Category Archives: Screens

New Tutorial – changing the colors of Breeze keyboard screens

Breeze apps offer unparalled creative control over what guests see and experience at your booth and sharing kiosks.

I’ve just added a new tutorial to the website to help DSLR Remote Pro, Kiosk and Webcam Photobooth users change the colors of the keyboard screens used for email and text based sharing.

Find Changing the colors of keyboard screens here

 

 

© Breeze Systems 2022

A Different Angle – Shooting in Portrait

Many photo booth operators ask how to shoot in portrait with DSLR Remote Pro,  so I have added a new tutorial for mirror booth users and others shooting in portrait. This tutorial takes you through

  • shooting in portrait
  • portrait oriented screens
  • portrait oriented prints and GIFs
  • touch free mirror and portrait booths
  • using the reprint selection screen in portrait

Read Shooting in Portrait with DSLR Remote Pro

Mirror booths usually shoot portrait oriented images

This has been a long few months and it is great that events are restarting at least for some of us.

Make sure you are ready. If DSLR Remote Pro is new to you, please download a copy and try it for yourself. There is no charge for the first two weeks. If you have an older license and would like to try v3.15.1 before committing to buying the upgrade, please email me at sales@breezesys.com including your current registration.

DSLR Remote Pro 3.15.1 is a free upgrade for all registered users who purchased DSLR Remote Pro after 13th May 2019. Customers with older licenses need to buy an upgrade license to use this release.

Download DSLR Remote Pro    Buy DSLR Remote Pro

Make your own booth touch free

Featured image Overlay courtesy of SMOVE

© Breeze Systems 2020

 

 

New tutorial: printing from the DSLR Remote Pro Sharing Screen

Check out the new tutorial explaining how to print from the sharing screen in Booth (DSLR + Windows) aka DSLR Remote Pro.

This is a great way to streamline the booth workflow when your guests choose whether to print and/or email their photos.  The tutorial also covers limiting the number of prints, customizing the text on the sharing screen and adjusting the preview image for best effect.

Find How to print from the sharing screen here.

Note: Webcam  users can also use the setup wizard to print from the sharing screen.

Breeze Booth (DSLR + Windows) aka DSLR Remote Pro is a highly configurable, yet simple to use photo booth application, easy to configure for small operators and scalable for organisations running hundreds of photo booths across multiple cities and countries. Learn more and try for yourself.

© Breeze Systems  April 2020

Custom captions in DSLR Remote Pro

There’s a new tutorial for DSLR Remote Pro users on the Breeze website explaining how  to customize the text on your photo booth screens.

For simple ways to

  • change the text seen by guests,
  • remove captions you don’t need,
  • create caption sets in any language,
  • customize the captions in pre-designed themes, and
  • create custom captions for your clients without making work for yourself

.. check out the new tutorial for Booth (DSLR + Windows) / DSLR Remote Pro users here

Stay safe,

Sue & Chris

© Breeze Systems April 2020

Adding privacy statements, T & C, and other information screens to your booth

There’sa new tutorial for DSLR Remote Pro users on the website explaining how to add privacy statements, Terms and Conditions or other information pages to the booth. Find it here

Sue

© Breeze Systems 2020

DSLR Remote Pro 3.14.2 supports new PowerShot cameras with 120fps slow motion

What’s new in v3.14.2?

  • Support for two new Canon PowerShot cameras G5 X Mark II and G7 X Mark III
  • Photo booth printing now automatically bleeds both the background and overlay to fill the printable area
  • Optional gray background to frames and emoji/stamps on the drawing/signing screen
  • New monochrome icon set on the signing and drawing screen
  • Video playback window is hidden until the video starts playing

Support for new PowerShot cameras

Many long time photo boothers loved the simplicity, compact size and automatic zoom of Canon PowerShot cameras. Sadly Canon stopped making suitable PowerShot models for over 10 years.  We are delighted to  add support for the new PowerShot G5 X Mark II and G7 X Mark III to DSLR Remote Pro.

These compact cameras both offer 120 frames/second slow motion capture at 720p and 1080p, as well as a power zoom.

Note: The PowerShot G5 X Mark II, G7 X Mark III and SX70 HS have no hot shoe so it is difficult to trigger flash. Watch out for more details about their pros and cons for photo booth use soon.

Automatic bleed for print background and overlay

You no longer need to oversize print layouts to allow for printer positioning. DSLR Remote Pro 3.14.2 will automatically bleed print background and overlay (background.jpg and overlay.jpg) to fill the printable area.

For example classic  dye sub. 6″ by 4″ prints at 300 dpi can now be sized 1800 by 1200 pixels.

‘Old style’ oversized print layouts eg 1844 by 1240 pixels will still work.

