SOCIAL MEDIA AND PHOTOBOOTHS

In the photobooth world, being able to connect to social media on the internet is the new big thing.

There are many new photobooth stations coming out where that is all they do – you don't actually get a picture, but you can send it directly to your email, or to Facebook or Twitter, or whatever the new internet sensation of the day happens to be.

In order to be able to have the pictures sent to the internet, you must have some sort of connection to the internet yourself.

Perhaps this is thru wifi at the the venue. I have also tethered my cell phone creating a “mobile hot spot”.

Then you need software that will allow this.

The program I am most familiar with is a program called Photo Booth Connected www.photoboothconnected.com which allows you to monitor a folder and when an image is added it will immediately pop up on the screen and allow you to send the photo to a myriad of places.

I have tested this program out but have only used it sparingly because it slows down the speed at which I can process people through the photobooth. So, unless a customer is insisting on it, I generally have not been offering it.

I know what some people have done is to network the main photobooth computer to a print or send station that people can line up separately to send off their photos. This is definitely a solution to the line problem but of course it complicates immensely your entire photobooth setup.

There are many photobooth suppliers out there that simply make photobooths for social media exclusively. For one thing these photobooths are much lighter as there is no printer component and consequently there is no paper and toner cost as well. Many of these photobooths actually use webcams which makes them even lighter. While I generally believe a DSLR camera should be used for most photobooth applications, for the social media booth, in most cases a webcam does do the job.

There will be much more to write in the coming months and years as this whole part of the photobooth market continues to expand.