Set up the iPad/iPhone camera
To configure the iPad/iPhone camera, touch the camera icon on the dashboard or event settings to open the camera settings screen.
Seeing a red warning icon?
By default the iPad camera's shutter speed is locked at 1/60 of a second so that your guests won't receive blurry photos. If the shutter speed is slower than 1/60 you'll see a red warning symbol in the app.
Camera Settings
On an iPhone the camera settings looks like this:
- Front/Rear: touch the front/rear switcher to change camera position, ie. from the back camera to the front camera
- Cam type: tap this to choose between different camera types in the same position: for example on the rear camera of an iPhone 12 you can switch to the Ultra Wide camera. When you see a camera with "SceneSelect" in the name, this camera will have more accurate results of cutting out the subjects from photos for SceneSelect. That's why this camera is selected by default.
Slow-mo vs Photo mode
As of version 1.9.0 the app stores two sets of settings for the camera: one for photos & boomerangs, and one for slow-mo videos.
- Slow-mo videos need a high framerate of 60 FPS or more and the shutter speed should match: if you see 60 FPS in slow-mo mode then you should choose a shutter speed of 1/60; if you see 120 FPS in slow-mo mode then you should choose a shutter speed of 1/120. The app will do this for you by default, but if you switch to a different camera or position you might need to switch out & back in to slow-mo mode for the new framerate to be noticed and the shutter speed to be set correctly.
- In slow-mo mode you cannot take photos - the Test Photo button is disabled
- In photo mode we recommend a shutter speed of 1/60 or faster to minimize blur
- You can influence the slow-mo video format that the app chooses by opening the event, going to capture settings (middle page), scrolling down to Advanced Capture Settings and changing the value of Slow-mo. By default the app will use the best quality slow-mo video format available.
Settings
By default the app will try to pick the best settings for the device & position that you've chosen, but you can choose your own settings and the app will remember them.
You can configure the following settings which scroll left/right:
Shutter aka shutter speed. We don't recommend using Auto, because iOS will often choose slower speeds that will result in blurry photos. The faster the speed you select, the more light you need to make the photos come out. Make sure your booth is brightly lit.
- Note: if you are using the rear camera & SceneSelect, you cannot choose the shutter speed (it must be automatic), which means your shutter speed selection is lost when changing from slow-mo to photo mode. If you prefer to have a custom shutter speed instead then either switch to a front camera with SceneSelect, or turn off SceneSelect by removing all scenes from all templates assigned to your event. If you're using a default template, you can remove its scenes by first duplicating it then editing it (and then assigning it to your event).
- Are you shooting outside and the photos are too bright? This is the one case we recommend using Auto for! Set your shutter speed to auto.
Exposure. This setting allows you to make the resulting photos brighter or darker. If adjusting the exposure is not making the image brighter, then you have likely hit the maximum ISO on your device (see below) - you need to bring more light into the environment.
AE Lock, auto-exposure lock. This gets turned on when you set a fixed shutter-speed. We recommend turning on AE lock.
W/B Lock, white balance lock. White balance is how the iPad determines how colors look, which can change as your lighting changes (ie. sunset, changing natural light). If you're using only artificial light for your booth then we recommend turning this on.
Liveview Mirroring. You'll want live-view mirrored when using the front camera, so that as you move to the left you appear to move to the left on the iPad screen too. We'll toggle mirroring automatically for you when you switch between the front/back cameras.
Photo Mirroring. Only turn this on if you really need to, because it'll make all the text in your photos appear backwards!
Flash (lightning symbol on the right). When turned on the iPad screen will flash bright white when a photo is taken. This is only effective when the guests are very near the iPad, which is usually not the case for photo booths so we recommend turning this off. It also adds a slight delay to the photo-taking process.
ISO (shown on the left). ISO means how sensitive the camera sensor is. A higher ISO means grainer photos which is usually not what you want, so we recommend making sure your booth has enough light that the ISO is lower. iPads max out their ISO at about 1728 (it differs for each model) - if you're seeing 1728 ISO then you're at the limit, and photos/videos are probably going to be too dark.