Skip to main content

Making a Photo Booth

Lesson 26 from: Building and Using DIY Lighting Gear

Kevin Kubota

Making a Photo Booth

Lesson 26 from: Building and Using DIY Lighting Gear

Kevin Kubota

buy this class

$00

$00
Sale Ends Soon!

starting under

$13/month*

Unlock this classplus 2200+ more >

Lesson Info

26. Making a Photo Booth

Next Lesson: Final Review

Lesson Info

Making a Photo Booth

Everybody loves photo booths, photos but events have become really popular and there is set up so you can buy with all kind of the gear already ready to make I already do and sometimes like when I've gone to events I've just put up a backdrop and set up some lights and made a photo booth fished or say so I kind of got video how what about making a riel actual booth? You know? Because hey, we got a knife, we got phone core so what happens if we make a booth how we do it? What would be the dimensions and how would it work? So this is ahh almost almost an experiment that we're actually doing together to make this thing happen, you know? So this is something that, uh I've created on paper in my mind and I've thought it through and I think it's gonna work so you guys going to get busy with me? We're going to make this thing okay, and then we'll try it out and use it so we'll bring in some of our foam core that we've used earlier so caitlin's going to drag of those things in here for us, so ...

we're going to take one of the foam core that we had used earlier, we cut a little window in it already, and what we're going to do is continue with that same piece and we also could have foot off the top because their photo booth I'm taking about seven feet tall so if you were to use this in an event you know get a tall guy that six six to still be ok not many guys over seven feet tall but you don't want it so tall that you don't have the bounce like from the roof and also it's going to be kind of unwieldy figured seven feet tall is about the right height so this one we had already cut down to seventy feet and this is our window to shoot through and we need one more window on here for our light so the light source what I was picturing for this is light source is a big square or rectangular window like this with some diffusion over it so it's like a big light soft box and we'll light it with a speed light from outside the booth so imagine here that we're going to flip this around so the whites of the inside but you're photographing through the window it put a camera on a tripod will use a little remote control so whoever goes in there can just control it themselves like already the photo booth and then a speed light would just be right here boom blasting onto that giving a big soft light within bounce off the walls inside the booth and create just a nice even light because photo booths generally you don't want something to directional because people are jumping around there climbing on top of each other and you could have somebody shadows you know so softer even light is probably the best just capture everything everybody in the booth so first thing we need to do is figure out where what window we want right here so let's just figure out a window and draw it on and cut it out I have knife I have pin way could draw this really nice with a perfect square but I don't think we need to worry about so we're gonna make something like this like that I know what I'm thinking is gonna work okay that's gonna be our and we'll cover that with diffusion so this is our soft opening so wants to cut for me I see you smiling I have brought the knife out and he starts to drool so let's open it up to cut through the other side I'm sorry you can cut through that in the meantime we're going to cut the other double board that we have down to seven feet you want the straight edge you want to try and cut that st ish it's up to you where you just cut it free and flying use your figure is a kind talking you don't say that live please you're good okay perfect on we're going to cut this one down so that it's seven feet like the other one we could probably just laying on top and cut through just let it just match it there yeah, right down it's the bottom edges even there caitlin could once he pops up will be ableto executed over there. Hey, nice window ledge. All right? And then you're going to slice of this right here we'll put this extra underneath it slice that down so that matches the height of the other even down there okay? And I'll get my fabric ray we can lean on top of it. So why he's cutting caitlin? You could pull that over to that window kind of lay it over there and cut it about an inch larger all around the window over that just right over it and larger you know what this is this double this because it's so dark enough someone double the diffusion just to kind of make it a little softer and it might be long enough just is already doubled up so with is about perfect as it is so let's just cut that end off a little bit that's a way to do it. Okay, she's afraid of cutting I can tell you that right across that corner there okay, so we're just laying out some diffusion you can use whatever fabric you got going on some inter spacing cloth you talked about using that earlier on today curtains great bed sheet would work great place of anything and the density of it is something you might experiment to find out how much diffusion you want. I think a single layer of this was not quite soft enough. It was going to be too much of a hot spot going on so and doubled it up in this population. This is gonna talk there our windows up boards, a cut standing up. We're gonna need one more for the roof, but we'll get that on there a minute. We're gonna have that and then we're gonna need one more piece. Hear more seven footers we need us playing piece when we're playing keys to cut down and then we'll have our roof cover the top pretty close. Kevin, I think this is really great for while we're filming right now, it is the holiday season and teo people having parties with photo goose. So what a great way. Yeah, I'm actually had a billion after playing with this year, I decided when we're having a holiday party at her house, someone had set one up. You know, friends and family come over and just put in the corner of the house somewhere and let them jump inside and play with it so, uh, we're going to cut this one down to seven feet if you want him it's gonna be a vertical so we just need to cut this to seven feet so if you could just use it cut that ragged end up there could a foot off the end of that should work and meanwhile what there when we're doing um if you want this to be something that you can take down and put back up again what I'm using is the velcro take okay so