Category Archives: Quick Tips

DSLR Remote Pro, Getting started, Quick Tips, Webcam Photobooth

Adding a hidden exit to your booth

How do I add a secret button to exit the booth?

It’s important that guests cannot exit your photo booth screens, but you need a controlled way out.

When the booth has a keyboard attached just hit the Escape key from the Breeze Ready screen.

To exit using the touch screen, you need a hidden button. Ideally combine this with password protection.

Adding the secret button and password

This page explains how to add a hidden exit to both DSLR Remote Pro and Webcam Photobooth. Add the exit command to your touch screen settings.

Getting to the touchscreen settings in DSLR Remote Pro

Accessing touch screen settings  (1) and adding your password (6) (DSLR Remote Pro 3.15.2)

Getting to the touchscreen settings in Webcam Photobooth

Accessing touch screen settings  (1) and adding your password (6) (Webcam Photobooth)

(1) Start the program and go to the touch screen settings for your Ready screen. There will be a short pause before you see the next screen:

Adding an Exit button to the Ready screen (DSLR Remote Pro 3.15.2)

Right click anywhere on this screen to show the current screen and add new actions.

Actions make something happen when the screen is touched in a particular area. This screen already has actions to start the booth and switch between color and black & white. We are going to add a new action to exit the Ready screen.

(2) Select Add Action

(3) Choose the action Exit Full screen photobooth from the drop down list

(4) Drag and drop the action to a convenient location. Use an empty corner of your screen for hidden buttons. Guests won’t see them but you and your staff will find them easily.

(5) Right click again and choose Exit

6) Add a password in case a guest guesses the location of your button, or touches it by mistake.

Remember to save your changes as you leave each screen.

What this looks like in practice

Your Ready screen looks exactly the same, there is no clue that the button exists:

Ready screen with no sign of hidden exit (Breeze DSLR Remote Pro 3.15.2)
The same screen showing the location of the hidden exit

Anyone finding the secret button the can’t exit the booth  without knowing the exit password I added at (6) .

To exit the booth you also need to know the exit password (Breeze DSLR Remote Pro 3.15.2)

Adding other actions to your screens

Touch screen actions are powerful tools which give Breeze programs enormous flexibility. Use them to access the reprint selection screen, an information or T&C screen, add choices using profiles and much more.

Guests often ask for an extra print after their session has finished. DSLR Remote Pro includes options to display a reprint selection screen. Link to this screen using the Display Reprint Selection Screen action

© Breeze Systems 2020

Hotfolder Prints, Quick Tips, Tutorial

Tethered Shooting at Santa’s Grotto

Did you know Santa’s elves are enthusiastic users of Breeze Hotfolder? We know  Santa’s especially busy, because they needed several more copies this year.

The latest Breeze tutorial takes you through adding seasonal overlays and backgrounds to your prints when you shoot tethered this holiday season. This tutorial explains how to

  • add overlay and/or background to the photos before printing
  • automatically switch between portrait and landscape print layouts
  • choose from automatic printing or saving print layouts to print later

Fins the tutorial here

Sue

© Breeze Systems December 2019

Animated GIFs, Multi-Camera, Quick Tips

Speedier MP4 creation with Multi-Camera 2.1

Did you know that Breeze Multi-Camera v2.1 introduced an option for the Multi-Camera Animator to use Microsoft MediaWriter instead of ffmpeg to create MP4 videos?

  • Microsoft MediaWriter libraries are much faster
  • ffmpeg libraries are more flexible and still appropriate for some applications

For more information see the online manual

Try for yourself

Multi-Camera 2.1 is a free upgrade for all registered users who purchased Multi-Camera (previously called DSLR Remote Pro Multi-Camera) after 28th November 2017. Customers with older licenses need to buy an upgrade license to use this release.

New to Multi-Camera? Just download a copy of the program and try it for free. You can run the program with up to 4 cameras for 2 weeks on the fully functional evaluation license.

