Looking to invest in classic photo booth! but have no idea where to start!

tbieszka

Hello, I am currently living in Paris, France and I'm hoping to eventually get my hands on a photo booth. I'm captivated by the eery quality of these photos, and have always dreamed of having one of my one (for some people it's Swarovski animals, mine's a photo booth). The problem is the lack of in depth information over here, and real idea of cataloging these things. I'm interested in the camera/lens aspects, the film used, and the development.

It's kind of a 'I want to know it all' kind of question. How is the photo exposed? There shouldn't be a negative right? It's more the process of a pinhole camera, no? So all these questions reside in my head, and I'm hoping to know everything but a formation in these kinds of machines might be difficult to find here in Paris.

And maybe even if instead of having the machine directly, seeing as how space is often limited in Parisian apartments to be able to reconstruct the entire machine within the confines of a new cabin. I am a fan of the cabin itself but if I were to have to choose to make one from scratch it might be an excellent lesson in how the machine works. I hope that this doesn't come off sounding clueless, but I am in a way.

Lastly, could this concept and technology of the photo booth be applied on a much larger scale? Is it just a question of photo paper, and size. I think all of my questions will be answered soon, or at least I hope...If there are any books I should check out, please let me know, even a manuel of multiple machines may help me to understand a lot better!

Thank you very much for your time reading this and I hope to hear some news very soon!

-Thomas

Brian

Hi Thomas. Glad to hear of your interest in these wonderful machines. I hope we can answer some or all of your questions.

I think the first thing you should do is visit one or more of the booths in Paris to see for yourself what the camera, the paper, and the development system look like. Get in touch with Igor at La Joyeuse and Eddy at Fotoautomat France and I'm sure you can arrange to see the inside of the machine when they're doing their maintenance.

To answer your simplest question first, you're right, there is no negative involved in the process. Beyond that, we can explain using photos and manuals and the rest, but seeing the mechanism working in person is the best way to get a good understanding of the process.

Check out this video that Tim made of one of his machines at work for a taste of what goes on.