Breeze software is veryefficient. DSLR Remote Pro and Webcam Photobooth both run on low powered Windows computers running Windows 10, 8 or 7. The programs may run more quickly and print faster on a more powerful machine.
Breeze software is incredibly flexible. You can use it in many ways to produce and share photos, animated GIFs, slow motion and other videos. Some operators demand lightening fast results, others offer a more leisurely service. This short post is intended to help you choose the right computer to power your photo booth.
A budget laptop with an i3 processor and at least 4GB RAM should be fine for still photos. If you are planning to capture and playback boomerang GIFs, HD video or use green screen you may need a more powerful computer.
Touchscreens are flexible and an easy way to offer guests choices, share images and collect data. Laptops with built in touchscreens are popular, but not essential. Other ways to control the booth include buttons, coin operation, a wireless presenter and remote sensors.
Most photo booths need two USB 2.0 or 3.0 ports to connect the camera and printer. You can use a USB hub to increase the number of ports.
Green screen and boomerang GIFS
A more powerful PC will process green screen images and animated GIFs more quickly. A low powered PC is likely to take longer to produce the same result. Processing speed is affected by many other factors including the size of the image, background, overlay and print. Individual operators have different views about how fast their booth needs to work.
Try before you buy
If possible try the software either on the computer you plan to use, or a machine with a similar spec. You can download and try out DSLR Remote Pro and Webcam Photobooth for up to two weeks before buying the licenses.
The introduction of GDPR has focussed interest on the ability to obtain specific, granular consent from guests. Breeze Kiosk is ready to help.
Breeze Kiosk 1.4.4 allows you to present up to 10 consent boxes to guests when they email, or text images, upload them to Facebook or Twitter. Each check box can be opt-in or pre-checked, optional or mandatory.
(2)Select the folder you want Breeze Kiosk to watch for images
(3) Check the appropriate boxes to say whether you want to display still images(JPEG), animated GIFs and/or MP4and movies
(4) You will need to select a folder where the screen images used by Breeze Kiosk are stored.
(5) Check boxes to tell the program which print and sharing options you want to offer guests.
In this post I will show you how to add a consent check boxes when guests email photos.
(6) Go to the email server settings screen
Set Breeze Kiosk to log email addresses entered in a csv file
(If this is the first time you have sent emails from Breeze Kiosk on this computer, you will need to set up the settings for your email server)
(7)Check the box to log email addresses to a file, and tell the program what this file is called/where to find it.
If you need to send emails offline check the offline mode box at (8) before pressing OK.
Now we need to copy (or create your own) XML file and put in into the folder which holds your screen images. Don’t panic if you have never seen XML before! There are some examples you can copy in the program help files . All we need to do is make a few simple tweaks.
Defining the guest consent text and checkbox for emailed images. Breeze Kiosk 1.4.4 (a_
(9) This checkbox has value 0 (zero) for opt-in consent. For pre-checked consent change the value to 1
(10) The text for this check box has been highlighted in green. Change this to the wording you need.
(11) When you finish your changes, select File to save them. You need to call the file email_keyboard.xml and save it in the folderyou chose for your screen images. [As (4) above]
email_keyboard.xml is saved in the screens folder
While I am here, how do I change the background color of the email screen?
XML for email screen with white background and custom pre-checked consent box Breeze Kiosk 1.4.4
(12) To change the color of the background screen and of the text of your prompts (13), you need to add the text highlighted in green to your XML.
0xFFFFFF is the HEX notation for RGB white. 0x000000 is the HEX notation for RGB black. Hint: If you haven’t come across HEX notation for RGB colors before, use Photoshop or google RGB color checker to identify the color you want to use.
Now when my guest selects the email icon they see this white screen:
Email keyboard with custom consent Breeze Kiosk 1.4.4
How to I add two or more check boxes?
You need to add these three lines for the second check box
Example xml for email keyboard with two check boxes Breeze Kiosk 1.4.4
The second check box is opt-in, so the prompt value is 0 (zero). I have also changed the Y coordinate of the check box to place it below the first box. The final result is here:
This Email screen has two check boxes Breeze Kiosk 1.4.4
Shared images can have different format to those displayed
Privacy mode – access limited to own images
Custom messages
Breeze Kiosk email entry screen with check box for guest consent. Consent can be recorded in a csv file against the image and email address entered.
