Photoboof! Manual
Updated February 11, 2010
If you need any help with any of this, feel free to email support@photoboof.com. We want to get you up and boofing, and we'll even talk you through it on the phone if need be or take control of your computer (with your help of course) to get it set up.
Quick Start
Computer Setup
Printer Setup
Camera Setup
Hardware Recommendations
Strip Layouts
Photo Effects (sepia, sketchbook, etc.)
Adding Foreground Image Frames
Vertical Camera Orientation
Live Preview Notes
Viewer Configurations
Dual Monitor Support
Slideshow
Skinning Photoboof
Adding Sound To Your Booth
Triggering Photoboof
Touchscreens and Photoboof
Controlling Lights and Relays from Photoboof
Interfacing with Bill Acceptors
Running External Commands
Advanced Configurations
Rebranding for OEMs
Odds & Ends
Troubleshooting
There's lots of details in this manual, but here's a quick start:
1) Follow the steps in Computer Setup below.
2) Follow the steps in Printer Setup below.
3) Run Photoboof.
4) Go to File --> Show Preferences --> Camera and set your camera controller and restart Phtooboof. If you're using a Canon Powershot or Canon DSLR, using "Photoboof With a Powershot" or "Photoboof with a DSLR" is recommended.
5) If you get any errors, you might need to read the rest of this manual to get started. Or feel free to email support@photoboof.com, attaching your log file (c:\photoboof\log.txt) if possible. We'd be glad to log into your computer remotely using our GoToMyPC account to help you get started.
6) If you're only using a single monitor, note that the F1 key will close the Viewer, which will otherwise take over your screen. This is meant to be seen inside the booth and can be on any monitor, and it's highly recommended to show this on a secondary monitor so you can see the main program messages, printer messages, etc. on the primary monitor. But using just one monitor works well too, just remember the F1 hotkey.
7) By default F12 is the trigger, so Photoboof will start taking pictures when you press the F12 key. See the section Triggers below for many more trigger options. When you buy a license, we send you an arcade-quality backlit button that plugs into your USB port.
8) Feel free to email any questions, suggestions, requests for help, whatever, to support@photoboof.com.
- Run the installer, which by default will install everything to c:\photoboof. Unless you have a good reason for doing otherwise, we recommend keeping this setting.
- For Nikon DSLRs, Nikon Camera Control Pro 2 probably came with your camera, install it. Note that this program isn't free, but if you purchase it for use with Photoboof, send over your receipt and we'll deduct its price from Photoboof. Tell Nikon Camera Capture Pro to save its pictures to c:\photoboof\capture.
- Recommended setup: a Pentium IV or better computer, Windows 2000, XP or Vista32, a Canon Powershot controlled by Photoboof, and a second monitor to put inside the booth for people to see their pictures on The Viewer. There are more details in Hardware Recommendations.
Photoboof should work with any printer that works with Windows.
To configure your printer:
1) In the main Photoboof window, click File --> Configure Printer.
2) Select your printer from the "primary printer" pulldown list, then choose "configure", which will launch your printer's configuration dialog. Set the paper size, paper type and print quality here.
3) Then back in Photoboof, set the paper orientation and any margins. If you're having trouble getting the printout to fill the whole page, you might want to experiment with setting the "Print Size" to "stretch (no aspect ratio)".
Sidenote: Photoboof counts how many prints have been sent to your printer. The count shows in the statusbar, and you can reset the count with the "reset count" button on the main Photoboof program window.
Sidenote: if you're using a Mitsubishi dye sublimation printer and getting blank pages after every print, go to Windows Control Panel --> Printers ---> right click your Mitsubishi printer and choose Properties, then Advanced, and choose "print directly to this printer".
Advanced Tip: Photoboof can optionally use a second printer in a number of very useful ways. Go to the Printer Preferences page and set your Secondary Printer, and then set your Secondary Printer Mode as follows:
Duplicate: in this mode both the primary and secondary printers will print the same strip. In other words you'll get two copies of each strip, one from each printer. Very useful for scrapbook stations. Note that this temporarily doesn't work with network printers.
Round Robin Printing: in this mode Photoboof will print to the primary printer, then the secondary printer, then the primary printer, etc.
Backup Printer: in this mode Photoboof will print to the primary printer until it fails (for example, until it runs out of paper), and then print to the secondary printer. This mode is currently experimental, please let me know if it doesn't work with your printer and we'll add support for it.
Reprint Last Button: in this mode the secondary printer is only used when the "reprint last" button is pressed.
Advanced Tip: if you prefer to use Irfanview as the printing engine, open up your configuration file (by default, that's c:\photoboof\configuration.ini) and search for "printing_engine" and change it from "photoboof" to "irfanview".
Canon Powershots
- In Photoboof, go to File --> Show Preferences --> Camera and set the controller to "Photoboof with a Powershot". If you want to use a live preview so your customers can orient themselves to the camera frame, set the Live Preview as well. Then restart Photoboof.
- See the live preview section of the manual for some discussions on optimizing your camera's live preview, including placement and customizing the background image.
- If you find that the timing of your camera is a bit off, try adjust the "delay before picture is taken" on the Camera preferences screen. This is the amount of time before the end of the Viewer countdown that Photoboof tells your camera to take a picture. In other words, if the Viewer countdown is saying "3 - 2 - 1 - 0" and then there's a pause before the camera fires, you need to adjust this value. If your camera is firing before the countdown reaches 0, you need to increase it. The value will vary from camera to camera, but most are in the range of 2.5 seconds, which is the default.
- You can adjust all your camera's setting on Photoboof's camera controller, called CanRemoter.
- You can see a full list of supported Canon Powershots on this page.
Canon DSLRs
- In Photoboof, go to File --> Show Preferences --> Camera and set the controller to "Photoboof with a DSLR ". If you want to use a live preview so your customers can orient themselves to the camera frame, set the Live Preview as well. Then restart Photoboof.
- See the live preview section of the manual for some discussions on optimizing your camera's live preview, including placement and customizing the background image.
- If you find that the timing of your camera is a bit off, try adjust the "delay before picture is taken" on the Camera preferences screen. This is the amount of time before the end of the Viewer countdown that Photoboof tells your camera to take a picture. In other words, if the Viewer countdown is saying "3 - 2 - 1 - 0" and then there's a pause before the camera fires, you need to adjust this value. If your camera is firing before the countdown reaches 0, you need to increase it. The value will vary from camera to camera, but most are in the range of 2.5 seconds, which is the default.
