Simple Booth HALO is perfect for entrepreneurs and companies in need of a simple and effective photo booth solution. It boasts hardware that ensures quick deployment, user-friendly setup, and—running on it—a highly customizable modern photo booth app with extensive layouts and themes. Altogether, HALO is a flexible solution for a diverse set of events.

Meanwhile, Salsa Booth is costly to buy and own for photo booth businesses and entrepreneurs. However, it offers customization options, a community for photo booth rental companies, and some other details we cover in the article that make it a sensible option for photo booth rental companies.

In this article, I explore HALO vs Salsa Booth across the following dimensions:

• Hardware,
• Photo Booth Features,
• Marketing Tools,
• and Pricing.

Let’s start with a quick summary.

Comparison Summary: HALO vs Salsa Booth

Simple Booth HALO	Salsa Booth
Price
Budget-friendly and flexible; offers several software pricing tiers starting at $29/mo. Hardware starts at $1,490. The Simple Care extended warranty costs $299. 14-day free trial.	Salsa Booth requires a higher initial investment, with software starting at $49/mo. Hardware packages start from $2,999 and go as high as $8,999. The Salsa Care extended warranty costs $299. 30-day free trial.
Hardware
Straightforward design and effortless plug-and-play setup. Works with the 10.9″ iPad Air and 11″ iPad Pro.	Integrated fan for cooling in hot weather. Supports several iPad, iPad Pro, and iPad Air models.
Photo Booth Features
Over 60 easily searchable themes for diverse events and ten extensively customizable photo layouts. Social sharing to Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.	240+ hard-to-find templates because of poor navigation. 20+ fixed layouts with limited customization options. Supports Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Pinterest.
Marketing Tools
Lead capture forms with customizable data fields. Allow participants to download pictures without sharing information. MailChimp and API integration. Live Feed feature enhances your marketing efforts and lifts the atmosphere.	Customizable surveys for data collection. Requires participants to complete surveys before getting pictures.
Customer Support
Email support and a wide array of help guides. Doesn’t offer phone support because the solution is so simple, experience has shown it wasn’t needed.	Email support and help guides to help with every product. + Phone support for Salsa Pro plan users. Includes a community for photo booth rental company owners to collaborate.
Best For
Photographers and businesses requiring a simple photo booth setup for promotional uses.	Rental companies looking to provide niche clients with multiple hardware options.
Try free! No credit card required.	Try free! No Credit card required.

What is Simple Booth HALO?
“Robust hardware. Intuitive software. Seamless photo booth.”

The idea for Simple Booth became set in motion in 2012 when Mark Hennings’ friend asked him to set up a photo booth for an entrepreneurship conference after-party. In 2013, he developed the first version of the app alongside designer Alex Kirts, before joining Jeremy Cox to expand the software functionality and create hardware products. In 2016, the company grew rapidly and the team expanded, earning a spot in the Inc 500 in 2018.

The simple design of the HALO hardware ensures that setting up the device is as effortless as possible. You can get the robust “stand and case” version if you do a lot of moving around, or go for the more affordable wall-mounted setup if your photo booth is fixed. Meanwhile, the software is customizable and easy to navigate. Participants can capture videos and photos with filters or stickers and share their experiences to create a buzz and promote your events or locations. Also, event organizers can collect lead data and view analytics, while maintaining privacy.

HALO is ideal for photo booth businesses seeking a cost-effective and innovative marketing approach. That’s because it’s easy to set up and operate even without technical expertise while offering a professional experience that fits any brand.

What is Salsa Booth?
“Create opportunities to capture memories”

In 2010, Brandon Wong and his wife Katrina Santos founded a wedding photography business to help people document memories. It wasn’t until 2011 that they invested in a photo booth as an add-on service. They saw the opportunity to provide photo booths as a fun, profitable, and creative business for other entrepreneurs.

Salsa Booth is one of several products made by Photobooth Supply Co. It has a built-in fan for outdoor events in sunny weather, supports multiple iPad, iPad Pro, and iPad Air models, and comes with extra hardware (like backdrops) on higher plans. Meanwhile, the software allows participants to capture photos and videos, add digital props and filters, and share them on social media to promote events and capture memories. Owning a Salsa Booth also gives you access to a community of photo booth rental companies where you can connect and collaborate with people in similar situations.

Salsa Booth is expensive, making it better to rent than own. That’s why it’s a perfect fit for rental companies that serve a wide range of niche events.

HALO vs Salsa Booth: Hardware

HALO is easier to set up, while Salsa Booth supports more devices.

HALO	Salsa Booth

HALO offers a plug-and-play setup, while Salsa Booth’s cord looping takes more time.

HALO is straightforward to set up, thanks to its plug-and-play design.

In fact, you can set it up within 5 minutes of arriving at an event. There’s no fiddling with intricate connections because you only assemble and fasten the parts together.

Check out just how simple it is to set up:

Salsa Booth‘s setup process is slightly more intricate.

You need to loop the cord from the base through the stand to the head unit. While it won’t impact your photo booth services negatively, the repetition and setup time can be annoying if you move around a lot.

Salsa Booth’s integrated fan improves performance in hot weather, while Simple Booth HALO prioritizes simplicity.

Salsa Booth addresses potential environmental challenges by incorporating a built-in fan.

It keeps the performance consistent in hot weather when other booths might struggle, making it ideal for rental companies serving many clients with diverse working conditions.

On the other hand, HALO is designed for simplicity.

It doesn’t have a built-in fan, but can still be used outside on a hot day as long as it’s in the shade. That is a best practice anyway, since screens are very difficult to see in direct sunlight, and there’s no guarantee that a fan inside the unit will be enough to keep the iPad from shutting off due to overheating. 

Simple Booth HALO supports the affordable 10.9″ iPad Air and 11″ iPad Pro. Salsa Booth is made for the 12.9″ iPad Pro, with support for more models for an additional $49.

HALO works with the 10.9″ iPad Air, one of the most affordable iPads for the best cost-effectiveness. It aligns with the theme of simplicity that Simple Booth applies to other aspects of the product. But it also supports the 11″ iPad Pro, in case you need a more advanced option. Simple Booth is constantly updating to stay compatible with the latest iPad releases.

Salsa works with more iPads, including the 4th generation iPad, 1st to 6th gen iPad Pros, and the 4th and 5th gen iPad Airs. However, the bundled faceplate only works with the 12.9″ 3rd to 6th gen iPad Pros. You’ll need to pay an additional $49 to get a faceplate that’s compatible with the other tablets.

Salsa also allows you to customize the look of your virtual booth with custom branding.

The diverse support and brand customization are great features for photo booth rentals that cater to clients with different hardware needs.

Salsa Booth offers more lighting customization options than HALO but doesn’t shine as brightly.

Salsa Booth’s lighting is controlled by the iPad, whereas HALO’s ring light is controlled by a dimmer knob on the side which can get very bright.

This gives Salsa options like animating colors while idling and changing to white light when it’s time for taking photos. A cool feature to attract the attention of users.

However, there’s a tradeoff.

Some Salsa Booth users have mentioned that they needed additional lighting for the pictures to turn out great. On the other hand, HALO’s light is a lot brighter because it’s made to prioritize picture quality—so you’ll rarely have to worry about lighting with it.

Winner: Salsa Booth wins by a sliver because of its versatility for niche events and compatibility with more iPad models. While it isn’t as convenient to set up as HALO, it’s not a big hurdle. Meanwhile, HALO is faster to set up, allowing participants to start using it in under 5 minutes.

HALO vs Salsa Booth: Photo Booth Features

HALO has more layout customizations and better navigation than Salsa.

Simple Booth HALO	Salsa Booth

HALO offers 60+ easily searchable themes for most global events, while Salsa’s 240+ templates lack a user-friendly navigation system.

Themes give your start screens and app backgrounds a distinct look.

HALO boasts a diverse collection of over 75 original themes catering to various events, including birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, and national celebrations like Independence Day. Themes have tags to make them easy to find. You can request new themes through the chat window or upload custom start screens and app backgrounds.

Event organizers can easily pick a theme to match the event they’re covering.

Meanwhile, the Salsa app has over 240 templates that also cover certain global events. However, the absence of searchable tags makes the navigation problematic. You have to rely on previews to guess what each theme is about.

Like HALO, Salsa lets you upload custom start screens and app backgrounds. You can also set a disclaimer screen to show clients essential terms and conditions about the usage of captured images.

Both apps also offer filters and stickers (or props) to spice up eventgoers’ photos and allow you to upload custom stickers to keep them in line with your brand.

HALO offers ten extensively customizable photo layouts, while Salsa has 24 fixed layouts and lets you upload custom templates.

The Simple Booth HALO app starts with four motion layouts including GIF, live GIF (for animated GIFs), Rebound (kind of like Instagram’s boomerang), and Video. In terms of the still photo layouts, it offers six: single, two by two, one and two, two-strip, three-strip, and four-strip designs. 

And the number of still layouts skyrockets once you start customizing them.

Using intuitive sliders, you can change the orientation from portrait to landscape, apply square or circle crops, and fine-tune elements like margin thickness and corner roundness.

You can also rotate the frame 90º, 180º, or 270º to create special effects like floating in space or hanging upside down

Meanwhile, the Salsa Booth App has a more extensive base library of 38 pre-designed photo layouts, including singles, 2×6, 4×6, 4.5×6, and 6×6 strips and grids. Since most layouts are portrait or landscape versions of the same thing, the actual number is around 12.

Salsa has few customization options, but you can create custom photo templates using the web application.

Both apps have similar sharing options, but Salsa Booth supports more social media platforms.

Simple Booth HALO‘s Send options include text message, email, and QR code. There’s an option to print pictures on request or enable auto printing using printer models that support Apple’s AirPrint technology. And you can choose which of these to make available to participants.

The email and text message content that gets sent to the participant can be customized.

Social sharing is available from the gallery once participants receive the link to their image, where they can post to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or download the image/video file.

Salsa Booth supports sharing via text message, email, QR code, and AirDrop. You can also connect to multiple printers supported to use AirPrint. From the live gallery, users can share images on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Pinterest.

The app supports Instagram and Snapchat, but you need to access the online gallery on your phone to get these options. Salsa Booth also lets you customize the text message and email content.

Note: Both apps can be found in Apple’s App Store only, since they’re both iPad photo booths. 

Winner: The HALO app has an intuitive user interface that’s easy to navigate and highly customizable, helping business owners find what they need to provide a unique experience. It supports social sharing over all the common social media like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Meanwhile, The Salsa app offers more themes and social sharing options but is harder to navigate and customize for specific events. Both are great professional photo booth apps!

HALO vs Salsa Booth: Marketing Tools

HALO allows users to opt out of giving out information, while Salsa doesn’t.

Simple Booth HALO	Salsa Booth

HALO offers extensive lead capture forms that users can opt out of, while Salsa requires participants to always complete the survey before obtaining their captures.

Simple Booth HALO offers a comprehensive lead capture feature beyond traditional surveys.

The app allows for you to turn on standard data fields to tailor the form to gather specific participant information, such as email, first name, last name, postal code, and so on. After one person adds their information, the next can fill out the form, too—which is great since groups are common in photos.

Additionally, you can create custom fields which can be a text input, checkbox, or required checkbox, if you can only capture their information if they agree to something, for example. You can even add a custom Terms of Service or Privacy Policy.

Individuals can opt out of sharing their information and still receive their pictures. There is also an advanced Personally Identifiable Information (PII) purging tool for businesses that need to remove data after a certain time.

The built-in MailChimp support and API integration in Simple Booth facilitate the direct transfer of captured information so you can build your email list immediately.

The Salsa app is more basic than HALO.

It lets you collect data through customizable surveys that may include one or several inquiries with open-ended or multiple-choice questions. But it doesn’t offer the option to survey individual participants in case there is more than one in a photo session like HALO.

Also, unlike HALO, participants are required to complete the survey before getting their captures.

HALO helps participants curate relevant social media hashtags while sharing pictures.

HALO lets you incorporate branding elements like your logo on photos, custom start screens, app backgrounds, multiple overlays, stickers, gallery customization, and a profile to show off your public galleries. You can also add hashtags for participants to use while sharing their photos online, allowing you to create social buzz around your business and find posts to re-share.

Salsa offers similar brand logo integration into custom start screens, app backgrounds, overlays, and stickers. But you can’t add your hashtags to the photo booth settings.

Simple Booth HALO has an unmatched Live Feed feature that enriches your marketing efforts with authentic user-generated content in real time.

Simple Booth’s Live Feed feature shows a live stream of photos being captured at your event or venue. And there’s so much more than that.

People are taking photos at your photo booth because it’s fun. When your guests see others having fun on the Live Feed gallery, they’ll naturally want to join in and share their own photos as well. Your live feed ends up feeding itself, you get tons of user-generated content, and most importantly everyone is having fun.

In between the sets of photos that your guests are taking, you can add some branded slides. Since everyone is already looking at the screens to catch some funny moments, it’s an ideal position to show off your promotions, your newest offer, or your sponsors.

You can take it a step further: utilize the photos from the live feed and turn them into a marketing campaign. Genuine photos of real people enjoying your venue, events, or offerings, are content that simply sells.

Setting up the Live Feed takes only a click of a button and you’re live. The settings allow you to control animations, transition timing, number of photos, and layout, so you can present the photos just how you want to. The slideshows can be run on TVs, LED walls, projectors, and even on a website, using a simple HTML widget.

Salsa has a similar feature called Slideshow that plays from the Live Gallery, too. that allows you to stream all photos in real time throughout the event. It can be displayed on any personal devices, smart TVs with a browser, or TVs with a connected Amazon Fire Stick. It’s options, however, are fairly basic. You don’t get to customize the slideshow as much as with Simple Booth, where you can set animations for photo transitions, customize the layout, and incorporate ads. 

Salsa Booth provides marketing materials for rental businesses, while Simple Booth HALO offers a personalized onboarding.

Salsa Booth’s marketing materials include ready-made templates, overlays, and materials to help photo booth owners market Salsa’s unique features to their renters. These include:

• Website assets (Photos of Salsa being used in-person, renders of Salsa, and sample captures),
• Event Assets (Tap to Start screens and customizable photo template backgrounds and overlays),
• and Business tools (Sample contracts, pricing tables, pre-made posts for Facebook and Instagram stories, marketing videos, and flyers).

Simple Booth doesn’t cater specifically to rental businesses with marketing assets, but every HALO owner gets access to a dedicated account manager for a personalized onboarding, plus support materials including videos, guides, and a comprehensive help center.

Winner: Both apps are similar. But HALO lets you choose whether participants can skip the lead capture process which is nice if you aren’t trying to collect participant data and just want to spread the word about your event. Meanwhile, Salsa is a better option if you’re a rental business because of its extensive marketing materials.

HALO vs Salsa Booth: Pricing

Simple Booth HALO is more affordable and offers more flexible subscription plans than Salsa Booth.

Simple Booth HALO	Salsa Booth

Salsa software is available in $49/mo and $99/mo tiers, while HALO offers five tiers to accommodate businesses with varying needs.

Simple Booth HALO offers a flexible range of pricing tiers tailored to meet the diverse needs of businesses and professionals engaging in event photography:

• Lite, the most affordable plan, comes in at $29/mo and offers filters, effects, a library of themes and props, and an interactive gallery.
• Core costs $49/mo, contains everything in Lite + supports green screen and video capture, and removes ads.
• Plus is $99/mo. It supports everything in Core alongside custom props, branding and messaging, analytics, and reporting.
• Pro is $149/mo. It adds lead and data capture, advanced text messaging, frame rotation, and more to the Plus plan.
• Select is $249/mo. It contains everything in Pro + photo moderation, age gate, and data compliance tools.

Meanwhile, Salsa Booth software has a simpler pricing model with two plans:

Simple Booth HALO hardware costs $1,000 less than Salsa.

The HALO hardware’s pricing is highly competitive.

The Event Kit, including a stand and case, is priced at $1,990. And if you don’t need a stand, the Install Kit with a wall mount comes in at $1,490. You can buy a new iPad Air at $599 to go with the system or use one you already own. 

So if you want the complete package, it comes at $2,589, less than Salsa Booth’s starting hardware price (and you get an iPad which Salsa doesn’t include).

The affordability makes it ideal for those looking to own a complete photo booth solution for their own services or marketing purposes.

In contrast, Salsa Booth hardware requires a higher initial investment and requires you to get your own iPad.

• The Starter Package is priced at $2,999 and comes with the basics (the photo booth, a carry case, a charger, a 12.9″ iPad Pro Faceplate, and a limited 1-year warranty).
• The Essentials Package comes in at $4,799 and upgrades the basic plan with a backdrop, a stand, 2-year coverage with 50% off replacement parts, one year of Salsa Pro software, and watermarked film for your own logo.
• The Growth Package costs $8,999 and includes two Essentials packages.

That means, if you don’t include Salsa’s backdrop + cover (altogether $550), Simple Booth will save you $1,411 for the same functionality plus an included iPad. And, if you really need a backdrop + cover, there are better and more affordable third-party options like this one (Simple Booth is not affiliated with this backdrop provider).

It’s also worth noting that both companies offer financing options for their hardware. Salsa Booth offers it as a payment option directly through themselves, while Simple Booth does it through Shop Pay installments.

Both companies have similar standards and extended warranties.

Simple Booth HALO comes with a standard 1-year warranty that covers manufacturing defects and mechanical failures, excluding batteries and external components prone to wear and tear. For an additional $299, you can purchase Simple Care, an extended protection plan that doubles the coverage to 2 years, includes accidental damage protection, and offers 50% off replacement parts or faceplate upgrades.

Salsa Booth offers a comparable warranty package. Their standard 1-year warranty also covers manufacturing defects, excluding batteries and wear-and-tear components. For extended coverage, Salsa Care is available for $299 and is said to provide reduced accidental damage repair costs and discounted replacement parts, though the explanation of benefits is somewhat limited.

Winner: Simple Booth offers more affordable hardware, and its software plans are more flexible and approachable for smaller businesses. Both companies offer a similar warranty package.

HALO vs Salsa Booth: Pros and Cons

Simple Booth is excellent for businesses and professionals seeking simple hardware and customizable software, while Salsa targets photo booth rental companies serving clients with niche needs.

Simple Booth HALO Pros	Simple Booth HALO Cons
Affordable hardware	Only supports the iPad Air
Simple hardware setup	Social sharing only for IG, FB, and X (Twitter)
Themes are easy to navigate
Extensive layout customizations
Integrates with MailChimp for lead collection

Salsa Booth Pros	Salsa Booth Cons
Supports several iPad models	Themes are not labeled
Built-in cooling fan for hot weather	Non-customizable layouts
Hundreds of themes	Expensive

Final Verdict: HALO vs Salsa Booth

Simple Booth HALO is best for most businesses of all kinds and professional marketers. Salsa Booth is best for rental companies.

Simple Booth HALO is easier to use and more customizable than Salsa Booth. It appeals to photographers, businesses, and event organizers looking for a perfect photo booth for brand promotion and unique marketing. That’s because it comes with robust branding options, lead capture forms, MailChimp integration, and an open API. Plus, the hardware is easy to set up and runs on software that’s easy to navigate, making it suitable for individuals and companies looking to get started without hassle.

