Photo-booths used to be the Saturday morning hangouts of teenage couples and BFF's holding their own sentimental photoshoots. Now photo-booths of all shapes and sizes are commonly on hand to provide fun and fantastic photo opportunities at weddings, birthday parties and corporate events.  It’s hard to imagine that the photo booth itself is nearly 100 years old. It was first patented by Anatol Josepho in 1925 and promptly introduced to the arty folk of Paris. You can learn more about the history of the invention in this fabulous article from the Guardian. We've created a guide on creating your own photo-booth photos.

If you’ve attended any events recently and hit the photo booth, the snaps make great keepsakes, which you can transfer to canvas to make your own customised canvas print. When you don’t have a booth on hand it doesn’t mean the fun has got to stop, which is great news since hire isn’t always an affordable option! In fact, there’s a lot of amateur photographers who can learn from the humble photo booth. Here we walk you through how you can create these artsy images at home and have lots of fun in the process.

Creating your photo-booth backdrop

Maps, balloons on strings, murals of seaside scenes or mystical forests – they all make great backdrops for your own private photo booth. You can even use blown-up prints on canvas or film projections as your backdrop to create a more cinematic result. You’ll find it easier to shoot without the booth, though you’ll probably need a little help from light reflectors to help you direct your flash to set the scene correctly.

Props galore

The group scrambled to swap props between shots is one of the best things about the photo booth and can make great content for creating your own comic strip style personalised canvas print. As well as supplying props that fit with your background setting, try to provide a mix of the more unusual that can suggest a more fantastical storyline or provide a contrast of colour, texture or items that just encourage some great poses and interaction from the people in front of the camera! Kids love dressing up, so this is an incredibly fun family activity for a wet, dreary afternoon indoors and one you won’t forget in a hurry thanks to your selection of snaps!

Using your photo-booth photos in the home

While the obvious option is to transfer your image(s) to the canvas in a photo booth style strip, you may also consider juxtaposing different shots within the same split canvas – perhaps using shots with different props or backgrounds. You can also choose to create a fun centrepiece incorporating prints of different sizes that home in on different people, props or colours. Wondering where to hang the resulting snaps? They’ll look great on the kids’ bedroom walls or in the playroom.

Need help making the most of your own photo-booth photos? Get in touch today and we’ll be more than happy to help.