Photo booth setup

Hi everyone. I will be shooting for my friend's daughter's 18th birthday. This will held on a big hall with about 15 or so feet ceiling. They requested that I setup a photo booth with some background (ala Hollywood style). I have not done this before. Can you guys share some tips? What light and how many lights should I use (I have a few monolights). What do I setup my lights (i.e. butterfly, 45 degrees on each side, etc)? What settings do you guys prefer?
Anything I should know?

Thanks for all your feedback.

I am not a professional, but have shot a few events. I would use a minimum of 2 lights at 45 degrees one to each side.Try not to place the lights too high as i am sure you will also be doing some full or 2/3 body pictures so you will need the lights to cover not just thier faces, but their bodies. I do this as with only one light, you would have to be straight on with the light to get proper exposure on more than one person. I play it safe. I would rather have flat even lighting than risk having one person under exposed while the other person is properly exposed.

If you have a hair light, that adds to it. I use my three flash set up with a cheap $10 1/8" grid from amazon for the hair light. These grids are not in degrees, but it is just large enough for two people. The 1/4" grid is designed for one person. Be careful to place the people at the same spot to keep the hair light on their heads and not spilling onto the front of them if you use one. I set this light behind and to the side so that the umbrella stand is not in the picture.

Be careful about the background. Having some props hanging on the back ground may make it look like there are things sticking out of peoples heads.If it were a black background with perhaps a lot of of stars hanging, enough so that you can tell what they are in the pictures, that should work. If you can't get a proper background, i would just suggest using solid black and give the people some props to hold.

I would also like to hear some more input on this to help me improve or perhaps see things that i have over looked.

"Photo booths" are somewhat different than a traditional event shoot. When people ask for a photo booth they are thinking a fun area where they can get a quick photo and get some little prints or upload it to "twitface" (what I call Social Media).

if this is 18 year olds they will not care about lighting as much as the props and vibe they get. Expect groups of kids not individuals so a wide angle lens is better.

If you have a ring flash great, if not a single big umbrella up high in front and down on a 45 degree angle. I suggest this over a 2 light setup left and right because you will not be posing them as much as they will try to pack in, and with the standard 2 lights left and right you will get shadows across some faces if they are slightly blocked by the people beside them. With a straight on light you don't get that. The other good thing is there is less gear to worry about.

Put your camera on a tripod use a remote trigger (if you want). I find it works better for photo booths if you do, you can interact with the kids better if you don't have a camera on your face.

If you can output to a monitor even better so people can see the photos

Bring props that match the background.

hope this helps
Doug

Thank you Micro5797 and thank you i_am_cnd.

I have a AB ring light that I have not used for a while - thanks for bringing that up. I was planning to use my EOS M/adapter/maybe 24-70L, with my Gitzo 3 series, some lights and RF trigger (I'm using my 5D3 for the event). I think the ring light would work perfectly as I was thinking of using the least gear. I can't trust to just leave a few grand worth of equipment while I shoot the event. I plan to just leave the remote and have them shoot themselves - I think this will give them independence to pose and shoot for themselves - and I think I'll get better photos with no one in front of them.


The background was requested by the parent of the celebrant so I have no control of that.
Any other tips? Should I just shoot F8/F11? I might put a hair light depending on the color of the background, I'll check with the parent this weekend.

Yah an AB would be great. with the light that pushes out, you could go to f11, but that is way overkill.

a 24mm at 15 feet gives you a DoF of 9.8ft in front and infinite behind, while f11 would give you 10.9 feet in front. At 15 feet everyone in the shot would be in focus at the f8 anyway so why push the extra light when you don't have to.

Personally I wouldn't use a hair light, just one more thing that really doesn't work well in this situation with a group. but that is just me.

Mark Wallace on AdoramaTV had an episode or two about photobooths. I remember there being good informatioin in them. Look up episode 117 and 118