Category Archives: Webcam Photobooth

Breeze Hub, Hotfolder Prints, Webcam Photobooth

Hotfolder 1.8.1 & Webcam 2.5.1 released

4 December 2019

Breeze Hotfolder Prints 1.8.1 & Webcam Photobooth 2.5.1 were both released today.

New in Hotfolder 1.8.1

  • New command line options to auto run and to load XML settings from file when running BreezeGallery Uploader
  • New command line options to auto login and to load XML settings from file when running the SmugMug Uploader
  • Breeze Viewer support for displaying adverts in mosaic modes with animated GIFs
  • Improved error reporting if a hashtag is not found when running the Hashtag Monitor
  • Fixes for issues uploading MP4 videos using Breeze Gallery Uploader and printing (when copies set to 0 and output set to print only inHotfolder Prints)

Hotfolder Prints 1.8.1 is a free upgrade for all registered users who purchased Hotfolder after 4th December 2018. Customers with older licenses need to buy an upgrade license to use this release.

Download Hotfolder 1.8.1               Buy Hotfolder

New in Webcam 2.5.1

  • Option to send emails and texts in the background via Breeze Hub
  • Option to see Webcam statistics in Breeze Hub
  • Fix for issue printing logos

Webcam Photobooth 2.5.1 introduces an option to create xml copies of emails and texts so they can be sent in the background using Hub.

Webcam Photobooth 2.5.1 is a free upgrade for all registered users who purchased Webcam Photobooth after 4th December 2018. Customers with older licenses need to buy an upgrade license to use this release.

Download Webcam Photobooth      Buy Webcam Photobooth

What is Breeze Hub?

Hub is a free utility provided by Breeze which can run on the same PC as Webcam Photobooth. You can run Hub with Breeze Booth for iPad and DSLR Remote Pro as well as Webcam Photobooth.

Share images in the background

Hub sends and shares your images in the background of other tasks, via email and SMS. No more waiting for images to upload before the next session starts.

View event statistics

Hub can also display statistics of sessions and shares from your booth.

Breeze Hub statistics

Run Hub with Webcam Photobooth to see

  • Total number of sessions
  • Breakdown of sessions by photo, GIF and video
  • Total shares
  • Shares by email and text
  • Busiest hour and day
  • Summary data for last 30 days

Rapid  export to Excel and other spreadsheets

Copy and paste data from the Hub statistics page into spreadsheets (such as Microsoft Excel) to create graphs for corporate clients.

Copy and paste event data from Breeze Hub into your spreadsheet

Note: Hub is currently downloaded with the Breeze Booth for iPad Event Editor. Ignore or uninstall the Event Editor if you are not a Breeze Booth for iPad user.

Download Hub    Learn more about Hub    Online manual

©  Breeze Systems 2019

Breeze Booth, News, Webcam Photobooth

Webcam Photobooth 2.5 released

New in Webcam Photobooth 2.5

  • Add up to 5 logos to prints (png or jpeg)
  • Guests choose the frame for their own print in the drawing/signing screen
  • New signing and drawing icons
  • Emojis/stickers/virtual props
  • Fix for reliability issue playing videos in photo booth mode caused by recent Windows updates.

Add logos to your prints

Logos provide a quick and easy way to add graphics to prints without using an image editor such as Photoshop.

Caption: Add up to 5 different png or jpg logos to prints with Breeze Webcam Photobooth 2.5

Add up to five different logos to a print layout. Logos can be either png or jpg format.

Find an introduction to the Print Layout Editor here

Guests choose their own print frame

Offer your guests a choice of print borders or overlays on the signing/drawing screen.

Guests choose from a selection of print frames on the signing/drawing screen (Breeze Webcam Photobooth 2.5)

Emojis/stickers/virtual props

You can create your own icon sets, they are simply jpg or png images. We have included these emoji/basic props for starters.

Icons supplied by EmojiOne

Guests can rotate, expand and shrink the icons. You can restrict them to decorating part of the print, and even prevent them from defacing part of it if your clients are sensitive.

Rotating a virtual prop

Create your own folders with custom/branded props, emoji and stickers  Profile users can offer a different set of icons with each profile.

Try Webcam Photobooth 2.5 for yourself

Webcam Photobooth 2.5 is a free upgrade for all registered users who purchased Webcam Photobooth after 18th September 2018. Customers with older licenses need to buy an upgrade license to use this release.

Download Webcam Photobooth      Buy Webcam Photobooth

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Do share the post with others who may find it useful.