Due to the cost, Salsa Booth appeals to rental companies who want to offer multiple hardware options to clients with niche needs, including people organizing corporate events in hot weather.

So,  if it’s in question which one’s the best photo booth app, it depends on what you need.

We recommend you to…

Use Simple Booth HALO if:

• You need a photo booth that can be set up in under 5 minutes.
• You want a photo booth software with robust data capture, branding, and business tools.
• You want to allow participants to opt out of data sharing.

Click here to get started with Simple Booth HALO!

Use Salsa Booth if:

• You don’t mind the cost.
• You want to use different iPad models with the booth.
• You want hardware add-ons like watermarked films and backdrops.

Click here to get started with Salsa Booth!

I was commissioned to use LumaBooth and Snappic for the past two weeks and to write a thorough comparison for you.

TL;DR Here’s what I found on LumaBooth vs Snappic:

LumaBooth turns your iPad or iPhone into a basic-but-affordable photo booth — perfect for non-commercial events like weddings, house parties, and birthdays. But it isn’t ideal for businesses because it lacks features for marketing, customization, and analytics.

Meanwhile, Snappic also supports iPad and iPhone but is ideal for DSLR owners setting up DIY photo booths, thanks to its compatibility with most Nikon, Canon, and Sony cameras. It’s a good choice for photography studios or pro photographers who have the equipment. But the pricing is steep and it won’t be a good fit for businesses or professional events that don’t have the equipment or know-how for DIY.

Bottom line: LumaBooth for amateur photographers and Snappic for photographers or studios. However, neither of them is a good fit for businesses or event planners who need advanced marketing tools and don’t have space for “DIY” in their brand identity. That’s where Simple Booth comes in.

Simple Booth is an affordable iPad photo booth app designed for businesses and commercial events where consumers gather (think clubs, restaurants, hotels, bars, festivals, etc.). It comes with the basic features you’d expect from a photo booth and also includes professional features like detailed analytics, UX customization, lead capture, and advanced privacy options. 

Simple Booth also offers a complete photo booth solution—the Simple Booth HALO hardware—which removes the inconveniences of a DIY setup and ensures a professional interactive experience for your customers and guests.

I’ve compared the apps in 5 areas. Specifically, I took a closer look at their:

1. Photo Booth Features
2. Hardware support
3. Marketing tools
4. Privacy
5. Pricing 

Now, let’s see how they stack up: LumaBooth vs Snappic vs Simple Booth!

Comparison Summary: LumaBooth vs Snappic vs Simple Booth

LumaBooth	Snappic	Simple Booth
Price
Forever free trial. Pricing starts at $20/mo for 2 devices. Offers add-on subscriptions for extra features that can increase the price to $93/mo.	Pricing starts at $69/mo for 1 license. Advanced features like green screen & analytics at $169/mo. No free trial but offers cheaper prices for one-time uses.	Free trial. Starts at $29/mo. Green screen at $49/mo. Analytics & branding at $99/mo. Lead & data capture at $149/mo. Advanced privacy at $249/mo. Offers pro hardware with custom pricing.
Photo Booth Features
Has 9 filters and simple in-app stickers. Offers AI + green screen background removal.	Offers 8 in-app filters. Allows importing custom stickers into the app. Has AI + green screen background removal (paid add-on on Pro plan).	Has 18+ in-app filters. Allows custom stickers, branding, & green screen background removal. Includes advanced features like photo sharing & age gate.
Hardware Support
Only supports iPhone & iPad. Has a more expensive sister app, dslrBooth, that’s compatible with DSLRs, GoPros, and webcams.	Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and DSLR cameras, including Nikon, Canon, and Sony. Also works with GoPro cameras.	Supports iPhone & iPad. Has a professional hardware product Simple Booth HALO, a complete photo booth solution for any event.
Marketing Tools
Offers basic analytics and a survey builder to collect participants’ data.	Has numerous analytics features, including general analytics, media analytics, and AVA (Advanced Vision Analytics).	Detailed reports & analytics with graphical representations. Text, email, and social media photo sharing, & lead data capture.
Privacy
Photo-sharing options are event organizer-centric, users don’t get many options.	Keeps guest data anonymous and maintains privacy with FaceMatch.	Gives guests control over their photo’s visibility in galleries. Lets you set gallery and photo privacy. Includes age gate, data compliance tools and offers custom legal terms.
Best for
Individuals who want a cheap and easy-to-use photo booth app for iPhone or iPad for non-commercial events.	Pro photographers or studios that have the hardware to build DIY photo booths with DSLR cameras.	Businesses that need a photo booth app with marketing features for commercial events and uses. For brands that want to avoid DIY solutions.
Try free! (no card required)	Try for one event at $19/month!	Try free! (no card required)

What is LumaBooth?
“Turn Your iPhone Into a Photo Booth”

LumaBooth was created by Michael Sleman, the founder of the Lumasoft company. LumaBooth is their photo booth software designed to create fun photo booth experiences using nothing more than an iPhone or iPad.

To do so, LumaBooth provides tools like customizable photo templates, basic analytics functionality, overlays, filters, generic stickers, and background removal—either with a green screen or AI. It’s an affordable, and easy to set up solution for anyone that doesn’t need anything fancy.

LumaBooth makes sense primarily for creating interactive and fun photo booth experiences at non-commercial events like weddings, parties, and birthdays because it’s so accessible—everyone has an iPhone.

What is Snappic?
“Every Snap a Professional One”  

Founded by Julio Amorim, Snappic is a video and photo booth software designed for DSLR, GoPro, iPad, iPhone, and Mac.

It gives you tools to capture, edit, and share photos to make them fun and unique. It also offers marketing features like surveys to collect your guests’ information that can come in handy to track potential leads. Snappic’s direct DSLR support means it’s great for DIY solutions if you have the required hardware and allows for high-quality photo booth images.

These features, along with its comparatively high price point make it best suited for photography studios and professional photographers that have access to hardware and don’t shy away from DIY solutions.

What is Simple Booth?
“A Professional Photo Booth Experience Made Simple”

Simple Booth, living up to its name, offers a straightforward yet comprehensive photo booth software and hardware solution. It lets users capture videos & photos, add filters or stickers, modify backgrounds, and share their experience to create a buzz at any event. It also lets event organizers collect lead data, view analytics, ensure privacy & data protection, include their branding, and more—all under one roof.

It’s a perfect solution for any business or commercial event with consumers on the ground (including corporate parties, restaurants, music festivals, promotions, event rentals, etc.)—anywhere a professional photo booth experience is the priority and DIY doesn’t fit in the brand identity.

LumaBooth vs Snappic vs Simple Booth: Photo Booth Features

LumaBooth offers filters and stickers right on the app. Snappic has in-app filters but requires you to import stickers. Simple Booth offers the most filters and allows custom stickers.

LumaBooth	Snappic	Simple Booth

LumaBooth has built-in filters and stickers.

LumaBooth has 9 built-in filters that spice up your photos, videos, and boomerangs. 

You can set the filter before your event or allow your guests to decide on the spot, which gives them something entertaining to play with and spend more time with the booth. To add to the effect, LumaBooth also offers some basic stickers.

Pro tip: If you think 8 filters are a limitation, you can always rely on third-party apps like Adobe Photoshop or Davinci Resolve to create custom filters and import them into LumaBooth.

Snappic has 11 built-in filters but no stickers.

Snappic offers 11 in-app filters and gives you more stylistic choices with them compared to LumaBooth:

• You can use preset filters. These are pre-applied by you or the organizer to all pictures that guests will take. 
• Or allow guest filters. Guests can apply a filter they like during their photo session.

Note: If you use preset filters and allow guest filters, both filters will be applied.

Now let’s talk stickers. Snappic offers a selection of basic stickers (they call them digital props), available in the app. Alternatively, you can also import custom ones.

Simple Booth offers over 18 filters and in-app stickers or “props”.

In comparison to both tools, Simple Booth takes the cake with over 18 filter options. You can decide which filters to display on the app for your guests to choose from during an event.

Simple Booth also comes with a plethora of stickers or “digital props.” You can choose pre-made digital props and effects, or choose to create your own—perfect for businesses that want to promote their brand in a novel way.

To create custom props, you can upload PNG files and simply tell Simple Booth where on the face the props go.

Simple Booth also has over 150 pre-made graphics themes for special events that include a Start Screen and overlay for your images.

LumaBooth and Snappic offer green screen and AI-based background removal, whereas Snappic requires an extra purchase for it. Simple Booth only supports green screens.

You can remove the background in one of two ways using these photo booth apps:

• Chroma key: Requires a physical green screen backdrop.
• AI: Uses AI to remove the background without requiring a physical backdrop. 

LumaBooth offers both options. You can use a green screen if you have one or try their AI background removal feature.

With the AI feature, you just have to select a background image from LumaBooth’s library or upload an image of your choice.

Like LumaBooth, Snappic lets you remove the background using the option Chroma Key and AI. But it’s important to note that:

• The green screen feature costs an additional $19 per event.
• The AI background removal is only available if a green screen add-on is purchased.

In contrast to the other two applications, Simple Booth lacks an AI-powered background remover. However, it does support green and blue screens. If you have one, you can use it to easily create custom backgrounds by uploading a digital backdrop image on Simple Booth.

Winner: Simple Booth. Even though LumaBooth has stickers and AI background removal, Simple Booth offers more, especially for businesses—18 filters and allows event organizers to add custom stickers that support their marketing efforts.

LumaBooth vs Snappic vs Simple Booth: Hardware Support

Snappic and LumaBooth are entirely software-based, but only Snappic is compatible with DSLR cameras. Simple Booth has software and hardware products, but no DSLR support.

LumaBooth	Snappic	Simple Booth

The LumaBooth isn’t compatible with DSLR cameras but they offer a separate solution: dslrBooth.

LumaBooth doesn’t support DSLR cameras. However, it has a sister app called dslrBooth created for this sole purpose. It’s compatible with GoPros and favorite DSLR cameras, including Canon and Nikon. 

The dslrBooth app also extends its compatibility to webcams for Windows and Mac users, ensuring flexibility in your choice of hardware.

But LumaBooth doesn’t offer any integrated hardware products of its own. It does make hardware recommendations in its help docs, such as 360 platform vendors, good LED lights, and more.

The Snappic software works well with Sony, Nikon, and Canon cameras.

Snappic is also compatible with Nikon, Canon, and GoPro. In fact, it goes beyond LumaBooth’s offerings by accommodating Sony cameras as well. But it’s important to note that Snappic can’t capture webcam photos. 

Like LumaBooth, Snappic also only offers the software. 

Similarly, they also provide compatible hardware recommendations for enhancing the photo booth experience. For example, they endorse the Mobibooth Ring Light integration, which can significantly improve your photos’ quality with Snappic.

Simple Booth’s HALO package offers an iOS app and a photo booth hardware setup but no DSLR support.

Simple Booth, like no other in this comparison, offers both hardware and software solutions. 

The Simple Booth HALO app only works on iPads (find it in the App Store here). To go with the app, Simple Booth offers a complete photo booth solution including

• The Simple Booth HALO software and HALO hardware.
• A premium quality ring light, with an iPad holder in the middle.
• A 10.9” iPad Air (optional).
• A professional-grade stand to mount it on.

The Event Kit also comes with a sturdy transportation case—so you can take high-quality pictures anywhere!

This package is tailor-made for businesses that don’t have a place for DIY and want a professional solution for their brand recognition, marketing, and customer engagement efforts.

Winner: Simple Booth because it offers hardware, software, and web-based solutions that work in all settings: weddings, promotions, fundraisers, festivals, sports events, corporate events, restaurants, and the list goes on! 

LumaBooth vs Snappic vs Simple Booth: Marketing Tools

All three apps provide analytics. Additionally, LumaBooth has a simple survey builder and Snappic has a more customizable one. Simple Booth offers a lead capture feature.

LumaBooth	Snappic	Simple Booth

LumaBooth shows basic insights, integrates with GA, and offers a simple survey-builder.

LumaBooth offers some basic insights, such as unique users, page views, social refers, and app sharing details like phone numbers, emails, and more. To get to know your participants better, their behavior, and acquisition sources, you can integrate with Google Analytics.

Another way to capture data with LumaBooth is with surveys. It allows you to add one at the end of a photo session to ask guests for feedback or anything valuable for your marketing needs. You can even add a disclaimer for guest privacy concerns. 

Snappic captures detailed insights and has a highly customizable survey builder.

Unlike LumaBooth, Snappic draws more detailed insights like:

• General Analytics: You can check the total photo views, survey responses received, reach estimation, and distribution of media shares based on the platform used like email, SMS, print, etc.
• AVA (Advanced Vision Analytics): You can gain guest details like gender and age range.
• Media Analytics: You can see the most viewed picture/video/gif, the most recent photos, the timeframe of most photos captured, etc.

Source: Snappic

Snappic also has the Survey Builder similar to LumaBooth but it’s way more customizable. You can drag and drop the custom fields like text box, checkbox, multiple choice dropdown, and more, to design the survey yourself. 

Simple Booth offers analytics and helps easily capture lead data to grow one’s marketing list.

Simple Booth offers analytics and reports similar to Snappic. From fundamental insights like the most-viewed pictures and the total number of participants to more focused data, such as participant demographics and social media engagement, Simple Booth has many analytical capabilities.

Now, instead of surveys like LumaBooth and Snappic, Simple Booth has a data and lead capture feature. With this feature you can collect data you like, such as phone number, email, postal code, date of birth, and more, using a combination of standard and custom fields. 

The chosen fields are displayed on the guest’s screen after they’ve taken a photo and before they can receive it.

The collected information will appear on your analytics page, which you can use to grow your marketing list. You can then export this data and use it as a contact list in other marketing campaigns.

Source: Simple Booth

Winner: Simple Booth. It captures detailed data on guest behavior (sharing, social media engagement, etc.) and contact information. It also allows you to create a contact list automatically by exporting the lead capture data.

LumaBooth vs Snappic vs Simple Booth: Privacy

LumaBooth’s privacy is more event organizer-centric, while Simple Booth and Snappic cater more to participants’ privacy.

LumaBooth	Snappic	Simple Booth

LumaBooth offers different privacy settings to empower event organizers.

LumaBooth’s privacy settings help control photo-sharing rights, which is most helpful for organizers and event managers. For example, you can:

• Turn on link sharing: only allows people with the link to access photos.
• Turn on guest access: allows all participants to view photos.
• Use password protection: enables access to only those with the password you set.

Snappic keeps guest data anonymous and allows FaceMatch.

Snappic offers quite a unique privacy feature that lets you anonymize participants’ data right after the event is done or the photo has been shared.

Enabling this feature protects guest data by saving all entered data as Anonymous and automatically clearing it afterward. This means event organizers can’t view or download the information, enforcing utmost privacy.

Source: Snappic

Snappic further increases guest security with the Facematch feature, which allows them to view only the photos they are in. However, this uses facial recognition technology, which may present it’s own privacy and AI regulatory concerns in some jurisdictions.

Simple Booth empowers participants’ privacies by offering control over their photos. It even offers gallery and photo privacy.

Simple Booth protects participants’ right to privacy by allowing them to decide their pictures’ visibility in online galleries.

If a participant opts in, their photo will appear in the public gallery where other visitors can view it. But if they don’t, it’s kept private. They can always choose to receive a private link to view their photo and share it on other platforms according to their liking. 

Source: Simple Booth

You can further enhance privacy by opting to make the photo galleries:

• Private: allows participants to view only their photos. Access to the private gallery page is restricted to the authenticated host only.
• Public: anyone with the gallery link can view all photos. They receive gallery links after sharing their photos via text, QR, email, etc.
• Unlisted: allows event participants to view only their photos. Gallery links are shared and not available by default.

Lastly, you can delete a picture forever or make it private yet allow access to a guest who took the photo. This is useful when you want to restrict access to a possibly distasteful image or grant access to a specific guest exclusively.

Winner: Snappic and Simple Booth. Both tools offer supreme guest data protection that an event organization can appreciate. Privacy will ensure more people get their pictures clicked.

LumaBooth vs Snappic vs Simple Booth: Pricing

LumaBooth is the most affordable of the three, Snappic is the most expensive, while Simple Booth meets in the middle.

LumaBooth	Snappic	Simple Booth

LumaBooth offers a forever-free plan.

Its paid plan starts at $19.99 per month and allows up to two devices (iPads or iPhones). This plan is best for small events and organizers hosting birthday parties, baby showers, or weddings, as it includes all capture booth modes, surveys, social sharing features, a full gallery, and a free photo-sharing solution: Fotoshare Cloud.

The Fotoshare Cloud comes in three plans, each offering more features and increasing event limits: Free, Plus ($19.99/month), and Business ($39.99/month).

LumaBooth also has a sister app called dslrBooth: a Windows-based solution for DSLRs (Canon & Nikon), GoPros, and webcams. It starts at  $49.99 per month and includes the same features as LumaBooth.

On the other hand, Snappic is the most expensive of the three apps, starting at $69 a month for the Pro plan. 

It doesn’t have a free trial or plan, however, it offers the option to buy both plans for single use. The one-time Pro plan costs $19, while the Enterprise plan is $69. This makes Snappic cheaper than LumaBooth for users hosting only one or two events a year.

Simple Booth offers a free trial plan, and the paid plans start at $29 per month for 1 license. The starter pack is feature-rich with motion capture, still capture, themes, custom props, filters, guest data collection, and more. This makes it an excellent deal for small to medium companies that want to create a DIY photo booth, customize their photo-capturing experience, and improve their marketing efforts.

For professional settings and people who don’t have DIY photo booth or photography experience, Simple Booth also offers an all-in-one package with the HALO hardware. 

You don’t even have to buy the whole package if you already have some equipment or software. Here’s how you can customize it:

First, choose the kit type you want (HALO with stand and travel case for offline events or HALO with wall mount) > Then select if you need an iPad for the stand > Finally, pick a protection plan or warranty.

Once done, press continue to choose a software plan to run HALO. You can select from the same packages I already discussed, including Everyday and Business plans. The only difference is that the packages available to combine with the hardware are yearly plans.

After selecting the software plan, you can move to checkout to review your cart and the grand total.

Winner: In terms of pure affordability and price flexibility — LumaBooth. Simple Booth is a close contender in terms of price but it makes most sense for businesses and professionals. So if you’re just looking for a simple and cheap photo booth solution, go with LumaBooth.

LumaBooth vs Snappic vs Simple Booth: Pros & Cons

LumaBooth Pros	LumaBooth Cons
Affordable	Needs upgrades for advanced gallery features
AI and green screen background removal	No DSLR support
In-app stickers	No custom stickers
Printing via AirPrint, LumaBooth Assistant, and more

Snappic Pros	Snappic Cons
DSLR support	No free trial
Anonymous guest data	Requires add-on for green screen
Customizable survey-builder	No in-app stickers
Enabled animated overlays

Simple Booth Pros	Simple Booth Cons
High value for money	No AI background remover
Convenient HALO hardware	Only iPhone and iPad support
Supreme guest data protection
Superior branding, messaging, and design features (customizable watermarks, fonts, colors, and more)

LumaBooth vs Snappic vs Simple Booth: The Final Verdict

So, which one’s the best photo booth app of the three?

