Here's our Top 10 Checklist for Hiring a Photo Booth Company
If you have used a photo booth, hired another photo booth company, or if you are considering the different options out there, you probably have seen vast differences in price & style.
Maybe you've asked yourself, "Aren't all photo booths the same?"
If you have used a photo booth, hired another photo booth company, or if you are considering the different options out there, you probably have seen vast differences in price & style.
Maybe you've asked yourself, "Aren't all photo booths the same?"
1. Photo Quality
Your guests are having a great time all night! Taking fun photos, taking candid portraits, getting goofy - everything you expect. And then, you get the digital photos - and your heart sinks. Low quality grainy photos. Believe it or not, some photo booth companies actually use webcams or cheap cameras, low quality lighting, and low resolution settings.
With SnapSeat - we have the good stuff! Cutting edge tech and priding ourselves in quality photography work. Hiring a photo booth should be like hiring a photographer - quality matters. We are going to capture all the couple and candid photos the photographer won't get.
2. Print Quality
Look for the best printers in the photo booth market, and those are dye-sublimation printers with archival quality prints. Dye-sub printers are the fastest, highest quality photos on the market today. These printers will produce a 4x6 print or 2 photo strips in 8 seconds! The other companies - well, imagine a long line of guests waiting 30 seconds, 1 minute or even 2 minutes per print per person. Not fun for anyone.
3. Social Media Sharing & Hashtags
Want your friends to post to social with your well-thought event hashtag? Yes! So many events today are going social. It's fun for you to see all the behind-the-scenes memories friends and family are making at your celebration.
With SnapSeat, all the guests post photobooth pictures directly to Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, instantly, on our social media kiosk. Better yet, we can preset all their sharing with your event hashtag and message for them.
4. Customization
Our packages include customized photo designs & layouts, premium backdrops, custom social media posts, customized service timeline. Want more: custom furniture, custom backdrops, wedding favors, custom props, and more. We can make your vision happen.
Want a scrapbook? Yes, just like the other companies, we have those. What about a custom printed Photo Backdrop or Step-and-Repeat? Or a custom designed Event Banner? These are options they don't have. And if you have a cool idea we haven't thought of yet, let us know and let's make it happen!
We also feature animated gifs for something different at your event!
5. Digital Photos & Online Photo Gallery
As soon as the last photo is taken in the photo booth at your reception, our cutting edge software has already uploaded all of the photography from the booth onto a dedicated Gallery Page for your event. Memories from your wedding, online, with free sharing and downloads, the same day. We include this feature in all of our photo booth packages.
Then we take all the waiting out when it comes to delivery of your photo booth photos. Our system will allow us to instantly send you all the digital copies of the photos instantly to you via email. You'll receive a zip file with all photos emailed to you the same day.
6. Experience & Reviews
When considering a photo booth company, consider their experience and clientele. This is a tell-tale sign of the quality of the photo booth and their level of performance.
Every event and wedding is a very important celebration. Look at the company's overall reviews & number of clients. These factors say everything about level of performance and experience. Are they really able to perform to your specifications? Are going to be a blessing to your event, or if their performance is going to drag on your celebration?
Having numerous corporate clients is also a great sign of experience. Corporate events can range from internal staff parties to major national event over multiple days with hundreds of thousands of attendees. This shows ability of staff and equipment to serve hundreds of guests per event. Corporate events also require assisting multiple departments, managers and even different sponsors with professionalism.
7. Insurance & Compliance
Here's what defines an actual company vs. a liability at your event. Is the company registered as a business entity with the state? Do they have atleast a $1mm General Liability Insurance Policy? Do they actually report their employees to the Department of Labor, or do they pay under the table? Do they have Worker's Compensation Insurance? Do they actually pay taxes and employer taxes? Do they have actual contracts for their events? Do they have secure payment processing you can trust?
These are some of the ways that you know that if something happens at your event, you are not liable, the venue is not liable, and the company will assume responsibility at your event. Any "company" that does not have these items in place may not even be in business by the time your event happens. We have heard the stories of "companies" having to cancel events, walking away with deposits, not showing up, and more.
Don't settle for less than a professional company with full compliance and insurance in place. Remember your mom's advise: "It's all fun and games, until...."
8. Staff
Your photo booth operator must have two qualities that make a huge difference at your event: professionalism & fun! Both are very necessary to making the photo booth a great experience.
First, you have to have a company with professional staff. People who are on time, on point, and are going to act respectful and courteously to both your guests and your other vendors. They should be wearing a uniform or event-appropriate attire. They should take their job as a responsibility to make sure the photo booth area stays neat and guests know how to use the booth.
And yes, they should be fun. They should help guests, suggest props, keep the party in the booth going! They should be friendly and outgoing. And just like every other vendor at your event, they should keep their fun in line. They should not be drinking at an event or carousing with the guests. They are there to bring the fun, not have all the fun!
Another consideration is: what do they actually pay their staff? If the photo booth operator is being well compensated, they are going to take their job seriously, and perform their duties with a smile.
9. Equipment & Quality
Not all photo booth are built alike - and equipment will have big impacts on the quality of the photo booth experience and the quality of the photos.
Cheap printer? Long lines and big waits for photos to actually print. Cheap cameras or even web cams? Expect low quality photos that will look poor even at small photo strip sizes. Low quality lighting? Grainy photos, shadows, dark photos. No social media or no stand-alone kiosk? Guests taking phone pictures of photos, or even standing in the booth entering email addresses to share, holding up the line and wasting time you paid for the booth.
Today's best photo booths are touchscreen operated, have liveviews where guests can see themselves on the screen, professional quality DSLR cameras, high quality dye sublimation printers, print automatically, and have social media sharing built into the photo booth setup via Social Media Kiosk. Great setups even provide their own dedicated wifi hotspot for independent, rapid transfers.
If you are paying for a photo booth, you should be able to enjoy the photos taken for years to come. It's worth the investment in a photo booth company with professional equipment, just like hiring a professional photography vs. hiring a friend with a camera.
10. Price & Value
There are a number of considerations when considering the price vs. value of a photo booth company. The price of photo booths can have large ranges, and deciding what price to pay actually makes sense can be a challenge. Here's some things to consider:
Higher price = higher overhead. Companies that have professional equipment, professional staff, stay compliant, and have insurance are going to cost more. Think Craigslist vs. Angie's List
Higher price = better results. Photo Booths that have a reputation of performance in the industry, have large corporate clients, and have nicer sample photos, nicer websites, usually charge more. Think Kia vs. Lexus
Higher price = lower risk. Photo Booth companies with larger operations, backup equipment, staff on call, insurance, etc., will give you more confidence that if something unforeseen happens, they will be able to recover and still perform at your event. Paying a deposit to a low price, low quality provider may never be heard from again by the time your event takes place - the Groupon stories are out there.
The old adage is "you get what you pay for."
Read More:
TOP 6 WAYS TO OFFER VALUE FOR A PHOTO BOOTH SPONSOR AT YOUR EVENT
TOP 10 REASONS TO HAVE A QUALITY WEDDING PHOTO BOOTH
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