- You can adjust all your camera's setting on Photoboof's camera controller, called CanRemoter. Note that with DSLR's you adjust the exposure mode on the camera itself.
- You can see a list of supported Canon DSLRs on this page.
As of Photoboof v6.922 (December 2010), Photoboof has a new controller for webcams called Moving Images, built from scratch specifically for photobooths. To use it, go to the Cameras tab of Photoboof's preferences, then select "Photoboof with a Webcam" for the camera controller (not simply "webcam"), and set "Live Preview" to "yes", then restart Photoboof.
Known issues:
- if you're using an HD webcam such as the excellent Logitec Orbit webcam, you'll need to make a manual setting in the settings file, please email me and I'll explain. This will be fixed shortly.
- there's an issue with foreground images. If you're using foreground images, the workaround is to set the foreground image and restart Photoboof. Again, this will be fixed shortly.Everything else should be working very well, but of course let me know if you discover otherwise, or if you have a suggestion.
General notes about webcams:
Webcams save pictures at different rates, so to get the moment the webcam takes the picture to line up with the "say cheese" graphic in Photoboof (in other words, to get the picture taken when the 3-2-1-0 countdown hits 0), you need to massage the "Delay Before Picture Is Taken" value on Photoboof's Camera Preferences tab. A value of 2.8 seconds seems to be the sweet spot for most webcams, but let me know if yours is different.
Webcams have some advantages over stills cameras: they're rock solid since there's no power supplies or power buttons, and compared to a digital stills camera they're extremely simply to operate. And if you use Photoboof's ability to trigger a relay you can even rig up a flash. Or you might want to experiment with Photoboof's experimental "screen flash", which will turn the whole screen white (or any color) before taking a picture. In Moving Images, have a look under the camera menu at "Screen Flash".
If you're looking for a webcam recommendation, the Logitec Orbit webcam is excellent and works very well with Photoboof.
TROUBLESHOOTING:
- if you have problems initializing your camera, try disconnecting any other webcams, cameras, scanners, etc. from your computer.
- verify that your webcam is working in other applications. Try AmCap.exe, which you can download here, or Webcam2000
- make sure no other application is using the webcam when Photoboof is trying to.
- if the webcam is taking a picture at the wrong time in the 3-2-1-0 countdown, go to Preferences --> Camera in Photoboof, and change the "Dealy Before Picture Is Taken" value. A value of 2.8 seconds seems to work well for most webcams.
- if you're using an HD webcam and getting incorrect aspect ratios, email me.
Webcams (old method)
Note: as of January 5, 2010, this is the old method of using a webcam with Photoboof and you probably shouldn't use it. For one thing you'll get no live preview before the pictures are taken, no color effects, and its generally inferior to the new system. See here.
Photoboof should work with any USB webcam, provided you have the drivers installed. Open the webcam with another application (for example, whatever came with your webcam, or you might try Webcam2000) and verify that it's working. You also might want to set the color tone, focus, etc.
Then go to Preferences --> Camera and set the camera controller to webcam, and restart Photoboof.
Note that webcams save the pictures extremely fast so you might want to introduce a delay before the picture is taken, which you do on Preferences --> Camera using the "delay before picture is taken" setting.
And unfortunately webcams still don't have very good color sensitivity, even if they have decent megapixels, so I'd really consider getting a supported Canon Powershot or a Canon DSLR. You can get an old Canon Powershot G2 on ebay for around $60, and they're excellent cameras.
TROUBLESHOOTING:
- if you have problems, try disconnecting any other webcams, cameras, scanners, etc. from your computer.
- verify that your webcam is working in other applications.
- make sure no other application is using the webcam when Photoboof is trying to.
Nikon DSLRs
- Install Nikon Camera Control Pro 2, which probably came with your camera. If it didn't, you can download it here.
- To make your camera remote controllable by the computer, go to Menu on your camera, then select USB, then select "PTP" instead of "Mass Storage".
- Tell Camera Control Pro 2 to save the pictures to c:\photoboof\capture by going to Tools --> Download Options.
- In Photoboof go to Preferences --> Camera and set the camera controller to "Nikon DSLR", then restart Photoboof.
- If you get permission errors, add a prefix to the filename in Nikon Camera Control Pro. For example, you could make the prefix be "photoboof".
- Make sure to provide enough light for your camera's auto focus.
Important Note: its never a good idea to put your camera through a USB hub. And if you're experiencing connection problems, try blowing the dust out of the USB jack.
Computer
Photoboof loves laptops since they're cheap, easily portable, and most important usually have a VGA output for a second monitor. Personally I prefer XP, but Vista works fine too. Note that 64 bit versions of Vista don't work with Canon cameras, so seek out Vista 32 bit or XP.
When you buy a license you get a free super high quality arcade-style backlit button that plugs into your USB port (or serial port if you prefer).
As mentioned above, a dedicated second monitor for people inside the booth is highly recommended.
As far as system specs, everything should work well on any semi modern computer, meaning a P4 or better. If you're using a slow computer such as a netbook, you might decrease the image size so assembling the strips takes less CPU resources. And as always the more RAM the better.
Camera
Any of the supported Powershots and any of the supported Canon DSLRs work well. The cadillac route for Powershots is the Canon Powershot S5, G9 or G10 series since they have flash hotshoes. Those are nice since they let you connect external flashes. And the fact that they have great light sensitivity/color quality, are very fast, and stable doesn't hurt. If you're looking for something cheap, consider getting an old G2 off ebay. They're commonly available for around $60 and are great cameras, especially since you don't need super high megapixels for a photobooth. They were "prosumer" in their day and work just great for our purposes.
If you go the Canon DSLR route, make sure to get one that supports live preview so people inside the booth can see themselves before the pictures are taken.
Printer
The big consideration with a printer is how much attention you want to spend on it. If you'll be attending the booth, meaning will be nearby and don't mind loading in new paper every 40 or so prints and dealing with an occasional printer jam, an ink jet works great. They have an additional huge advantage: they can print to 2.13" x 6" strips. Actually not all inkjets can print that narrow, but the Canons can. I love the Canon IP2600, which can be had for all of $50 at most Best Buys. Its an incredibly good printer, but they make their profit on the inks.