LumaBooth is great for simple, non-commercial events like weddings or birthdays. In contrast, Snappic can be a professional’s choice thanks to its elaborate DSLR support if you have the hardware and know-how to build a DIY solution. Meanwhile, Simple Booth stands as a reliable, all-encompassing photo booth solution suitable for any commercial event or organization, delivering top-notch photo booth and business features at an affordable price point.

Use LumaBooth if:

• You’re an individual hosting an event or a service-based freelancer.
• You want webcam support.
• You’re on a budget.

Click here to get started with LumaBooth!

Use Snappic if:

• You are a pro photographer or studio and want to build a DIY photo booth.
• You want a customizable survey builder to collect guest data.
• You want Canon, Nikon, or Sony DSLR compatibility.

Click here to get started with Snappic!

Use Simple Booth if:

• You want a large number of filters, digital props, and themes to engage your guests.
• You want a complete photo booth solution, including software and hardware (a ring light stand, iPad holder, and travel case).
• You want to grow your brand and support your marketing efforts with an innovative solution.

Click here to get started with Simple Booth!

The light your photo booth comes with should be bright enough to adapt to most situations. (Like Simple Booth HALO with a built-in LED ring light) But if that’s not the case—if you’re DIY’ing your own photo booth or photographing larger groups—then adding sidelights is a must if you want to have great photo quality and offer a superior customer experience.

Here’s what typically works the best for your main photo booth light, depending on the type of photo booth.

(Click on the left column to jump to the setup guide for specific photo booths, or the upper row to jump to my recommended light choices.)

And here are my recommendations for side lights if your main light is not bright enough.

Throughout the rest of the article, I’ll explain everything you need to know about all the photo booth lighting options.

• Buying Guide: How To Choose Lights For Your Photo Booth
• Setup Guide: Where To Place Photo Booth Lights
• Common Photo Booth Lighting Setups
• Best Photo Booth Lighting Equipment
• Photo Booth Special Effects Guide

Let’s go.

Want a complete software + hardware photo booth solution that doesn’t need additional lights? Try Simple Booth HALO. The app is designed for amplifying in-person experiences; while the shell has a beautiful and powerful LED ring light bright enough for any situation.

Check HALO in action here:

Buying Guide: How To Choose Lights For Your Photo Booth

Photo booth lights have to do three things:

1. Make the guests stand out
2. Reduce harsh shadows
3. Make the skin look healthy

You’ll achieve this with a light that has a high enough maximum brightness, light coverage, and color temperature. Always think about these three criteria when buying lights, regardless of whether you have a DSLR, mirror, box, 360, or an iPad photo booth.

Max Brightness

Maximum brightness is the most important factor to think about.

It will determine whether the lighting is effective in different environments and with different cameras. 

As a rule of thumb, you need enough light for the camera to take the photo. That bar is not very high now-a-days. Modern cameras and lenses perform quite well in low-light environments, and can automatically adjust exposure to get just the right amount of light to take clear photos of the guests.

But having a bright light is still important: your light has to outcompete other lights in the environment.

Even though random lights at your event—like ceiling lights or even windows—might make the room feel bright, they are likely to illuminate your subjects in an un-flattering way for photo booth photography. For example, they can create color casts, throw awkward shadows, or light the background more than your subject.

I suggest getting an adjustable light with high maximum brightness that you can use to adapt to any situation.

Light Coverage

After max brightness, the next priority is eliminating harsh shadows and illuminating everyone in the photo as evenly as possible.

Harsh shadows are great for dramatic effects. But in photo booth photography—which is essentially portrait photography—they bring out imperfections, wrinkles, and lines in faces. And trust me, everyone I’ve ever photographed would rather not have them.

Larger light sources have softer shadows and bigger coverage areas.

Single-point lights, like flashes, will create harsh shadows—especially up close. But if you point them into an umbrella, the umbrella becomes the light source, and reflects a wide, soft light that can capture large groups and light them evenly.

At one point, though, bigger stops being better—it just becomes clunkier. 

One square foot of surface emitting light is more than enough. You can easily achieve this with:

• Softbox
• Ring light
• LED wand
• Light panel

These are perfect if you want to keep a compact setup without a flash & umbrella combo.

Color Temperature

People are extremely sensitive to off-color skin tones.

Under bad fluorescent lighting, the skin looks yellowish. In bright daylight, it looks bluish. You’ll come across these situations often in your photo booth-ing career, that’s why it pays to have a continuous warm/cool LED light at hand. These throw white light in the 5600 – 6700 Kelvin range, which you can adjust to even out colors from the environment.

And don’t worry about other colors: a high-quality warm/cool LED light will handle most lights you’ll encounter in the wild.

Even with a non-ideal setup, you can still do a lot by just repositioning your lights.

Setup Guide: Where To Place Photo Booth Lights

There are no “hard” rules.

Where you place the lights will depend entirely on the environment.

In short, set up your lighting equipment so that it creates the most flattering light possible: the subject stands out from the environment, there are no harsh shadows, and the skin tone looks natural.

Height of the Light

Either do:

In-line with eyes

Slightly above the head

Circular around the subject’s face

Don’t:

Shine light only from the ground up (unless at a Halloween party.)

Angle of the Light

Either:

Have only one central light

Have two side lights under the same angle

Don’t:

Have one light only on one side

Distance of the Light

Do:

Move closer to make it brighter

Don’t:

Move so close guests aren’t being lit evenly

Common Photo Booth Lighting Setups

Setup #1: DSLR photo booth with flash and umbrella

A decent flash will be bright enough for practically all environments.

The only real challenge is making sure it turns on at the right time when taking the photo. You can set up the sync in your photo booth software. It does mean more moving parts to look after. Which means more things can break.

Sometimes, with a bad computer-flash connection or in dark environments, your camera might struggle with autofocus during the flash. If that’s happening to you, add some extra LED lights on the sides. Any would do, but I suggest LED wands: the vertical lines will balance out the round appearance of the umbrella and make your booth look more grand.

Setup #2: iPad photo booth with continuous ring light

The classic.

If you’ve bought a standard iPad/iPhone photo booth, there’s a big chance it came with an integrated ring light. It’s for a good reason — they work really, really well. They’re bright, usually warm/cool, and can illuminate the subject from all sides (horizontally and vertically) eliminating shadows.

Their continuous nature also makes sure that the subjects are always in focus.

Usually, the ring light that comes built into the photo booth shell will be enough. Especially if you’re buying from trusted, high-quality vendors such as Simple Booth HALO (hey, that’s us! ). But if you didn’t know about HALO before buying one of the competitors, like Salsa Booth, that’s okay. I heard some of their customers complaining in Facebook groups that their ring light doesn’t always do the job. Lacks power. If that’s the case, you can always add more side lights to your set, like LED panels, softboxes, and LED wands.

Setup #3: 360 photo booth with lots of lights

You’ve got two options with this setup.

Option one would be putting a ring light on the spinning arm. Possible, but I don’t recommend it. It adds significant weight to the arm’s end, increasing its momentum. Not only can this wear out the motor faster, but it can actually hurt someone.

If you’re getting a 360 booth from Amazon with a shady-looking brand, it’ll likely have a mounted ring light.

Option two is placing the lights all around the 360 booth. For this one, you’ll need at least 3 lights, but I recommend 6 or 8, spread evenly in a circle. If you want the lights to show in the background, you can make do with LED wands. They’re tall, vertical, and look epic in the backdrop. If you don’t want them in the background, you can go for LED panels on high enough stands not to be seen in the video.

Best Photo Booth Lighting Equipment

Simple Booth HALO Hardware

The Simple Booth HALO® hardware is a modern iPad enclosure integrated with a powerful ring light. If you need great photo booth lighting, it’s a turnkey solution.

The enclosure is aluminum anodized with satin: a sturdy structure that will keep your iPad safe and still. The LED ring light fully encompasses the iPad and emits 2,170 lumens of light to ensure that your subjects are well-lit for every photo.

Besides HALO, here are more ring light options to consider.

Best Ring Lights for Photo Booths

Best Quality IVISII 19-inch Ring Light	Best Budget Herrfilk 13-inch Ring Light
Get on Amazon for $139.99	Get on Amazon for $49.99

Best Quality Ring Light: IVISII 19-inch — $139.99

The IVISII 19 inch Ring Light is an incredibly versatile and high-quality light for photo booths.

With its 5400 lux of max brightness, fully adjustable from 0% to 100%, and a warm/cool range of 3000-5800 Kelvins, it will serve you well in any environment. It also comes with 3 colored diffusers—red, green, and blue—that will have your back in niche situations. The color rendering is top-notch, with a CRI of 97 and TLCI of 99, helping achieve a natural, healthy skin tone. It can be used either by itself, or with DSLR cameras, smartphones, or iPads — whatever your photo booth runs on. Despite its power, it is incredibly lightweight and sturdy and can work either with a long-lasting rechargeable battery or a DC adapter.

With its 4.6 rating on Amazon and 2,225 reviews, you can be sure you’re getting a quality product.

Best Budget Ring Light: Herrfilk 13-inch — $49.99

The Herrfilk 13-inch LED Ring Light is an affordable light for photo booths that gets the job done.

With its 1200 lux of adjustable brightness and a color temperature of 3200–6000K, it’s a bang for the buck. It has everything you need in a value-oriented product. It’s compatible with most smartphones, tablets, and cameras, and even has a dynamic coloring feature for special situations. Although it promises superior stability, customers complain it doesn’t quite prove to be as stable as expected.

Despite these drawbacks, it has a 4.3 rating on Amazon with 1,118 reviews.

Best RGB LED Lights for Photo Booths

Although RGBs have more color range, they aren’t as bright as standard LEDs. They’re good for artistic effects; but not for achieving natural, healthy-looking skin tones. Best used as side lights, if at all.

Best Quality GVM Video Light	Best Budget Aiknow RGB LEDs
Get on Amazon for $254.99	Get on Amazon for $48.99

Best Quality RGB LED Light: GVM Video Light — $254.99

The GVM Video RGB LED Light is a great pair of RGB LEDs for photo booths.

Each light has a bi-color temperature between 3200K and 5600K and a brightness of 40W. The CRI is also very high at 97, providing a natural feel to the colors. The RGB panel can be controlled via an app, and its aerospace aluminum alloy casing helps dissipate the heat. It comes with an AC adapter as well as a Sony F750/970 battery. 

It has a 4.5 rating on Amazon with 1,094 reviews.

Best Budget RGB LED Light: Aiknow 2 Pack — $48.99

The Aiknow RGB LED Light is an excellent pair of lights for photo booths.

Each light has a color temperature range of 2500–6500K and a brightness of 900 lumen, which is bright enough to light close sessions. It is also dimmable in the 10%–100% range. The power input is USB 5V/2A, making it great for on-the-go sessions as it attaches straight to phone charger battery packs.

It has a 4.3 rating on Amazon, based on 110 reviews.

Best Warm/cool LED Lights for Photo Booths

Best Quality RALENO 2 Packs	Best Budget NEEWER Advanced 2.4G
Get on Amazon for $163.99	Get on Amazon for $64.99

Best Quality Warm/cool LED Light: RALENO 2 Packs — $163.99

The RALENO 2 Packs Warm/Cool LED Light is an excellent choice for high-end photo booths.

This two-pack of lights features a color temperature range of 3200K–5600K and a CRI of 95+, ensuring great color accuracy. It’s incredibly bright, with adjustable brightness from 0 to 100%, making it great for any situation. It runs only on battery power that’s built-in and rechargeable, making it great for a portable photo booth. The only downside is that it does not come with a remote, so you will have to adjust the lights manually.

Despite this, it has a 4.6 rating on Amazon with 1,928 reviews.

Best Budget Warm/cool LED Light: NEEWER Advanced 2.4G — $64.99

The NEEWER Advanced 2.4G Warm/Cool LED Light is a great budget side light for photo booths.

It features a color temperature range of 3200K–5600K and a CRI of 97+, guaranteeing excellent color accuracy. It’s incredibly bright, reaching 20W at 100% brightness, and adjustable at any level. It has a built-in battery, and it even supports charging while in use. The wireless remote control makes it easy to adjust the settings from a distance. The only downside is that it does not come with a tripod, so you will need to buy that separately. 

It has a 4.5 Amazon rating with only 41 reviews.

Best LED Wands for Photo Booths

Best Quality GIJUANRING Bi-Color LED Wand	Best Budget Hagibis RGB
Get on Amazon for $99.90	Get on Amazon for $47.99

Best Quality LED Wands: GIJUANRING Bi-Color LED Wand — $99.90

The GIJUANRING Dimmable Bi-Color LED Wand is one of the best side lights for any photo booth.

It has a color temperature range of 3200K–5600K and a CRI of 96+. The brightness is adjustable from 10–100%, reaching 24W of output power at its maximum. It is super bright and will serve you well in any environment. The added bonus is that it also comes with a light stand, so you won’t need to buy one separately.

It has a 4.6 rating on Amazon with 496 reviews.

Best Budget LED Wands: Hagibis RGB — $64.99

The Hagibis RGB LED Wand is a special side light for photo booths.

Although it has an adjustable warm/cool temperature range of 3200K–5600K, what makes it special is its 9 color selections. It also has a built-in rechargeable battery via USB, making it extremely flexible. The brightness is 1000 lumens, which is not the highest, but it is to be expected for RGB light. 

It has a 4.6 rating on Amazon with 1,320 reviews.

Note: Hagibi RGB Wand doesn’t come with a stand. I recommend the Amazon Basics 6.7-foot Tripod Stand, 2 pack for $40.41.

Best Softbox Lighting Kits for Photo Booths

Best Quality Switti LED Softbox	Best Budget YICOE LED Softbox
Get on Amazon for $283.99	Get on Amazon for $79.99

Best Quality Softbox: Switti LED Softbox Video Panel — $244.95

The Switti LED Video Light Panel Lighting Kit professional-grade softbox for photo booths.

It features an ultra-wide temperature range of 3000K–8000K and an incredible brightness of 19000 lumens on 0.5m. The color rendering is also excellent, with a CRI of 96+, and the brightness is adjustable from 1–100%. It can be powered with an AC adapter (included) or a SONY NP-F battery series (not included), and it is even remote-controlled.

It has a 4.6 Amazon rating with 166 reviews.

Best Budget Softbox: YICOE Lighting Kit — $81.90

The YICOE Photography Lighting Kit is a softbox for photo booths that’s a true bang-for-the-buck.

It features a color temperature range of 2700K–6400K and an adjustable brightness of 85W. The softbox is made with high-quality reflective fabric that will not leak light, and the head is 210° rotatable. It is also remote-controlled, making it easy to adjust the settings from a distance.

At its price point, it is no wonder it has a 4.6 rating on Amazon with 2,074 reviews.

Best Flashes for Photo Booths

Best Quality AlienBees B400	Best Budget LimoStudio 160W Monolight
Get here for $244.95	Get on Amazon for $81.90

Best Quality Flash: AlienBees B400 Flash Unit — $244.95

The AlienBees B400 Flash Unit is a high-quality product by Paul C. Buff, infamous for its excellence.

It has a power output of 150W and is internally fan-cooled for heavy duty use. The recovery time is incredibly fast, at 0.5 seconds to full power. It also has a wide range of colored exteriors to choose from to match your booth. I’d recommend using it with a softbox, in case you don’t have an umbrella. One downside is that it does not come with a tripod.

You can’t get better than AlienBees. It’s an excellent flash that has rightfully earned its reputation.

Best Budget Flash: LimoStudio 160W Monolight — $81.90

If you don’t have a lot of experience, LimoStudio 160W Monolight is a great first flash.

It has a power output of 160W, and a cooling vent to avoid overheating. The recovery time is rather slow at 1.5 seconds, and it doesn’t come with a tripod.

Despite this, it is a great option for those who are on a budget and just need a reliable flash.

Effects Guide: How To Replicate Popular Photo Booth Lighting Effects

There’s a lot you can do on the field to turn your photo booth enclosure into a party photo booth. 

Apart from the basic photo booth equipment such as

• photo booth props,
• photo booth backdrop,
• and the lighting,

you can emulate the high-end feel with some post-production special effects.

If your clients request a specialty set, here’s how to do it.

The GLAM Effect

GLAM (aka. glamour) effect is used to emphasize a person’s natural beauty; highlighting their facial features, clothing, and hairstyle. It’s typically used to create a dreamy, romantic vibe. You can do it using a:

1. Soft focus lens
2. Very soft light (wide softbox is best)
3. Shallow depth of field to blur the background

Then tweaking the contrast and saturation post-processing for the finishing touches.

The Vintage Effect

Vintage effect, or “sepia,” gives an aged, nostalgic look. Besides warm tones and lower contrast, it often features special effects like crumpled texture, wear & tear, and vignette. This is all done after the image capture, so all you need is a photo booth software that offers it as a digital image filter.

Black & White Effect

Black and white effect is made entirely in post-processing. But to prepare the image for the best outcome, you may want to try:

1. Lower ISO to reduce noise
2. Overexpose to create contrast
3. Use a wide camera setting to keep the background out of focus

When your image is ready you can use one of many black & white effects in your photo booth software.

Black and white filters are also perfect whenever colored light from the environment is messing with the skin tones. 

Photo Booth Lighting FAQ

Which light bulbs make you look younger?

To appear younger, use bright, warm LEDs dispersed with a softbox.

Softboxes are great for diffusing light and creating an even, soft illumination that is flattering to the skin. The warm light will give the skin a youthful, radiant look. While the bright light will flatten out the appearance of wrinkles, shadows, and blemishes.

Or will the trend die down in the following years? 360 photo booth manufacturing is still a small industry. The few brands that do manufacture them are either expensive or have questionable product quality. We’ve reviewed and compared them all in this article — to help you get the best value for the price and your situation.

We’ve also answered the most burning questions rental companies have around 360 booths:

• Where are 360 photo booths most popular?
• Which is the best 360 photo booth to invest in?
• How much can you earn renting a 360 photo booth?
• Is it necessary to offer 360 booth rentals to survive in 2023?
• Will $1,000 get your foot in the door? What can you get with $7,000?

But before we go into all that, if you’re in the market for regular booths, then we highly recommend the Simple Booth HALO: the complete photo booth solution for rental companies.

First, what is a 360 photo booth?

Don’t let “photo” in the name fool you.

360 photo booths are actually video booths featuring a camera on a long metal arm that rotates around a platform where guests stand, pose, or dance. The end result is a video—either slow motion video, boomerang, or a regular video—that looks GLAM, like it was shot by a professional Hollywood studio.

360 booths are perfect for all event organizers looking to offer their guests a night they won’t soon forget, and will most likely share on social media.

360 booths are considered a novelty, yet they’ve existed for a while.

The first 360 booth was engineered in 2014 by OrcaVue, a photo booth manufacturing company.

We’ve had the honor to put Daniel Rosenberry, the CEO of OrcaVue and one of the original creators and largest manufacturers of 360 photo booths in the world, on the hot seat. Check out our interview, where he shares the story of how it all started, grew into the huge event trend it is today, and answers helpful questions about 360 photo booths.

