_files. And you can always produce CSV file of all the data by clicking Action --> Export Data Entry to CSV File.

Emailing Pictures From the Booth

If you want Photoboof to email the pictures to people who enter their email addresses, go to Preferences -> Email and click "Enable Picture Emailing". Photoboof's Emailer window will then appear, and will process any sessions that need to be emailed, and will watch for new sessions to email.

On Preferences -> Email you'll also want to put your name, your email, the email subject, and the email body of the email that will be sent to people.

You'll also need to set your outgoing email server (aka your SMTP server). This is usually in the form of "mail.sonic.net". Call your internet provider and see if they can let you use their SMTP server, most have a server you can use. You'll also need your username and password.

 

Photoboof can execute commands, controlling lights, sending emails or text messages, uploading or deleting images, etc. This is useful for sending yourself a text message when the printer goes down, or flashing a light when the printout is ready, or any number of creative uses. This is of course optional so don't let this section scare you.

Here are the different times when you can execute custom commands:

- When Photoboof launches
- At the beginning of the photobooth sequence
- After taking each picture
- After taking the last picture
- After making the strip or grid, etc.
- After sending the strip to print
- At the end of the sequence
- If the printer is down (paper jam, out of ink, etc.)
- When no camera detected
- When the camera fails to reply multiple times

To edit the commands, go to File --> Show Preferences --> Commands. For example, if you want to run c:\something.bat whenever Photoboof launches, you'd put the following next to "At Photoboof Launch":

c:\something.bat

There are several special commands for special functions. One such command is "email". If you open c:\photoboof7\configuration.ini and search for "email" you'll find the email parameters, where you can set your SMTP server, recipient email address and password. You can use this to send yourself text messages when the printer is down. From the "commands" preferences tab, you'd write the following next to "Printer down":

email

Note that most cellphone companies let you send text messages through email, you just need to find out what the format is for that provider. Here's a list of some of them. If it doesn't work, verify the address with your provider:

Alltel @message.alltel.com
Cingular @mobile.mycingular.com
Nextel @messaging.nextel.com
Sprint @messaging.sprintpcs.com
SunCom @tms.suncom.com
T-mobile @tmomail.net
VoiceStream @voicestream.net
Verizon @vtext.com
AT&T - cellnumber@txt.att.net
Verizon - cellnumber@vtext.com
T-Mobile - cellnumber@tmomail.net
Sprint PCS - cellnumber@messaging.sprintpcs.com
Virgin Mobile - cellnumber@vmobl.com
US Cellular - cellnumber@email.uscc.net
Nextel - cellnumber@messaging.nextel.com
Boost - cellnumber@myboostmobile.com
Alltel - cellnumber@message.alltel.com

For example to send a text message to someone on AT&T who's phone number is 415-555-1212, you'd send an email to 4155551212@txt.att.net.

You can also use the Commands preferences tab to control external lights. See the "controlling lights" section above for more info on the Phidget relay board, but the syntax to control relays looks like this. For example, to turn relay 1 on:

phidget 1 on

This is probably pretty obvious, but to turn relay 1 off:

phidget 1 off

You can run multiple commands for a given event by separating each command with a | character (aka, a "pipe") . Not that this isn't an "L", its the tall vertical line found on most keyboards above the \ character.

For example, this would both send an email and run c:\test.bat:

email | c:\test.bat

There are times when you need to insert a delay between two commands, which you do as follows. For example, this would insert a 2.5 second delay between emailing and running test.bat:

email | delay 2.5 | c:\test.bat

Delays can be very useful when, for example, you want to flash the light in your printer chute when the printout is ready. Obviously you'd need to adjust the delays for your particular setup, but here's a sample command. Note that this starts flashing relay 1 (a light) on and off 6 seconds after sending the job to print. If your printer takes longer than 6 seconds print, you'd increase the delay. Add this next to "After sent to printer" on the Commands preferences tab:

delay 6 | phidget 1 on | delay .2 | phidget 1 off | delay .2 | phidget 1 on | delay .2 | phidget 1 off

See the "controlling lights" section above for more notes on making a light flash when your printout is ready.

There are some Photoboof configurations that, for now at least, can only be made through the configuration file. Don't worry! Its easy to do. And this is of course optional, all critical configurations can be made simply by clicking File --> Show Preferences. But if you want to explore the raw preferences file, here's a step by step:

1) if you installed Photoboof to the default location, your config file will be at c:\photoboof7\configuration.ini. Its always a good idea to back it up before editing it.