If you need unattended use, you want a dye sublimation printer. My big favorite is the Mitsubishi CP-9550DW or CP9800 (available at fotoclubinc.com), which can load 600 sheets and has never jammed on me yet. Another common option is the Sony UPDR150, but those tend to be a bit less maintenance free.
Photoboof has built-in layouts that range from single pictures to classic 4-picture strips to modern larger layouts. Or you can create your own layouts to get complete control over everything. See this page for more layout samples and discussion.
Photoboof currently has the following photo effects: black & white, sepia, negative, sketchbook and oil painting. If you want to set these effects for all sessions, go to Preferences --> Camera and set the "color mode" value. If you want a different effect for different ways of starting the photobooth session (for example, maybe you want one button to start the photobooth session in color, another to start in black & white, and another to start it in sepia), go to Preferences --> Triggers. If you want different areas of the touchscreen to start the session with different color modes, go to Preferences --> Touchscreen.
If you're using Photoboof as the camera controller, the sepia, black & white and negative effects will appear in the live preview from the camera. In other words, the customer will be able to see the effect before a picture is taken.
Note that the oil painting and sketchbook effect are very processor intensive, so Photoboof shrinks the pictures to 1600 pixels on their longest edge before processing. That's an experimental value, please let us know if that's too small for you.
Advanced Tip: if you want to vary the amount of the photo effect (for example, vary the amount of the sketch effect), open up your raw configuration file, which by default is c:\photoboof\configuration.ini. You can also select File --> Show Raw Config File from within Photoboof to open this file. Then look for the following lines:
sketch_parameter = 10
painting_parameter = 10
If you upgraded from a recent version of Photoboof, the lines may not be there and you can simply add them. Now you can adjust the amount of each effect by varying the number in the line. For example to increase the amount of sketch effect, you might change that line to read "sketch_parameter = 20".
When you use Photoboof as the camera controller, you can set a foreground image like a frame. The customer then sees themselves in this foreground image. This is especially powerful with single image layouts. [make some samples]
You can set the foreground image either by going to Preferences --> Camera from within Photoboof, or by specifying a foreground image in your custom layout file. The latter method is especially powerful since it allows you to let the user choose from multiple layouts, each with a different foreground image.
I'll be updating the syntax for the custom layouts, but the line to add to your custom layout to get a foreground image is:
foreground_image = "name of foreground image"
For custom layouts, the foreground image must be in layouts directory.
[This section will be expanded shortly]
Some people prefer to mount the camera vertically so their pictures are vertically oriented. If you do this please remember to:
1) mount your camera rotated 90 degrees counter-clockwise
2) mount your monitor rotated 90 degrees clockwise (note that you're rotating the monitor in a different direction than the camera in the step above)
3) open the Camera Preferences (File --> Show Preferences --> Camera) and for camera orientation, select "vertical".
4) If you're using Live Preview, you'll need to swap out the live preview graphic. Open up your skins directory, which by default is c:\photoboof\assets\default, and delete viewer-msg_start-preview.png, then rename viewer-msg_start (vertical).png to viewer-msg_start-preview.png.
The Live Preview lets your customers orient themselves to the camera before the picture is taken. Not every camera support live preview natively: all the supported Canon Powershots do, most of the supported Canon DSLRs do, and all webcams do. But note that even if you're using a camera that doesn't support live preview, you can install a webcam in your booth and use that for the live preview.
Like most camera configurations, you adjust the live preview in Preferences --> Camera in the main Photoboof window, which is shown below:
Next to "live preview", you can set the live preview to one of three modes: "intro", which shows the live preview only before the first picture is taken, "yes", which shows the live preview before each picture is taken, and "always", which shows the live preview before each picture is taken and stays on the screen a bit longer than the "yes" mode. Most people prefer the "yes" mode, since the live preview freezes while the picture is being taken, and in the "always" mode you see this freeze.
Photoboof gives complete control over where you'd like to place the live preview on your viewer screen. You set the position using the "live preview X position" and "live preview Y position" above. If you decide to specify the position instead of centering it, you might want to use the "Test" button to test the current placement. Photoboof will show you the live preview for a few seconds so you can verify the position.
If you want to change the background image for the live preview, including the border surrounding it, edit the file viewer-msg_start-preview.png in your skins directory, which by default is c:\photoboof\assets\default. See the advanced tip below to use a different graphic for each picture.
Note that Canon Powershots send a very low resolution live preview (320x240 pixels), but Photoboof stretches it to a usable size. Photoboof can't help that its somewhat pixellated. One thing that greatly improves the live preview image quality is some ambient light in your booth. With sufficient light the live preview from a Canon Powershot works very well to help the customers orient themselves in the camera frame. Also remember to take a picture after changing your camera settings or the amount of light, which updates the camera's live preview settings.
Canon DSLRs send a much higher resolution live preview (928x616 pixels), but they still like lots of light to make the image clear. And not all Canon DSLRs can send a live preview, there's a list on this page.
At the bottom of the Camera tab of Photoboof's preferences, is a checkbox labelled "use webcam for live preview". If you'd like to use a webcam for your live preview even though you're using some other camera as your main photobooth camera, check this box.
Advanced Tip: since the Live Preview isn't a true mirror image, when people inside the booth move left they will appear to move right on the computer screen, which can be disorienting. If you'd like to mirror the live preview, in the camera controller (CanRemoter) go to Camera --> Live View Options --> Mirror Live View.
Advanced Tip: you can optionally have a different live preview background graphic for each picture taken, or even choose a random one. Remember that the default graphic shown in the background of the Live Preview is viewer-msg_start-preview.png in your skins directory. if you want different live preview background graphics for picture 2, for example, you'd place a file there named viewer-msg_start-preview-2.png. To have a custom background for picture 3, you'd have viewer-msg_start-preview-3.png. To pick a random background for each picture, you'd create files with names like viewer-msg_start-preview-a.png, viewer-msg_start-preview-b.png, viewer-msg_start-preview-c.png, etc.
Advanced Tip: by default the 3-2-1-0 countdown appears directly below the Live Preview, but this is adjustable in the configuration.ini file. Open the file (File --> Edit Raw Preferences) and look for the variables cheese_pos_x and cheese_pos_y. By default cheese_pos_y (the Y position of the countdown) is set to "auto", which positions it right below the Live Preview, but you can specify some numbered value. For example, setting cheese_pos_y = 60 will make the countdown graphic appear at the top of the Live Preview screen.