velcro tape I can put little strips across here and when I lay the roof we just attack you with the velcro so grab some of that and this stuff is also very handy from hardware store this is our velcro it's about three quarters of an inch wide come to both sides and just tape basically and tape one on each side so we use one for a strap and then take the other side actually to the board itself to make a strap out of the other part of it from the top so I'll start working on that while they're finishing that make a few strips out of this I'm putting the non prickly side on this side here I was laying through strips couple on each piece here across the back on the top getting and ready for the roof to come in waves across the sides too the seven foot section already ok so you guys can put that up um right here ok putting a little built strong what I hear so anyone do that sticky stuff on the outside oh I don't like that I want to say that it's been opie's hey who wants to help me stick stuff on do that a couple more down here to ease up on this side it's a velcro party okay push the bottom part together we get the bottom together okay we're getting there this is a velcro strap aganzo going on here and then is there one more roof section ready too we need a way to get a roof section that would be a single four by eight for the roof so kevin richard rosario photographer is asking can you make the whole thing out of that stream and plastic pipe that you did earlier could you do that I gosh darn I think you could yes you do anything could you make the whole thing out of pvc probably so uh it was a little bit of thought into where the joints they're going to go and how it's going to come apart and all that he probably could the main thing would be you want to cover the walls with a solid wait fabric brother in the translucent fabric and might need a little have us a little stool to get that thing up they will see oh helper wow that was impressive, huh e it's not gonna make it that was cut down sheet ok that might have been trimmed down a little bit it'll be fine doesn't need to go away actually, you know what let's put it always this way and less on the front that won't matter in the back is what really not ok, so we want to know tape that with some velcro so I need a little foot stool or something piece there but the apple box were great probably of course, once you've had these velcro is already on, it would come together a little quicker and this just put a couple, get some duct tape and put them back we don't need to be developed no matter just something to put across to hold it together. It collapsed on everybody he's right across the top wolf but some duct eight they're saying of the back and you, we do need our curtains were gonna hang our little curtain over the doorway, which you have a white sheet for that so that's good all right? So while she's finishing that so you can't just take here couple across the roof on this side, ok, same thing just take the roof to the sides of their and then elaine, you have the job of where sheets go now there's a bag of sheets, but you've never seen the bag of sheets all right so lane you can open the bag of sheets, use your deal, why skills figure out how we're gonna hang that over the door opening for able to go in and out well I could be there on the side I know she could do this and I'm gonna work out the lighting and the camera in the meantime while they're finishing that and main thing is figure out of course what what lens you want to use for this and I'm thinking probably fifty millimeter would get me pretty good coverage of the back wall up to the back law I'll try that out first and you were doing a photo booth so I'm just kind of using a fifty millimeters have got wide enough that's going to cover the back wall and then a little bit extra give people a place to move because it's just going to be old white doesn't matter we can profit two for one two and I want to use an essay that allow me enough room to move around so probably oh even if eight in here and I'm gonna use double flashes we'll move our little flash mobile my luck shooting cart that and we'll set that up as our flash head that another flash missed another flash said did I leave one down over there somewhere I'm gonna use my double bracket that we used earlier to put two flashes just so that we can shoot quicker and recycle faster and also powered by this little pack here there's another is sorry jumping in all good well done you're awesome thiss mantle in this new this is the snoop we made the other day you guys weren't here for that our toilet paper roll snoot works pretty good actually does a pretty nice little light but don't need anymore that's a nice thing about dear white here's a disposable tio instead of packing up but then in the night when you haven't done your event you throw everything away that's not very environmentally friendly okay, so I'm just going to throw these on here and using double speed lights with the head zoomed to me the most output should be plenty elimination on the back of that diffusion panel there and I want to set them both onto the same channels get both firing off together you know I see one okay? I'm both and then simple check off camera zuma I'm setting the zoom freddie tight like um two hundred millimeters going right is going getting bigger some like that right boom that's a lot like and then I'm gonna power these into the pack so this this doesn't have to be done right now but if you were using this at an event ah you'd want to have it powered on a power pack so you have fast recycling time your batteries don't die and all that so let's give that a test yes you're going to say something ideas that are being exchanged in in the chat rooms for this which is great said jumping the chairman if you want to share ideas in there but I liked dp seven who said drop it collide a light in the top and now you have a party oh yeah there you go collide a lot get the client light in there so danielle come on into my my little room here I'll meet you inside has the halo all right so I was gonna make sure the back part of this is closed we're just going to test the light on her before we throw ourselves into the mess here so what you scoot back through pretty close to the back wall yeah and okay she's not eight feet tall saying bring it down so I said it two f eight two hundred shutter speed spink center spektr s so it was five hundred I'm gonna bring that back down are gonna be too much but we'll go back down so we're not too far off ok, so one more danielle good everyone okay so I drank dropped it down just a little bit okay I like a little brighter something should've popped the power back ups