Download Multi-Camera                Buy Multi-Camera

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

© Breeze Systems 2019

DSLR Remote Pro, Prints, Quick Tips

Adding guest names to prints with DSLR Remote Pro

Several of you want to include guests names on DSLR Remote Pro prints. This post shows you how.

You can either start from an existing design, or run the setup wizard to create something completely new. You then need to

  1. Create a keyboard where guests are prompted to type in their names
  2. Choose whether to enter names before or after taking the photos
  3. Add a caption to your print layout showing the name

Updates 21 August 2019

  • Reprint note: Fast reprint runs off a copy of the original print layout (with the data guests have already entered )
  • Post updated to correct error adding guest details after taking photos.

Create the keyboard where guests enter their names

Go to Advanced Settings and select the Touchscreen Settings screen

On this screen, click the Test Keyboard button, then choose Message keyboard from the dropdown menu

The Touchscreen Settings screen is accessed from Advanced Settings as here (DSLR Remote Pro 3.14.1)

Hold down the Shift and Ctrl keys and left click your mouse.

This will save five files to your photo booth images folder: message_keyboard.xml, message_keyboard_lowercase.tif, message_keyboard_lowercase_pressed.tif, message_keyboard_uppercase.tif, message_keyboard_uppercase_pressed.tif

PhotoboothImages folder highlighting the 4 tif files you need to delete and the xml file you need to rename

Go to your PhotoboothImages folder and

  • delete these 4 tif files
  • rename message_keyboard.xml as keyboard.xml 

My PhotoboothImages folder then looks like this:

PhotoboothImages folder after deleting and renaming files

Now open keyboard.xml in a text editor such as Microsoft Notepad (which comes free with Windows 10) and change the wording of the prompt from Please enter your message to Please enter your name (or whatever text you prefer).

Original keyboard.xml prompt
Original prompt text in keyboard.xml
Revised prompt text in keyboard.xml

Save your changes and close the text editor.

The edited version of keyboard.xml will build a touchscreen keyboard looking like this:

Keyboard screen for guests to type in their name. (The new prompt has been highlighted)

Advanced users: may wish to make other changes to the xml to customize this screen. See Collecting both guest names and a message below for an example.

Choose whether guests enter their names before or after taking the photos

You can control whether guests type in their names before or after taking the photos. Just select Email input at start of sequence  or Email input after taking photos on the Touchscreen settings screen as below

Use the drop down menu to choose whether guests type in their names before or after taking the photos (DSLR Remote Pro 3.14.1 Touchscreen settings screen)

Extra screen when collecting guest data after taking photos

If you choose to collect the information after the photos are taken, you need to add an extra screen to your PhotoboothImages folder called keyboard_input_ok.jpg. This will be displayed for a short time after guests enter their data and hit OK.

You can create this screen by taking a copy of a blank screen such as taking.jpg and renaming the copy.

Showing keyboard_input_ok.jpg screen in PhotoboothImages folder

So far we have created a screen for guests to enter their names. Now we need to adapt your print layout to add these names.

Add a caption to your print layout which displays these names on the print

Open the Print Layout Editor and right click anywhere on the print. Select Add caption

Right click anywhere on the print to add your caption ( DSLR Remote Pro 3.14.1 Print Layout Editor)

To display the guests names, your caption must include the token {user1_data}. Adjust the font, color, position and angle of the caption as usual:

Caption text including the token {user1_data}

When you run the booth the name(s) guests enter will replace {user1_data}

In this example the guests type Josie & Pete …

 

… and their names are included in the print

You can combine these dynamic captions with the signing and drawing screen, including the ability for guests to choose the picture frame

Guests can add also stamps, emoji &/or frames, as well as draw or sign on prints (DSLR Remote Pro 3.14.1)

Learn more

I have shown you how to add each guest’s name to prints. Taking this a bit further