Advanced Tip: you can create a second, permanently visible Live Preivew by clicking Action --> Duplicate Live Preview on the main Photoboof window. This is useful for keeping an eye on what's going on inside the photobooth when you have your head stuck inside the back of the booth, which is where we spend most of our time when staffing the booth. Note that you can only do this if you have a secondary monitor installed, since otherwise it would be visible to people inside the booth. See the Dual Monitor Support section below for information on setting that up. Let me know if you have some other use for a second Live Preview and I'll implement it. As a sidenote, note that you can spawn your own secondary Live Preview windows by choosing Camera --> Live Preview Options --> Duplicate in CanRemoter. If the Live Preview appears on some other monitor, right-click its icon in the taskbar and choose "Reset Window Position".
Advanced Tip: if you're using a smaller screen resolution, like 800x600, you'll probably want to set the live preview to "small". You do this on the Camera preferences page. After doing so you'll probably also want to edit the background graphic for the live preview, which is in your skin folder (by default, c:\photoboof\assets\default), and the file is called viewer-msg_start-preview.png. We'll be adding stock graphics for this shortly, feel free to send an email if you'd like to give us a little nudge...
The Viewer is intended to be seen by people inside the photobooth, but isn't necessary to run Photoboof. In other words the people inside the booth don't need to see themselves, especially if you enable sounds. But its nice to let the people inside the booth see themselves, and that's where the Viewer comes in.
I highly recommend getting a second monitor to place inside the booth for the Viewer. Have a look at the dual monitor section for notes on that.
See Skinning Photoboof for notes on customizing the graphics in the Viewer.
See Live Preview for some notes on tweaking the live camera preview inside the Viewer.
One important note is that the F1 key closes the Viewer, which is very important to know when the Viewer launches on your main monitor...
If the you're having trouble getting the Viewer's "say cheese" (viewer-countdown-0.png) graphic to appear at the same moment your camera is taken a picture, go to Preferences --> Camera and adjust "delay before picture is taken".
Advanced Tip: If the "say cheese" graphic stays on your screen longer than you'd like, you can optionally place a file called "viewer-developing.png" in your skins folder, which will be shown until your picture appears. Its sort of a "one moment while the picture develops" graphic. This is especially useful if you're using photo effects like the oil painting effect, which take a few seconds to process.
Photoboof has a slideshow feature that can be run from the same computer that's running Photoboof, or from a networked computer. The Slideshow looks beautiful on a monitor on the side of your booth, or better yet through a projector. It cycles through past pictures when no one is using the booth, and shows new pictures fullscreen as they're taken. It really is quite beautiful if I do say so myself.
Some notes on how it works:
- to enable the Slideshow, go to Preferences --> Slideshow from within Photoboof. After enabling it you'll need to restart Photoboof.
- you can launch the Slideshow on any monitor by clicking File --> Launch Slideshow from within Photoboof.
- if you'd like, you can also access the Slideshow through a web browser, which means you can access it over a wireless network. Install a wireless router in your booth and make your own wireless network (no internet connection needed) and you can access your Slideshow wirelessly. Note that if you're connecting using a webbrowser, you can even use a Mac. See the "Advanced Tip" below for more notes on connecting through a network.
- to edit the pictures shown in the Slideshow, edit the folder c:\photoboof\pics_slideshow (assuming Photoboof is installed to c:\photoboof). Note that you can delete anything you want without affecting the pictures that are saved by Photoboof. In other words the pictures in that directory are *only* used by the Slideshow. After you delete some pictures you'll need to tell Photoboof to update the Slideshow, which you do either by running a photobooth session, taking a preview picture, or clicking Action --> Force Slideshow Update.
- note that Photoboof only produces the pictures for the Slideshow if the Slideshow is enabled. So if you expect to use the Slideshow later in an event, you should keep it enabled the whole time in Preferences --> Slideshow, even if you're not displaying it.
- note that the computer displaying the Slideshow must have Flash installed. A good way to make sure Flash is installed system-wide is to visit flash.com with Internet Explorer and let it install from there.
Advanced Tip: Remotely Accessing the Slideshow. If you're going to connect to Photoboof over a network using a web browser, there are a few things you should be aware of. Most importantly, Photoboof acts as a webserver to allow the remote computers to connect, which means you'll need to leave port 80 open in your firewall.
To access Photoboof's webserver from another computer, you'llneed to know either the name or the IP number of the Photoboof computer. To find this out, click Start --> Search (if using Windows Vista or 7) or Start --> Run (if using XP), then type the word "command" followed by the enter key, and you should be looking at a black DOS console window. Now type the word "ipconfig" followed by the enter key, and your IP number will be displayed. For example, it might be 192.168.1.1. Now in the computer that will be displaying the Slideshow, you'll type "http://192.168.1.1" into the address bar of your web browser. If you have a problem, make sure port 80 is open in the firewall of the Photoboof computer.
I don't recommend usingthe venue's wireless network to connect to the Slideshow remotely since a weak wifi signal will make the Slideshow jerky and unpredictable.
And if you're using a webbrowser, you'll probably want to run your browser in fullscreen mode. Most browsers let you do this by clicking View --> Fullscreen. If you're using Firefox, you might want want to install the Full Fullscreen plugin and configure it to hide the tab bar, which gives you true fullscreen. Or the Opera webbrowser does a great job without any plugins, and is fullscreen even on Macs.
Photoboof works best when you have two monitors connected to your computer, one on the front of your booth for the customers to see, and another inside your booth for you to see program messages, printer messages and usage info. You can plug a second monitor directly into the VGA jack on the back of most laptops, or you can get a dual head video card for your desktop computer.
Note that there are two different dual monitor modes in Windows: "clone mode" where both monitors show the same thing, and "extended desktop mode", where the second monitor is unique and shows an extension of the main monitor. In "extended desktop mode" if you drag your mouse to the right, your mouse will appear on the second monitor. This is the mode you want. Here are some notes for setting this up in Windows:
1) reboot with the second monitor attached. This may be all you need to do, but if your second monitor isn't displaying an extension of your desktop (you shouldn't see the Windows taskbar across the bottom of the monitor), continue with these steps.
2) go to Control Panel
3) in Windows XP, go to Display. In Windows Vista, go to Personalize and then Display. In Windows 7, go to Control Panel and then Hardware and Sound and then click "Connect to a Projector", then "Extend". In Windows 7, that's the last step you'll need to do, but Vista and XP will have to continue to the next step below.