Here’s a list of all the topics we covered and their timestamps:

• Where did 360 photo booths come from? [0:00]
• How did you build the first 360 photo booths? [0:45]
• How did OrcaVue grow from 2015-2022? [2:10]
• What does OrcaVue do now? [4:10]
• What differentiates your product from the competition? [5:15]
• When did you switch from events back to a focus on 360 photo booth manufacturing? [8:13]
• What’s your prediction for the future of 360 photo booths? [10:00]
• Are 360 photo booth sales still strong? [12:03]
• Is now the time to invest in a 360 photo booth? [12:52]

At first, the demand was low. It wasn’t until a fateful celebrity party on the brink of 2020 that this product finally took off.

Although the trend plateaued in August 2021, the hype train is still chugging along at high speed: every month, 85,000 Americans search “360 photo booths” on Google:

Moreover, a recent “360 photo booth” trend on TikTok amassed 75.9M views.

Given how they’ve rocked the industry, it’s safe to say that 360 photo booths won’t go away any time soon.

Yep, they’re here to stay as an expensive photo booth alternative for special occasions when event organizers want to crank up the wow factor to an 11.

If you’re a photo booth rental company, you should consider having at least one 360 booth in your arsenal for 2023.

Differences between 360 photo booths and regular photo booths

Unlike regular booths, 360 photo booths have moving parts.

This is, in fact, their biggest strength and weakness.

First, where there is movement, there are hazards. Events are filled with all sorts of activity. People are distracted, spirits are high, and—speaking of spirits—alcohol is frequently involved. Combine that with a spinning metal bar and an elevated platform that can be too small for the number of people wanting to stand on it simultaneously, and you have a recipe for disaster. People trip, bungle, or take a misstep. They are looking at their phones, get hit in the leg, arm, or head, and hurt themselves. Besides the obvious liability involved, forceful stops like these can fry the electric motor that powers the arm: ruining your equipment and your rental service for the night.

Second, 360 booths require additional equipment. Give regular photo booths a mounted ring light and a nice wall for a backdrop, and they’re good to go. But attach a ring light on a spinning arm, and you make it heavier and even more dangerous. Not to mention that a light in motion can throw an awkwardly moving shadow that doesn’t look good in videos—meaning a custom lighting setup is needed. On top of that, the 360 booth backdrop must be perfect all around the booth: which means investing in huge, expensive enclosures that cover your machine like a tent.

Third, complex setups and operators are necessary. Heavy platforms. Enclosures. Lights. Stanchions. Not only do you need to reserve at least a 10’x10’ space on the event floor, but at least one to two operators are required to stand by, control the motor arm, and troubleshoot problems throughout the night.

At the end of the day, 360 photo booths are a novelty for taking selfie videos that look simply amazing. They’re memorable and dynamic. Guests want to feel special, look good, and have fun at events, and 360 photo booths help do just that. It’s a movie-star photo booth experience.

It’s for this very reason that event organizers are ready to shell out two to three times the rental cost of a regular booth.

Is owning a 360 photo booth necessary for your photo booth rental business in 2023?

The short answer is no.

Although owning a 360 photo booth would be advantageous in 2023, your business won’t go under without it.

360 video booths are a high-ticket, niche offering. Sure, they’re often more exciting than regular booths, but they do come with significant risk and cost/space requirements that many event organizers don’t want to deal with.

Nevertheless, some do welcome this opportunity.

This is precisely why I suggest you invest in one and offer it as a high-ticket upsell: provided the investment won’t put your business in financial danger.

How much does it cost to buy a 360 photo booth?

The three primary differentiators for 360 photo booths at various price points are:

• Build quality
• Platform dimensions
• Movement mechanism

Spending a bit over $1,000 will get you a basic 27″, one-person stand with a rotating arm that must be swung by hand: like this one by WISVANAI, an Amazon photo booth brand.

If you’re looking for something sturdier at 34″ that can hold two to three people, this hand-driven Revospin will cost you $2,500; while the motorized OrcaVue Air (at comparable dimensions) will set you back by $3,500.

Finally, a fully decked out OrcaVue XL, “built to handle concert-scale crowds, multi-camera productions, and days of touring,” goes up to $7,890 with a 46” platform and four-to-five-person capacity.

(You can learn more about build and price comparisons at the end of the article.)

Insurance cost

As a photo booth rental company, it’s a good idea to have insurance. Venues and event planners will often require it.

It’s an especially wise decision to get insurance given our discussion on 360 booth dangers. You’ll want to protect yourself from being financially liable for any of the following:

• Bodily injury
• Property damage
• Medical payments
• Legal defense and judgment

As for cost, here are some starter plans offered by RVNA, a photo booth insurance provider:

• General Liability: $99/Annually
• Employee Crime: $75/Annually
• Property & Equipment: $55/Annually

Of course, the final price will account for location, risk factors, your history and company size, equipment value, and more. Typically, $1M general liability coverage in the US will cost you between $400-$700 per year. [*]

Ongoing operations costs

360 video booths involve two primary ongoing costs. The first is attendant wages.

Unlike the self-service convenience of regular booths, 360 photo booths require one to two attendants provided by you: the rental company. According to Indeed, the average photo booth attendant wage in the United States is $17/hour.

The second cost is transportation and setup.

360 photo booths are big and bulky, so you’ll need a large vehicle like a van to get them to your event location: especially if you have additional equipment, which we’ll cover shortly.

Right off the bat, loading, unloading, and setting up a 360 photo booth will take you 2 hours (on average), which will immediately set you back $34 or $64: depending on the number of attendants.

There is also the tear-down time, which is likely to be another hour, and the return trip with the gear. As we head into 2023, the cost of mileage according to the IRS is 62.5 cents per mile. There is also the drive time, depending on whether you pay your attendant for it or not. The average driving speed—accounting for traffic and city driving conditions—is 13 miles/hour. 

For an event that is 20 miles from your HQ ($25 in mileage cost), requires two attendants that are paid for travel time ($104), and event setup and teardown ($102), you will have a base cost of around $230 just to show up.

Is that worth it?

Let’s see.

How much can you charge for a 360 photo booth rental?

How much you charge for a 360 photo booth rental depends on:

• Your location
• Day/time of the week
• Equipment and service quality

In general, you’ll pocket between $200 and $600 per rental hour (with most events spanning 2-6 hours).

Location

Different places have varying levels of demand for 360 photo booths.

As price follows the supply-and-demand curve, it will change from location to location.

360 photo booths are currently most popular on the East Coast, specifically in the South (Georgia, Mississippi, and Louisiana) as well as in Delaware and Maryland.

And, perhaps not surprisingly, they are also prevalent in Las Vegas, Nevada. According to the viral videos, there’s plenty of them in Los Angeles as well, you know, where the celebrities are.

It’s safe to say this is where you’ll find the greatest demand for 360 booths—and, naturally, the most competition.

Time of the week

Some rental companies also adjust their pricing based on the time of the week.

Thus, 360 booth rentals are cheaper on weekdays and costlier on weekends when more events are happening and demand is higher.

Quality of equipment & services

Finally, the price you can command depends on your equipment and value-added services you can provide such as custom branding on videos, special effects, additional lighting, backdrop setups, green screen or enclosures, and props such as swords, wigs, oversized glasses, signs, and so on.

In the end, your pricing strategy is entirely up to you, the quality of your brand, and your ability to sell.

What is needed for a 360 photo booth?

Although base equipment consists of the platform with the spinning arm, a full 360 photo booth setup requires far more. If you want to get serious about your rental service, you’ll also need to invest in:

• Enclosures
• Cameras
• Apps
• Accessories

Let’s discuss each one and why it’s important for your business.

360 photo booth enclosures

Enclosures are like huge tents that surround the photo booth.

They help you control the backdrop through LED light strips installed in the inner part of the enclosure.

Enclosures are usually circular and measure 8’ in diameter and 9’ in height. Regarding material, they are often either inflatable, plastic, or steel-framed with curtains. Some also have a TV attached on the front to stream the camera feed and attract more eyeballs from afar.

Prices start at $2,000 and can go up to $4,500 for premium-quality enclosures.

Here are some examples:

ATA Photo Booth Enclosure	Revospin Inflatable Enclosure	Revospin Circular Enclosure
$2000 Learn more here	$1820 Learn more here	$2270 Learn more here

360 photo booth cameras

Though it is possible to create a 360 booth with a DSLR camera, it’s not common practice.

Why? Because it requires you to mount both a DSLR camera and an iPad on the spinning arm. Weight at the top of the arm offsets the booth’s center of gravity and generates a lot of momentum.

Translation: this makes your booth more wobbly, dangerous, and fragile.

Curious to see a booth like this in action? Check out this video from dslrBooth:

Looks like something you’d want?

Here are our recommendations for the best DSLR photo booth cameras:

Best All-Around Camera	Most Affordable Camera	Best Performance
Canon EOS M50 Mark II	Canon EOS Rebel T3	Nikon Z6
With its compact mirrorless design and quick autofocus, it offers the best performance for the price.	Although it has weaker autofocus and limited ISO capabilities, it has a proven track record of “Canon reliability” and is a great camera for under $300.	It’s more compact than traditional DSLR cameras and offers high-resolution shots.
$659	$279	$1,999
Shop here	Shop here	Shop here

360 photo booth apps

360 booths are typically run with a dedicated iPhone for the camera

It’s a simple solution. Most iPhones have a high-quality camera and don’t require photo booth apps to take amazing shots. However, if you want to take advantage of the following features, you’ll need to use a dedicated photo booth app:

• Background removal
• Animated overlays
• Gif generator
• Slow motion
• Motion ramping
• Intro & outro clips
• Filters, effects, and layouts
• Movement-triggered spinner
• Live view sharing and countdowns
• Sharing via email, SMS, or social media

Some of the most popular 360 degree photo booth apps are:

1. Snappic: $19 to $69 (monthly subscription)
2. Touchpix: $140 (monthly subscriptions)
3. dslrBooth: $199 (one-time cost)

360 photo booth accessories

Accessories or any add-ons aren’t vital pieces of equipment.

But they can take your 360 video booth experience to the next level. These include:

1. Stanchions for safety
2. Light bars to look cool in the background
3. Confetti canons or fog machines for special effects

Specifically, OrcaVue software supports a DMX protocol to automatically trigger these types of machines.

Is it hard to use a 360 photo booth?

Before you can successfully use a 360 degree photo booth, you’ll need to set up and learn to use:

• The photo booth app
• Video templates
• Equipment

Tech-savvy people will find it easy to get the system up and running after tinkering with the booth and equipment for an afternoon or two.

For anyone else out there, it might be a bit of a challenge; but don’t let that scare you! All photo booth apps have extensive libraries of tutorials, self-help articles, and customer support teams that can help you at every step.

Also, although photo booth operators need not be expert photographers, they should be familiar enough with camera and lighting technology to help guests enjoy the best possible experience and troubleshoot any problems that arise during the event.

Best 360 photo booths for rental companies in 2023

Despite current trends, 360 photo booths are still a relatively small slice of the photo booth industry.

There aren’t many brands manufacturing 360 booths that I could compare head-on.

With this in mind, this section highlights every brand currently selling 360 photo booths as of November 2022: comparing their prices, dimensions, mechanisms, and customer reviews.

Manual spin 360 photo booth: niche-use case

Because they lack an electric motor, manual booths are:

• safer
• lighter
• sturdier
• more reliable
• less expensive

But they do need an operator to spin the arm.

In fact, there aren’t many 360 booths that don’t work with a motor, and the only two brands that manufacture manual booths are WISVANAI and Revospin.

WISVANAI is an Amazon brand with 15 reviews distributed evenly between 1 and 5 stars (as of this writing). The brand’s biggest challenge seems to be shipping practices, as most reviewers complain their booth arrived with dents and scratches.

Revospin, on the other hand, is an established brand and one of two industry leaders in 360 photo booth manufacturing—alongside OrcaVue, the company that started it all.

Their builds are known for their high levels of sturdiness, American manufacturing, and premium price tag.

Motorized 360 photo booths

1. Lesser-quality Amazon brands (best for newbies)

There is very little differentiation between 360 booths on Amazon.

They all feature a motor that drives the arm, an attached ring light, and a phone holder: everything you need to start out!

I’ve split the table by dimension size and sorted all products by price (in ascending order).

Note: all of these come with mounted ring lights.

You can’t go wrong with any of the “small” model brands.

In the “small-medium” category, MWE is the winner, and I recommend their small-medium model to everyone starting out. This brand boasts the most reviews and the best rating, and the only cheaper option is DOEL: which has an aluminum box for transportation but also inferior reviews.

There’s not much to say about the large and extra-large categories, as they’re dominated entirely by MWE.

Premium-quality brands: best for serious photo booth rental companies

Looking for larger, sturdier motorized booths of premium quality?

You have OrcaVue, Dzentech, and Revospin to choose from.

In my opinion, the best overall choice is any model by OrcaVue.

If appearance is important to you and you don’t mind spending an extra $2,000, you’ll love Revospin’s $5,600 model with an infinity LED cover.

A 360 photo booth from either of these two companies currently represents the best money can buy.

360 photo booths: final verdict

360 photo booths are a great addition to your existing product arsenal.

They can be rented at 2x to 3x the price of other booths, making them the perfect way to impress high-end clientele or upsell your existing customers.

If you’re starting out, dip your toes in the water with one of the Amazon brands: the small-medium MWE for one to two people is perfect for the job at $2,200. If that’s too risky for you and you’d like something simpler, safer, and more affordable, a small one-person manual booth from either WISVANAI (at $1,155) or the sturdier Revospin (at $1,770) are great options.

Nevertheless, if you’re looking to get serious and provide large event organizers with a premium experience, one of the motor-driven OrcaVue models will be your go-to.

360 photo booth alternatives

In the market for regular booths as well?

Then I recommend the Simple Booth HALO: our complete hardware and software solution.

HALO is a modern photo booth designed for businesses that want a low-maintenance, high-quality photo booth to delight their customers: helping them collect leads, create branded event galleries, and learn from robust analytics. All while entertaining their guests with a responsive app design, beautiful filters, a plethora of fun effects, and simplified social media sharing. 

In many ways, HALO is the opposite of a 360 photo booth.

It doesn’t take up much space, it can be set up in 5 minutes, and doesn’t require an attendant or elaborate accessories. In other ways, HALO is just as good, or better than a 360 photo booth. It captures still photos, video clips, rebounds, and animated GIFs that participants love to share. People get their photos quickly and have a lot of fun.

In short, HALO offers a simple, high-quality experience you can trust for any next event.

This article will tell you exactly which software to use based on your specific needs.

Other articles on this topic simply regurgitate features scraped from official websites, but we have personally downloaded and tried each DSLR photo booth software ourselves. We have described our experiences in the “how it feels to use it” sections—which you’ll find extremely valuable. They will save you time trying out these tools yourself.

We’ve assigned an ideal use case for each software, and used a 5-star scoring system to judge how these apps compare in 7 dimensions, which you can find in the table below:

Best DSLR Photo Booth Software: Comparison Matrix

	Simple Booth HALO	dslrBooth	Breeze Booth	Sparkbooth	Darkroom Booth
Ideal use case:	Best for Businesses & Non-profits	Best for DIY Solutions	Best for Customization	Best for Non-techies	Best for Attended Booths
Marketing capabilities
Feature-rich
Customizable
Stable Performance
Ease of use
Back-end UX/UI
Front-end UX/UI
Pricing
Final Score	33x	22x	18x	27x	18x
	Jump to review	Jump to review	Jump to review	Jump to review	Jump to review

Simple Booth HALO® —  Best for Businesses and Non-profits

Although it’s not a DSLR photo booth software, we would do you a disservice if we didn’t first mention our iPad photo booth app: Simple Booth HALO.

HALO has the most powerful marketing features out of any photo booth out there, as it was designed specifically for businesses and not-for-profits looking to

1. Raise brand awareness,
2. Enhance in-person experiences,
3. Generate leads from business events.

HALO has two components: the HALO Software is an app that you install on your iOS tablet to turn it into a photo booth… while HALO Hardware is a modern, dedicated iPad enclosure that takes significantly better photos than most DSLR cameras thanks to its patented ring light technology.

Want your photo booth to generate real sales opportunities besides just being a fun experience at your events? Then give HALO a try. Keep reading to learn more or schedule a call to get a personalized demo and learn how HALO could fit your business!

Simple Booth HALO – Top 3 Unique Features & Benefits

HALO is built for businesses and not-for-profits. With that in mind, we made sure we perfected its three core functions that separate HALO from the rest:

Differentiator 3: Ability to create unforgettable experiences

HALO software for iPad has an intuitive interface, allowing users to take selfies themselves, with no attendant needed to run the booth. It’s capable of producing stunning photos, layouts, video shorts, boomerang clips, and animated GIFs—all of which can be made even more fun with drag-and-drop digital props, frames, and filters.

When combined with the HALO hardware, the experience becomes unmatched. 

Harpoon Brewery

“Worth the investment! It takes such great quality photos and is so portable! We can set it up anywhere, without having to worry about moving a large, bulky ‘booth.’ It’s really interactive and our guests love having an added benefit during their event!”

Lauren Hammil | Manager of Events

Differentiator 2: Ability to encourage social sharing, raise brand awareness, and see the impact

Every photo from your event gets stored in your own branded online gallery, so that everyone can relive the experience, find their image, and share it on social media.

HALO also gives you the option to embed your watermarked logo on every image, allowing you to raise brand awareness whenever someone shares the image on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or anywhere else.

Every share is recorded via a unique photo URL and displayed in a robust analytics dashboard. Perfect for brand monitoring, getting immediate event feedback, and tracking the impact HALO made on your event.

W Hotels

“We found that more of our guests were engaged at our activations and that people were eager to get their photos. We also felt that for how much we’ve been using it that it was definitely worth the ROI.”

Lauren Travis | W Hotel Area Director of Marketing

Differentiator 1: Ability to capture leads where it was previously impossible

Finally, with HALO, you can prompt every participant to join your email or SMS marketing list. Their data is stored securely for you to access or import directly into your CRM. Now you can easily follow up with event attendees through email, text, or phone calls, and get them back in your business.

SPiN

“I would highly recommend HALO to any venue that is looking to engage its audience. The software itself is very easy to understand and intuitive. The amount you invest initially, you get back 10-fold due to the back-end collection of data and the number of social impressions you receive.”

Greg Godfrey | Marketing Director

Despite these powerful features, HALO is easy to use. It doesn’t require complicated setups, technical expertise, or any additional clumsy equipment. Here’s a 1-minute video of us putting HALO in a Tesla on Las Vegas Channel 8!

HALO is the perfect fit if you want a dependable and effective photo booth—loved by your attendees & driven by powerful enterprise software that gets real business results.

Our customers are thriving with Simple Booth HALO in these industries:

Simple Booth HALO – Pricing

As proven by 30,000 happy customers and 4.80 stars from 1,554 ratings on the App Store… Simple Booth HALO offers the best value for money out of any photo booth software on the market.