Collecting both guest names and a message

Thanks to Caroline & Josh www.giggleandriot.com for allowing us to use these lovely examples

To collect more information such as a message make these changes to keyboard.xml:

  1. Make room to collect a second data item
  2. Add a second prompt and data field, 
  3. Change the background color of the screen.
  4. To display the extra information on the print add a caption including {user2_data} to the print layout
Here I have edited keyboard.xml to (1) Make room to collect a second data item (2) Add a second prompt and data field, and (3) change the background color of the screen. To display the extra data on the print add a caption including {user2_data} to the print layout

Useful links

Try for yourself

Download DSLR Remote Pro       Buy DSLR Remote Pro

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

Breeze Booth, Breeze Booth Event Editor, Creator, Getting started, Quick Tips

Creating events from scratch: Breeze Booth Event Editor 1.2

Breeze Booth features the most flexible and powerful interface designer of any iPad software on the market. Use the unique drag and drop Event Editor to create totally custom experiences, complex multi menu systems and engaging data surveys.

Note: Event Editor 1.3 was released on 17th July, and can be downloaded here

Sounds fantastic! Where do I start?

Start by running the new Event Creator in Event Editor 1.2. You can create custom working designs in just three simple steps.

This post runs through

  • downloading and installing Event Editor 1.2
  • creating events from scratch with the Creator
  • cloning existing events
  • transferring events to iOS 12 devices (iPads and iPhones)

Downloading and installing Event Editor 1.2

Create and edit events using Breeze Booth’s powerful Event Editor on any Windows PC running Windows 10, 8, or 7

Download Breeze Booth’s new Event Editor here

Already designed your own events?

When you download Event Editor 1.2, you will also download the latest release of Breeze Hub and the five sample events provided with Breeze Booth. That’s great for beginners.

If you already have event designs you want to keep, we suggest unchecking the box Copy sample events to your Documents folder so that no changes are made to your events folder.

Uncheck Copy sample events … if you don’t want your existing events folder changed

Create your first event

Open the Event Editor and select Create event..

Three step Event creator creates working events for any iPad or iPhone *  using the new Chameleon theme designed by Wilkes Booth Co:

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Once the Creator has built a new event you can transfer it to your devices or use the Event Editor to make further changes.

Cloning existing events

You don’t need to build all your events from scratch. Save yourself time and effort by right clicking on an existing event to clone it:

You can also import complete Breeze Booth events created elsewhere using the Import Event… button.

Right click on any event to clone it (Breeze Booth Event Editor 1.2)

Cloning the sample events

You are welcome to use the sample events we provide with Breeze Booth at live events. To make these events your own, clone them and edit the cloned copy of the event. (You will then have an easy way to start again from the original event.)

Transferring your new event to your iPads and iPhones

Once your design is complete you need to transfer it to your iPads and iPhones.

The simplest way to transfer events to your devices uses Dropbox .  Advanced users may prefer to transfer events via your own website

Take it further

This post scratches the surface of what you can achieve with Breeze Booth. Take a look at the Props and Filters and Surveys sample events for more ideas.

Go ahead – make it yours, make it your clients. Breeze Booth can be re-skinned to make it look like your very own photo booth software. Deploy remote and unattended iPads without fear of clients knowing what software you use. Learn more in the Breeze Booth help files

Summary

We have learned how to use the Creator to build events from scratch, and how to clone these and other events. I have linked to a separate post Syncing Events with Dropbox which demonstrates the simplest way to transfer your events to iPads or iPhones.

Is there a free trial?

You don’t need to buy a license to create events for Breeze Booth . Just download and install Breeze Booth Event Editor 1.2 onto a Windows PC. You can try out Breeze Booth and companion Apps Event Editor and Breeze Hub free of charge.

