50th Birthday Photo Booth

A friend organized a surprise 50th birthday party for his wife, and asked if I would photograph it for him. He was looking to do something to give the party an edge, so we decided to try a photo booth set up. Guests were asked to stop by during the evening and create memory for the birthday girl. We made 2 prints of each shot on site, one for the guest to take, and one for the album to give to the guest of honor. Overall, things went well- some guests enjoyed the many props that were provided, some had a more "normal" photo taken as a keepsake.

Here are some examples- C&C are welcome as always!

The birthday girl and her daughter:

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Good job, but they look a bit soft to me? I would also make sure you try to iron out the wrinkels in the backdrop for a little bit more clean look. What set up did you go with?

Not sure about the softness- since we were printing right there, I shot in jpg (a rarity) and these are pretty much right out of the camera- which was a 40D with the 24-70 2.8. Settings were iso 400, f8, and 1/100, as I recall, and the camera was on a tripod. They do seem to lack that "tack-sharp" quality that I'd prefer, I thought maybe that was a result of bypassing the normal RAW processing that I do, which would include a sharpening routine. The 4x6 prints that we spit out were pretty good that way, but I believe the print function in lightroom 3 was sharpening them at least a little.

The background is a pop-up thing from Botero- it is basically an 8x8 gray sheet on a wire frame that folds up like a reflector. There is a floor that hangs off it as well, which we didn't really have the space for here. Not sure if it can really be ironed- but perhaps it could have been propped up differently to stretch the wrinkles out.

Thanks for your thoughts!