HALO’s most feature-packed license stands at $2,092 per year, with our entry-level Lite plan for business starting at $99/month.

Fun fact:

Following the release of the iPad Air 2, the Simple Booth app was one of the apps featured in retail store iPad displays. Soon, the Simple Booth app made its way to nearly every Apple Store in the United States.

Today, notable shows like:

• The Voice,
• Late Night With Seth Meyers,
• And The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon…

use Simple Booth so celebrities can share what’s going on behind the scenes and post content for fans. Click here to get your HALO today!

Note: Did you know you can get Simple Booth HALO as part of a hardware/software bundle? Best for businesses that want a simple and effective marketing tool for lead generation and brand awareness.

Simple Booth HALO – Hardware

The HALO software can be bundled with professional HALO hardware for the ultimate all-in-one photo booth solution.

With the HALO hardware, you won’t need any additional equipment, such as tripod stands, cables, separate lighting, DSLR camera, tablet, computer, or user interfaces… No, the HALO hardware comes equipped with:

• An iPad Enclosure with Ring Light fixes the iPad, preventing it from moving or shaking after the users tap on it to take photos. And then there’s the ring light. The soft glow of the ring light eliminates any harsh shadows and makes everyone look like movie stars on the red carpet.
• Robust Stand. The HALO stand is designed to have a very low center of gravity, preventing the setup from tipping over. It is also adjustable and has a variety of mounting options to help you get the best angle.
• Rugged Transportation Case. The HALO Event Kit comes with a sturdy, wheeled travel case that, when completely loaded, only weighs 50 lbs.

Together with the HALO software, this photo booth will take perfect photos anywhere—regardless of lighting conditions—with zero hassle.

See how fast and easy you can set it up:

Learn more about Simple Booth HALO hardware.

dslrBooth Software —  Best DIY Solution

DslrBooth is photo booth software for Windows and Mac operating systems.

It’s best for creating your own DIY photo booth with a DSLR camera. Perfect for amateurs who have lots of photography equipment laying around.

dslrBooth Software — Notable Features

One of the most notable features of dslrBooth is its extensive tech support. In addition to supporting nearly every camera under the sun (Canon, Nikon, etc.), it also supports Webcams and GoPros. Unfortunately, Sony cameras have stopped developing their camera API so it’s very difficult to connect them to any external software.

The software is also available in multiple languages: German, Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese.

dslrBooth Software — How It Feels To Use It

The application you install on the computer is not large, although that doesn’t come to you as a shock when looking at an interface that was made back in 2010.

The software itself, though, looks more modern. This pop-up screen greets you when you first launch the application:

To use dslrBooth, you need to create an account. It’s free to do so, and you get unlimited access to the trial. If you want to upgrade later, you’ll have to buy the license from their site and apply it to your account.

Once that’s done, you’re prompted to create your first “Event”. dslrBooth does this to keep your files, settings, and user statistics neatly organized (as you’ll see later).

Clicking on “Customize settings” takes you into a robust settings window. Here, you can see Stats, different Booth Modes, Options, Triggers, APIs, and a whole load of other checkboxes and sliders.

It’s not exactly a plug-and-play solution, and mastering all these settings could take quite a while. (Though, photography enthusiasts typically enjoy tinkering with settings like these. If you’re one of them, you’re in for a treat.)

Once you’re done with the settings, you’re taken to a home screen with all your events displayed on the left sidebar. The rest of the real estate is dedicated to the custom photo booth frame you can tinker with and the other features included in your plan.

To launch the photo booth, you select one of the events and press “Launch event”. If all goes well, you should see an interface like this:

(The interface doesn’t livestream the camera’s input, which is a big minus for me.)

Now, you can click one of the three buttons on the screen to take a photo, gif, or a boomerang video… Doing this and then scrambling into position for a selfie can be inconvenient, which is why dslrBooth gives you the option to scan the QR code and get these triggers on your phone. Here’s how that looks like:

I clicked “Print” and took this picture:

On the left side, I can switch between a GIF, Print (which adds frames and props), and simple Photos. On the right side, I can get the picture to my phone or email, print it (provided I have the equipment), or share it on Twitter.

Here’s the UI of the photo-taking process:

Between shots, the software also shows prompts:

• “get ready!”
• “say cheese!”
• “last one!”

dslrBooth Software —  Pricing

dslrBooth is one of the more affordable DSLR photo booth softwares on the market.

The Standard Edition costs only $79 and has nearly all the features you need. The upgrade, Professional Edition, costs $199 and has the additional Video Live View and Green Screen functionalities.

dslrBooth Software — Conclusion

What I like about dslrBooth are its robust settings and options. The software is a real powerhouse and I can see a dedicated photographer making magic with it. That is, if he or she is willing to invest time learning to use it as it can be quite complex. 

Regarding performance, I tested this software on a very beefy computer and found the experience to be laggy. At one point I had 4-5 warning popups appearing at once when things went wrong, 3-4 second delays between my clicks and software responses, and +10 second loading times connecting the camera to the app.

Overall dslrBooth is an amazing program for photographers who want to keep it old school. If you have a decent camera, studio light, and a laptop laying around and a wedding or a party coming up, then grabbing a copy of dslrBooth is a no-brainer.

Breeze DSLR Remote Pro —  Best For Custom Solutions

Breeze Booth (aka DSLR Remote Pro) is a DSLR photo booth software for Windows PC that only supports DSLR cameras—no webcams or GoPros.

It’s best for professional photographers who want to create robust custom photo booth solutions, such as standalone photo booths that accept digital payments and offer printouts without an attendant.

Breeze DSLR Remote Pro — Notable Features

Breeze DSLR Remote Pro is a highly customizable photo booth software that can be run on a moderately powerful machine. It offers a robust DSLR camera connection, stable performance, and a plethora of add-ons such as:

• tethered shooting,
• contactless systems,
• external buttons and sensors,
• digital payment integrations.

Breeze DSLR Remote Pro — How It Feels To Use It

When I opened Remote Pro, I was greeted by this screen:

Unlike dslrBooth, this software doesn’t seem to have a clear organizational structure for me to organize or save my events. This makes me think that its primary purpose is to create traditional stand-alone photo booths that deliver prints, and not-so-much an event marketing tool.

Unfortunately, if you enjoy working with modern-looking programs, you won’t find much enjoyment here. All the settings are thrown onto the screen with lots of inputs and buttons to try to navigate on your own. It doesn’t look like much thought put into the user experience for the operator, which you can see for yourself in the “advance settings” window:

In general, it’s confusing and takes a lot of work to figure out. There are no clear categories, tabs, or visual cues to help you find what you’re looking for. It’s all jumbled together.

Since we discovered that Remote Pro is mostly for printing out photos, I’ve also explored the Print Layout settings. You can see them in this window:

If you can do the pixel math, this window has all the features you need for creating great printouts, including the ability to import a logo or QR code. You can also export and import layouts you’ve made, or pick simple presets provided by Breeze Booth.

Breeze DSLR Remote Pro — Pricing

Pricing for their Windows software + DSLR camera combination is simple: a 15-day free trial, followed by an unlimited-use license for $275 dollars.

Breeze DSLR Remote Pro — Conclusion

Overall, Breeze DSLR Remote Pro is an affordable, customizable, and powerful photo booth software. However, it is not the most user-friendly option and is best suited for professional photographers who want to create standalone photo booths.

Sparkbooth —  Best for Non-techies

Sparkbooth is a simple DSLR photo booth software for PC that supports Canon and Nikon cameras, plus webcams.

It was designed for non-techies and anyone who doesn’t want to read a textbook-thick manual before setting up their photo booth. The best place for this booth would be a party with friends & family. 

If you want a great all-in-one photo booth for business events, then definitely check out Simple Booth HALO.

Sparkbooth — Notable Features

• Great camera connectivity
• Very long free trial: 30 days
• Extremely friendly for non-techies
• Great user experience right out of the box
• Very low PC requirements: 4GB ram & i3 processor recommended

Besides these, Sparkbooth has all the typical photo booth features, such as: GIFs, photo editing, green screens, mirror booths, printing photo layers, sharing to Facebook, email delivery, and so on.

Sparkbooth is available in multiple languages including English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Deutsch, and even Taiwanese and Chinese.

A big downside, though, is that Sparkbooth ONLY runs on Windows! It does not work on Mac OS.

Sparkbooth — How It Feels To Use It

I was greeted by this screen as soon as I opened the software:

No home screen or setup page. It immediately jumps into the booth preview with an easy-to-understand interface. On the left side, there are only the essentials: settings and full-screen mode. On top of that, it detected my camera instantly and with zero hassle—which I can’t say for other DSLR booths.

After I press space (the trigger button, which is customizable in the settings), Sparkbooth, just as seamlessly as starting up, starts taking photos:

A lady’s voice guides you through the process. She gives you a countdown, makes witty remarks, and actually sounds like a real person (not a robot).

In the settings, you can replace the default voice clips with your own. That is a unique feature I did not notice in the other photo booth softwares.

Speaking of settings, if you look at the left side everything is neatly organized and stacked: you can immediately find what you’re looking for. Sparkbooth has, by far, the most organized and user-friendly settings out of any DSLR booth software that I tested.

Overall, Sparkbooth definitely has a much warmer feeling than dslrBooth or Breeze Booth.

Sparkbooth — Pricing

Sparkbooth offers a 30-day free trial, which is more than enough to try everything it has to offer.

Then, Sparkbooth offers three lifetime licenses: Personal $59, Premium $119, and DSLR $159.

The DSLR version comes with all features and is usable for commercial purposes. It also comes with “three activations.” Meaning, one license can install the software on three separate Windows PCs.

Sparkbooth — Conclusion

Sparkbooth is a great photo booth software for your next party with friends and family. It supports Canon and Nikon cameras, as well as webcams, and is very user-friendly for those who don’t want to read a lengthy manual before setting up their photo booth. The best part is that Sparkbooth offers a 30-day free trial, so you have more than enough time to try it out before committing to anything.

Darkroom Booth — Best for Attended Photo Booths

Darkroom booth is a DSLR photo booth software for Windows OS that is packed with features and supports a wide variety of DSLR cameras, including webcams and GoPros.

It’s best for photography professionals who want to operate attended photo booths (that is, where you have an attendant helping people through each session) with Nikon or Canon cameras.

Darkroom Booth — Notable Features

Besides all the standard photo booth features, it also has some unique ones:

• Slow motion, pose detection, and voice activation.
• Can run quizzes and contests to engage people and then pick winners
• Facebook-ready VR 180 & 360 images
• 10-day license for $35, if you have a one-time event.
• Coin-op, arcade buttons, bill acceptors, external control
• Lots of support for photographers.

Darkroom also offers a lot of support to photographers setting up the booth. Their Darkroom Help Center is the best DSLR photo booth self-help section on the market. And they keep you in the loop with short developer updates every three months or so, where they explain changes they’ve recently made.

It also has some data collection capabilities, making it decent for marketing and business. However, we still feel that Simple Booth HALO blows it out of the water as a marketing tool.

Darkbooth has a complex product line. You may be left confused about which product would best fit your needs even after extensive reading. It is also more expensive, which isn’t a surprise since they position themselves as premium photo booth software—and their marketing does its best to support that claim. Yet, as we’ll soon see, you don’t get that feeling when you actually use the software…

Darkroom Booth — How It Feels To Use It

When you open Darkroom, you’re greeted with this screen:

It doesn’t look like any typical software interface that I’m familiar with. The button text is hard to understand (Settings & Global Settings—what does this mean?) and doesn’t clearly communicate where it will lead you.

Once you click around and get more comfortable with the unique interface, you’ll find that the booth is extremely customizable, and that all features are available even with the free trial. Clicking on Settings gives you a dropdown menu with categories that are more neatly organized.

For me, the experience quickly became frustrating as the settings interface kept breaking:

I’ve had to reset the software several times before I could adjust all the settings I wanted. At this point, the experience of using Darkroom was the most frustrating out of all the DSLR booths mentioned in the article. With the amount of effort they’ve put into marketing and website design, I expected the opposite.

At least the photo booth experience is clean and functional for the end user:

“All over the place,” is how I would describe this software.

The design looks outdated, which shouldn’t be a big deal since that’s the case with most DSLR photo booth software. However, for a product positioned at a premium price point, it should provide a more pleasant and thoughtful user experience.

Darkroom Booth — Pricing

Darkroom Booth has the most generous free trial offer on the market: an unlimited free trial with pro features unlocked. The catch is that images are watermarked and commercial use is prohibited until you upgrade.

The license for Darkroom Booth costs $295, and they give you the chance to buy a 10-day license for $35: perfect if you want to use the software for one event only.

The rest of their product line is complex; besides Darkroom Booth they offer DarkroomCore, DarkroomPro, Hotfolder App, Event Gallery, Booth for iPad, and Assembly Edition. And the product descriptions under each are so similar and vague that you’re left confused about their differences.

Tip: Sign up for the free trial even if you were planning to buy Darkroom right away. Upon signing you’ll get a $25-off coupon code in your email.

Darkroom Booth — Conclusion

Their marketing and website are more comprehensive and generally better than dslrBooth and Sparkbooth. With a vast library of self-help content and videos explaining every feature and use case, it gives you expectations that the software will be of superb technical quality. You’re left disappointed. They should have invested a portion of the marketing budget into design and quality control to made sure their software is fit for 2022—especially at the premium price point.

My Final Verdict on the best DSLR Photo Booth Software

	Simple Booth HALO	dslrBooth	Breeze Booth	Sparkbooth	Darkroom Booth
Best For	Best for Businesses & Non-profits	Best for DIY Solutions	Best for Customization	Best for Non-techies	Best for Manned Booths
Marketing capabilities
Feature-rich
Customizable
Stable
Ease of use
Back-end UX/UI
Front-end UX/UI
Pricing
Final Score	33x	22x	18x	27x	18x
	Buy Now	Buy Now	Buy Now	Buy Now	Buy Now

My 1st Choice: Simple Booth HALO (33x)

Although it’s not compatible with DSLRs, Simple Booth HALO is the most powerful and intuitive software available if you’re looking to use your photo booth as a marketing tool for lead generation. It can collect phone numbers, email addresses, and encourage social sharing, while also providing robust analytics. Additionally, it features a beautiful front-end design and patented lighting technology that will leave users impressed and create an unforgettable experience.

Click here to buy Simple Booth HALO or check out our plans for businesses.

My 2nd Choice: Sparkbooth (27x)

If you’re looking for an easy-to-use photo booth software that doesn’t require a lot of technical know-how, Sparkbooth is a great option. It has superb connectivity with most webcams and DSLR cameras, and is highly customizable with a sleek, user-friendly interface. Best of all, it’s very affordable at just $159 for a three-computer license.

Click here to buy Sparkbooth.

My 3rd Choice: dslrBooth (22x)

This software is for advanced photographers who carry their own equipment and attend many different events. The software has all features you could possibly hope for, including a clear way to separate custom preset settings and statistics for your locations. The license is a bit more expensive at $199.

Click here to buy dslrBooth.

There are hundreds of iPad photo booth apps available on the App Store, with more popping up every day. The truth is, it’s pretty easy to throw together a countdown, snap a photo, and label it a photo booth app — but the best apps go way beyond that.

At times, finding the perfect app with the right mix of features and reliability to meet your needs can feel like looking for a needle in a haystack.

That’s why we spent three weeks taking a deep dive into the world of iPad photo booth apps, exploring a dozen options to help you find the best app for you. From our research, we narrowed it down to six standout apps, put each one to the test, and sorted them based on what they do best. And just for fun, we included two apps that made us smile—though they might not be the best choice for an actual event.

The list is split into two sections: The first section highlights our picks for the best iPad photo booth apps that provide a genuine photo booth experience for live events. The second part takes a lighthearted turn, showcasing a couple of apps all about having fun.

I just wanna have fun

The bottom line: If you’re on the hunt for the best photo booth app that fits your needs, this is where you’ll find it.

Best iPad Photo Booth Apps: You can’t go wrong with these.

Best Overall	Runner-Up	Third Best
Simple Booth	Snappic	LumaBooth
Best for businesses that need an iPad photo booth app with marketing features for commercial events and uses.	Best for pro photographers or studios with the hardware to build DIY photo booths with DSLR cameras.	Best for individuals who want an affordable and easy-to-use iPad photo booth app for non-commercial events.
Download App	Download App	Download App

How to Choose an iPad Photo Booth App

We found a ton of iPad photo booth apps, which can be overwhelming. To help you out, we narrowed them down using four key criteria:

• Photo Booth Features: Does the app have all the essential photo booth features? Does it offer any unique features that make it stand out? Does it have features like virtual backgrounds or branded customization options?
• Ease of Use: The app should be intuitive and simple to set up, allowing guests to easily interact with it. The photographer or business should be able to use it without expert knowledge.
• App Store Rating: How do its users rate it? Apps with strong ratings reflect reliability and overall user satisfaction.
• Pricing: How much bang-for-your-buck do you get from the app? Consider both subscription and in-app purchases to ensure they fit your budget.

Now, here’s the list we came up with.

Executive Summary 

Please note that the App Store ratings are current as of our article update in September 2024 and can change daily, so we’ve also included a link to each app on the App Store for your own research.

Best iPad Photo Booth Apps for Professional Use
	Store Rating: 4.8 from 2.1k reviews Price: Starts at $9 per week	Simple Booth HALO® Best for commercial events and businesses like clubs, restaurants, hotels, bars, festivals, and more. Download App
	Store Rating: 4.1 from 46 reviews Price: Starts at $69 per month	Snappic Best for photography studios or pro photographers with the equipment to build complete DIY photo booths. Download App
	Store Rating: 4.8 from 13 reviews Price: Starts at $20 per month	LumaBooth Best for non-commercial events like weddings, house parties, and birthdays. Download App
	Store Rating: 3.7 from 71 reviews Price: Starts at $49 per month	Salsa Booth Best for photo booth rental companies looking to provide their clients with multiple hardware options for niche use cases. Download App
	Store Rating: 4.8 from 484 reviews Price: Starts at $50 per month	Booth.Events Best iPad photobooth app for multi-day events like a 5-day conference. Download App
	Store Rating: 3.8 from 14 reviews Price: Starts at $30 per month	Darkroom Booth Honorable mention. Download App

Best Free iPad Photo Booth Apps for Casual Use
	Store Rating: 4.7 from 7.6k reviews Price: Free	Mini PhotoBooth Best for creating animated templates for birthdays and social events.  Download App
	Store Rating: 4.3 from 346 reviews Price: Free	The Photos Booth Best for lighthearted, humorous images for quick laughs. Download App
	Store Rating: 4.7 from 1.5k reviews Price: Free	PocketBooth Best for vintage photo booth experiences. Download App

6 Best iPad Photo Booth Apps for Professional Use

1. Simple Booth HALO® — Best App for Businesses and Commercial Events

Starting strong with Simple Booth HALO®, the complete photo booth solution, which not only includes the app but also hardware with flexible mounting options and an integrated, quality light source.

HALO was designed specifically for businesses that want to amplify in-person experiences, capture contacts, and increase brand awareness. The combination of Simple Booth’s photo booth app and business platform is designed to maximize engagement with branded customizations, seamlessly deliver photos to every guest, and drive social sharing through an online gallery.