Breeze Systems 2019

DSLR Remote Pro, Hotfolder Prints, Quick Tips, Screens, Webcam Photobooth

Quick tips : Error copying to C:\Program Files\(x86)\…

Several people have asked why they can’t copy their backgrounds, logos, print layouts etc into their PhotoboothImages folder recently – they see an error similar to this:

Error copying to C:|Program Files (x86)\Breezesys…

This error happens because Windows 10, 8 and 7 all protect the Program Files (x86) folders from accidental or malicious damage to applications.

Please do not try to use C:\Program Files (x86)\Breezesys\DSLR Remote Pro\PhotoboothImages\ or C:\Program Files (x86)\Breezesys\Webcam Photobooth\PhotoboothImages\ or C:\Program Files (x86)\Breezesys\Hotfolder Prints\PhotoboothImages\ for your PhotoBoothImages folder.


Instead place your PhotoboothImages folder in your Documents folder  C:\Users\yourname\Documents\PhotoboothImages

Setting the locations of your PhotoBoothImages folder

DSLR Remote Pro

Location of PhotoBoothImages folder DSLR Remote Pro 3.13

Webcam Photobooth

Location of PhotoBoothImages folder Webcam Photobooth 2.4

Hotfolder Prints

Te equivalent to a PhotoBoothImages folder where you place print layouts and backgrounds etc in Hotfolder Prints is here:

Location of folder containing print layouts etc Hotfolder Prints 1.7

Thanks for taking the time to read this post.

Breeze Systems 2019

DSLR Remote Pro, Getting started, Hotfolder Prints, Prints, Quick Tips, Video tutorial, Webcam Photobooth

Getting started – Customizing Breeze print layouts

This video introduces the Breeze Print Layout Editor, and shows simple ways to customize your prints without Photoshop or other image editors.

DSLR Remote Pro, Webcam Photobooth and Hotfolder Prints all include a simple but powerful drag and drop print editor which you can use to customize your prints.

Note: This post was updated in September 2019 for the latest releases of Hotfolder Prints 1.8, and Webcam Photobooth 1.5.

If you are new to DSLR Remote Pro or Webcam Photobooth, first run the Photo booth Setup Wizard.  This creates all the screens for a basic working system. It also creates print layouts with a plain white background. The video demonstrates

  • How to change the background color of your prints
  • How to add logos and other graphic icons to your prints (DSLR Remote Pro 3.12, Hotfolder Prints 1.8 and Webcam Photobooth 1.5)
  • How to add simple captions
  • how to use Breeze tokens to show the correct date on prints
  • How to use Breeze tokens to automatically add the event name to prints (DSLR Remote Pro 3.12 andHotfolder Prints 1.8 only)
  • How to import pre-designed layouts
  • How to add a QR code

Notes

The video is intended to give you a taste of the Print Layout Editor. See the program help files for more details

Using tokens

Find a great video introduction to using tokens with Breeze here

There are minor differences in the way tokens work in these three programs:

  • {eventName} and {dateLess8h} are new in Hotfolder Prints 1.8
  • {eventName} is not yet supported in Webcam Photobooth
  • DSLR Remote Pro Print Layout Editor displays the current value of tokens
  • Hotfolder Prints and Webcam Photobooth Print Layout Editors display the token names in the print layout editor

Importing pre-designed layouts into Breeze

Learn more about using layouts I used in the video here .These free templates were kindly provided by SMOVE for use by Breeze customers.

NB: Logos are not saved in the Photobooth Print Layout (pblt file) in this release. To use both predesigned layout and logos, you need to import the layout before adding the logos to your design.

Try for yourself

Download copies of DSLR Remote Pro, Hotfolder Prints and Webcam Photobooth from our website

If you found this post useful please share it with others.

© Breeze Systems 2018

Breeze Booth, DSLR Remote Pro, Getting started, Screens, Webcam Photobooth

How to brand and animate Breeze welcome screens

This post explains how to add a custom attraction or standby screen to  DSLR Remote Pro. Breeze calls this a welcome screen.

Use your welcome screen to attract people to your booth, as a quick method of branding, and to protect your camera*. The welcome screen can be a still image, animated GIF or video. You can add sound to attract people’s attention.

*Running live view for long periods drains battery power and can cause the camera’s sensor to heat up. If the photo booth is idle Breeze  automatically cancels the live view and displays the welcome screen.

This post shows how to replace the standard welcome screen with a movie or your own still image. You can customize Webcam Photobooth in the same way.

Breeze Multi-Camera has a similar screen called standby.jpg which can be customized and animated in a similar way.

