Photo booths are a great way to bring the silliness out of everyone.
If you’ve been searching for some fresh yearbook ideas to bring your pages to life, we have the perfect suggestion: set up a school photo booth.
Everybody loves a photo booth. They’ve been around for decades and they’re all the rage again. Whether the photos are black and white or color, high quality or completely grainy, the photos always remain timeless. Why? Because they’re fun.
Photo booths are a great way to capture exciting, candid photos of students and faculty to use in your yearbook. It also provides the opportunity to get multiple students in shots at one time who are all looking at the camera and smiling – and how often does that actually happen, am I right? But if you’ve ever looked into renting one from a professional, you know how expensive they can be for a relatively short amount of time.
Thanks to the advancements of digital cameras, photo booths are extremely easy to set up yourself and require very little –if any– cost to the school. If you would like to set up a photo booth during your next school event to help mark the occasion, Treering offers four do-it-yourself tips to get your started.
Make sure your photo booth has plenty of light to get the best photos.
FIND A SPOT WITH THE BEST LIGHT
We’ve already discussed the importance lighting holds in capturing a great photograph. For your photo booth, you’re going to want the area that gives off the best amount of light so that you don’t have to set up photo lights that can get in the way or risk the photos coming out too dark. However, if you still can’t get enough lighting, check with the school’s art department to see if they have access to quality photo lights.
You can use a wall of streamers as a background for your photo booth.
Image source: Flickr user Promise Tangeman
PICK A BACKGROUND
The background you choose will make all the difference. You want a flat surface rather than a landscape to be able to showcase the people in the image without distraction. For this you can use a brick wall, brightly colored sheets or curtains, or even a large chalkboard. If you want to get really creative and have a little experience with Photoshop design, you can even use a bright green sheet to create a green screen so that you can edit in the background of your choosing later on in the editing process.
Use a tripod for your camera to be able to go hands free
Image source: Flickr user Silicon Prairie News
SETTING UP THE CAMERA
The use of a tripod is a must for a successful photo booth. This will give you the ability to set up your frame accordingly while still being able to remain hands free. Set up your camera on a tripod approximately 5-6 feet away from where you will be shooting and zoom so that the background fills the frame entirely.
Mark the ground where you want students to stand with some tape. This way, you’re not having to direct everyone who jumps in for a new photo on where to stand.
If you have a shutter remote, use it. This will allow you to take the photo without having to stand directly behind the camera and will also assist in preventing any motion blur.
Props will stand out on the pages of your yearbook. The goofier, the better!
Image source: Flickr user TechCrunch
MAKE A PROP BIN
Photo booth props are the fun part and they create the excitement of the photos. If you’re crafty or have some art students who are willing, you can make the props yourself. You can also ask students and staff to bring in items that they may have left over from Halloween or costume parties to add to the prop bin. Otherwise, plenty of websites sell photo booth props for your convenience. Popular choices include over-sized sunglasses, funny hats, feather boas, and mustaches. You can also incorporate your school colors and mascot or anything relevant to your school and community.
Now all that’s left to do is to take the photos and have a blast. Watch your yearbook photos pop right off the page when you add them into the Treering templates!
If you’ve ever created a photo booth session or have suggestions for some creative ideas, comment below and tell us all about them! We’d love to hear your ideas.