For example, it’s easy to add your logo or overlay to every photo (or video) shared, creating a variety of user-generated content (UGC). When participants share photos on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn, your custom hashtag is included automatically. Plus, the data capture tools are designed to collect information during the initial photo booth experience, with an impressive opt-in rate of 87%. No matter what your marketing goal is, Simple Booth HALO® ensures you can achieve it, making it a standout choice in the photo booth industry.

That’s a big statement, but don’t take our word for it. Have a look at these stats instead:

• Tried & true by over 30,000 happy customers
• Featured by Apple on iPads across the US in thousands of Apple and Verizon retail stores in 2015
• Has the highest rating (4.8 stars from over 2,100 ratings) out of all the top apps by a long shot

Simple Booth Pros	Simple Booth Cons
User-friendly app	Does not support DSLR cameras
Custom branding and white labeling features
Extensive layout customizations, themes, and props
Convenient HALO hardware

Simple Booth HALO: Top 3 Unique Features

One of the best things about Simple Booth isn’t just its features—it’s that you don’t need to be tech-savvy to use it. That’s right, it really does make setting up a photo booth simple.

The app has an intuitive interface with easy-to-use settings—both in the iPad app and on the web—so anyone can set up and manage events with confidence. You can customize your “tap to start” screen and photos by choosing from over 60 high-quality themes or upload your own.

The software is simple, yet packed with features. HALO offers a little bit of everything for everyone. Four features that especially stand out are:

• Popular image formats like still images, boomerang-style video clips, GIFs, photo strips, or 15–120 second videos with sound.
• Customizable online galleries (with auto-hashtagging feature) that look amazing on any mobile device and can launch a Live Feed slideshow to project photos in real-time with the press of a button.
• Tons of digital props (with custom options), Instagram-style filters, and other creative effects to make every experience fun and memorable.
• AI background replacement for a perfect setting every time. You don’t have to invest in a green screen and worry about moving it around. But if you do choose to use green screen HALO handles that, too!

There is one downside, though: Simple Booth does not support DSLR cameras.

We know this could be a dealbreaker for professional photographers. However, for anyone who wants a turnkey iPad photo booth solution that is reliable and effective, we think Simple Booth HALO is the perfect fit.

Here’s how Simple Booth works:

App Store Rating

4.8 out of 2,100 ratings

Simple Booth: Pricing

Another highlight of our premium photo booth app is its extremely affordable entry-level pricing. Simple Booth starts at just $9 per week for unlimited use and offers additional plans to scale up for the needs of any sized business.

“I loved using Simple Booth – it was easy, super fun to see and send the photos, and the staff at Simple Booth were so helpful for problem solving when I needed it.”

-Sandra Tsai

Sign up for a free trial of HALO and switch between software tiers to find the best fit!

Alternatively, you can also purchase the app as part of a hardware/software bundle and get everything you need for your photo booth in one stop.

BONUS: The HALO Hardware

The Simple Booth HALO hardware levels up this phenomenal app with added packages:

• Modern iPad Enclosure with Ring Light: The iPad enclosure keeps your iPad fixed safely in an aluminum casing. Not only does it hide all the charging cable for a cleaner look, but it also won’t let the iPad move or shake, allowing you to capture clearer images. Most importantly, it includes soft LED lighting that helps every guest look beautiful.
• Robust Stand: The HALO stand features a low center of gravity design for optimal balance, so you don’t have to worry about people knocking it over. It also has an adjustable riser and different mounting options to achieve the best height and angle. 
• Rugged Transportation Case: Carrying photo booth hardware to and from event venues can be challenging. Our HALO Event Kit includes a robust travel case with wheels to make transportation easier.

Together, the Simple Booth HALO software and hardware let you set up the perfect photo booth for high-quality and good-looking images anywhere and everywhere.

Here’s how fast and easy it is to set up:

Use Simple Booth if:

• You want to generate leads from your business events or venues.
• You want a large number of filters, digital props, and themes to engage your guests.
• You want photo booth software with robust branding and marketing tools.

Sign up for a free trial of HALO today and switch between software tiers to find the best fit!

2. Snappic — Best App for Advanced DIY Video Photo Booth 

There are a few photo booth apps that offer the ability to record full-length videos, but Snappic takes the potential of video booths to a whole new level.

Snappic features a design studio for video templates called VideoFX that allows you to upload your own video clips, choose visual effects, sounds, and adjust timing for highly custom results. It’s a very powerful suite of tools that will allow you to render the most creative video results for the most rigorous clients. If you’re looking to set up an advanced DIY video photo booth, look into Snappic! 

The app also offers a competition feature to incentivize photos. You can use it to create spin-the-wheel or scratch-off contests for guests to win prizes, adding an extra layer of excitement to the photo experience.

Snappic Pros	Snappic Cons
DSLR support	Requires add-on for green screen
Customizable survey-builder	No in-app stickers
Enabled animated overlays

Snappic: Top 3 Unique Features 

• Create premium videos using VideoFX
• Interactive contests for participants like spin-to-win
• FaceMatch facial recognition for guests to find their photos

Snappic provides several professionally-designed templates, filters, and animated overlays that you can use to create a video photo booth that perfectly aligns with your event’s theme.

Additionally, Snappic features green screen and AI background removal to put your guests in front of a custom digital backdrop.

However, keep in mind that you can only access most of these features through the website. It’s not possible to create events offline from the iPad itself. So, if you end up reaching the venue without preloading the event settings… you may be out of luck.

Snappic is a good option if you’re able to spend a healthy number of hours ahead of your event getting familiar with the ins and outs of the software platform.

Here’s how Snappic works: 

App Store Rating

4.1 out of 46 ratings

Snappic: Pricing 

Snappic offers advanced customization tools and filters to its customers, but it comes at a price. The two monthly pricing plans are Basic ($69) and Enterprise ($169) with no in-betweens. Alternatively, you can pay $19 and $69 per event, respectively. Only the Enterprise plan offers all the advanced video photo booth features mentioned previously.

Use Snappic if:

• You are a pro photographer or studio and want to build a DIY photo booth.
• You want a customizable survey builder to collect guest data.
• You want Canon, Nikon, or Sony DSLR compatibility.

Need more information? We also wrote an in-depth comparison of Snappic vs Simple Booth, systematically reviewing their features side-by-side.

3. LumaBooth – Best App for Non-Commercial Events 

LumaBooth is developed by the makers of the world-famous DSLR photo booth software dslrBooth. 

It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles found in some more powerful photo booth apps that have been on the market longer and lacks DSLR support, but it has all the essentials you need to set up an affordable and easy-to-use photo booth for non-commercial events.

All the settings are in the app instead of on the web, which means if you show up to an event and have no WiFi to download settings, you can still make things work on the fly. The app can also sync your event settings and templates to other iPads and/or iPhones and, in the event you don’t have internet, will operate and queue any unsent photos until it can connect again.

LumaBooth Pros	LumaBooth Cons
AI and green screen background removal	Needs upgrades for advanced gallery features
In-app stickers	No DSLR support
Printing via AirPrint, LumaBooth Assistant, and more

LumaBooth: Top 3 Unique Features 

• Can run on an iPad or iPhone
• Uses AI to automatically remove backgrounds (no need for green screen)
• Syncs photo booth event settings and templates across all iPads/iPhones that have the app

LumaBooth also features an array of built-in themes for different occasions, ensuring your weddings, house parties, and birthdays are beautifully personalized, with setups that match your event mode and social media integration capabilities. 

There is also a virtual attendant feature to guide participants through the experience with audio and visual cues, which could be helpful for accessibility purposes

Additionally, you can use an online gallery feature to upload media to fotoShare Cloud and create an online gallery for your event. But unlike other photo booths on our list, you can only access gallery settings through a web browser.

Here’s a guide on how to use LumaBooth:

App Store Rating

4.8 out of 13 ratings

LumaBooth: Pricing 

LumaBooth is available for just $19.99 per month through the App Store, which is fairly affordable. It includes basic gallery features, along with unlimited email and SMS sharing. With limited functionality, LumaBooth also offers a completely free version. 

Use LumaBooth if:

• You’re an individual hosting an event or a service-based freelancer.
• You prioritize social media integration.
• You’re on a budget.

Need more information? We wrote an in-depth comparison of LumaBooth vs Simple Booth, systematically reviewing their features side-by-side.

4. Salsa Booth — Best for Starting a Photo Booth Rental Business

Salsa Booth is a good choice for individuals who want to start a photo booth business and would like a little push to get off the ground.

That’s because the app comes with a large collection of resources and educational videos for beginners, plus a solid collection of taps to start screens and overlays. All this can be very helpful for starting a successful photo booth business.

Salsa Booth also comes with many popular photo booth features like special effects, animated GIFs, text messaging, a survey collection tool, and an online dashboard with settings, and analytics. Overall, it’s intuitive to use and works as expected.

Salsa Pros	Salsa Cons
Over 240 themes for different events	Hardware is expensive ($2,999 Starter Package)
Provides hardware add-ons like backdrops and watermarked films	Additional cost for faceplate compatible with other iPads
30-day free trial period

Salsa Booth: Top 3 Unique Features 

• Access to the Photo Booth Academy includes more than 100 videos on how to run events, market your business, and even do accounting
• Includes a built-in tool to send event proposals to clients to help book gigs
• Provides marketing materials to promote your rental business (with hardware purchase only)

The Salsa Booth app also lets you cast a slideshow of the live captured images on any TV or screen, so more people can enjoy the photo booth photos at events.

Plus, you can run it in a special hands-free mode and deliver the photos by QR code for a touchless photo booth experience.

One thing to consider before buying into the Salsa Booth ecosystem is whether or not there are already Salsa Booths in your home market, since it can be harder to differentiate your business if everyone else is offering the same style booth.

Here’s an overview of how Salsa Booth works: 

App Store Rating

3.7 out of 71 ratings

Salsa Booth: Pricing

Salsa Booth pricing is on point for the value and features they offer. The Fiesta Plus plan starts at $49 per month and the Fiesta Pro plan starts at $99 per month. You can also try out all the features on a free trial (credit card required). The hardware is priced separately.

Use Salsa Booth if:

• You want hardware add-ons like watermarked films and backdrops.
• You often host outdoor events and need a built-in cooling fan.
• You don’t mind the cost.

Need more information? We wrote an in-depth comparison of Simple Booth vs Salsa, systematically reviewing their features side-by-side.

5. Booth.Events — Best App for Multi-Day Events

Most photo booth apps allow you to add photos to an event for a limited amount of time, usually about one day. This makes it challenging to have multi-day events like a 5-day conference, especially if you want all of the photos to be in one gallery. 

Booth.Events is optimized to help you keep adding unlimited photos to your gallery until it expires. The expiration date differs between the paid plans, but it goes from 3 months up to 2 years. 

The Booth.Events app has gained popularity for its user-friendly interface and easy-to-use features. One standout function is SceneSelect mode, which lets guests take photos in front of a green screen, remove the original background, and choose a new one from a variety of options. This adds a dynamic, customizable element to the experience, making it ideal for creating fully branded and personalized content for any event.

The app also connects with a DSLR, so you can impress your guests with premium quality pictures.

Booth.Events Pros	Booth.Events Cons
Free starter plan	Expensive monthly plans
Optimized for multi-day events
Integrates with DSLR cameras for high-quality images

Booth.Events: Top 3 Unique Features 

• Pairs with Nikon, Sony, and Canon DSLRs
• Allows you to replace green screen with realistic backgrounds  
• Collects real-time guest data like email addresses and phone numbers

The Booth.Events app enables you to build custom templates and tap to start screens from scratch through a drag-and-drop web interface.

You can personalize the dimensions, backgrounds, overlays, and much more. The app stores these templates and screens separately from your events so that you can easily reuse them in the future. 

It also provides extensive white labeling features, allowing you to remove Booth.Events branding entirely and replace it with your own logos and designs, ensuring you maintain a consistent brand identity across multiple events.

Here’s an overview of how it works:

App Store Rating

4.8 out of 484 ratings

Booth.Events: Pricing 

Booth.Events has a free version that comes with 3 events and SMS in the USA and Canada. However, it only lets you store up to 100 files for three days. So, if you want to explore the app fully and access unlimited events, it’s best to choose between the paid plans: Basic ($49 per month), Pro ($79 per month), and Pro+ ($129 per month). While the gallery uploads are unlimited for every plan, the online gallery storage is limited from 3 months to 2 years. Everything stays saved in your Camera Roll, though.

Use Booth.Events if:

• You need DSLR camera integration.
• You want green screen background customization.
• You prioritize fully branded experiences.

Learn more about Booth.Events details on their website!

6. Darkroom Booth for iPad — Honorable Mention 

Darkroom Booth for iPad is not one of the highest-rated apps on the App Store, but it still caught our attention because it’s from the makers of the original Darkroom Booth, a popular photo booth app for PC from back in the day.

This photo booth app for iPad has a modest set of features. As expected, it enables you to watermark all the images with your logo and colors. Notably, it lacks creative filters, effects, digital props, and does not have any tools to build surveys or custom forms for participant data.

Darkroom Booth for iPad does offer an interesting feature to accommodate international users. Its translation feature allows you to replace the words and phrases in the user interface with your own, in the language of your choice.

Plus, you can link up to 10 iPads at once to cater to the needs of large audiences. 

Darkroom Booth Pros	Darkroom Booth Cons
Supports watermarking with logos and brand colors	Limited customization for event branding
Allows connecting up to 10 iPads simultaneously for large events	Lacks creative filters and digital props
Instant photo printing through AirPrint

Darkroom Booth: Top 3 Unique Features 

• Translate text into different languages or write your own phrases
• Run up to 10 devices with one subscription
• Advanced iPad camera settings

If you are a photographer who swears by manual camera settings for every shot, you will love the advanced camera options in Darkroom Booth for iPad. You can adjust the ISO, white balance, and other settings to fine-tune your captured imagery. It’s also possible to create GIFs, burst images, and boomerangs. Once you’re done, you can print the images instantly via AirPrint.

Here is a quick overview of how Darkroom Booth works:

App Store Rating

3.8 out of 14 ratings

Darkroom Booth: Pricing 

Darkroom Booth’s monthly subscription plan costs $29.99. You can also choose the annual plan for $299.99 (basically 2 free months). Also, note that advanced features like online galleries require a separate subscription. 

Use Darkroom Booth if:

• You need to run multiple iPads at a large event.
• You require a multilingual interface for international events.
• You’re looking for simple photo booth functionality with printing options.

Learn more about Darkroom Booth for iPad on the App Store!

3 Best Free Photo Booth Apps for Fun & Casual Use

1. Mini PhotoBooth — Most Customizable Templates

Who doesn’t love snapping creative photo booth pictures with friends and family?

Well, Mini PhotoBooth offers you just the right tools for a lighthearted and memorable experience.

It has a wide range of animated templates for Halloween, Christmas, and other occasions. You can use them to capture images, videos, and GIFs. Once you’re done, a single click lets you print or share the content on social media.

Mini PhotoBooth: Top 3 Unique Features

• Instant printing and sharing options
• More than 60 photo booth templates
• Unlimited custom text using 120+ fonts

The Mini PhotoBooth app also enables you to customize the templates fully. You can change the layout, backgrounds, colors, text, and stickers. 

Use Mini PhotoBooth if:

• You need fun, animated templates for personal events like parties or holidays.
• You want simple, customizable templates for quick setup.

Check out MiniPhoto Booth on the App Store!

2. The Photos Booth — Funniest Live Effects

The Photos Booth makes taking pics a fun experience with its quirky real-time effects. 

Whether you’re turning yourself into a cartoon character, rocking a fish-eye lens, or warping your face in all sorts of wacky ways, this app is designed to keep you and your friends entertained for hours.

The Photos Booth: Top 3 Unique Features

• 39 real-time live effects and color presets
• Great low-light performance with Screen Flash
• Support for dual and triple rear camera devices

But keep in mind that while The Photos Booth app is free to use, you’d need to pay a one-time fee of $1.99 to avoid ads. 

Use The Photos Booth if:

• You want a lighthearted photo booth app to make you laugh.
• You enjoy sharing funny, altered images on social media.

Check out The Photos Booth app for iPad!

3. Pocketbooth Photo Booth — Vintage Photo Booth Fun

With a price of only $0.99, Pocketbooth is very affordable for the value it delivers. This photo booth application takes you back to the 1950s using its vintage photo strips, so you can create classic photo collages wherever you go.

Pocketbooth: Top 3 Unique Features

• Photo strips that feel authentically vintage
• Save GPS location with a photo strip
• Print your photo strips or share via social media platforms or email

PocketBooth comes with 5 photo effects, 2 paper types, and 2 border styles.

You can use them to get retro-style images that look like they were taken in an actual old-school photo booth. Since some users might find the options limited, the app offers in-app purchases to get many more filters and styles.

See the app in action here:

Use Pocketbooth if:

• You want a vintage photo booth experience.
• You want easy sharing options for retro-style photo strips.

Get Pocketbooth on the App Store today!

There you have it… 

A comprehensive list of the best iPad photo booth software, currently crushing it in the store! 

Whether you’re looking to entertain guests at a wedding or gather data at a corporate event, there’s an app suited for the job.

Here are our top three picks: 

• Simple Booth HALO is the best iPad photo booth app for business owners who need the analytic tools and branding features required to host commercial events. 
• Snappic is best for photography studios or pro photographers with the equipment to build DIY photo booths.
• LumaBooth is best for individuals who want a cheap and easy-to-use iPad photo booth app for non-commercial events.

In the end, the best way to find the best one is to try each app out yourself. Download each app, sign up for a free trial, and see what works best for you!

One last thing. If you work at a business or not-for-profit, then we highly recommend checking out Simple Booth HALO, our premiere photo booth app. And if you’re a true power-user and love the software, consider upgrading to the full package: HALO software + hardware

During this time we’ve seen our fair share of good and bad photo booths: professional and DIY setups. We know exactly which cameras work best for certain situations and which simply don’t.

And in this article, we’ll help you find a camera that’ll feel like a match made in heaven.

Now, to everyone who wants to either create a professional photo booth company, entertain guests at your next live event, or use a photo booth to market your business, here are the five best cameras for your photo booth—categorized.

• Best All-around Camera For Photo Booths
• Most Affordable Camera For Photo Booths
• Best Performance Camera For Photo Booths
• Best Smartphone Camera For Photo Booths
• Plus: A Guide to Photo Booth Autofocus and Other Necessary Gear for DIY camera booths

But before we dive into these, allow us to introduce an all-in-one solution…

All-in-one: Simple Booth HALO®

For companies, marketers, and professional event planners.

Simple Booth HALO is the ultimate all-in-one solution for your photo booth needs.

Built from the ground up with simplicity in mind, it’s a good-looking, premium photo booth that comes with all the bells and whistles:

• a sturdy travel case,
• a plug-and-play cable setup
• an iPad with digital photo booth software,
• a LED ring light with a brightness of 2170 lumens,
• a C-stand that is more stable than an ordinary tripod.

If you want to bring more awareness to your business or live events, then Simple Booth HALO is the perfect solution for you.