Note: This post was updated in September 2019 to make it clearer that you need to set the inactivity timeout value

Get started

You can use the photo booth setup wizard to create a working set of screens for your booth.

Default screen set created by the photo booth setup wizard, showing the initial attraction screen welcome.jpg (DSLR Remote Pro 3.11.4)

Add a custom welcome screen

Rename the original welcome.jpg in case you want to use it again. (Mine is called welcome-old.jpg.)

Copy your new image into the same folder, and call it welcome.jpg To fill the screen, make the new image the same size in pixels as the image it replaces.

Shows PhotoBoothImages folder with custom welcome.jpg in DSLR Remote Pro 3.11.4
Paste a new welcome.jpg into your PhotoBoothImages folder. This should be the same size (in pixels) as the original (DSLR Remote Pro 3.11.4)

Inactivity timer

To control how long the booth waits before going into standby mode and displaying the welcome screen, adjust the inactivity timer. Go to Advanced Settings, and set the number of seconds you want to wait until the booth goes into standby mode:

Shows how to set the inactivity time in DSLR Remote Pro 3.11.4
Setting the inactivity time in DSLR Remote Pro 3.11.4

Run the booth, wait a while for it to go into idle mode and your welcome screen will be displayed.

Add a welcome screen with a movie

Add your movie to the PhotoBoothImages folder and name it welcome_loop.mp4 if you want the movie to loop, or welcome.mp4 to run it just once.

Note: You need both the background image ( welcome.jpg) as well as the animation in the PhotoboothImages folder. The background image is often plain black (mirror booths) or a copy of the first frame of your movie. It may appear briefly before the animation starts running.

PhotoBoothImages folder with attraction movie
Here a movie called welcome_loop.mp4 has been added to the PhotoBoothImages folder (DSLR Remote Pro 3.11.4)

That’s it! Start DSLR Remote Pro and check everything is working. You will need to wait for the inactivity timer to kick in before you see your video.

Finer details

What happens if my video is smaller than the screen?

If your video is smaller than your screen, it will be displayed in the center of the screen with your welcome.jpg behind it:

Showing video small than screen in Breeze DSLR Remote Pro 3.11.4
Here the attraction video is smaller than the screen (DSLR Remote Pro 3.11.4)

Can I add GIFs, sound and .MOV movies?

Yes. See the program help files for details

Can I customize the other screens in my booth?

Yes, you can customize most other screens in the same way. Replace the original screen in your PhotoBoothImages folder with another still (.jpg), add a movie (.mp4 or .mov) or GIF file with the same name. For more details, see

Does this work for magic mirrors?

Yes. To add animations and sound to magic mirrors include them in your PhotoBoothImages folder in the same way.

Where can I find animations for my booth/mirror?

There are lots of sources of animations on the web. These are some of the vendors who offer animations and complete Breeze themes for photo booths and mirrors

The movie used here was sourced from Text in Motion , who add your text to their own videos. (Thanks Bob Hajvert for spotting this supplier.)

Breeze Systems is not responsible for the content of external sites.

© Breeze Systems October 2018

Breeze Booth, DSLR Remote Pro, Quick Tips, Troubleshooting, Webcam Photobooth

Aargh! My booth has forgotten it’s settings

It’s great to hear that many more of you are using profiles. One common problem we come across runs something like this

I have been using profiles to do [… wonderful things I could never offer before]. Today I am running a different event, but whenever I start the program/each group of guests finish their session it goes back to the old settings. What is wrong?

When you use profiles you may have checked the boxes to load default profiles at start up/ after each session / when the program starts. You need to uncheck these boxes when you no longer want to use these proflies.

When you don’t want to use profiles for an event follow these steps:

DSLR Remote Pro

1. Start DSLR Remote Pro and select Advanced Settings

2.Go to the Profiles setting screen

3.Default loaded at startup and after each shooting sequence should be set to None

4. Load default profile when launching DSLR Remote Pro should be unchecked.

5&6.Remember to save your changes in both the Profiles screen and Advanced Settings

Webcam Photobooth

Click on File then Profiles settings to access the Profiles screen (Breeze Webcam Photobooth 2.4)

1.Start Webcam Photobooth and select Profile Settings…

Controlling whether profiles are loaded automatically in Breeze Webcam Photobooth 2.4

2.Set Default profile loaded at startup and after each shooting sequence to None

3.Click on OK to save your changes

Learn more about profiles

Getting started with profiles blog post

Using profiles with tokens

More on using profiles in DSLR Remote Pro

More on using profiles in Webcam Photobooth

 

Breeze Booth, Breeze Booth Event Editor, Breeze Booth for iPad, Breeze Hub, Breeze Kiosk, DSLR Remote Pro, Hotfolder Prints, Multi-Camera, Video tutorial, Webcam Photobooth

Breeze Tokens – your new best friend

Powerful, surprisingly simple, logical.  In this video tutorial Steve  introduces Breeze tokens and explains how they can be your new best friend.