4) Click the "Settings" folder tab, and you should see two monitors. Click on your second monitor and then click the checkbox "extend my desktop to this monitor". On some computers you'll have to adjust the screen resolution using the slider on this dialog, make sure your screen width is at least 1024 pixels wide.
5) When you click the "Identify" button you should see a "1" on your primary display, and a "2" on your secondary display. If you see "1" on both, you're in clone mode and you need to go through these steps again.
If you're using a touchscreen, you'll need to run the manufacturer's "multi monitor configuration utility" after performing these steps.
Every part of Photoboof that the customer sees, both inside the booth and on the printed strips, can be customized. And I don't just mean that you can change the wording, you can change the entire look of all the assets, using your own custom graphics. Its all very easy once you get the hang of it.
Assuming you haven't yet created your own Photoboof skin, all graphical assets are by default in the c:\photoboof\assets\default folder.
Advanced Tip: skins are a useful (and optional) way to group all your graphics together. Once you create your own skin you can change the entire look of Photoboof by changing a single setting. You can create your own skin by creating a new folder inside the c:\photoboof\assets folder (no spaces or punctuation in the name), and then copying in the contents of c:\photoboof\assets\default. For example if you want to create a skin called "weddings" you'd copy c:\photoboof\assets\default to c:\photoboof\assets\weddings. Now you can change all the assets in Photoboof simply by gonig to Preferences --> Layouts and setting the skin to "weddings" from the Skins pulldown menu. Handy!
Here's a list of assets that appear inside the Viewer. These can be any pixel dimension you want. As always, Photoshop source files are included:
viewer-msg_initialize.png - shown when Photoboof first launches.
viewer-ready.jpg - shown when Photoboof is ready for the next customer. The "press the button to begin" graphic.
viewer-msg_start.png - shown right after the customer presses the start button if you're not using a live preview from the camera.
viewer-msg_start-preview.png - shown during the camera's live preview
viewer-countdown-3.png, -2.png, -1.png, -0.png - these 4 files are the countdown shown before the pictures are taken
viewer-developing.png - an optional file shown after viewer-countodown-0.png but before the fullscreen picture is displayed.
viewer-msg_finished.png - shown at the end of the sequence. The "your printout should be ready in a moment" graphic.
If you're using a bill acceptor and money mode, the viewer-credit#.jpg files are shown when money is inserted. For example if 3 credits are inserted the viewer-credit3.jpg file is shown. And while there's not enough credits to start, the file viewer-not_ready.jpg is shown.
Here's a list of assets used in the printed layouts. Note that if you're creating your own custom layouts, your assets won't appear in this list but will instead be in the c:\photoboof\layouts folder.
strip-footer.jpg - placed at the bottom of the strip2 and strip3 layout.
strip-header.jpg - placed at the top of the strip3 layout.
grid2-logo.jpg - placed on the right in the grid2 layout.
grid3-logo-left.jpg - placed on the left in the grid3 layout.
grid3-logo-right.jpg - placed on the right in the grid3 layout.
grid4-mask.png - laid over the completed grid4 layout.
6up-footer.png, 6up-middle.png - used in the 6up layout.
6up2-mask.png - laid over the completed 6up2 layout.
fullpic3-mask.png - laid over the completed fullpic3 layout.
Note that the sound files also appear in this folder. See the Sounds section below.
Photoboof sings! On the simple side you can play a camera click when each picture is taken, which is handy if you're not using a camera flash. Or you can get fancy and play sounds throughout the photobooth session.
Have a look at Preferences --> Sounds in Photoboof. You'll see a checkbox to enable the camera click sound, and a way to add a delay before the sound is played. Experiement with the delay until you get the sound aligned perfectly with the moment your camera takes the picture. Decimals are fine. Note that this sound lives in c:\photoboof\click.wav if you want to change it.
You'll also see a checkbox called "play picture sounds". This lets you play sounds at various moments throughout the photobooth session:
intro.wav - played at the start of the photobooth session.
picture#.wav - played before each picture is taken. For example picture1.wav is played before picture 1 is taken.
finished.wav - played at the end of the photobooth session.
Note that the included sounds are meant as starting points, you'll probably want to record your own. These sounds are located in your skins folder (by default c:\photoboof\assets\default). Let me know if you need sounds played at any other points in the sequence. And if you don't want a sound played at a given point, just delete the sound file.
You can start the photobooth session using keys on the keyboard, a mouse, a touchscreen, joystick buttons, from some other program, with an Eco Button, Griffin Powermate, or using arcade buttons attached to your USB port, microphone jack, or serial port. By default Photoboof starts the sequence when the F12 key is pressed on the keyboard, but it's *highly* recommended that you use an arcade-style button attached to your soundcard, serial, or USB port, which, incidentally, is included when you buy your license.
Note that you can also assign any button to start Photoboof in different color modes (black & white, sepia, color, negative, oil painting, sketch), any layout (maybe you want one button to produce a double strip, the other to start a 6-up layout), or to reprint the alst session.
To configure the buttons, go to File --> Show Preferences --> Triggers.
Microphone Jack
One of the easiest ways to build a photobooth button is by connecting a button to your soundcard's microphone jack. Simply connect the two wires that come from the button to an audio jack such as Radio Shack part # 274-274. Then use any 1/8" male-to-male audio cable to connect the button to your soundcard's microphone jack. For a button, ideally you'd use an arcade button, but in a pinch you could even use a doorbell button available at any hardware store. Here's a picture:
You'll then need to set your microphone as the recording device in Windows. There are a number of ways to do this, but I think the simplest is to go to Control Panel --> Sounds --> Audio, and click the "Volume" button under "Sound Recording", which should launch your soundcard's recording mixer. Make sure "microphone" is checked, and that the volume level isn't muted.
You can test your button by opening any sound recording program such as Windows Sound Recorder or, better yet, Audio Level Meter. When you press your button, you should see a spike in the sound levels.
To tell Photoboof to listen for button presses on the microphone jack, go to File --> Show Preferences --> Triggers and check the box that says "mic jack".
Serial / USB Port Buttons
The best way to trigger Photoboof is a button or buttons that attach to your serial or USB port. The big advantage here is that not only can you use regular arcade buttons, which look very professional and are built to take tons of abuse, but you can have multiple buttons connected, each starting Photoboof in a different mode. This is the type of button that comes free with your Photoboof license, but if you'd like to build one yourself, here are some instructions.