Printing
Guests browse and print images
Print friendly versions of animated GIFs
Print options include
Pay to print
Email collection
Opt-in checkbox for agreement to terms & conditions before sharing/printing
Privacy mode – access limited to own images
Print counter
Slideshow
Supports still images, animated GIFs and movies
Automatically updated with new images
Branding and customization
Slideshow options include
Operator controlled removal of unwanted images
Choice of transitions
Still adverts
Animated GIF and movie-based adverts
A selection of adverts may be displayed during the slideshow. These can be still images, movies or animated GIFs. Breeze Kiosk 1.4.4
What’s new in Breeze Kiosk 1.4.4?
Breeze Kiosk 1.4.4 introduced the following enhancements:
New “auto bleed” option when printing
Animated GIF and movie (MP4) adverts displayed in slideshow mode as well as JPEG still images
New option to save XML copies of emails and texts
What will Breeze Kiosk cost?
Each Breeze Kiosk license costs just US $150 for a lifetime license & one year’s free upgrades. For this great price you can run one kiosk and have a second backup/office copy of the program.
Breeze Kiosk 1.4.4 is a free upgrade for all registered users who purchased a license on or after 15th April 2017. Customers with an older Breeze Kiosk license can buy an upgrade license for just US $75 to use this release.
Prices quoted are correct at 25th May 2018, and are valid for online sales from our website. They exclude any tax due.
How to get your hands on it
Download Breeze Kiosk and try it for yourself for up to 14 days before buying a license.
We are often asked which camera is best for a photo booth. Canon cameras have very good live view quality, an important attribute for photo booths. The models below are not the only cameras you can use. Many older Canon DSLR cameras work very well. This table lists the cameras you can use with DSLR Remote Pro 3.10.
At the time of writing* (May 2018) we believe the ultimate photo booth camera is ….. the new (mirrorless) Canon EOS M50.
The standard kit lens ( EF-M 15-45mm STM ) has a flexible 15-45 mm zoom. For a super slim booth, try the EF-M 22mm STM lens
Best: Canon EOS M50
A big thank you to Caroline Winata of Giggle and Riot Funbooth for sharing this example of slow motion video (EOS M50 with DSLR Remote Pro 3.10)
120FPS Slow motion video with no additional processing
Similar performance to the Canon EOS 200D/Rebel SL2 including Canon’s excellent dual pixel auto focus in live view.
Suitable for video with external microphone socket.
Compact, slim and light; the M50 will fit in a smaller housing than Canon’s DSLR cameras.
July 2018 This post has been updated to include cameras supported in DSLR Remote Pro 3.11.2 ie the Canon EOS 1500D (aka Canon EOS 2000D/Rebel T7/EOS Kiss X90) and Canon EOS 3000D (aka Canon EOS 4000D).
The photo below shows the different sizes of the new EOS M50, EOS 200D/Rebel SL2 and new EOS 2000D/1500D/Rebel T7:
[top to bottom] EOS M50 with EF-M 22mm STM lens, EOS M50 with standard kit lens EF-M 15-45mm STM , EOS 200D/Rebel SL2 with 24mm pancake lens, EOS 2000D/1500D/Rebel T7with 18-55mm kit lens
Disadvantages
Access for external power is underneath the camera instead of at the side.
Live view cannot be switched off, which may make this camera prone to overheating. (Note: live view display in DSLR Remote Pro can still be switched off using Advanced Settings)
The external power cord connection for the M50 is on the camera base
Update July 2018
There seems to be an issue triggering studio strobes reliably when using a hotshoe to PC sync adaptor. In our tests the camera failed to trigger the flash between 1% and 10% of the time, and occasionally the flash triggered three times per shot. We have reported these issues to Canon and will post an update when we can tell you more.