Steve takes you through how to

  • Make life easier for your staff setting up events
  • Make life simpler – automate folder naming for different events
  • Collect data about guest choices for corporate clients
  • Group images by team name, zip code or other attribute chosen by your client
  • Automatically group images into different folders based on response to survey questions
  •  GDPR/ privacy  – split images into different folders based on guest consent
  • GDPR/privacy  – label images to show whether guests consent to using them for different uses

This tutorial focuses on DSLR Remote Pro  3.11.1 . Breeze tokens can also be used in Breeze Booth for iPad, DSLR Remote Pro Multi-Camera, Hotfolder Prints, Breeze Kiosk and Webcam Photobooth.

The following notes are intended as a quick reference to some of the details in the video.

Some of the Breeze DSLR Remote Pro tokens used in this tutorial

Event tokens are special tokens which can be shared between different Breeze programs running on the same PC. They include the event name {eventName} , and several print counters.

Note: Tokens are case sensitive.

Print layouts

Tokens can be used to print information like today’s date less 8 hours {dateLess8h}) without editing the print layout each time it is used.

Why ‘date less 8 hours’? Use when events run past midnight, but you don’t want the images created after midnight to be stored under a different date. If your booths are always fast asleep before midnight you can use  %d or %L token instead

Print template names

{printTemplateName} can be used in the folder path for images captured at an event.

Combining tokens with profiles

{photoboothSubdir} can be used to sort images into folders based on guest choices

Tokens for data collection surveys

DSLR Remote Pro surveys can have multiple screens each with multiple questions

{survey1_text1} stores the text a guest enters in response to the first question on the first survey screen

Information screens containing detailed information such as a Privacy Statement ot Terms and Conditions can also be added in DSLR Remote Pro 3.11.1 and later releases.

Tokens for check box surveys

Example of a checkbox survey used to obtained consent to specific uses of images taken in a booth. Breeze DSLR Remote Pro 3.11.1

In this example {survey1_chkbox1} will contain the value 1 if the first box (live feed) is checked, or 0 if it is not checked.

{survey1_chkbox2} will contain the value 1 if the second box (use for advertising) is checked, or 0 if it is not checked.

Check box surveys can also have multiple questions over several screens.

Friendly names for folders and images based on check box surveys

Example of separating images into two folders – one for images where guests have agreed that they are shared in a live feed, the other for images where guests have declined this.

Tokens can be included in the pathname for the follder where images are stored during an event. In this example images are separated into two download folders based on the guest’s answer to the live feed question in the survey. (DSLR Remote Pro 3.11.1)

DSLR Remote Pro creates the folders and stores images in appropriate folders as they are created

Take this further

Download DSLR Remote Pro

For a full list of tokens see the help files for each program:

Print counters : DSLR Remote Pro 3.11 introduces tokens for accessing the print counters : {printQuotaUsed},{printCounterEvent} and {printCounterLocal}. Print counters can be used to automate a photo booth with a fixed print quota e.g. by loading a “share only” profile when the print quota has been used.. They can also be displayed in print captions.

Breeze Booth, DSLR Remote Pro, Getting started, Webcam Photobooth

Getting started: choosing a computer for your photo booth

February 2022: The information in this post has been replaced by a website page here

November 2021: Updated post to confirm support for Windows 11 as well as Windows 10 and Windows 8.

Breeze software is very efficient. DSLR Remote Pro aka Breeze Booth ( Windows+DSLR) and Webcam Photobooth both run on low powered Windows computers running Windows 11, 10 and 8. 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, use AI background removal or 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 contactless operation, 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.

Background Removal, Green screen and burst GIFS

A more powerful PC will process background removal, 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.

Breeze Booth for iPad

This post covers our Windows based Breeze Booth software, DSLR Remote Pro and Webcam Photobooth. Find out more about Breeze Booth for iPad

Which DSLR camera is best?

Learn more here

DSLR Remote Pro, Getting started, Prints, Webcam Photobooth

How to import print templates into Breeze DSLR Remote Pro

Leave a comment

This post explains how to import readymade templates into Breeze DSLR Remote Pro 3.9.1. Webcam Photobooth 2.4 works in a smilar way.