2) open it either by clicking it or, in Photoboof, selecting File --> Edit Raw Configuration File. It should open in Notepad.

3) Any line starting with a number symbol (#) is a comment, and is just there to help you along. Read the comments, the file has lots of them, they're there to help you along.

4) For example here's the first setting in the configuration file:

### The delay in seconds before the first picture is taken after the
### start button is pressed. During this time the intro message
### will be visible:
initial_delay = 6

As you can see, the three lines that start with number symbols are just comments. And reading them you can see that the variable ("initial_delay") is the duration in seconds that the intro message is visible. In the above example its set to 6 seconds. If I wanted to make that 3 seconds, I'd change the line to read:

initial_delay = 3

See, easy! There's lots of settings available in the config file, but here are the most useful ones that can't be edited through the graphical Preferences interface.
 

Useful Settings in the Configuration File:

initial_delay - the duration in seconds of the intro message before the first picture is taken.

ending_delay - a delay in seconds added at the end of the photobooth session. Useful for slowing things down.

viewer_monitor - which monitor should the Viewer appear on?

ready_pos_x and ready_pos_y - the screen position of the "ready for the next customer" graphic.

cheese_pos_x and cheese_pos_y - the screen position of the countdown graphics before each picture is taken.

viewer_margin - if the Viewer's monitor is partially obstructed by a frame, you can use this to create a margin around the edges of your monitor.

starting_msg_pos_x and starting_msg_pos_y - the screen position of the graphic shown before the first picture is taken when not using Live Preview.

ending_msg_pos_x and ending_msg_pos_y - the screen position of the graphic shown at the end of the photobooth session.

delay_before_ending_message - a delay after the last picture is shown but before the ending message.

blank_on_ready - if set to "yes", the previous user's pictures won't be visible to the next photobooth customer.

hide_cursor - if set to "yes" the mouse cursor will be hidden when its over the Viewer. Very useful if using a touchscreen so the users don't see a lingering mouse cursor.

always_on_top - if set to "yes", the Viewer will be an "always on top" window.

To import Photoboof configurations, click File -> Import Settings. You can then either paste in specific Photoboof settings, or import a file containing any group of settings (including complete configuration.ini files).

For example, suppose you wanted to change the layout on one of your booths to "fancy 4up grid", and you wanted to change the skin to "fancy". You could click File -> Import Settings and paste in the following:

layout = fancy 4up grid
skin = fancy

Alternatively, if you wanted to import those as a file, you'd create a text file containing that data and save it as something like "new settings.ini". The filename doesn't matter. You'd then click File -> Import Settings and browse to that file. And note that you can import an entire Photoboof configuration by sending someone your configuration.ini file (which is in the Photoboof directory) and having them import it.

And note that you can see the names of all the variables, as well as notes on what they do, in Photoboof's configuration file. So click File -> Edit Raw Preferences, or just open c:\photoboof7\configuration.ini.

Photoboof can be completely rebranded for OEMs. In other words, if you're selling completed photobooths, or you don't want your employees to know the name of this program, you can name the program whatever you want.

1) place a file named name.txt in the photoboof directory (c:\photoboof7) with the name of the program. For example, if you want it to be "Cheesy Booths", that would be the only text in the file. No returns, no extra white space. You can simply create this file in Notepad and save it as name.txt.

2) place a file named support.txt in the photoboof directory with the email for tech support. You can omit that if you want to use support@photoboof.com. If you want your own email address to appear for tech support within the program, this might be support@cheesybooths.com.

3) rename photoboof.exe to whatever you want, but no spaces in the name. So it could be CheesyBooths.exe

4) rename photoboof.rsrc.py to the same thing, but preserve the .rsrc.py. ***It must be exactly the same as the executable above***. So in the example, it would be CheesyBooths.rsrc.py.

5) You can rename c:\photoboof7 if you want, but no spaces anywhere in the path. So it could be c:\CheesyBooths.

Note that the files name.txt and support.txt can be hidden files and Photoboof will still find them.

As of typing this on January 12, 2010, I've made quite a few changes to Photoboof and haven't retested the rebranding, so if you still see the word "Photoboof" somewhere even after applying the above steps, let me know and I'll fix it.

Here's a few notes that don't really fit in any other category.