Good for video: 200D/Rebel SL2, 750D/Rebel T6i
These cameras do everything the M50 can do except slow motion video. They are larger and heavier than the M50.
Excellent auto focus in live view
Suitable for video & have an external microphone socket
Update of the Canon EOS 1300D/Rebel T6 and virtually identical but with a higher resolution 24 mega pixel sensor.
New Canon EOS 4000D/3000D
Similar to the Canon EOS 1300D/Rebel T6 with the same 18 mega pixel sensor but cheaper build quality (plastic lens mount, fewer buttons, no remote release socket and no cable access for external power)
Web cameras & iPad booths
This post does not cover booths powered by web cameras or the built-in cameras provided with iPads, laptops and tablets. The new Breeze Booth for iPad will use the camera built into an iPad. Breeze Webcam Photobooth software will run a booth with either a webcam or built in camera in a Windows 10, 8 or 7 PC or laptop.
*As new cameras are introduced this post will inevitably become outdated.
120FPS Slow motion video with no additional processing
Support for small new mirrorless camera: Canon EOS M50
Support for new DSLR cameras: Canon EOS 2000D/Rebel T7 and EOS 4000D
Touchscreen designer: Set photo , print and sharing preview areas
Process individual images for sharing (includes resizing, sharpening and new overlay)
Limit number of prints per session
Custom messages when print counter reaches limit
More
New keyboard shortcuts to accept, retake and abort previews
New option to save XML copies of emails and texts
Privacy information added to the “Sharing Photos” section
Fixed an issue when using transparent green screen backgrounds with Instagram style filters or B&W styles
Fixed an issue with the full screen live view setting when the camera and screen are in portrait orientation
New cameras
Canon EOS M50
Canon’s new mirrorless M50 camera has great potential for photo booths
Smaller, lighter and slimmer than conventional DSLRs, this is the first model which can capture high quality slow motion video in a photo booth with no addional post processing.
Video is captured at 120 fps without sound and is saved at 30 fps resulting in high quality play back at 1/4 normal speed.
Canon EOS 200D/Rebel T7
Update of the Canon EOS 1300D/Rebel T6 and virtually identical but with a higher resolution 24 mega pixel sensor.
Canon EOS 4000D
Very similar to a Canon EOS 1300D/Rebel T6 with the same 18 mega pixel sensor but with cheaper build quality (plastic lens mount, fewer buttons, no remote release socket and no cable access for external power).
DSLR Remote Pro 3.10 is a free upgrade for all registered users who purchased a license on or after May 1st, 2017.
Steve explains how to create event specific versions of Breeze DSLR Remote Pro on your desktop (Facebook Live video 24th April 2018)
This video shows Breeze DSLR Remote Pro 3.9.1
“Inverted commas” aka quotation marks aka double quotes
The path of the settings file should be enclosed in inverted commas e.g. “C:\Program Files (x86)\BreezeSys\DSLR Remote Pro\DSlrRemote.exe” “C:\profiles\settings.xml”
If your path contains spaces and is not contained within inverted commas it won’t work.
We are thrilled to announce that Steve Bliesner is joining Breeze as Brand Ambassador. He has been using Breeze since 2011 . We can’t think of anyone better to spread the word about our software and how to best to use it.
Steve is known to many of you from Facebook groups, his innovative photo booth businesses Wilkes, The Lab and Photobooth Guys; and his presentations at Photo Booth Expo and PBPI. If you haven’t come across him already you are in for a treat…
Breeze have always respected our customers’ privacy and that of guests captured with our software. Our software is sold worldwide; our customers have differing ethical and legal responsibilities about processing and handling data (including photos and other images).
No Breeze photo booth program (ie DSLR Remote Pro, Webcam Photobooth, DSLR Remote Pro for Mac, and PSRemote) shares photos online by default; photos are only shared if the program is explicitly set up to do so.
Breeze Kiosk was developed to enable social sharing. The current release Breeze Kiosk 1.4.4 will only transfer images to/from any social media site if the program is explicitly set up to do so.
Note: Older releases of Breeze Kiosk defaulted to allow images to be uploaded to Facebook. Images are only uploaded to other social media sites or downloaded from Instagram and Twitter if the program is explicitly set up to do so.
