Photo Booth Hire or Instagram Printer Hire?

If you’re looking for the perfect event entertainment for your guests, it’s hard to go past a photo booth. Every event consists of the basics: family, friends, a venue, food and entertainment. And when it comes to entertainment a photo booth service is a great choice. But which should you use? Photo Booth Hire or Instagram Printer Hire?

There are the unique touches that make your event uniquely you. It doesn’t matter how many other people turned twenty one or how many weddings you’ve been to that year. This is your night. Don’t lose sight of the fact that your family and friends are there to celebrate with you.

Selecting the ideal guest entertainment is key

You’ve probably painstakingly poured over venue options before you made your final selection. Maybe they have a view to die for or rustic charm or the food was to die for. The cake, the table centrepieces….they’re all equally important. You only get to do this once! So it is for your event entertainment. For music, you might go with a DJ or perhaps you’d prefer the ambience of a live band. You’re worried that your guests will be waiting for a bit longer for the reception to open because photos are super important to you, so you’ve booked a super cool magician to keep them entertained. Your soon to be husband’s family are from Korea, so you’ve been rehearsing part of your speech in Korean as a special surprise for them.

There is an endless array of choices for how you can make your event unique. And so it is with your photo booth.

When it comes to photo booth services, you have two main categories: traditional photo booth or a social media (Instagram) printer. Here we’re going to look at the features of both options.

Photo Booth Hire or Instagram Printer Hire?

Traditional Enclosed Photo Booth

A traditional photo booth takes photos of guests automatically. Guests will usually operate the booth themselves via a touchscreen and can choose from colour, black and white or to even leave a video message. Images are captured by professional equipment housed either in a full sized photo booth, photo tower or other housing. Photo strips will be printed within a matter of seconds and there will usually be duplicate copies – one for you guests to take home and the other copy for you to keep (usually via a guest book).

Food for thought…

• Images captured by a reputable photo booth should be of a high quality due to professional, studio quality equipment.
• Digital image files supplied to the client after the event will be of equal quality. A professional quality camera will capture images files worthy of being enlarged to poster size if required.
• A traditional booth will come with added service benefits such as video messaging.
• There is limited involvement required from guests – other than having an awesome time! Guests can use the booth as many times as they like with as many different combinations of family and friends as they like and end up with a pocket or purse filled with photo strips.
• Privacy isn’t an issue as social media only needs to be involved if guests choose to share their images online.

Social Media (Instagram) Printer

A social media or Instagram printer works by making use of publically available software that connects a printer to Instagram. Guests take a photo on their phone and upload it to Instagram, including a unique hash tag. That specific hash tag ‘talks’ to the Instagram printing software and will print that image after a few seconds from the printer at the event.

Food for thought…

• Guests must use an Instagram account to join in the fun.
• Guests must have their Instagram accounts set to ‘public’ to be able to print photos. If they have a private account, the software cannot read the unique event hash tag required to print the photo.
• There will only be one copy of each image printed. If you would like extra copies for a guest book, this will need to be negotiated prior to your event.
• Photos supplied to you after your event will be of mobile phone quality only. That means if your event is at night or in a dimly lit venue, the images will be what you would expect from your phone at night.
• To print multiple photos and really get the most out of their printing experience, guests will need to be prepared to upload all their photos to Instagram. #oversharealert! Because images need to be shared publically, some guests may be hesitant to print photos or take those ‘extra fun’ shots due to privacy concerns.
• If you’re having an unplugged wedding or you’re just not keen on watching everyone stare at their phones during your event, social media printing isn’t be for you. Remember, guests not only have to snap, upload and collect their print – they then have to keep a close eye on their social media to see how many likes they get 😉

The best of both photo booth worlds

If you’re leaning toward a traditional photo booth but would love to let your guests take the reins when it comes to sharing online, look no further than the In the Booth app! It was for all the above reasons and more that we created the world’s first custom photo booth app. For fans of unplugged events amongst us – our app service is completely optional and the booth can be used as a traditional photo booth – just like Nan and Grandad used to do