📸 Photo Booth setup

Great for a small gathering or a side station — the guest looks at the phone/tablet screen to compose.

1. Open the album dashboard on the device → tap 📸 Open Booth (Safari on iOS, Chrome on Android).
2. Tap Start photo booth → Allow camera. It goes fullscreen.
3. Stand the device on a small tripod/stand facing the guests. Use the 🔄 Flip button to switch front/back camera, and 🪞 Mirror if the preview feels reversed.
4. Guests tap the screen (or press a Bluetooth remote — see below) to start.

Front camera = the guest sees themselves (selfie mirror). Rear camera = sharper photos, but they won't see a preview unless you add a monitor (next options).

This is the way to put the live preview on a plain computer monitor or TV when you don't have AirPlay. A cable mirrors the phone screen to the monitor — no laptop or webcam needed.

You need one adapter:

• iPhone 15/16 or any USB-C iPad: a USB-C-to-HDMI adapter (~$15–30).
• iPhone 14 or older (Lightning): Apple's Lightning Digital AV Adapter (~$50 — buy genuine Apple; knockoffs are unreliable for mirroring).
• Android phone/tablet: a USB-C-to-HDMI adapter — only if the phone supports video-out (“DisplayPort Alt Mode”). Most Samsung Galaxy and Pixel 8+ do; many budget phones don't. If unsure, plug it in and see if the monitor shows the screen.
• Plus a normal HDMI cable, and ideally an adapter with a pass-through charging port (mirroring drains the battery — keep it plugged in all night).

1. Plug the adapter into the phone, run HDMI to the monitor, and plug the charger into the adapter.
2. On the phone, open Open Booth → Start → Allow. The booth mirrors to the monitor over the cable.
3. Mount the phone on a stand with the camera facing the guests; put the monitor in front of them so they compose on the big screen.

About a vertical monitor: phones mirror at a fixed landscape signal — iPhone/iPad and most Android won't rotate it to fill a portrait monitor (Android varies by model; don't count on it for an event, and Samsung DeX is a landscape desktop, not portrait). Held portrait, the booth shows centered with black bars on the sides; physically rotating the monitor makes it sideways unless the monitor has its own Image/OSD Rotation setting. For a true full-screen portrait preview on a plain monitor, use the computer + USB webcam path (the computer rotates its display). The photo strip itself is always portrait either way.

No phone needed. A laptop, desktop, or cheap mini-PC drives the monitor over HDMI, and a USB webcam is the camera.

1. Connect the monitor to the computer (HDMI/DisplayPort) and plug in the USB webcam pointed at the guests.
2. (Optional) Rotate the monitor to portrait in your OS display settings (Windows: Settings → Display → orientation; macOS: System Settings → Displays → Rotation).
3. Open Open Booth in the browser, drag it to the monitor, press fullscreen (F11 on Windows, Ctrl-Cmd-F on Mac Chrome).
4. Click Start photo booth → Allow. If the computer has more than one camera, use the camera dropdown (top-right) to pick the USB webcam.

If your TV or monitor supports AirPlay (or you have an Apple TV), you can skip the cable.

1. Open Control Center on the iPhone/iPad → Screen Mirroring → pick the Apple TV / AirPlay display.
2. Open Open Booth → Start. The booth shows on the big screen wirelessly.
3. Keep the phone on a stand facing the guests; they compose on the AirPlay screen.

A cheap Bluetooth camera remote lets guests trigger the booth without touching the screen.

1. Pair it to the device running the booth (phone or computer) in Bluetooth settings — it connects like a tiny keyboard.
2. In the booth, pressing it starts the countdown. The on-screen tap/click always works as a fallback.

Remotes vary — some send a key iOS Safari ignores. The booth listens for several common ones (and tapping always works), so test your remote before the event. If it has an iOS/Android mode switch, try whichever one fires the countdown.

• Fullscreen (hide the browser bars): on a computer or Android phone, tap the ⛶ Fullscreen button on the booth screen. On an iPhone/iPad (Safari has no fullscreen button), open the booth, tap Share → Add to Home Screen, then launch it from that icon — it opens with no Safari bars and stays put. Do this once and use the icon all night.
• Photo strips: use the 3-photo strip button on the dashboard (or add ?strip=2..4 to the URL).
• Caption: the dashboard buttons pre-fill the album name; change it with ?caption=Your Text.
• Instant gratification: turn on auto-approve for the album so booth photos hit the slideshow immediately, and set a generous per-guest limit (the booth is a shared station).
• Lighting: a ring light or soft lamp aimed at the guests makes a huge difference; avoid a bright window behind them.
• Power: keep the phone/computer plugged in — a long event will drain a battery.
• The big screen: pair a TV to the album's live slideshow so booth photos appear there seconds after each snap.