* Devices must run iOS 12. At time of writing (May 2019) Breeze Booth supports iPad Pro 11 and iPhone X series and well as iPads with 4:3 screens and iPhones with 16:9 screens

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

Sue

Breeze Systems 2019

DSLR Remote Pro, Quick Tips, Screens

Mirror and Pop Art filters in DSLR Remote Pro

Pop Art and mirror effects are a doddle in DSLR Remote Pro. Set up  your booth as usual, copy PhotoboothcreativeFilter.dll into your PhotoboothImages folder, then select the filter you want to use. That’s it!

DSLR Remote Pro 3.13 ships with ten creative filters and six Instagram style filters as standard. This post explains how to use mirror, Pop Art and other filters in still photos, slideshow and boomerang (burst) GIFs.

This post was updated on 2 September 2021 to add a link to the profile tutorial which explains how to build a menu. Use menus to offer guests a choice of filters.

Set up a basic booth

I ran the Photo Booth Setup wizard to create a working booth, and shared slideshow GIFs instead of the print layout.

Copy PhotoboothcreativeFilter.dll into your PhotoboothImages folder

Copy PhotoboothcreativeFilter.dll from your installation folder (usually C:\Program Files (x86)\BreezeSys\DSLR Remote Pro) into your PhotoboothImages folder

Copying PhotoboothcreativeFilter.dll from C:\Program Files (x86)\BreezeSys\DSLR Remote Pro

 

Just paste PhotoboothcreativeFilter.dll into your PhotoboothImages folder

Connect your camera and choose a filter

Start the booth and DSLR Remote Pro will display the default filter (color negative).

Color negative filter (Breeze DSLR Remote Pro 3.13)

Type Ctrl+Shift+C to display the setup page and choose one of the mirror filters:

Drop down list of creative filters. DSLR Remote Pro 3.13 introduces mirroring and an ‘off’ setting.

 

Selecting one of the creative filters in DSLR Remote Pro

You are away! Here are a few examples of mirroring, Pop Art and Posterized effects:

Left/right mirroring

Left/right mirroring GIF in DSLR Remote Pro (new in Breeze DSLR Remote Pro 3.13)

Top/bottom mirroring

Square images on a square print with top/bottom mirroring (new in Breeze DSLR Remote Pro 3.13)

Two by two mosaic

Create multiple reflections with the two by two mosaic filter (DSLR Remote Pro 3.13)

Pop Art

Breeze gives total control over Pop Art effect colors. This print layout fills a square 6 x 6 print with 4 square images

 

Pop art effect slideshow GIF (Breeze DSLR Remote Pro 3.13)

Posterize

Posterize effect in slideshow GIF (Breeze DSLR Remote Pro)

Switch between filters or turn them off

Type Ctrl+Shift+C on the Ready screen to switch to a different filter or turn them off completely.

Advanced users can offer guests a menu of filters using profiles. This is beyond the scope of this post.

Boomerang (aka burst) GIFs

Set up filters for boomerang GIFs in exactly the same way as for still photos/slideshow GIFs. Guests see the effect of each filter as they pose, not just on their prints and GIFs:

Creative filters work with both photos and boomerang GIFs

Save the current filter for future use

The current filter is automatically saved* for the Photobooth Images folder you are using. When you next load this Photobooth Images folder into DSLR Remote Pro, it will automatically run the same filter.

*Filter settings are saved in the program registry for each Photobooth Images folder.

Where the outputs are stored

Screenshot of subfolders containing outputs from the booth

DSLR Remote Pro gives you a lot of control over where your images are stored. This can be really useful when you want to use a watch folder to share, display or upload images from the booth.   This post explains where DSLR Remote Pro usually places different types of images.

Mirroring filters in portrait

If you shoot in portrait the top/bottom and left/right filters are swapped. The two by two mosaic works but ‘swap top halves’ is not designed for portrait orientation.

Want to know more?

For more details see the DSLR Remote Pro help files.

