These days a party just isn’t a party without a photo booth for you and your guests to commemorate the event and have a blast at the same time. With the rising popularity of this fabulous party feature, more and more people have tried to come up with ways to make their own photo booth. Don’t get me wrong; I love a good DIY project as much as the next girl. However, when it comes to adding a photo booth to your special event, DIY may not be the way to go. There are many reasons why a DIY photo booth just isn’t it. The main reason is that you miss out on tons of great perks that come with renting a professional photo booth for your party.
For instance, picture quality can be sorely lacking with a DIY photo booth setup. Many DIY photo booth tutorials have a set up using a tablet or cell phone as the camera. While this is great for selfies and everyday snaps for social media, it’s not the ideal setup for a photo booth. This is especially true if your event is outdoors or spans several hours of the day. As the light changes, the pictures will become darker, and unless you have the proper lighting in place, your photos will not be as vibrant and clear as they would be with a professional setup. If we set lighting aside, a professional photo booth utilizes a high-quality professional camera to snap your photos. While you may get decent-quality pictures from a cellphone or tablet camera, you just can’t get the same quality as you would from a quality professional camera.
Another thing you should consider when you’re thinking about DIY’ing a photobooth is the amount of customization you want your photos to have. With a professional photo booth, you have the option to choose a custom frame, filters, animated stickers, or backgrounds for your images before printing or sharing them on social media. With a DIY setup, unless you purchase additional software to give your guests these options, then whatever photo they snap is what they get. I should also mention that if you choose to download customization software for your DIY photo booth, you need to consider the backup that it would cause your guests to use the same device to take their photos, edit and customize them, and then share them. With a professional photo booth, you don’t have the same problem with traffic jams because the device taking the photos and the device used to customize and share them are totally separate, which creates a much quicker and smoother experience
When it comes to sharing your photos, a professional photo booth has the option to share directly to social media, but you also have the opportunity to print your photos right then and there. Your guests can choose from multiple print options, including the traditional photo booth strips, postcards, and more. These instant photo prints also make a great party favor for your friends and family to take home with them. On top of all that, you will receive a flash drive with all the photos from your event to enjoy. With a DIY photo booth, instant access to the images is quite a bit trickier, if it’s available at all.
Another huge downside to DIY’ing your own photo booth is the cost! Now, most people would assume that DIY would be synonymous with cheaper, but in this case, that’s not necessarily true. Unless you have all the photography equipment lying around, the cost to purchase everything you need is quite high. You’ll need a backdrop, a camera, photo booth software, props, a photo printer, and photo paper, and if you want good quality photos, you really should have some lighting equipment as well. Once you factor in the cost of all that equipment, the price of a rental for the night really is much more economical. Not to mention the fact that setting up and taking down all the equipment is a hassle! When you rent a professional photo booth, all of that equipment and expertise is included in your rental fee, we come out, we set everything up, and at the end of the night, we tear it all down and take it away. No muss-no fuss!
Speaking of hassle, if you want a stress-free event where all you have to worry about is enjoying your guests and having a great time, then you definitely want to reconsider a DIY photo booth. A photo booth needs someone to supervise and help your guests have the best photo booth experience. As we all know, technology is not infallible. Computers have issues for seemingly no reason, printers have paper jams, rambunctious kids can get a little too rough with the photo equipment, and a host of other problems could crop up that need to be addressed to keep your photo booth going smoothly. With a DIY setup, all of those issues need to be managed by you. With a professional photo booth, you are assigned a photo booth attendant who knows the ins and outs of the system and how to fix problems on the fly. You’ll also have someone there making sure that your guests capture great photos and are having a fantastic time in the process. That means that you only have to worry about having fun and enjoying your day!
So while you certainly can DIY a photo booth for your next event, you do run the risk of it becoming a stressful and expensive project. Planning a big event is stressful enough as it is, so don’t increase your stress levels unnecessarily! Instead of adding another thing to your party planning plate, let us do the work for you! Contact us today to learn more about the Snap N Pics Photo Booth Experience, and reserve a photo booth for your next event!
