How to Achieve the Best Lighting for Your Photo Booth

Importance of Proper Lighting in a Photo Booth

Your photo booth lighting is the best factor to determine your picture’s quality. With proper lighting, you can avoid dark and blurry images, unpleasant shadows, and shiny skin tones. Also, with a smooth and even lighting, you don’t have to worry about deep shadows under your subject’s eyes or annoying blind spots. 

So, basically, poor lighting results in a terrible photo and proper lighting provides you with a great one. Of course, when you are running or planning to work in the photo booth industry, it is best to stick with the latter. And, to achieve that, we are here to help!

First Thing’s First: Things to Consider

Now, it is easy to say that you can just buy the biggest and most expensive lighting setup available today to achieve the best lighting possible. However, that’s not really practical. Going with the biggest choice affects portability. And, a photo booth is designed to be taken anywhere and to be set up easily and quickly. 

Then, you have to think about consistency. To make your photo booth hire a success, it is important that you have the same image qualities for all the events you cover. And, to make that possible, you need a light source that works for both indoor and outdoor venues. 

But, it doesn’t stop there. Your choice of lighting should also be able to withstand any location and any type of event. More importantly, it should be reliable and you should get some inclusions for your photo booth. Your lights have to work all the time. So, it is critical that you don’t rely on cheap products. While you can rely on them too, good units are not at all expensive. 

How to Achieve the Best Lighting for Your Photo Booth?

1. Your lights should come from the right direction and positioned at the right distance

The ideal placement of your light is above your camera or just beside it. Putting it higher will result in shadows under the eyes, especially when your subject is wearing headgear such as a cowboy hat or baseball cap. On the other hand, when you place it lower than your camera’s lens, expect uplighting which results in shadows falling off the wrong way.

It is also important that you find the right distance of your light source from the backdrop to create consistent lighting. By consistent, we mean the exposure does not change even when your subject is standing directly in front of the camera or against the backdrop. A good lighting distance to start with is from 5 to 6 feet from your backdrop. And, depending on your choice of light and whether or not you have an umbrella, a diffusion panel, etc., you can adjust the distance and put it farther or closer. 

2. Take huge consideration of brightness

One important factor to consider when choosing proper lighting for a photo booth is brightness. Your lights should be powerful enough because if it is not, your shutter needs to stay open longer. And, in this case, your images will be blurred especially when your subjects jump or wave their hands in the air. 

To give you an idea, an LED light is perfect for continuous lighting. Through its tiny and multiple diodes, they produce a lot of light. And, you can use it with any brand and type of camera. You don’t even have to connect it to your camera or computer, making it extremely easy and convenient to use. 

3. The perfect area where to set up

In setting up your photo booth, choose a spot that is clear of any harsh directional light. For example, an area without strong downlights or spotlights as these often result in unflattering shadows and ugly-looking photos. On the other hand, when you have to set up outdoors, find a shaded area that is out of direct sunlight. 

4. Add electronic flash

To help your continuous lighting, an electronic flash is certainly a great addition. It overpowers natural light, so you don’t have to worry about the sunlight or venue light creating unwanted shadows. It also produces a great color which is the same with daylight and it can freeze action, plus it looks great on prinet copies if you have a quality photobooth printer. So, rest assured that with one, you can completely avoid blurry images even when your subject moves around a lot.

5. Fill the area with light

If you are not planning on using a flash, make sure to fill the area with light. However, remember to keep it soft. And, to do this, you can use nearby walls and the ceiling to bounce off light. You can also use an umbrella instead to have more control See, bouncing light is a concept used commonly by photographers to make a small source of light appear large. As a result, you will have soft and even lighting.