Add “Instagram style” and custom filters to Webcam Photobooth

Use mirrors and other filters in Breeze Booth (for iPads and iPhones)

Try DSLR Remote Pro 3.13 for yourself

DSLR Remote Pro 3.13 is a free upgrade for all registered users who purchased DSLR Remote Pro after 14th April 2018. Customers with older licenses need to buy an upgrade license to use this release.

Download DSLR Remote Pro Buy DSLR Remote Pro

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

Breeze Systems 2019

Animated GIFs, Breeze Booth, DSLR Remote Pro, Magic Mirror, Quick Tips, Screens

Magic mirrors: shooting boomerang (burst) GIFs without live view

Mirror booths usually do not display the camera’s live view because guests see themselves pose in the mirror.

Breeze DSLR Remote Pro’s support for bespoke interfaces and custom menus makes it a great choice for magic mirrors and photo booths. You can hide the live view whether you are offering still photos, GIFs, slow mo or video booth:

Fusion Booth running DSLR Remote Pro with choice of boomerang GIF, slow motion or photos (Image courtesy of Incredible Booth)

To capture still photos without displaying the live view simply switch it off in Advanced Settings.

Live view unchecked to hide the live view when capturing still images (Breeze DSLR Remote Pro 3.12)

This is great when you want to make slideshow GIFs from a set of still photos.

Breeze boomerang GIFs are captured from the camera’s live view, so when live view is switched off you cannot shoot boomerang GIFs.

Hide the live view

Mirror booth users and others who want to shoot boomerang GIFs without showing the live view need to hide it. There is a simple trick to this – move the live view so that it is no longer displayed on screen. If your screen is 1080 x 1920 pixels, offset the live view by more than this  (In this example I have offset by 2000 pixels in both directions):

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Guests will still see the countdown but not the live view. Magic!

More tips for mirror booths

Breeze DSLR Remote Pro software

Breeze DSLR Remote Pro powers photo booths and mirror booths worldwide. Licenses cost just US $275* each and include one year’s free upgrades. This post shows screenshots from Breeze DSLR Remote Pro 3.12

This Windows based App runs as a fully functional trial for up to 14 days supporting most Canon DSLR cameras and Canon’s mirrorless M50.

Download DSLR Remote Pro and try for yourself

Breeze Systems have no responsibility for the content of external sites

*Price valid for 30 days from 8th April 2019, and exclude any tax due

© Breeze Systems 2019

Quick Tips, Troubleshooting

Why won’t it work?#*! I’m sure the filename is right …

You will often need to add or edit the files in your PhotoboothImages folder when you customize the screens in your booth or mirror. Most of you know that you must name the files you add correctly so that DSLR Remote Pro and other Breeze programs can find them.
If you are sure the filename is right but the program doesn’t seem to see it, check the filename extension.

It is very easy to name a file 1.jpg.jpg by mistake, and Windows makes this hard to spot, because Windows File explorer doesn’t show the extension (.jpg or .avi etc) unless you tell it to.

In this post I will show you how to spot errors more easily:

Always display file name extensions

The first example shows an Icons view of the images for a basic booth set up with the Wizard. I find this visual overview very helpful. If you look at the filenames (highlighted in red) you will see that the .jpg file name extensions are missing:

Typical icon view of PhotoboothImages folder. Windows has hidden the file extensions

The View tab shows you that the File name extensions box is not checked:

Checking this box will reveal the .jpg extensions:

When File name extensions is checked, the .jpg etc extensions are shown

Fascinating – but why does this matter?

If you accidentally name the a file 1.jpg.jpg instead of just 1.jpg it will be very clear when you look at this window:

Here the first image has accidentally been named 1.jpg.jpg

If you cannot see these file extensions this is much easier to miss:

1.jpg.jpg is labelled 1.jpg – very easy to miss!

If you look at the Details view of the same folder this is what you will see:

Again 1.jpg.jpg is labelled 1.jpg
When you force Windows to show the file extension my mistake jumps out

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

© Breeze Systems 2019