A quick note to let you know that Breeze Hotfolder 1.8.3 has been released today.
This release adds the ability to extract a still image from a video, and fixes the issue creating albums which occured when SmugMug changed their API last week.
Breeze Hotfolder Prints
Hotfolder Prints can now monitor a folder for new MP4 or MOVvideos, extract a still image from the video and include this in a print template. More
Breeze SmugMug Uploader
The SmugMug Uploader has also been updated, fixing the issue creating albums which occurred when SmugMug changed their API recently.
Hotfolder 1.8.3 is a free upgrade for all registered users who purchased Hotfolder after 15th September 2021. Customers with older licenses need to buy an upgrade license to use this release.
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
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.
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.
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.
Live uploads of event images to a WordPress microsite
We have had a lot of interest in the new Gallery Uploader included with Hotfolder Prints 1.8. The Gallery Uploader offers realtime uploading of photos, GIFs and videos to online sharing galleries, including Jürgen Mayr’s WordPress Plugin Photobooth Gallery Plugin.
Jürgen has written a tutorial explaining how to upload your event images to a WordPress microsite using the Breeze Gallery Uploader and Photobooth Gallery Plugin. Find the tutorial here.
Thanks Jürgen for allowing us to include this on the Breeze website.
Breeze Partner Information
The ability to upload to third party applications such as the Photobooth Gallery Plugin is subject to each third party concerned continuing to allow such interactions.
These features may cease to function or be removed without notice if the third party concerned no longer allows such interactions, ot changes the method/protocol required.
Breeze Hotfolder Prints 1.8 (released on Monday) includes a new Gallery Uploader, and the ability to add logos to prints.
What is Breeze Hotfolder?
Hotfolder is a suite of invaluable tools for event photographers and photo booth operators. From tools that help format images, to specialist hashtag monitors and image uploaders, each tool is designed to save the user time and stress when it comes to managing a large batch of images.
Hotfolder monitors a folder for incoming images (JPEG and PNG), then automatically formats them for printing, saving and/or emailing. Images can be sourced from a tethered camera, a cloud drive (Dropbox etc), shared network folder or a folder on your PC.
New Gallery Uploader
Icon for the new Gallery Uploader
Realtime uploading of photos, GIFs and videos to online sharing galleries
Logos provide a quick and easy way to add graphics to prints without using an image editor such as Photoshop. PNG and JPEG logos can be imported, moved, resized and rotated just like photos in the print layout.
For a quick video tour of the Print Layout Editor look here. NB To find Hotfolder’s Print layout editor start the program, go to Preferences, then select Custom LayoutSettings.
Breeze Hotfolder 1.8 Preferences window showing link to Print Layout Editor
New tokens
{dateLess8h} prints today’s date less 8 hours
{captionNoURL} is used for extracting Twitter captions without the trailing URL
Why ‘date less 8 hours’? Use this token when events run past midnight, but you don’t want the images created after midnight to be stored under a different date.
SmugMug Uploader improvements
Improved handling of login access tokens
New option to save settings to file
Try for yourself
Hotfolder Prints 1.8 is a free upgrade for all registered users who purchased Hotfolder after 9th September 2018. Customers with older licenses need to buy an upgrade license to use this release.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. Do share the post with others who may find it useful.
Partner information
The ability to upload to and download from third party applications such as SmugMug, Twitter and Instagram is subject to each third party concerned continuing to allow such interactions.
These features are tested before they are released but may cease to function or be removed without notice if the third party concerned no longer allows such interaction, or changes the method/protocol required.
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
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
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.
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
{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
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.
Thanks to all who came to the stand and listened to Chris’s presentation at the first UK Photo Booth Show. We had an amazing time catching up with old friends and making new ones.
The Breeze stand focused on three industry trends: animated GIFs, 3D activations, and magic mirrors.
DSLR Remote Pro appeared in multiple guises on several stands. It was beautifully complemented by a Wilkes booth and ran the magic mirrors on our own stand and at I Love Photobooth; partnered with Breeze Kiosk at Everybooth; and powered green screen software at Incredible Booth.
Andrew Bliesner’s professionalism, knowledge of our software and willingness to share his experience and tips with visitors was fantastic. The screen and GIF designs were adapted from Breeze Themes at Wilkes Photobooth ‘The Lab’. Thanks Andrew and Steve!
Activations creating 3D GIFs are are increasingly popular; and Breeze software is trusted by many industry leading operators to provide ‘bullet time’ animated GIFs.
Samuel Waters‘ video shows just how fast this process is:
Thanks to Matt at Noonah for lending us the multi-camera rig in this video. You can buy your own multi-camera system powered by DSLR Remote Pro Multi-Camera from Noonah.
I Love Photobooths kindly lent us the magic mirror running DSLR Remote Pro to show on the stand. Purchase the complete magic mirror from I Love Photobooths (their Green Screen Dream Machine and Hashtag Printers also run Breeze software).
Missed Chris’s talk on light painting? Much of the content is covered here
Chris demonstrating light painting props at Photo Booth Show 2017 (Photo by Peter Leese Everybooth)
Interested in multi-camera activations? Download a copy of DSLR Remote Pro Multi-Camera and try it for yourself. Chris will also be giving a presentations about multi-camera systems at PBPI in January and PBX 2018 in March.
A big thank you to Jon Sharp for organising the show.
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