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Picture This
Photo booth options that go beyond the box
Image courtesy Aisha Harley Photography
One of the biggest new trends in weddings today is actually a touch old-fashioned: renting a photo booth that pops out instant pictures of your guests at their silly, celebratory best. Booths that work with real film are still available, but it was the advent of digital photography that truly liberated these machines from their shopping mall/amusement park past. It's campy and creative all in one.
Some couples, however, might want to consider a different kind of specialty photo op. Also increasing in popularity is the paparazzi-style photo "booth," which involves an actual photographer shooting your guests in front of a designated backdrop.
"It's more like a portable photo studio," says Aisha Harley, owner of Aisha Harley Photography (AishaHarley.com) and one of the first wedding photographers to offer this method in Portland, Ore., along with her close friend Kokia Sparis (PhotoBoothGuru.com). While Sparis uses a medium format professional Polaroid camera to shoot high-grade, one-of-a-kind instant black-and-white images, Harley prefers a digital Canon SD and ring light which creates an ethereal outline around the subject that separates them from the background, lending an Old Hollywood feel to the pictures.
The benefit of the studio-style booth is that it allows for more variation when it comes to the type of camera, backdrop, lighting, angles, number of people in the picture, props and more. For example, if you don't want basic white, you can adjust the color of your backdrop to match your wedding colors, make it a romantic landscape or even use a funny blown-up picture of yourselves that everyone can pose with. Props can be fun as well, provided they make sense in context of your particular event - try to avoid just using random objects, as this might confuse your guests, says Harley.
The cost of a studio-style booth can range from $800 to $2,000, depending on the type you want, the time involved and the amount of product produced. As for location, most photographers will need an approximately 15-by-15 foot space for the backdrop, lighting and camera. You also want to make sure you set it up in a place that people can see so that they will be sure to take advantage of it, or have your wedding planner announce it.
As a result of including the booth, you are more likely to get at least one picture of every guest at your wedding, and chances are that these pictures will be some of the best ones of the night. "Sometimes people feel awkward when having their normal conversation or dancing filmed, or when they have to pose in the same boring ways," says Harley. But when they're in the booth, guests tend to be more comfortable hamming it up, or even being more loving, with lots of big hugs and kisses.
While you certainly want to prioritize having a photographer to document all the wedding's events, a paparazzi-style booth makes for a nice addition during the reception. If you want one wedding photographer to handle both jobs, consider limiting the booth to either the cocktail hour or a designated time period during the dancing, or set it up at the rehearsal dinner instead.
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