How to Set Up an iPad Photo Booth
The 360 spinner gets the attention, but the classic booth is what keeps grandparents, kids and everyone in heels in your queue. BoothLab runs one from an iPad and a tripod.
Quick answer: Open BoothLab on an iPad and pick Photobooth on the launch screen — it is one of the app's two modes, alongside 360 booth. Stand the iPad at chest-to-eye height, choose a strip layout, load your overlay, and guests tap to start. The session renders into your template and leaves by print, QR code, email, text or WhatsApp.
Why run the classic booth at all
- It serves everyone: guests who will not step onto a spinning platform will happily pose for a four-frame strip.
- It leaves something physical: a 360 video lives on a phone; a printed strip lives on a fridge with the event name on it.
- It pairs with 360: the strongest packages offer both — video for the dance floor crowd, strips for everyone else, one app running both.
What you need
- An iPad running iOS 14 or later — iOS 15 if you want background replacement. The bigger the screen, the better the guest preview.
- A stand or tripod with an iPad mount. Height matters more than anything else — see below.
- Light. A ring light or LED panel aimed at the backdrop, not at the guests' eyes.
- Optional: an AirPrint photo printer for strips in hand, and a Canon or Sony body connected over USB for portrait-quality stills.
Set it up in BoothLab
- Install BoothLab on the iPad and choose Photobooth on the launch screen.
- Create an event and pick a strip or collage layout — BoothLab ships 66 layouts across 2×6, 4×4, 4×6 and 6×4 print sizes.
- Personalise the title panel with the event name and date, and load the client's overlay for branding.
- In Settings, turn on the extras you want: a boomerang GIF and a short video. These are device-wide switches, so they apply to every event on that iPad.
- Background replacement is set per event, not in Settings — pick the backdrop image in the event's own settings, and set it again for each new event.
- Decide which share buttons guests see — QR code, email, text message, WhatsApp, print — and hide the rest.
- Run one test session end to end, including a print, before doors open.
Placement that actually works
- Camera at chest-to-eye height. Too low flatters nobody; too high and the back row disappears.
- Two to three metres of backdrop so a group of four fits without anyone leaning in.
- Away from the DJ's speakers and out of the caterers' path, but within sight of the dance floor so people remember it exists.
- Guided Access on (triple-click the side button) so a curious guest cannot wander out of the app.
- Keep it on a charger. Screen-on kiosk duty drains an iPad in a few hours.
Running both booths at one event
The two modes are independent, so a two-device setup is the natural upgrade: the iPhone on the spinner arm for 360 videos, the iPad on a stand for strips. Each device keeps its own event, its own template and its own overlay, and both upload into the same Dropbox or Google Drive folder so the client gets one gallery at the end of the night.
Two booths, one app
Run the classic booth from an iPad and the 360 spin from an iPhone. Download free on the App Store.