Even if your computer doesn't have a serial port (most modern laptops don't), you can use a USB to Serial adaptor. When you buy a license, let me know your button choice and we'll mail you out a button assembly, wired and tested and ready to plug into your USB port.
Go to Radio Shack and get part number 276-1538, "9-position female d-sub connector", also known as a DB9 jack. I like the solder style. Then connect the pins of the DB9 jack to the buttons like so:
For example, if you only want a single button, you'd wire the common pin of your button to pin 4 on your serial port, and the NC (normally closed) pin of your button to either pins 1, 6 or 8 of your serial port. Using 24-guage speaker wire available at Radio Shack fits in the db9 jack nicely.
If you want multiple buttons, you'd connect the common pins of each button to Pin 4 of your DB9 jack, and the NC (normally closed) pin of each button to either pins 1, 6, 8 or 9 of your DB9 jack. Only one button per pin, so you'd be wiring the NC pin of each button to a different DB9 pin.
You can also wire your bill acceptor to your USB harness. Most bill acceptors have wires that pulse when bills or coins are inserted. Wire these to pin 4 of the DB9 jack and either pins 1, 6, 8 or 9. Note that buttons and bill acceptors can share pin 4 of the DB9 jack.
If you're connecting this to a USB port, as most people do, use a USB to Serial adaptor.
To test your button harness, you can either use Photoboof, or the Serial Tester program in c:\photoboof\utils\Serial Tester. If using the Serial Tester, open the program and tell it which com port your button harness is connected to (to find that out go to Device Manager by going to Control Panel --> System --> Hardware --> Device Manager --> Ports) , then run serial_tester.exe and press the button... If it says "button pressed!", its working.
When you're done, tell Photoboof what com port your button is attached to by going to File --> Show Preferences --> Triggers in Photoboof. Note that you can select "auto" and Photoboof will try to detect it for you.
Note that if you're using a button sent to you with your Photoboof license, here's the driver.
Stealth Switch
The "StealthSwitch" is a foot pedal marketed as a way to hide whatever is on your screen at work. It works well as a photobooth start button though, since its very durable. It has the added advantage of being available at many Staples and Office Max stores. Its big disadvantage is that it doesn't illuminate, and is only available in black.
Griffin Powermates
A note about Griffin Powermates: The Griffin Powermate works well as an external (and cheap) button trigger for Photoboof, though they're not nearly as durable as a regular arcade button. There's a special program included with Photoboof that's meant to work with Griffin Powermates, it's in c:\photoboof\utils\trigger-griffin_powermate.exe. To use a Powermate with Photoboof, install the software that came with your Griffin Powermate, then open the Griffin utility from either the Windows Control Panel or the System Tray (the area by the clock) and set it so the Powermate runs c:\photoboof\utils\trigger-griffin_powermate.exe on both "click" and "long click". You may also need to check the "Global Only" box. Here's a screenshot of the Griffin Powermate utility configured to work with Photoboof:
Eco Button
Photoboof can also be started using an EcoButton. These are usually avaialble on ebay for around $20, and work pretty well for triggering Photoboof, but they're not nearly as solid as an arcade button, and you can only use one at a time so no separate buttons for color and black & white modes. But they're cheap, easy, and work fairly well.
Note that to use an EcoButton you need to download and run our EcoButton Listener. To install, download and unzip to its own folder, then run EcoButton2.exe whenever you want to use your EcoButton.
Touchscreen
See the touchscreen section, there's lots of options here.
Other Triggers
On the Triggers configuration screen (File --> Show Preferences --> Triggers) you can also have Photoboof start on left or right mouse click or the buttons on a joystick. Let me know if you need some other trigger.
Remote Triggering
You can trigger Photoboof from other programs, scripts, or even computers by running the program c:\photoboof\utils\trigger.exe. You might also try the file c:\photoboof\utils\trigger-griffin_powermate.exe.
Alternatively, you can simply place a text file in c:\photoboof\utils called go.txt. It doesn't matter what the contents of that file are, Photoboof simply looks for it's presence.
Photoboof has extremely flexible touchscreen support. Users can choose to use the default options; or do a session in b&w, color, sepia or negative color mode; or choose their own layout. Allowing the user to choose from a few layouts means people can choose different foreground images, different backgrounds, different color modes, different number of pictures, choose between a double strip or a 4-up layout, etc. The flexibility is huge.
Configuring Photoboof
If you only want a single region, meaning you simply want users to touch the screen to begin, no configuration is necessary. But if you want multiple regions, each starting Photoboof with different color or layout settings, you'll need to configure things a bit.
To configure Photoboof's touchscreen support, go to File --> Show Preferences --> Touchscreen. The first step is to set the number of regions: this is the number of different areas of your touchscreen that will have different actions. For example, if you want the user to be able to start the sequence in sepia or color, you'd choose "2" from the regions pulldown list, since that's two different options. If you want the user to have the choice of b&w, color or sepia, you'd choose "3" from the regions pulldown list. If you want the user to have the choice of starting the sequence with the double2 layout or 3x1a layout, you'd choose "2" from the regions pulldown list.
The regions are hard-coded into Photoboof, but vary with the number of regions. For example, if you're using two regions, the location of the regions is different than if you're using three regions. You can see where the regions are by clicking the "Show Region Map" button on the Touchscreen Preferences page. For example, if you have three regions, the left third of the screen is Region 1, the center third is Region 2, and the right third is Region 3. Note that the regions are based on a proportion of your touchscreen and not strict pixel dimensions.
After selecting the number of regions, you can assign an action to each region in the "Touchscreen Region Actions" box below the area where you chose the number of regions. For example, if you want to have three different touchscreen regions, and Region1 to start the sequence in color, Region2 to start the sequence in sepia, and Region 3 to start the sequence in b&w, you'd choose "color" from the "Region 1" pulldown, "sepia" from the "Region 2" pulldown, and "b&w" from the "Region 3" pulldown.
After configuring your touchscreen regions, you'll need to make a ready graphic that instructs your users where to touch the screen. See the Skinning Photoboof section of the manual for more notes on this, but the gist is you'll replace the file called viewer-ready.jpg in your Skins directory, which by default is c:\photoboof\assets\default. For example, if you have 3 regions, one for color, one for b&w and one for sepia, your ready graphic might look something like this.