• if you want to see how many sessions your photobooth has ever had, open the file C:\photoboof7\utils\misc\counter.txt. If you want to reset the counter, simply delete the file.
• if you want Photoboof to start automatically when your computer starts, you can place a shortcut to c:\photoboof7\utils\Delayed Launch.exe in your Startup folder, instead of a shortcut to Photoboof itself. This will launch Photoboof after a 90 second delay to give Windows time to finish loading. To create the shortcut, right click the file and choose "copy", then, in Windows XP and 2000, navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup (in Vista, navigate to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu) and right-click and choose "paste shortcut".
• If you want to do some load testing, click Test --> Load Testing from within Photoboof. That will repeat the photobooth session over and over again. Very useful for testing your equipment. Obviously you might consider disabling printing while load testing...
• If you want to automatically copy the pictures or strips to some other location (a thumbdrive for the client? a 3rd party slideshow app?), open configuration.ini and search for "copy_pics" (to copy the pics) or "copy_strips" (to copy the strips). Set the value to wherever you want the pics or strips to be copied.
  
  For example, if you want to automatically copy all the strips to a thumbdrive that shows up in Windows as the E drive, you'd open up configuration.ini and search for the line that begins with "copy_strips" and change its value to the path to your thumbdrive. In our example where the thumbdrive is the E drive, the line might look like this:
  
  copy_strips = e:\strips
  
  Photoboof would now copy every strip to the "strips" folder on your thumbdrive right after each strip is created.
  
  If you want to automatically copy all the strips and pictures to a folder on your desktop, the values for copy_strips and copy_pics would look something like this:
  
  copy_strips = C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop\events\strips
  copy_pics = C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop\events\pics
• You can make a secondary layout, meaning a second layout in addition to whatever layout you have selected in Preferences --> Layouts. For now you have to edit the configuration.ini file. So in Photoboof, click File --> Edit Raw Configuration File, which will open configuration.ini, and search for this line:
  
  secondary_layout = none
  
  Change that to whatever layout name you want. For example, if you wanted to create the strip2 layout, the line would read:
  
  secondary_layout = strip2
• Photoboof can organize your pictures by event date if you'd like. Open up configuration.ini and search for the value named "store_pics_by_date" and set that to "yes". So the line would read:
  
  store_pics_by_date = yes
  
  Now for example if the date is July 26, 2011, Photoboof will place all pics in c:\photoboof7\events\pics\2011-07-26 and all the strips in c:\photoboof7\events\pics\2011-07-26. One nice feature is that it doesn't roll over to the next day until 5am, so when your events go late they'll still appear in the same dated folder.
• You can change the way the picture review looks by using Photoboof's "picture frame" feature. Open configuration.ini (click File -> Edit Raw Preferences) and search for "picture_frame" and you'll see the variables with commentary. In a nutshell, you place a file named picture_frame.png in your skin folder (by default that's c:\photoboof7\assets\default) and each picture will be placed over it after its taken, so the people in the booth see the picture with whatever branding you'd like. In the configuration file you can set this to be a foreground image (a mask) or a background image.
• If you'd like to have a background image shown in the Viewer's margins, you can modify c:\photoboof7\background_image.jpg. This is pretty experimental and isn't really intended to add branding (you should use the skin and layout files for that), but I thought I'd mention it in case someone finds it useful. It can be any size, and will tile.
• If you don't want to show a countdown before each picture is taken, set the value of picture_delay_before to 0. You can do this in Preferences -> Camera by setting the value of "Delay Before Picture Is Taken" to 0.

- Remember the golden rule of computers: reboot!

- Sometimes dust gets in the USB connections. Blow out the dust both from your USB cable and from the USB jacks on your computer and camera.

- Never use a USB hub with your camera. USB hubs are fine for your keyboard, arcade button and printer, but connect the camera directly to the computer.

- Make sure you're not out of disk space.

- When your camera's batteries get low the Live Preview stops working.

- If you're having dual monitor issues, see the Dual Monitor section above.

- If you're using a Mitsubishi dye sublimation printer and getting blank pages after every print, go to Windows Control Panel --> Printers ---> right click your Mitsubishi printer and choose Properties, then Advanced, and choose "print directly to this printer".

- You can always email support@photoboof.com. Please let us know what camera you're using, what version of Windows, what camera controller, and if possible send over your log file (c:\photoboof7\log.txt). And if you need to schedule a support call, no problem.

 

 

 

 

[END OF HELP FILE]