Your guests will interact with the built-in iPad and see themselves before taking a photo—just like in traditional enclosed photo booths.

But unlike traditional photo booths, HALO will send the image to your guests’ phones so they can post it directly on their social media profiles (with your logo included!), spreading awareness for your company.

HALO Construction

HALO is mounted on a C-stand, making it extremely sturdy. As such, there is no worry about people knocking it over—even on the most crowded nights.

The setup can be assembled entirely without tools and takes 5 minutes max—making Simple Booth HALO the perfect travel companion.

HALO is also an integrated product that comes with a dedicated app, which your guests can use with ease and without supervision. It’s a proven photo booth solution that comes with every possible photo booth functionality you could possibly wish for:

• Adding your logo on customizable templates? Check
• Sending images by email and text message? Check
• Live galleries with posting to social media and Instagram? Check

It also provides all the fun photo features:

• photo editing options
• configurable filters
• themes and props
• overlay graphics
• doodle option
• GIF and video creation

HALO was designed to make DIY photo booth headaches a thing of the past. We wanted to reduce the complexity of having multiple components and cables in photo booths.

That’s why HALO has a built-in iPad—so you don’t have to worry about choosing the right camera at all. That results in:

• a quick setup,
• less maintenance, 
• a smooth live view,
• fewer points of failure,
• no incompatibility problems,
• no need to bring backup equipment.

If you’re looking for a ready-to-go, simple, but extremely effective photo booth that doesn’t break the bank… give Simple Booth HALO a try.

Best Cameras For Photo Booths

If you’re IT-savvy, experienced in photography, and want to build your own photo booth and select the right camera for your photo booth enclosure, this section is for you.

We’ve picked 4 cameras that are best suited for your various photo booth needs. But since you also need lights, a stand, and a computer with appropriate software to handle the photo processing and sharing, we also included a bonus guide at the end to give you a headstart.

Note: The Simple Booth software is not compatible with DSLR or mirrorless cameras—we use the iPad camera to keep things simple, fun, and flowy. To use any of these cameras, make sure to select a photo booth software that lists them as compatible cameras.

Sponsored links: We’ve included Amazon Affiliate links below to support this and more articles like it.

Best All-Around Camera For Photo Booths:
Canon EOS M50 Mark II

Canon has a long tradition of quality products and has set the standards for some time now.

The M50 is a mirrorless camera with a 24.1 Megapixel APS-C sensor, so the photos this camera takes at its price point are simply phenomenal.

Pros:

• High-res sensor
• Fast autofocus with eye detection
• Compact mirrorless design
• Good low-light performance for the price point

Cons:

• Using EF or EF-S lenses requires an adapter

Being a mirrorless camera, the M50 provides awesome performance in a small body, meaning it fits easier in your setup while ensuring the photos you take are up to standard.

It offers a bunch of features usually found in much pricier cameras:

• Very practical high-res rotating touchscreen,
• Excellent connectivity (Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, NFC),
• Top-notch Dual Pixel autofocus with eye detection,
• Touch & Drag autofocus, so you can quickly select what you want in focus.

The casing is robust and—although we do not recommend testing this—it may even survive a short fall.

It’s a good idea to purchase body and lens separately to make sure the lens is ideal for portraits and fits inside your photo booth shell. We recommend the 15-45mm EF-M lens or a comparable 18-55mm lens to accommodate for portraits and group pictures in front of varying-sized backdrops.

Note that the Canon EOS M50 is only compatible out-of-the-box with Canon EF-M mount lenses. However, you can purchase an adapter that lets you use existing EF or EF-S lenses with it, including autofocus functions. Make sure to select a lens with autofocus, and image stabilization is a plus.

In short: The Canon EOS M50 is an excellent camera with some outstanding features. It offers a lot for the price.

Most Affordable Camera For Photo Booths:
Canon EOS Rebel T3

The Rebel series contains the most affordable cameras by Canon that you can get for your photo booth.

The entry-level Canon EOS Rebel T3 is a traditional DSLR camera offers decent picture quality and leaves you with extra money to invest in other necessary photo booth equipment.

Pros:

• Proven track record of Canon reliability for under $150
• Great as backup

Cons:

• Limited ISO and poor low-light performance
• Autofocus system is weak
• The flash hot shoe doesn’t work with triggering wireless flashes

If you’re looking for something very basic to get you started, the Rebel T3 is a great option. For many photo booth enthusiasts, it offers exactly what you need:

• A 12.2 megapixel CMOS sensor, capable of capturing sharp photos
• The option to take photos in RAW format
• Works with all Canon EF and EF-S lenses

If you decide to go with this camera, make sure to invest in some good lighting because the ISO only goes up to 6400 and is likely to produce a lot of grain because the DIGIC image processing is outdated. Another catch is that it’s hot shoe doesn’t have the center contact for external flashes or strobes. To properly light photo booth images, you will need a continuous lighting source like a pair of LED panels or wands.

Also, be aware that the autofocus is going to perform poorly with only 9 AF points. Making sure the subjects are always in focus is a key to great photo booth pictures and quickly becomes an issue if guests don’t stand where you expect or move forward and backward from frame-to-frame. We have more on this topic later in the article.

The thing is, this camera also works great as an affordable but reliable backup.

No equipment is perfect, so it pays to have a plan B in case your star player can’t perform for some reason. That’s why when starting out, you might consider buying two decent cameras at a lower price point, instead of only one at a premium price point.

Trust us, you don’t want to get stuck at a gig with a malfunctioning photo booth camera and no backup plan.

In short: The Rebel T3 can get you started quickly and won’t break the bank. It’s a great alternative to more premium and expensive cameras. Sure it has its shortcomings, but you can overcome them with the right photography knowledge & settings.

Best Performance Camera For Photo Booths:
Nikon Z6

Our top performer in terms of picture quality and features is the Z6 from Nikon.

Pros:

• More compact than a traditional DSLR
• High-resolution images (24.5 megapixel)
• Amazing low-light performance (up to 51,200 ISO)
• Autofocus uses AI for better focus in low-light
• Can be used by professional photographers or videographers outside the booth

Cons:

• Premium price
• Using Nikon F-Mounth lenses requires an adapter

It’s a mirrorless system, with a 24.5 megapixel full-frame sensor so there aren’t many situations this beast can’t handle.

It has a long list of features, but the ones that stand out the most are:

• 10-bit 4k recording
• 10-bit HDMI output
• Fast Hybrid Autofocus
• High ISO range (for low light situations)

Like the Canon M50, the Z6 is a mirrorless camera and so it requires its own set of Z-Mount lenses—unless you purchase the adapter that lets you use existing F-Mount lenses.

The connectivity improvement Nikon made in the last couple of years is massive. It shows in the Z6 as it offers Bluetooth, HDMI output, WiFi (2.4 and 5 GHz), an app with a remote shooting option, and more.

This is a no-compromise camera. Frankly, it’s excessive performance for most photo booth needs, but if you’re looking to buy a camera for your photo booth that you can also use outside the booth to shoot professional quality video and photos, this could be the perfect choice.

In short: The Nikon Z6 is high-end and pricey, but it’s extremely versatile—you can use it as a camera for a photo booth or pack it in your bag for a professional photo or video shoot. A true master of everything.

Best Smartphone Camera:
iPhone 13 Pro

You may be surprised by our final pick, but you shouldn’t take smartphone cameras lightly. They’ve come a long way, and no phone shows that better than the new iPhone 13 Pro.

Pros:

• Triple camera setup on the back
• Portable, practical, and versatile
• Great for capturing video
• Fast and powerful processing with the right apps

Cons:

• Limited zoom control
• No external lens choices
• Expensive compared to entry-level DSLR’s
• Smaller screen than an iPad
• Poor at taking quick photos in low light
• People may be surprised to see an iPhone

It has 3 cameras (on the back):

• 12 MP main camera
• 12 MP telephoto (3x zoom)
• 12 MP ultrawide

Perhaps the best thing about using the iPhone as your photo booth camera is its great software support. The App Store offers many different photo booth apps—every one of them optimized for your device.

The thing is if you already have one it won’t cost you anything. Just be aware you can’t use your phone while your photo booth is in use

In short: The iPhone 13 Pro is an interesting solution that may appeal to you if you’re not sure about photo booths and want to try them out first, or if you need a camera for a 360 photo booth.

The Ins & Outs of Photo Booth Autofocus

Professional photo boothers are split on whether you should use autofocus or manual focus.

Autofocus is better… until it isn’t

It makes sense that autofocus can take a better photo if people move toward or away from the camera, which is inevitable at any event. The problem is that if your autofocus isn’t modern or high-tech, then it requires a significant amount of light to work right. There have been reports of software crashes from poor autofocus when the camera and lens take too long and can’t “decide” where to focus.

To make it better, you can add continuous lighting like LED panels or wands, and invest in a camera with higher quality autofocus—ideally with more autofocus points or using AI to find the eyes.

Managing lens movement

The other risk of relying on autofocus is that it means a small motor controls the lens, which can move it in and out slightly. In an enclosed photo booth shell, you do not want your lens to ever push up against the side. This can burn out the motor in your autofocus lens and become an expensive, event-ruining problem.

One way to avoid this is by using a fixed focal distance or “prime” lens that will not move in and out, like a 24mm or 36mm. As a perk, prime lenses are typically shorter than a zoom lens. If you are looking to save even more space, you can get “pancake” lenses which are extra compact.

If you want to play it safe and not deal with these risks, turn autofocus off on your lens and set your manual focus to a happy medium. Wider lenses and setting higher apertures can help reduce the potential blur on subjects from getting too close.

BONUS: Other Necessary Gear for DIY Camera Booths

If you decide to build your own photo booth, you’ll need the following in addition to a camera and photo booth backdrop:

Computer

Most DSLR photo booth software that support Canon or Nikon cameras run on a PC. The computer of choice to plug into is the Surface Pro tablet, which can also act as a touchscreen for your guests.

Stand

A sturdy stand is essential.

Typically, this means purchasing a DSLR photo booth shell with an included stand from a photo booth supplier that will house both your computer, DSLR, and light. You can alternatively use a tripod for a one-off event or to test your camera.

Lights

Since photo booths are often set up inside at dimly lit events, you’ll need to have lights to take good photos.

You can use a flash if your camera supports it—either wired or connect with a wireless hot shot adapter. However, it’s often better to stick with a simple and powerful LED with adjustable brightness. Continuous lights will make your setup more attractive and avoid sudden, bright flashes that can be a nuisance.

Neewer brand offers affordable light panels in a variety of configurations. You can also get a great look with soft boxes or umbrellas to diffuse the light more.

Also, don’t forget to check out our essential 5 photography lighting tips to get the most out of your lighting equipment.

Accessories

Don’t forget a power supply charger and USB cable to connect your camera—including extra backups incase they fail. These are not typically included with the initial purchase but are required for photo booth use cases.

Conclusion & Our Opinion

If you are a business owner, photo marketer, or photo booths aren’t going to be your full-time gig, we definitely recommend going with the Simple Booth HALO. It’s the best all-in-one photo booth solution you can find and will definitely save you a lot of time, effort, and troubleshooting.

On the other hand, if you’re a technical person that loves to tinker and are excited to hand-pick your camera—you’ll be hard-pressed to go wrong with the Canon EOS M50.

But first, ask yourself—do I really need a printer?

15 years ago, a photo booth almost always meant printed photo strips. Times have changed, though. Now, everyone has a smart phone and they’re perfectly happy to receive a digital copy of their photo instead of a printed one. Digital photos are easier to share online and less likely to get crumpled or damaged on their way home. Plus, they’re faster, cheaper, and more environmentally friendly. If you hadn’t considered going digital-first, take a look at our HALO product that can send photos by text message, email, and QR code scan—you might just make your life easier by foregoing a printer altogether! It can print, too, when you need the best of both worlds.

Now, onto the guide.

First, we’re going to walk through some of the key differences between the main two types of printers used for photo booth printing: inkjet and dye sublimation. Most of us are familiar with inkjet printers in our homes, but dye sublimation is actually the standard technology for most top photo booth printers.

Let’s look at why that is. Alternatively, feel free to jump directly to our list of the best photo booth printers.

Dye Sublimation vs. Inkjet Printers

Let’s do a quick comparison of each category to see which is best for photo booth applications:

Dye Sublimation	Inkjet
Fast print speeds (6-15 seconds per print avg.)	Slow print speeds (2+ minutes per print avg.)
Large paper capacity (400 photos per paper roll avg.)	Limited paper capacity; paper needs refilling frequently
Costs more to purchase upfront	Lower initial investment
Lower cost of use over time	Costs more to operate over time
Prints are instantly dry	Prints need a dry time after printing
Excellent print quality (300 dpi or more)	Excellent print quality (300 dpi or more)
Infrequent maintenance and cleaning	Needs to be used and cleaned regularly
Larger and heavier	Smaller and lighter

As you can see, dye sublimation printers win in almost every area that matters for photo booth printing. They are fast, easy to set up and maintain, and don’t compromise on quality. Plus, despite their somewhat higher upfront cost, they are less expensive to operate over time, and typically have longer lifespans than inkjet printers.

Because of that, our top printers list includes mostly dye sublimation printers, except for one inkjet: the Primera IP60, which stands out as surprisingly fast for an inkjet. We’ll get to that soon.

Lastly, we’ve selected options for all budgets. The models listed below range in price from $100 to upwards of $500.

But, before we dive into specific brands and models, let’s learn the fundamentals of dye sublimation photo booth printers. If you’ve never used one before, they are a little different than your average inkjet or laser printer.

How do dye sublimation printers work?

A dye sublimation printer uses a heat process along with special dye and paper to print photos. These special dyes are contained in films or ribbons in four colors: cyan, magenta, yellow, and black.

During the printing process, the dye films are placed on the top of the paper and the print heads begin to heat up. As a result, the dye films become hot and the dyes go from a solid-state to a liquid-state and embed onto the paper.

Once on the paper, away from the heated print head, the dye re-solidifies nearly instantaneously. This creates a longer-lasting image, that is dry immediately upon printing, unlike a typical inkjet printer that produces a slightly wet print.

FURTHER READING: How Does Printing With Simple Booth Work?

Don’t compromise on printing speed

An important area where dye sublimation printers shine is speed. They are fast. At least two of the models listed below will print a 4 x 6-inch print in eight seconds. Surprisingly, the Primera IP60 inkjet printer also prints a 4 x 6-inch print in eight seconds, but that is unusually fast for an inkjet.

Most inkjet photo printers take over a minute to make a print of the same size. Plus, some dye sublimation printers can automatically cut 2×6 photo strips from a 4×6 sheet, saving precious time at an event.

For personal or small event use, speed may not be too much of a consideration for you. But for most photo booth applications where there will be a steady flow of participants, you need a printer that can keep up with the traffic. The last thing you want is large groups of people standing around your printer table impatiently waiting for their photos to print.

If you think you might be taking your photo booth to events with more than 50 people, don’t settle for a slow print time. Printers can get backed up quickly at high-volume events and it’s better to err on the side of speed. 

Printers offer different print sizes

Different photo booth printers will offer varying ranges of photo sizes that they can print. The most common size is a 4 x 6-inch (or A6) print.

Some economical printers, like the Canon Selphy CP1300 below, can only print one size of paper.

Whether you can make due with limited paper sizes may depend on what kind of layout options you plan to offer to your clients. Photo strip cutting, where the printer automatically can instantly cut a 4 x 6-inch print into two identical 2 x 6-inch prints, is a must-have for traditional events like weddings which most often request prints.

4 x 6-inch prints with the ability to have them automatically cut should cover most photo booth scenarios. Anything larger than a 4 x 6-inch print is usually too inconvenient for participants to figure out how to get home in one piece.

Media for dye sublimation printers

Paper for most dye sublimation printers comes on rolls rather than individual sheets. The paper rolls are typically sold as a kit that includes dye films or ribbons.

You’ll encounter some options for paper beyond the size. Some premium papers will give you the option between a glossy or matte finish. You might also run into perforated paper or adhesive-backed paper to turn your photo booth prints into stickers.

Our best advice is to research the cost of paper and dye kits before you purchase any printer. After all, print media is how printer companies have traditionally made most of their profits, and you might be buying a lot of it!

Some printers will have third-party options available at a lower cost, but most often with speciality photo booth printers, you’ll be restricted to paper and dye made by the printer manufacturer. We’ll include links to kits whenever possible in our photo booth printer recommendations below.

FURTHER READING: How Can I Print With A Dye Sublimation Printer?

Dye sublimation printers are known for quality

Like with any type of printer, the quality of the prints they are capable of printing depends a lot on the model. As a whole, dye sublimation printers are regarded for producing excellent images—as good or better than inkjet printers.

The minimum print resolution for all the models on our list is 300dpi and there are some models that can print even higher resolutions.

Keep in mind that higher resolution prints on inkjet printers can result in a slower print time and higher ink consumption. There are very few situations where a 300dpi resolution would not be sufficient for a photo booth printer.

Wired and wireless connections

How your printer connects to your photo booth software is an important consideration for the best photo booth printer to suit your needs. When printing from mobile devices like an iPad, the easiest way to connect your photo booth to a printer is a wireless connection via AirPrint.

The problem is, most dye sublimation printers do not support AirPrint out of the box. In fact, none of the printers on our list support AirPrint natively. You will need additional software and a computer to use a dye sublimation printer with your iPad.

The good news is, we’ve done all the research and have a relatively simple way to make it work for you.

Using wireless print server software

If you have a dye sublimation printer (excluding the Canon SELPHY CP1300) you will need to use software to set up a wireless print server. This requires plugging the printer into a computer that is running wireless server software during your photo booth activation.

We recommend a couple of programs you can use. Both of these programs include a free trial. We encourage you to test with your printer before making any purchases:

• For Mac: Printopia
• For PC: O’Print (Please note that O’Print is less reliable. If you need to use a PC for your print server, please use O’Print’s trial before your event to ensure the software works well with your printer.)

For instructions on how to use wireless server software with the Simple Booth HALO® platform, read: How Do I Connect To My Wireless Print Server Software?

The best photo booth printers

Now that you know what to look for, here’s our list of the best photo booth printers.

DNP DS620A

DNP is an established brand of photo booth printer and the DS620A is a workhorse that strikes a balance between size and utility. It’s one of the newer printers from DNP, but has been in service long enough to prove its reliability.

In fact, this is the printer we use at most Simple Booth events and trade shows!

The DS620A has the fastest print speed of high resolution photos out of all the printers on our list. It can print 400 photos per paper roll before it needs to be refilled, and it can cut two 2 x 6-inch photo strips from a 4 x 6-inch print.

DNP is a trusted brand when it comes to photo booth printers and this printer is an example of why. It is the most expensive option on the list, but it’s ideal for any size photo booth event.

It weighs 26 lbs which is lighter than comparable dye sublimation printers, making it relatively convenient to transport between different locations and events.

Don’t forget to buy a nice cover for it, too.

Learn more: DNP DS620A User Manual

Primera Impressa IP60

The Primera Impressa IP60 is the only inkjet printer that made our list! However, considering it’s speed, low weight, and variety of print sizes it’s capable of, it’s definitely earned its place here.