Breeze Kiosk privacy mode will only allow images to be displayed, shared or printed if the user enters the correct code.
Breeze Systems have no access to or control over guest images or data generated by our software, with two exceptions documented in the help files:
When animated GIFs are shared on Facebook, Breeze software stores a copy of the GIF on GIPHY
When images are shared by MMS and ‘SMS + Image’ using Twilio, the shared images and file names are stored on Breeze servers for 7 days and then deleted. The mobile number is not stored on Breeze servers. It is possible (although not necessary) for a user to generate image file names which include personal information about the event or guests. The Breeze servers are hosted by an EU based ISP.
The current versions of our photo booth software and Breeze Kiosk allow you to offer ‘opt in’ consent to image sharing.
Where oursoftware enables users to upload, download, and store photos the user controls where and how the images are sent; often using third party services such as Facebook, Twitter, and Dropbox. Don’t forget that it is your responsibility as user to ensure the third-party services you use are appropriate for your events and the jurisdiction you are working in.
This post contains brief notes about the Breeze Booth Event Editor, used to create and modify events for Breeze Booth for iPad.
Note:
This blog post was written for the original release of the Event Editor. An updated version was released on May 28th. This post will be updated as soon as possible. At present please refer to this page for notes about the event Editor.
Introduction
The Breeze Booth Event Editor is a powerful Windows based program which can be used to create and edit events for Breeze Booth for iPad.
The beta version of the editor has a basic user interface, which will be given a friendly front end and further features before the full release.
This beta is provided for Breeze DSLR Remote Pro users with experience using profiles. Please don’t be concerned if you don’t find it accessible at this stage.
The easiest way to get started is to download a copy of the sample events on the Breeze Systems’ servers and save these in the Dropbox folder Apps/Breeze Booth for iPad/events. Then run the event editor and click on “Open…” and load the file Apps/Breeze Booth for iPad/events/events.xml. At present the easiest way to create a new event is to copy an existing event and edit it.
Files stored on the iPad
You can use the iOS 11 Files app to view the files used by Breeze Booth for iPad and to copy event ‘assets’ (screens, print layouts, profiles etc) to an iCloud or DropBox folder.
Tap Browse in the Files app then On my iPad under Locations and you should see a folder named Breeze Booth. Tap on the folder to pen it and there will be two folders: “assets” which is where the event configuration is stored and “photos” where photos, animated GIFs and MP4 movies captured by Breeze Booth are stored. (More details can be found here)
Breeze Booth folders in iOS Files app
You can also upload the events from your iPad to the PC you are using to run Breeze Booth Event Editor.
Download Breeze Booth Event Editor
The Windows based Breeze Booth Event Editor software can be downloaded using the link below. After downloading the software unzip the file and copy it a suitable folder on the computer’s hard disk. (I copied the folder to the desktop on my PC.)
This YouTube video (created for the original beta version of the Event Editor) demonstrates downloading and opening the Event Editor, then takes you on a quick tour. There is more detail in the rest of this post.
Run Breeze Booth Event Editor
Start the Event Editor, and select Open.
Breeze Booth Event Editor main screen
Load the events by selecting events.xml
Loading events.xml into Breeze Booth Event Editor
Select an event to edit, then Edit event
Selecting the ‘GIF only’ event Breeze Booth Event Editor
This brings up a list of profiles for the event you selected. ‘GIF only’ is a simple event with one profile each for landscape and portrait orientations:
List of profiles for sample event ‘GIF only’ Breeze Booth event Editor
To make changes to a profile select Edit
Photo Booth Settings Screens
The Photo Booth Settings Screen is displayed for the profile you selected. This has four tabs : General, Photos, GIFs, Share. There are layout editors for touchscreen actions, print layout and GIF layout. More features will be added to these editors in future releases.
Use the editors to customize events; saving your changes will update settings.xml.