Also note that on the Touchscreen Preferences page you can choose to hide the mouse cursor when its over your touchscreen, which means your users won't see the mouse cursor. This is very nice for polish, but when you're troubleshooting your touchscreen you might not want to have this option enabled.
Advanced Tip: by combining the power of custom layouts with different touchscreen regions, you can create a very dynamic photobooth experience. I know there's a learning curve to the custom layouts, but its worth learning, and you can always email support if you need help.
Configuring Your Touchscreen Hardware
Its important to realize that a touchscreen just emulates a mouse. In other words, if you touch somewhere on your touchscreen, the mouse cursor should appear at that point. If it doesn't, you need to run your touchscreen's calibration utility.
And note that if you're using your touchscreen as a secondary monitor, you'll also need to run the manufacturer's multi monitor configuration utility. There's a few notes on configuring your monitor as a secondary display here.
[As of December 7, 2009, this section still needs to be expanded]
Photoboof uses a Phidget relay board to interface with external lights. By using Photoboof's external commands, you can flash a light in your printer chute to let your customers know their printout is ready, or to turn on a light when your printer is out of paper, or to turn on the button light when enough money has been inserted, or any other lighting need you might have.
Here's a picture of the Phdiget relay board:
As with all relays, this board has a "normally open" (aka "NO") connector, and a common, which is the middle connector on each relay. You'll need a small electronics screwdriver to screw down the tiny screws on the relay connectors.
A nice way to control multiple lights off one relay is to splice one wire of an extension chord, connecting one wire to the NO ("normally open") connector and one wire to the middle connector. In other words, the relay functions as a simple switch. When the relay is engaged, your extension chord (and any lights plugged into it) are turned on. Obviously you should be careful with your wiring so you don't electrocute yourself or others.
Note that the Phidget relay board requires you to install the Phidget driver package. You don't need to leave the Phidget utility running to use the relay board.
Please see the External Commands section of the help file for some hints on controlling lights from within Photoboof. As always, please email support if you need any help, or need any more control added.
The easiest way to use Photoboof with a bill acceptor is to connect the wires on the bill acceptor that send pulses when they receive money to Photoboof's button harness. See this page for more discussion on which bill acceptors work particularly well with Photoboof. See the section Triggering Photoboof for notes on how to wire a bill acceptor directly to Photoboof's button harness.
Let me know if you need a ccTalk interface for your bill acceptor, I have a beta system that works quite well with ccTalk.
Photoboof can also work with any bill or credit card acceptor that directly edits a text file with the number of credits. If that's the case, point it to c:\photoboof\credits_file.txt.
To put Photoboof into money mode, set the variable money_mode = yes in the configuration.ini file. Note that changing this while Photoboof is running requires restarting Photoboof.
You can add and remove credits (i.e., increase and decrease the number in the credits text file) from Photoboof under the Actions menu. Or just edit the credits file directly.
When money is inserted, The Viewer will load the graphic file at c:\photoboof\assets\[skin]\viewer_credits[#].jpg. For example, if they've inserted 2 credits and you're using the default skin, it would load c:\photoboof\assets\default\viewer_credits2.jpg. You can make as many graphics files as you'd like for this. For example, if there are 40 credits inserted, The Viewer will load c:\photoboof\assets\default\viewer_credits40.jpg.
When the number of credits inserted is at least the number you set in credits_to_start, the customers will be able to start taking pictures by pressing the start button (i.e., whatever you have set as a trigger).
Note that until the correct number of credits have been inserted, the viewer will display c:\photoboof\assets\[skin]\viewer-not_ready.jpg, and after the correct number of credits have been inserted it'll display c:\photoboof\assets\[skin]\viewer-ready.jpg.
You can also have Photoboof start automatically when enough credits are inserted by setting the variable money_mode_start_automatically in configuration.ini to yes.
Photoboof can execute commands, controlling lights, sending emails or text messages, uploading or deleting images, etc. This is useful for sending yourself a text message when the printer goes down, or flashing a light when the printout is ready, or any number of creative uses. This is of course optional so don't let this section scare you.
Here are the different times when you can execute custom commands:
- When Photoboof launches
- At the beginning of the photobooth sequence
- After taking each picture
- After taking the last picture
- After making the strip or grid, etc.
- After sending the strip to print
- At the end of the sequence
- If the printer is down (paper jam, out of ink, etc.)
- When no camera detected
- When the camera fails to reply multiple times
To edit the commands, go to File --> Show Preferences --> Commands. For example, if you want to run c:\something.bat whenever Photoboof launches, you'd put the following next to "At Photoboof Launch":
c:\something.bat
There are several special commands for special functions. One such command is "email". If you open c:\photoboof\configuration.ini and search for "email" you'll find the email parameters, where you can set your SMTP server, recipient email address and password. You can use this to send yourself text messages when the printer is down. From the "commands" preferences tab, you'd write the following next to "Printer down":
Note that most cellphone companies let you send text messages through email, you just need to find out what the format is for that provider. Here's a list of some of them. If it doesn't work, verify the address with your provider:
Alltel @message.alltel.com
Cingular @mobile.mycingular.com
Nextel @messaging.nextel.com
Sprint @messaging.sprintpcs.com
SunCom @tms.suncom.com
T-mobile @tmomail.net
VoiceStream @voicestream.net
Verizon @vtext.com
AT&T - cellnumber@txt.att.net
Verizon - cellnumber@vtext.com
T-Mobile - cellnumber@tmomail.net
Sprint PCS - cellnumber@messaging.sprintpcs.com
Virgin Mobile - cellnumber@vmobl.com
US Cellular - cellnumber@email.uscc.net
Nextel - cellnumber@messaging.nextel.com
Boost - cellnumber@myboostmobile.com
Alltel - cellnumber@message.alltel.com
For example to send a text message to someone on AT&T who's phone number is 415-555-1212, you'd send an email to 4155551212@txt.att.net.
You can also use the Commands preferences tab to control external lights. See the "controlling lights" section above for more info on the Phidget relay board, but the syntax to control relays looks like this. For example, to turn relay 1 on:
phidget 1 on
This is probably pretty obvious, but to turn relay 1 off:
phidget 1 off
You can run multiple commands for a given event by separating each command with a | character (aka, a "pipe") . Not that this isn't an "L", its the tall vertical line found on most keyboards above the \ character.
