Photo booth companies provide a variety of props such as hats, mustaches, feather boas and oversized glasses to help guests loosen up for their photos, as shown by Cassandra McCarley, Tracy McCarley and Zoe McCarley.
Claudia Zalevsky, left, and Tracy McCarley get their photo made in a photo booth.
Zoe McCarley, right, had a photo booth at her bat mitzvah held at the Double Tree Hotel. The teen is pictured with two unidentified friends.
A photo strip from In The Pic Photo Booth.What to knowBefore hiring a photo booth rental company, ask these questions in addition to rental fees:* Does your booth use a digital single lens reflex camera, or a point-and-shoot type camera? The digital SLR camera provides a better image quality.* Do you use an off-camera flash or photography strobe for lighting, or do you use a continuous light source? Continuous light source allows motion blur and can leave the image looking washed out. Spring for a booth with good camera lighting.* What type of printer do you use? Inkjet printers take longer to print out images and the ink on the images will have to dry. They can be smudged, smeared and get ink on your fingers or clothes when still wet. Dy-Sub printers are fast printers built for speed, large-print capacity and good print quality. Although they are typically more expensive to own and operate, the benefits outweigh the costs.Source: Vanity FairPhoto Booth Rentals* Just Shoot Me: justshootmepb.com. 423-903-3333 or 931-980-8168* In The Pic: inthepic-photobooth.com. 423-314-4758* Pricing: Both companies start at $500 for two hours, which includes unlimited photos, set up and break down (not part of the two hours of party time), props and personalization. Additional options available with each company.
When Tracy McCarley began planning daughter Zoe’s recent bat mitzvah, she knew how to create a Kodak moment.
“We’d had a photo booth three years previously for our older daughter’s party. Everybody loved it! Parents and kids couldn’t quit talking about it – a year later they were still telling me where they had posted their pictures. It gave the party something fun for people to do,” says McCarley.
Photo booths – those curtained, stand-alone enclosures that spit out a strip of four snapshots – have made a comeback over the last four years. Baby boomers will remember cramming into them with friends at drug stores, malls, the county fair and amusement parks; now they’re fixtures at wedding receptions, mitzvahs, Sweet 16s and even corporate Christmas parties.
They started appearing at wedding receptions in 2009, according to The Wedding Report Inc., which says about 10 percent of couples nationally included a photo booth at their receptions that year. Now the website, which monitors bridal industry trends and statistics, estimates one out of 20 couples has a photo booth on hand to make reception souvenirs.