were still in a fake too three one stop more do what you want to do when nobody's looking awesome sauce um okay, so ideally I would put a piece of white duct tape on the inside there I think there's some some old tape on the inside that but I don't even care about that I could be crop to retouch them only matter when there's a bunch of people in there so the lighting looks good knows that's nice and soft and even all the way around on that if you guys when I can see from here so we're ready to go so the idea worked now in use my remote control which is here and you get to control your own destiny here here we go well into that I'll let you know when I want to turn the auto focus off so that it's on all right fire it will magic I'm such a great photographer look what I'm doing huh? See okay, I'm gonna get teo so I think I have no idea we're getting all right who wants to come in here with me? Come on in bar is nice. Okay, okay. I'm in control now. All right do the duck face like my daughter. Well when you do schlub er do you'd be good for slumber? Come here. We're going to a slumber go like this. Jed jed topper, if you're watching right now, this is in honor of view jed because he taught me how to do schlepper came in is so slumber now we're going to be close and personal you're losing your job how well and we're going to go the biggest duck lips she can possibly muster okay oh, dude where you grabbing oh uh huh yeah yeah uh huh. Lover one two, three did you let it rip okay, we're gonna furthers up he's too tall way go ok, well more slumber big lips loose great. Why? Teo wait one, two, three good waiting waiting for it you're dirty about it all of us now way too three stocks what's going on I e e was getting groped in there that was so nice. Come on just in time for questions. What do you want? And then I'll go back all right? What are we doing here? What we're back here, lover what is slumber one, two, three wait here comes okay anymore I want to that's gotta be it god be it that's a good thing I can't see that. All right, all right. No. Okay, let's find remember everybody to get you can get all the fun talks and everything to bring on in their moustache is on a stick. Awesome. Nothing too. If you did all all white on here, you could bring colored sharpie saved was at a party. Let the kids draw people sign it at an event you know, write graffiti all over would be kind of fun just lay out some sharpies and now the whole booth or inside on the walls, you could draw some pictures on the walls or, you know, I mean, do people you think bride, groom, they have other friends signatures on the walls as they come in and sign it. And they'll be kind of fun to have in the picture the background to what would happen if you turned it all the other way. All the black black on the inside where you have a very, very directional kind of a light which would be very different if that's what it was was black holloway on the inside. But I can see where the people that have no basis, no nothing one in there just flat. Yeah, certainly. Worth trying to see what you do. What you think? Yeah. Okay. All right. Questions throwing them on. Okay. From e r what is the max number of people that you think could fit in this booth that we just way should retest it? Let's say we had the four of us in there. Plus they could get if we squeeze them on the side. You could probably two more sticks that we get six in their cool ok, stir picks, picks asks I wonder if the diffuser window is even necessary since all white inside could you get a soft and bright illumination by putting the flashes inside the booth maybe pointed up towards the rear wall? Then you could have a big effect of light source or about that? Yeah, you could do that, you know, that just kind of put some stuff in the booth for people to trip on and knock over to dip the flashes would have to be fairly far back in order to bounce and spread enough and then it happy bouncing back this would be a more efficient and you think that you've got just one big soft windows so that's you want a main light, but then everything else is kind of nice, phil so um certainly try it. You know, I think the window is pretty easy and it works pretty well keeps all your equipment outside nobody's going to trip on it, barf on it whatever way they're drunk and they're you know, in the photo booth so it keeps the gear outside where you can control that you can change it if you need to change the batteries a lot cleaner and I think I think the light with the best like this but certainly could try that we never know try anything could try anything but love the way you guys were thinking one more our flash is off to the side or centered in front of the photo booth diffusion screen. I have him off to the side just because it's out of the way for me, and it doesn't really matter, because I've actually feathered them, so I've angled them so that literally the center is pointing over here. But because it's at an angle it's feathering across, so this is going to be evenly illuminated and it's not going, you're not going to see any difference. If you could tell in the photos, there is no way we can tell those lovely can't look any, uh, there's, any hot spots, everything like that. So I did put him off to the side to give myself room to access the camera, but just feather them off so that they basically balances out and they're also two heads in there. Zoom. So I'm getting I'm getting employees a coverage over on the back of this thing here.

Class Materials

bonus material with purchase

Kevin Kubota -- DIY Lighting Tools Manual.pdf

bonus material with enrollment

Kevin Kubota - Special Offers.pdf

Ratings and Reviews

Geo Montecillo
 

Super good course highly recommended it will help you get started on a low budget, yet creating wonderful images. Is there a link to west got?

Adrian Martinez
 

Going into my 4th year of photography, I finally built a photo studio in my home and after purchasing some lighting gear and other accessories, I decided to buy this course for additional ideas - GREAT class! I learned a LOT and was very inspired to be more creative. I especially liked that Kevin didn't joke too much or stray away from the course very much at all. Yet, he was still very entertaining and very informative. I'm putting so much of what I got form this class into action right away! This course DEFINITELY pays for itself - right away!

F8 and be there
 

This was an awesome fun class! So many great ideas on how to achieve various lighting effects on a smaller budget. You will save the price of the course most likely by making one softbox (or whatever) yourself. Highly recommended!

Student Work

RELATED ARTICLES

RELATED ARTICLES