For example, this would both send an email and run c:\test.bat:
email | c:\test.bat
There are times when you need to insert a delay between two commands, which you do as follows. For example, this would insert a 2.5 second delay between emailing and running test.bat:
email | delay 2.5 | c:\test.bat
Delays can be very useful when, for example, you want to flash the light in your printer chute when the printout is ready. Obviously you'd need to adjust the delays for your particular setup, but here's a sample command. Note that this starts flashing relay 1 (a light) on and off 6 seconds after sending the job to print. If your printer takes longer than 6 seconds print, you'd increase the delay. Add this next to "After sent to printer" on the Commands preferences tab:
delay 6 | phidget 1 on | delay .2 | phidget 1 off | delay .2 | phidget 1 on | delay .2 | phidget 1 off
See the "controlling lights" section above for more notes on making a light flash when your printout is ready.
There are some Photoboof configurations that, for now at least, can only be made through the configuration file. Don't worry! Its easy to do. And this is of course optional, all critical configurations can be made simply by clicking File --> Show Preferences. But if you want to explore the raw preferences file, here's a step by step:
1) if you installed Photoboof to the default location, your config file will be at c:\photoboof\configuration.ini. Its always a good idea to back it up before editing it.
2) open it either by clicking it or, in Photoboof, selecting File --> Edit Raw Configuration File. It should open in Notepad.
3) Any line starting with a number symbol (#) is a comment, and is just there to help you along. Read the comments, the file has lots of them, they're there to help you along.
4) For example here's the first setting in the configuration file:
### The delay in seconds before the first picture is taken after the
### start button is pressed. During this time the intro message
### (c:\photoboofssets\default iewer-msg_start.png) will be visible:
initial_delay = 6
As you can see, the three lines that start with number symbols are just comments. And reading them you can see that the variable ("initial_delay") is the duration in seconds that the intro message is visible. In the above example its set to 6 seconds. If I wanted to make that 3 seconds, I'd change the line to read:
initial_delay = 3
See, easy! There's lots of settings available in the config file, but here are the most useful ones that can't be edited through the graphical Preferences interface.
Useful Settings in the Configuration File:
initial_delay - the duration in seconds of the intro message before the first picture is taken.
ending_delay - a delay in seconds added at the end of the photobooth session. Useful for slowing things down.
viewer_monitor - which monitor should the Viewer appear on?
ready_pos_x and ready_pos_y - the screen position of the "ready for the next customer" graphic.
cheese_pos_x and cheese_pos_y - the screen position of the countdown graphics before each picture is taken.
viewer_margin - if the Viewer's monitor is partially obstructed by a frame, you can use this to create a margin around the edges of your monitor.
starting_msg_pos_x and starting_msg_pos_y - the screen position of the graphic shown before the first picture is taken when not using Live Preview.
ending_msg_pos_x and ending_msg_pos_y - the screen position of the graphic shown at the end of the photobooth session.
delay_before_ending_message - a delay after the last picture is shown but before the ending message.
blank_on_ready - if set to "yes", the previous user's pictures won't be visible to the next photobooth customer.
hide_cursor - if set to "yes" the mouse cursor will be hidden when its over the Viewer. Very useful if using a touchscreen so the users don't see a lingering mouse cursor.
always_on_top - if set to "yes", the Viewer will be an "always on top" window.
Photoboof can be completely rebranded for OEMs. In other words, if you're selling completed photobooths, or you don't want your employees to know the name of this program, you can name the program whatever you want.
1) place a file named name.txt in the photoboof directory (c:\photoboof) with the name of the program. For example, if you want it to be "Cheesy Booths", that would be the only text in the file. No returns, no extra white space. You can simply create this file in Notepad and save it as name.txt.
2) place a file named support.txt in the photoboof directory with the email for tech support. You can omit that if you want to use support@photoboof.com. If you want your own email address to appear for tech support within the program, this might be support@cheesybooths.com.
3) rename photoboof.exe to whatever you want, but no spaces in the name. So it could be CheesyBooths.exe
4) rename photoboof.rsrc.py to the same thing, but preserve the .rsrc.py. ***It must be exactly the same as the executable above***. So in the example, it would be CheesyBooths.rsrc.py.
5) You can rename c:\photoboof if you want, but no spaces anywhere in
the path. So it could be c:\CheesyBooths.
Note that the files name.txt and support.txt can be hidden files and Photoboof will still find them.
As of typing this on January 12, 2010, I've made quite a few changes to Photoboof and haven't retested the rebranding, so if you still see the word "Photoboof" somewhere even after applying the above steps, let me know and I'll fix it.
Here's a few notes that don't really fit in any other category.
- if you want to see how many sessions your photobooth has ever had, open the file C:\photoboof\utils\misc\counter.txt. If you want to reset the counter, simply delete the file.
- if you want Photoboof to start automatically when your computer starts, you can place a shortcut to c:\photoboof\utils\Delayed Launch.exe in your Startup folder, instead of a shortcut to Photoboof itself. This will launch Photoboof after a 90 second delay to give Windows time to finish loading. To create the shortcut, right click the file and choose "copy", then, in Windows XP and 2000, navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup (in Vista, navigate to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu) and right-click and choose "paste shortcut".
- if you want your customers to have a different layout for every photobooth session, create a custom layout with multiple mask overlays, each separated by a comma. Photoboof will then choose a random one for each session.
- If you want to do some load testing, click Test --> Load Testing from within Photoboof. That will repeat the photobooth session over and over again. Very useful for testing your equipment. Obviously you might consider disabling printing while load testing...
- Remember the golden rule of computers: reboot!
- Sometimes dust gets in the USB connections. Blow out the dust both from your USB cable and from the USB jacks on your computer and camera.
- Never use a USB hub with your camera. USB hubs are fine for your keyboard, arcade button and printer, but connect the camera directly to the computer.
- Make sure you're not out of disk space.
- When your camera's batteries get low the Live Preview stops working.
- If you're having dual monitor issues, see the Dual Monitor section above.
- If you're using a Mitsubishi dye sublimation printer and getting blank pages after every print, go to Windows Control Panel --> Printers ---> right click your Mitsubishi printer and choose Properties, then Advanced, and choose "print directly to this printer".
- You can always email support@photoboof.com. Please let us know what camera you're using, what version of Windows, what camera controller, and if possible send over your log file (c:\photoboof\log.txt). And if you need to schedule a support call, no problem.
[END OF HELP FILE]