I have used one of the free templates kindly provided by SMOVE as an example. Import your own templates in the same way.

There are two main ways to import layouts into DSLR Remote Pro.

  • Drag and drop the template directly into DSLR Remote Pro (best for single templates).
  • Copy the templates into your template folder, then import each template into DSLR Remote Pro using the Print Layout Editor when you need it (more effective for collections of templates).

First set up your printer

If necessary, download and install the printer drivers to your computer.

This example will import a 6” x 4” (15cm x 10cm) print layout. Before you start you need to load the printer with 6” by 4“media and set it to 300dpi.

Put the print template(s) into an accessible folder

Whether you download print layouts from a third-party website or copy them from another computer they need to be kept in folder(s) accessible to your booth computer.

In this post I will copy the template into the template folder on my PC. You may prefer to store templates in Dropbox or another cloud-based system accessible to multiple booths.

Download the photo booth layout  and open zipped files

In this example I am using a 6” x4” template with a 1 +3 layout.

To copy this example  on your own computer, download this template from the Breeze website at http://www.breezesys.com/Photobooth/templates6x4.php

Copy the templates to your templates folder

Copy the zipped file to another folder to unzip it. I have copied the file to my templates folder Sue Photobooth Print Templates which is in the same directory as my PhotoboothImages Folder.

Start DSLR Remote Pro and run the Photobooth Setup Wizard

At Step 3

1. Check the printer is set correctly.

2. Choose the print layout closest to the template you are using

3. Click on <Finish>

If you look at the Print Layout Editor now you will see the default 1 + 3 print layout. (Cancel to leave the Layout Editor).

Drag and drop into DSLR Remote Pro

DSLR Remote Pro allows you to drag and drop a print layout into the main screen or into the Print Layout Editor

Shows dragging and dropping a print template into Breeze DSLR Remote Pro 3.9.1
Drag and drop a print layout template into Breeze DSLR Remote Pro 3.9.1 main screen

Shows dragging and dropping a print template into DSLR Remote Pro 3.9.1
Drag and drop a print layout template into Breeze DSLR Remote Pro 3.9.1 Print Layout Editor (also works for Webcam Photbooth 2.4)

You will be asked to confirm whether you want to import the template:

Shows Print Template import confirmation window DSLR Remote Pro 3.9.1
Print Template import confirmation window DSLR Remote Pro 3.9.1

Select Yes and the Print Layout Editor will display the template you imported.

Customize and save the revised template

First save a backup copy of the original layout using Export Layout, then customize the layout to meet your needs. This post does not explain how to use the Print Layout Editor; you can find detailed instructions here. In this example I will change the caption.

Editing a caption in the Print Layout Editor DSLR Remote Pro 3.9.1
Editing a caption in the Print Layout Editor DSLR Remote Pro 3.9.1

The changes are shown immediately in the Print Layout Editor.

When you have finished customising the print layout, export the template to save it.

Alternative:  Use the Print Layout Editor to import templates

There is an alternative to dragging and dropping templates into DSLR Remote Pro. You can copy templates into a folder accessible to your booth, then import the template you need  using the Import Layout (1) button in the Print Layout Editor.

Importing a layout into the Print Layout Editor DSLR Remote Pro 391
Importing a layout into the Print Layout Editor DSLR Remote Pro 3.9.1 (also works with Webcam Photobooth 2.4)

(2) Select the folder containing your layout(s), and then the layout you want to import. (3) Click on  OK to import the layout into the Print Layout Editor. You can edit and save the customized template as before.

Notes

Webcam Photobooth users need to select the “DSLR template compatibility” option at Step 3 of the Photobooth Setup Wizard to use templates designed for DSLR Remote Pro.

Selecting DSLR template compatiblity mode Webcam Photobooth 2.4
Selecting DSLR template compatiblity mode using the Setup Wizard in Webcam Photobooth 2.4 S

Zipped files: many templates are downloaded or copied as zipped (compressed) files, which need to be unzipped before they can be used. The example here uses a zipped file downloaded from the Breeze website.

Printer drivers: you may need to download and install drivers for your printer to the computer you are using.

Using a second computer to edit print layouts. You do not need to create and edit print layouts on the booth computer. Keep a copy of DSLR Remote Pro on an office computer to design, customize and edit your print layouts; export them from the program and either store them somewhere accessible to your booths, or copy the complete layouts to each booth computer.

Download DSLR Remote Pro and try this for yourself

Copyright Breeze Systems Ltd 2018