Optional gray background to frames and emoji/stamps on the drawing/signing screen

To display white frames and emoji, switch to a new mid gray background on the signing and drawing screen. The icons to the left of this screen are now monochrome on a white background.

Frames and emoji can be shown on a gray or white background in Breeze DSLR Remote Pro 3.14.2

Note: You can also use your own icons on this screen or keep using the original colored set if you prefer.

More about customizing this screen.

Hiding the video playback window until the video starts playing

This upgrade prevents a blank window appearing while a screen animation is loading.

Fixes

DSLR Remote Pro 3.14.2 also includes fixes for

  • issue loading ‘profile X + start‘ touch screen action when there is a looping ready screen animation
  • using filenames to position GIF and MP4 animations ( only affected v3.14 and 3.14.1).

More details

Upgrade to DSLR Remote Pro 3.14.2 today

DSLR Remote Pro 3.14.2 is a free upgrade for all registered users who purchased DSLR Remote Pro after 22th October 2018. Customers with older licenses need to buy an upgrade license to use this release.

Download DSLR Remote Pro    Buy DSLR Remote Pro

Do share this post with others who may find it useful.

© Breeze Systems 2019

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

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

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):

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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

Build your own iPad events with Event Editor 1.1

Update June 2020: This post is out of date. Please see Getting started with Breeze Booth for iPad

This post explains how to create and edit your own  events for Breeze Booth for iPad using the Breeze Booth Event Editor 1.1 on a Windows PC, and covers

  • what’s new in this release
  • first steps : how to download, install and run the Event Editor on your PC
  • loading events into the event editor
  • cloning an event as a start point for a custom design
  • portrait and landscape events
  • editing an event
  • transferring events to your iPad(s)

Breeze Booth Event Editor v1.1 works with Breeze Booth for iPad beta build 25, and was released on February 16th, 2019

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.

Do join the beta program and explore Breeze Booth for iPad before using the editor. Play with ‘Designer‘ (the first event) to get a feel for what you can achieve with Breeze Booth for iPad.

New in this release…

Easier editing – you will find it much simpler to load events into the Editor, copy them and save your work.

  • Simpler cloning of events
  • Ability to import events from elsewhere
  • Improved event format
  • Simpler manifest regeneration

Chris has also added the ability to set up both initial and default profiles for an event, & load profiles from menu 1 or menu 2

Download and install Breeze Booth Event Editor & sample events

Event Editor runs on a Windows 10, 8 or 7 computer. Download it from here.

You will also automatically download Breeze Hub and the designs  for nine  sample events. When you install the event  editor, these events will automatically be saved in your Documents folder C:\Users\…\Documents\Breeze Booth for iPad\events

The Breeze Booth Event Editor installer has created this folder of sample events. C:\Users\sue\Documents\Breeze Booth for iPad\events

There is a sub-folder for each sample  event, and a file called events.xml which you need to open in the Event Editor:

Run Breeze Booth Event Editor

Start the Event Editor, and select Open.

Starting Breeze Booth Event Editor 1.1 for the first time

Load the list of existing events by selecting events.xml in C:\Users\…\Documents\Breeze Booth for iPad\events

Select events.xml to load the list of events into Breeze Booth Event Editor

Initial list of sample events displayed in BBEE

List of sample events loaded into Breeze Booth Event Editor 1.1(This list was created from the events.xml file we opened)

The first event is called Designer and showcases many of the features included with Breeze Booth for iPad.  You are welcome to use this design (or parts of it) with Breeze Booth for iPad at your own events.

The remaining 8 events are much simpler. They are intended to help you create your own designs.

This post will show you how to copy one of these simple events (Photos with virtual props) and edit it for your own use.

Photos with virtual props takes one photo and shares it on a custom background. Guests choose between 3 virtual props. They can also choose whether to shoot in color, B&W, sepia, comic effect or using a filter. The photo can be shared by email .

Cloning ‘Photos with virtual props’

Right click on Photos with virtual props and select Clone Event…

Right click on an event to clone it

You can change the name, description and folder name of the new event:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Editing an event

Portrait, landscape or both?

Breeze Booth for iPad lets guests switch between portrait and landscape orientation on the fly (great for roaming booths like the Ring Roamer).  My virtual props event can  be used in both portrait and landscape orientation, so has designs for both.

If you will always run an event in the same orientation, you don’t need to create both designs.

Open My virtual props

Select My virtual props… and check Edit event…

We will just edit the portrait version of My virtual props event today. Click on the portrait  Edit button:

This brings us to the Photo Booth Settings screen, where you can start to customize your design

Tabs on Photo Booth Settings screen (Breeze Both for iPad build 20)

The original Photos with virtual props takes one photo and shares it on a colored background with a custom logo. Guests choose between 3 virtual props. They can also choose whether to shoot in color, B&W, sepia, comic effect or using a filter. The photo can be shared by email .