Photo Booth Settings Screen – General
Photo Booth Settings Screen General Tab BBEE
Select Touchscreen actions… to display the Touchscreen actions editor
Sharing settings screen Breeze Booth Event EditorDefault email for sharing animated GIFs from Breeze Booth for iPad (Breeze Booth Event Editor Beta)
Notes
Breeze Booth Event Editor works in a similar way to DSLR Remote Pro and other Windows based Breeze photo booth software.
Settings are stored in XML files
Screens are created using JPEG backgrounds, PNG overlays & animated GIF animations.
Profiles are used to load settings from the XML files and provide a way of selecting different configurations.
Breeze Booth for iPad can run with the iPad in landscape or portrait orientation and uses a separate profile for each orientation.
Screens should match the aspect ratio of the iPad’s display (4:3). The suggested sizes are 2048×1536 pixels for landscape orientation screens and 1536×2048 for portrait orientation screens.
The app uses the following screens:
ready.jpg, ready_overlay.png, ready.gif: The ready screen in photo mode. Append the style (e.g. ready_normal.jpg, ready_monochrome.jpg) to the filename to provide feedback when different styles are selected. The style names are normal,monochrome, sepia, comic, filter1, filter2, filter3, filter4, filter5, filter6
1.jpg, 1.png, 1.gif: Screen displayed during the countdown. Use 1.jpg for the first photo, 2.jpg for the second etc.
taking.jpg, taking.png, taking.gif: displayed when taking a photo
preview.jpg, preview.png, preview.gif: displayed when previewing each photo after it has been taken
processing.jpg, procesing.png, processing.gif: displayed while the print layout is being prepared
confirm_printing.jpg, confirm_printing.png, confirm_printing.gif: displays the print preview when the user is asked whether to accept or reject the photos
share,jpg, share.png, share.gif: displayed when asking the user whether to share the photos
standby.jpg, standby.png, standby.gif: standby screen displayed when the booth is inactive. Live view is disabled in standby mode to save power.
gif_ready.jpg, gif_ready_overlay.png, gif_ready.gif: The ready screen in animated GIF mode. Append the style (e.g. gif_ready_normal.jpg, gif_ready_monochrome.jpg) to the filename to provide feedback when different styles are selected.
gif_countdown.jpg, gif_countdown.png, gif_countdown.gif: displayed during the countdown before capturing an animated GIF
gif_capture.jpg, gif_capture.png, gif_capture.gif: displayed when capturing the animated GIF
gif_processing.jpg, gif_processing.png, gif_processing.gif: display while preparing the animated GIF for display
gif_playback.jpg, gif_playback.png, gif_playback.gif: playback screen displayed when the user is asked whether to accept the animated GIF
gif_share,jpg, gif_share.png, gif_share.gif: displayed when asking the user whether to share the animated GIF or MP4 movie
Animated GIF options
append _loop to the filename (e.g. ready_loop.gif) to play the animated GIF in a continuous loop.
By default the GIF will be displayed in the center of the screen. The size and position of the GIF can be modified by appending modifiers enclosed in curly brackets. The h and w modifiers specify the size as a percentage of the screen width or heighta and the l, r, t, b modifiers specify the position relative to the left, right, top or height of the screen respectively. If conflicting modifiers are present (e.g. l and r) the last one will used.
Example: to place a ready.gif animated GIF which is half the width of the screen and 1/4 the way down the screen set the filename to ready_{w50%t25%}.gif (or ready_loop_{w50%t25%}.gif to play it in a continuous loop).
Copying events to the iPad
Don’t forget to save the changes you have made. When you are ready to transfer them to your iPads running Breeze Booth for iPad, you can either
Method 1: Copy the files to a folder on iCloud or Dropbox that is visible on the iPad. Then use the Files app to copy the files to Breeze Booth for iPad’s assets folder.
Method 2: Upload the files to a folder on a web server then go the to the settings screen in Breeze Booth for iPad and edit the URL for the sync server to point to the folder on the web server. Then use the events screen in Breeze Booth for iPad to sync the events. Important: This method can only be used with secure servers that have https e.g. https://breezesys.com. It will not work with http URLs.
It’s your feedback which makes Breeze products stand out – please email comments to techsupport:@breezesys.com .
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