Despite using inkjet technology, the Primera IP60 photo printers’ performance is in line with the best dye sublimation printers. It only takes the printer about 8-seconds to print a 4 x 6-inch photo, and those prints come in rolls of up to 500, which means 100 more prints than the DS620A before you have to restock. However, your ink and your paper may run out at different times, whereas with dye-sublimation printers you always replace the ribbon at the same time as the paper roll.

Amazingly, the photo comes out of the printer dry and ready to touch. The Primera IP60 is fast enough to keep up with even the busiest photo booth events.

There’s a multitude of papers available—glossy, metallic, or matte finish, as well as magnetic and sticky-backed paper rolls. A typical 4 x 6-inch print costs about 12-cents to print, again making it competitive with dye sublimation. The paper rolls have a small chip inside which enables the printer’s display to show how much paper is left on a roll.

The IP60 can also print a wide range of paper sizes, from a single 2 x 6-inch photo strip to as long as 6 x 24-inch long panoramas. All of these sizes are cut to length from a roll of 6-inch media.

Being an inkjet printer, the IP60 uses a traditional style ink cartridge. We recommend buying the cartridges in bulk if you plan on using the printer on a regular basis. It’s more economical and helps prevent a situation where you run out of ink mid-event.

Another big perk to this printer is its weight. It weighs an impressively light 8 lbs, which no other professional printer with these capabilities can come close to.

Being one of the fastest and lightest printers on our list, it also the second most expensive. However, the Primera IP60 offers excellent speed, quality, and portability for any size photo booth event.

Printing to the Impressa from an iPad

The Impressa IP60 itself is not AirPrint capable. That being said, you can plug in Primera’s PT Link Wireless Printer Server directly into the printer’s USB port. The PT Link allows for wireless printing from an iPad.

New: DNP QW410

The QW410 is a new printer from DNP in 2021 that could change the game for portable photo booth printers. It’s a small cube (less than 1 cubic foot) that only weighs 13 lbs and comes an attractive dark gray color.

The QW410 doesn’t have the widest range of print sizes, but it covers all the fundamentals for photo booth printing. After all, it can print a 4×6″ photo strip in 19 seconds.

You can also buy perforated media to print a 4×6 that tears into two 2×6 strips. Alternatively, the printer can cut 3 mini 2×4″ photo strips from the 4×6″ page. This is a cool feature, but it may be hard to find software that supports the layout.

A downside to this printer is that if you’re expecting very high volume, you will find yourself changing the media more often, since a 4×6″ roll only has 150 prints.

We think the QW410 is an exciting up-and-comer for portable event use. It has an appealing balance of portability and speed for modern photo booth companies.

DNP DS-RX1HS

The DS-RX1HS is not the fastest dye-sublimation printer on our list, but it turns out high-quality prints rapidly enough for large activations and it has a more affordable entry price than the DNP DS620A or Impressa IP60.

If you want as many photos per media pack as possible, this printer can hold a roll of 700 4 x 6-inch photos at a time! It is a heavier printer at 30-pounds, and a little bulky.

The DS-RX1HS is ideal for permanent photo booth installations.

Learn more: DNP DS-RX1HS User Manual

HiTi P525L

The Hiti P525L offers zippy printing and multiple photo sizes. With up to 500 prints per paper roll, it falls in the middle of the pack when it comes to capacity.

This printer features a built-in paper cutter that cuts 4 x 6-inch paper into 2 x 6-inch strips.

Square format pictures are becoming increasingly popular, and the HiTi P525 caters to that by printing square prints. However, they are limited to 5 x 5-inches in that format.

It prints a bit slower than some of the others. However, at 12-seconds per print, the machine is still suitable even for large activations.

However, the Hiti is not convenient to transport. It’s 39.7-pounds. That makes it the heaviest printer on our list by 10 lbs!

The HiTi is far from our top pick for a photo booth printer, but in this case, you’re going to get what you pay for: it’s cheap and can get the job done!

Learn more: HiTi P525 Photo Printer User Manual

Mitsubishi CP-D70DW

At 8.4-seconds per print, the Mitsubishi CP-D70DW is only 1/10th of second slower than the fastest printer on this list, the DNP DS620A. But it’s also a bit less expensive.

It weighs just 26-pounds, making it comparable to the DS620A and light enough to transport.

The Mitsubishi CP-D70DW also has paper rolls available in matte or glossy finish for those who like to have options. Additionally, it can be set up to cut prints into 2 x 6-inch strips with the latest firmware update.

Most Mitsubishi printers are geared toward enterprise and retail printing, so we have a preference for the DNP or Primera brands when it comes to professional photo booth printers.

However, the Mitsubishi printer is suitable for any size photo booth activation.

Learn more: Mitsubishi CP-D70DW User Manual

Protect your photo booth printer with a professional case

One last thing before we go… it’s a great idea to purchase a wheeled carrying case for your new photo booth printer. It protects the printer during transport and provides protection from dust and accidental bumps while it’s being stored. Plus, if you have a heavy printer, it makes it much easier to get around.

Pelican and SKB offer cases with foam padding in various sizes that work great for photo booth printers.

And let’s not even get started on the beauty that is your dress.

It’s all for a single day: the day you marry your best friend and party your socks off with your friends and family.

Of course, you’re going to have a photographer to document everything, but have you also wondered, “Do I need a photo booth at my wedding?“

TLDR: Photo booths are awesome and you should definitely have one.

Let’s talk about why photo booths are the perfect match for weddings, how to make sure yours is the best it can be, and then finally all the ways you can get one for your wedding!

Why have a wedding photo booth?

There are three classic ingredients to a stellar reception: open bar, dance party, and a photo booth. Case in point: even Kim Kardashian and Kanye had a photo booth at their wedding!

Photo booths are recommended regularly by wedding planners. Megan Metzger from Pearl Events Austin says that a photo booth is a must-have for her own wedding.

“Instead of having a camera in your face, like on the dance floor with a photographer, people really let loose and, for some reason, people feel more comfortable behind it,” Megan said.

Why are photo booths so popular? Let us count the reasons:

1. Photo booths up the fun factor

The cocktail hour can keep guests occupied and having fun between the wedding ceremony and reception. A photo booth can help fill in the gap, too, keeping guests entertained and the mood light. It’s a perfect distraction while you and your newly minted spouse are snapping those breathtaking photos that will make your nana cry.

But the fun doesn’t stop there.

Throughout the reception, your wedding photo booth will be the gift that keeps on giving—to you and your guests.

2. Photos are the best wedding favors

Your guests will love having a take-home memento, whether it’s in digital or print form.

Setting up one photo booth sure is a lot easier than tying hundreds of ribbons around bottles of bubbles that probably won’t make it out the door.

Most cliche wedding favors end up in the trash, but people tend to hang onto a great photo–especially when they can simply text it to their phone from a touch screen photo booth.

Most modern photo booth companies also provide access to an online wedding gallery after the big day, making it easy for you and your guests to relive the memories.

3. There’s too much happening for the photographer to capture it all

A photo booth complements a wedding photographer perfectly. Your photographer will get a lot of great photos, but they’re going to be mainly focused on you and the main events on the dance floor.

All the fun happening behind the scenes? That’s where the photo booth comes in.

Having a photo booth for your wedding is a great way to make sure you’re getting authentic pictures of every guest. Not everyone will do a formal pose for the wedding photographer, but they’ll likely visit the photo booth for a fun group picture or selfie. It’s like getting an extra set of wedding photos.

Wedding photo booth ideas

Now that you know why a photo booth is a must-have for your wedding, here are some ideas to help make sure it’s a smash hit.

1. Choose the perfect location

Locate your selfie booth in a high-traffic area of the wedding venue, like near the bar or dance floor. Make sure that your guests can see it from where they’ll be hanging out. If your guests don’t see the photo booth they’re not going to use it.

Sometimes, a venue coordinator will try to get you to put your photo booth in a back room or closet where nobody will find it. Don’t let them do it! The key to having a lot of participation and photos is for people to see other people having fun and want to join in.

If possible, leave some open space around your photo booth. It will probably have a a line at some point and it will be more inviting if it’s easier to access. If guests have to fight their way through tightly packed tables, they’re going to be less excited to join in the fun.

2. Draw attention to your photo booth

Getting the photo booth started is just like getting the dance party started, but easier! Enlist your DJ or emcee, wedding party, and close friends to start the photo booth fun and other guests will quickly join in.

You can hang signage and reminders to make sure guests know where to find the photo booth and that you want them to participate.

Of course, the best thing you can do is have an eye-catching photo booth that captures the attention of your guests all on its own.

Above all, the photo booth for your wedding should look inviting. We recommend having the area brightly lit and matching the backdrop to your wedding’s style. You want your wedding photo booth to be another part of your reception venue that people will look at and say, “that’s beautiful!”

Whether your wedding is formal or boho, you’ll want to create that same feeling with your photo booth.

A great way to do that is our next tip…

3. Plan a custom photo booth backdrop

The right backdrop is essential for your selfie station. It’s going to be in every photo and should be beautiful and eye-catching.

Your backdrop can be as simple as a plain color. But, if you really want your personality to shine, bring the backdrop to life with decorations that capture your wedding theme.

Here are some ideas to spice up a blank wall:

• Fun, removable wallpaper
• Hanging fabric
• Vinyl decals
• Fringe curtains
• Hanging fresh flowers (or a flower wall)
• Have a custom neon sign made
• Glam gold sequins

For an outdoor wedding and reception, you can use the natural beauty of greenery around you as a backdrop. Or, hang some frames from a nearby tree to create a simple photo booth scene.

Looking for something a bit more complex? Put together four wooden pallets and decorate it with flowers for a rustic but elegant backdrop. You can do the same with reclaimed wood.

And the beauty of rustic elegance is that it doesn’t have to be perfect. Just make sure you’re not leaving any exposed nails!

Not interested in building your own photo booth backdrop for your wedding? Consider hiring a rental company that can take care of a custom backdrop for you, or use a software that supports green screen to make it ridiculously easy to add any background you want.

4. Handpick your props

People love grabbing props to pose with in front of the photo booth. However, your props will set the tone of your photos, so make sure you love them! Oftentimes, photo booth rental companies can provide you with various options or will be open to special requests for themed props.

The downside of many props is that they can get messy. Another route is to go minimalist and rely entirely on digital props. Digital props are like having Snapchat filters right in your photo booth! Your wedding guests will have a blast choosing stickers and graphics that can even track their face on animated GIFs or videos.

Or, why not the best of both worlds? You can mix and match a few tasteful real-life props with a handful of digital options to up the creativity.

5. Stream a feed of the live photos

Are you planning to have a wedding slideshow or love story video at your reception?

Get double-duty out of that big screen by setting up a live feed from your wedding photo booth. You and your guests will enjoy (and laugh at) all the fun being had at the photo booth.

People love seeing their images popup up on the big screen in real-time and it will encourage other guests to join in!

6. Make it easy for guests to share

A traditional photo booth will print two photo strips, one as a party-favor for the guest and another as a keepsake for the bride and groom that can go in a guest book or wedding album. Nowadays, if you give a guest a photo strip, the next thing you will probably see them do is take a picture of it on their phone to preserve and share online.

People simply prefer to have everything on their phone and not have to worry about a photo strip getting crumpled in their pocket or purse. Modern selfie stations take the experience digital and collect photos in online gallery, which act like virtual scrap books of your wedding day!

Guests love seeing pics instantly on their phone and being able to share them to social media just as easily. All the pictures can have your wedding themed graphics and hashtag attached, or even link back to your wedding website if you want.

7. Schedule open and closed times

Wedding receptions are full of special events including toasts, special dances, bouquet tosses, and more.

Sometimes, you might want guests letting loose in the photo booth, su. Other times, you might want them focused on what’s happening on the dance floor. You don’t want wild laughter interrupting that romantic first dance as a married couple, after all.

Make sure that your guests know when your wedding photo booth will be open and closed.

Your DJ or emcee is a great resource to keep guests on task. Use them to remind guests of the best times to use the photo booth: cocktail hour, after the formal program, or during dinner are the best.

How to book a photo booth

Here are four ways to get an awesome photo booth at your wedding.

1. Set up a DIY photo booth

It’s easier than ever to set up a DIY photo booth with an app like Simple Booth HALO® for iPad.

Setting up a DIY photo booth can make sense if you want to save money, are planning a destination wedding somewhere remote, or want to keep your reception intimate without an extra photo booth attendant.

Modern photo booth apps can run on a tablet, be easily set up on a tripod, and basically run themselves–especially if you are only doing digital delivery and don’t need prints. Guests use the photo booth platform by themselves which means your wedding planner—and YOU—can focus on other things.

Want a DSLR or mirrorless camera? Make sure to read our article on the best cameras for photo booths.

Simple Booth strives for simplicity in our platform, taking guests through an easy process to get photos instantly to their phones. This leaves plenty of time for everyone to take and share multiple photos from your celebration.

2. Hire a local photo booth vendor

To keep your wedding day stress-free, you might consider renting a photo booth from a local vendor for your wedding. A professional photo booth rental offers a high-quality experience for you and your guests.

There are many local photo booth vendors to choose from, but their photo booth setups and services may vary greatly. Here are some questions you might want to ask a photo booth vendor:

• Do you have photos from an event I can? Make sure you like how they look!
• Do you offer motion formats like GIF and video, or only still photos?
• Will I receive a digital gallery of my photos afterward?
• What ways to you offer for guests to receive their photos?
• Do you offer printing? Does it cost extra?
• Does the photo booth include an attendant in case of technical issues?
• What backdrop and prop options do you have available to choose from?
• Will you design a custom theme or graphics for my wedding? Can I see examples from previous weddings?

3. Rent a photo booth online

As of recently, you can even rent a photo booth online that gets shipped to you in a box! For some weddings, it’s the perfect compromise between DIY and professional equipment.

4. Buy a photo booth

This might sound completely crazy, but if you have an iPad you’re already halfway there. Plus, if you own a compact, portable photo booth ahead of your big day, you can make use of it at a lot more special events:

• Bridal Shower
• Bachelor or Bachelorette Party
• Rehearsal Dinner

Maybe you’ll even decide it makes sense to start your own photo booth company when friends and family are so impressed with your setup!

Photo booths are worth it

Your wedding day is one of the most important days of your entire life. You’ll want to document as much of it as you can. A photo booth can do that perfectly.

There’s also something about a photo booth that brings out the creative and quirky sides of people, and those are the things you’ll most want to remember about the people you’ve chosen to share your special day with.

After all, photography is the capture of light. What better way to grow as an artist and level up your photography business than to improve your understanding of light?

Here are 5 beginner lighting tips that will illuminate the way for you to better photos.

1. Practice evaluating your environment

Take a look around, wherever you are at the moment. You’re part of a scene. How would you describe the lighting? What kinds of lights are around you?

This isn’t the type of thing a person would normally stop and think about walking into a room, but if you’re a photographer, you have to! For example, does the room you’re in have fluorescent lights or incandescent? Are the tones warm or cool? Are the lights at single points or diffused by soft panels?

All lights are not created equal. They all have unique attributes like brightness, softness and temperature. Different light sources can work together–or they can work against each other.

Natural daylight is generally considered the best light source because it has a broad spectrum. Rooms with large windows can be a great asset, but on the other hand, if a beam of direct sunlight falls directly on your subject then you may need to try to find another spot in the room to shoot. The goal in this scenario is to have the sunlight to bounce and fill the room without directly landing on your subject.

Wherever you are, the first step to becoming a master at lighting is to look around you and see what you have to work with.

2. Keep a close eye on color temperatures

One of the biggest challenges when lighting on location for video or stills is all the different color temperatures.

-Bobby Lewallen, Lighting Expert

If you’ve ever bought a pack of light bulbs, you’ve dealt with color temperatures. Soft white, bright white or cool white–they all have a completely different look that can completely throw you off if you try to mix and match. If you read the fine print on these bulbs, you can discover what their actual estimated color temperature is, measured in units of kelvin.

As a photographer, you’ll need to get used to thinking in terms of kelvin values. Your camera’s auto-white balance can’t save you here, because your camera can only match one of the light colors to true white. The second or third kelvin value light will either look too warm or cool and can throw off your shot.

The key is to always try to match up the light color temperatures in your scene, especially when they are not just background elements but actually cast onto your subject.

2. Start with the key light

The key light is your dominant light source.

You need to be able to control your light sources to ensure your subject won’t have any distracting shadows or colors on their face.
-Steve Rumizen, Wedding Photographer

If you’re shooting outside, the key light source will typically be the sun. It’s challenging and unadvisable to try to overpower the sun with light sources. One exception is during “golden hour,” the moments during sunset when the sun is at its furthest angle. During this time, the sun is less intense and casts a beautiful warm hue on subjects.

In most cases, controlling the sun as a photographer simply means diffusing it over your subject with a “scrim” or blocking completely with a heavy black piece of fabric called a “flag.”

If it’s a cloudy day, you’re in luck for your portrait session because the sun is already diffused. You won’t get a big blue sky in the background but it’s always more important that your subject is lit well. Another approach if you are on the go in broad daylight is to take cover in the shade and if possible, add some light to your subjects’ faces. The drawback to shooting in the shade is that if your background is in broad daylight, it is easy to get blown out.

Indoors, controlling the light typically means you need to be able to light the scene with your own light, which gives you far more control. That will be your “key” light. At the same time, think about turning off any lights that detract from your scene. Modern DSLR’s can perform very well in low light, but they can’t prevent the color casts created by mixed lighting.

4. Use shadows to create contrast in your images

In general, the more light the better.

However, contrast is how photographers impart depth and interest into their images. You can’t have an image with beautiful contrast unless the image includes sections that are brighter and parts that are darker.

Take a moment while you’re composing your image to think about what you want to be dark in your photos, in addition to what you want to be illuminated. Visualize it and then position your subjects or your lights to create contrast. In time, this will become second nature.

Considering darkness as part of your process will give your images a more dynamic look that results in a more engaging photographic result. As a bonus, it’s also often cheaper and easier to remove light than to add light.

5. Create space between your light and the camera

Have you encountered bright spots on your subjects’ foreheads from flashes? Bright spots in their eyes? That might be because the light you’re using is too close to the lens. The beam of light is bouncing back too directly into the camera from the source, causing a harsh reflection.

Videographers or photographers should avoid relying solely on a camera-mounted light, because of this unpleasing effect.

For portrait photography, an ideal setup is to have a key light on one side of the camera and a fill light on the other, situated at least several feet away. This will diffuse the light and prevent those nasty bounce-back effects.

If you can’t do a lighting set up like this, a ring light that goes completely around the camera is a good bet for soft portrait looks. This type of light prevents any single “hot spot” from appearing on the subject’s face and fills in shadows nicely, making wrinkles and imperfections less noticeable.

A final tip for beginners

Lighting is a little more complicated than most people expect because we so often take it for granted in our daily lives. It takes a lot of time and experience to become great at lighting.

If you can, find a lighting expert you can assist at shoots. You will learn so much about the equipment they use and how they handle different situations. Having a mentor and getting hands-on experience is by far the fastest way to get better at lighting!