We are going to change My virtual props event to

  • take 2 square photos
  • remove the branded background print layout
  • add a new background color, 2 logos* and a caption to the print layout
  • create a slideshow GIF from the 2 photos
  • customize the wording of the email
  • share the slideshow GIF instead of the print layout

*You can add up to 5 different png or jpg logos to each print layout in addition to the background and overlay. This is a simple way of branding a design for a particular event, and can also be used as a quick way to add an image of the bride and groom (taken earlier in the day) to wedding photo booths.

Photo Booth Settings Screen

The Photo Booth Settings Screen is displayed for the profile you selected.  It has 5 tabs : General, Photos, Slideshow GIFs, Burst GIFs, and Share. You can access powerful editors  to design your screens, prints and GIFs from these settings.

Photo Booth Settings – General tab

11) Change the aspect ratio of the photos to square

Breeze booth Event Editor Phoot Booth Settings General tab
Changing the photo aspect ratio to square (Breeze booth Event Editor)

You can find a full list of Breeze Booth for iPad screens here

Photo Booth Settings – Photos tab

12) Change the number of photos to 2

13) Change the countdown text color to black

14) Open the Print Layout Editor

Breeze Booth Event Editor Photo Booth Settings Photos tab
Changing the number of photos, color of countdown text and opening the Print Layout editor in Breeze Booth Event Editor

Print Layout Editor

Use the Print layout editor to customize your prints. In the slideshow below I will:

15) Remove the branded background

16) Add a new background color to the print

17) Change the printed photo to a square

18) Right click on the background to add the second photo

19) Resize and reposition the two photos

20) Add the two logos

21) Right click on the background to add a caption, then right click again to edit it

22) Save my changes

Note: You can add up to 5 different JPG or PNG logos to a print

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Photo Booth Settings – Slideshow GIFs tab

Check Create animated GIF,... to create an animated GIF from the two photos

Breeze Booth Event Editor Photo Booth Settings Slideshow GIFs tab
Creating a slideshow GIF from the photos

Photo Booth Settings – Share tab

23) Check Share slideshow first to share the GIF instead of a print layout

24) Open the slideshow email editor to customize the message

Breeze Botoh for iPad Photo Booth Settings Share tab
Telling Breeze Booth for iPad to share the slideshow GIF

 

Breeze Booth Event Editor altering email content
Breeze Booth Event Editor email editor for slideshow GIFs

Change the subject and email text. You can use Breeze tokens (25) in emails

Before you leave the event editor….

When you have finished editing the event, check OK to save all your changes.

Add an extra countdown GIF and sharing screen to the asset folder

The new event includes has two photos instead of one so we need a second countdown GIF 2.gif . We also need a screen called share_slideshow.jpg to share the new slideshow GIF.

I have copied the existing 1.gif and share.jpg screens to 2.gif and share_slideshow.jpg in C:\Users\sue\Documents\Breeze Booth for iPad\events\My virtual props event\portrait

Content of C:\Users\sue\Documents\Breeze Booth for iPad\events\My virtual props event\portrait
C:\Users\sue\Documents\Breeze Booth for iPad\events\My virtual props event\portrait showing 2.gif and share_slideshow.jpg

When you make any changes to this folder you must also go back to the Breeze Booth Event Editor, open the event and regenerate the manifests

Closing the Event Editor

If you make any changes to your events, the Event Editor will prompt you to save changes to your events.xml folder. It is important that you select Yes to save the changes you have made and update the manifest.

Copying events from a PC to your iPads

There are currently 3 ways to copy events from your PC to an iPad:

Method 1: Sync via Dropbox

This is covered in a separate post Syncing events with Dropbox

Method 2: Sync via a secure https web server

Upload the events folder 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 this folder. 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.
Sample events are available by setting the sync server to https://bb4ipad.com/sync in the iPad’s app settings.

Method 3: Copy the files via iCloud

Copy the event folder to a folder on iCloud that is visible on the iPad. Then use the Files app to copy the files to Breeze Booth for iPad’s assets folder.

Printing your photos

You can print using AirPrint or Breeze Hub

Breeze Booth for iPad Settings screen
Using AirPrint to print directly from Breeze Booth for iPad

25) To print directly from the iPad connect up your printer ( which must support AirPrint) and choose Print using Airprint on the Breeze Booth for iPad Settings screen

26) To print using a Windows PC you need Breeze Hub.  Choose Connect to Breeze Hub on the Breeze Booth or iPad Settings screen

Summary

This post has taken you through downloading and installing both the Breeze Booth Event Editor and a set of sample events onto a Windows PC.  I have also shown how to create your own event based on one of the samples provided by Breeze, and outlined ways to transfer new and updated events to your iPads. Finally there are short notes about printing using Airprint and a Windows PC.

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

Thanks,

Sue

© Breeze Systems 2019