Photobooth Shooting

DSLR Remote Pro can be run as a simple photobooth where it automatically takes a series of pictures and then prints them on a single sheet of paper.

To setup photobooth operation select "Photobooth Settings..." from the File menu and the dialog below will be displayed:

First select the number of images to be taken and how they are arranged. This could be a single image on one sheet of paper (1 image, 1 row, 1 column), a passport style strip of images (e.g. 4 images, 4 rows, 1 column), 2x2 grid of 4 images as shown above or any other arrangement of up to 20 images arranged in a grid.

Next select the delay before taking each photo and how long the shot just taken is displayed on screen when shooting in fullscreen photobooth mode (this can be disabled by setting the time to 0). After taking each photo a preview can be displayed on the screen for a specified number of seconds (set this to 0 to disable the preview).

The countdown text is displayed before shooting each image and is updated every seconds. The following tokens can be used:

@secsToNextPhoto@ - the number of seconds until the next photo in the sequence is taken

Select "Enable live view for fullscreen photobooth shooting" to display live view images in the fullscreen photobooth shooting mode. The live view image can be mirrored so that the user sees the image the same way round as when looking in a mirror. Use the height setting to resize the live view image up to its (camera dependent maximum setting). The live view image can be displayed in portrait orientation by selecting one of the portrait orientations from the View menu in the main window.
The live view image is displayed at the top of the screen with the count down text beneath so make sure there is enough space for the count down text when setting the live view size.

The print can have an optional background with a header and or footer image. When DSLR Remote Pro prepares the image for printing it looks for the following files in the image folder:

background.jpg - optional image which is tiled to fill the background of the printed page

footer.jpg - optional image which is centered and placed at the bottom of the page

left.jpg - optional image which is centered vertically and placed on the left of the page between the header and footer

right.jpg - optional image which is centered vertically and placed on the right of the page between the header and footer

middle.jpg - optional image which is centered vertically and placed between each column of images

overlay.png - optional image which is overlays the page and uses transparency information stored in the alpha channel

The images are then arranged in a grid which fills the printable area of the page less any space taken up by a header or footer image. If the "Rotate image to maximize size" checkbox is selected the images are rotated through 90 degrees if this would give a larger image. e.g. if the printable area for the image within the grid is 80mm high and 50mm wide and the image was shot in landscape orientation it would be rotated by 90 degrees to better fill the printable area.

If the number of images matches the number of rows the images can be repeated in each column by selecting "Repeat images to fill empty columns". This is useful when printing strips of images on paper from a dye sublimation printer e.g. two copies of 4x1 strips on a sheet of 8x6 paper.

The images can be sharpened by selecting the "Sharpen images" checkbox and specifying a sharpening amount in the range 0 to 100. The amount of sharpening required depends on personal taste, the camera and the printer. A value of around 75 is a good starting point.

If the "Crop image if required to fit the printable area" checkbox is selected the image will be cropped to fill the printable area within the grid. e.g. if the printable area within the grid is square equal portions of the left and right of the image will be cropped to make it square.

Select "Print photos in B and W" to have the photos printed in black and white (grayscale) as opposed to color.

Up to two captions can be printed by selecting the "captions" checkbox. Press the "Settings" button to display the dialog below to setup the captions:

Each caption can occupy more than one line if required and is left justified by default. Select the "Center justify" checkbox to center justify multiple lines. The size, font and color of the caption text can also be specified. The font size is calculated using the printer resolution and so a 72 point font should give text one inch high. The caption is printed in the selected font color with a transparent background.
Enter the position for the captions as offsets in mm from the top and the left of the page.

The easiest way to see how this all fits together is to run DSLR Remote Pro and take some test shots. First setup the printer settings by selecting "Printer Setup..." from the File menu and then set basic photobooth settings using the setup dialog. The take a test sequence by pressing Shift+F4 or selecting "Photobooth Test Shot" from the File menu. This will take a sequence of images and create a test page which is saved as photobooth_test_shot.jpg. Load this image into an image editor (or BreezeBrowser Pro) to view the layout. Then make any changes to the background.jpg, header.jpg, footer.jpg or overlay.png images and the photobooth settings and take more test shots until you're happy with the layout.

Tip: To save having to setup the printer preferences every time DSLR Remote Pro is run you can go to the Windows Control Panel, select "Printers and Faxes" then right click on the printer to change its preferences.

With left.jpg down the left border, middle.jpg placed between the columns, right.jpg down the right border and footer.jpg at the bottom

Same layout as the first example but with no left.jpg or right.jpg images defining the left and right borders

Same layout as the previous example but with no middle.jpg image placed between the columns

If full screen mode is selected (by pressing F11 or Ctrl+F4 to enter full screen mode and display the ready image) a series of images can be displayed to the user to show them what's happening and to advertise the photobooth. These images are held in the same folder as the background, header and footer images and are as follows:

ready.jpg - image displayed when DSLR Remote Pro is ready to take the next set of photos

1.jpg, 2.jpg etc. - image displayed before taking the first, second, third etc. images together with the text specified in the setting dialog

processing.jpg - image displayed after taking the photos while DSLR Remote Pro formats and sends the page to the printer

camera_not_connected.jpg - image displayed when the camera is turned off or disconnected

These images can be JPEGs containing any information you like and are displayed centered on the display with a black background. The images 1.jpg, 2.jpg etc are displayed together with the text defined in the settings dialog which can be used to give a count down timer before each picture. The text is displayed centered on the screen below the live view display, if applicable, as white text on a transparent background. The following tokens can be used in the text:

Again, the easiest way to see how this works is to try it out. To do this run DSLR Remote Pro then press Ctrl+F4 to display the ready screen. Then press Shift+F4 to take a test sequence or F4 to take the pictures and print them.

Once everything is setup simply run DSLR Remote Pro and press Ctrl+F4 to enter full screen mode and display the ready screen. You probably don't want to have a keyboard on show otherwise users will be able to exit the photobooth mode and access your computer. There are a number of methods that can be used to start the photobooth shooting sequence:

The simplest option is to use a mouse and select the option to "Use mouse left button to start and right button to toggle between B&W and color" option. Provided the keyboard is hidden away the users won't be able to access your computer but use the left mouse button to start the sequence and the right mouse button to toggle between B&W and color photos.

2.	Alternatively you could use a programmable USB input device which can be setup to send an F4 key press to DSLR Remote Pro. The Powermate from Griffin Technology (http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/powermate/) is an inexpensive and nicely made device which works very well.

3.	For a more professional setup you could use external panel mounted buttons.

If "auto reconnect" is selected from the "Camera" menu the camera can be turned off when not in use and then turned it back on again to automatically restart photobooth operation. When the camera is turned off the camera_not_connected.jpg screen is displayed and when it is turned back on again the ready.jpg screen is displayed.

To exit fullscreen photobooth mode either press the Esc key or hold down the SHIFT key and press the left mouse button.

First create a new image with a transparent background. Then create a mask by clicking on the "Add layer mask" in the layers palette.

Next add the graphics such as text overlays and picture frames to the image layer and use the layer mask to control the transparency. In the layer mask white represents opaque, black represents fully transparent and values between white and black represent increasing transparency.

Save a copy of the image as a PSD file for future reference and then save the image as a PNG file named overlay.png.