What space and installation does a photo booth need?

It is the question that comes straight after the price: “Will it fit in our room?” In the vast majority of Belgian venues, the answer is yes. But a few checks made in advance avoid the nasty surprise on the day — the one thing you cannot fix at 7 pm is a wall.

Here is the list we go through ourselves with couples and organisers.

The floor space

Each type of booth has its own footprint:

• Classic photo booth: about 2 × 2 m, backdrop included. It is the most compact of our three models.
• Photo mirror: about 2 × 2.5 m, because you need room to step back for group shots.
• 360° platform: about 3 × 3 m, with clearance all around for the arm to rotate.

Always add a good metre in front for the queue. That metre counts as much as the booth’s own footprint: without it, the queue forms across a walkway and gets in the way of service.

The detailed footprints, model by model, are on the our photo booths page.

The headroom

Allow 2.4 m to be comfortable with most set-ups. It is not just the height of the booth: there also has to be room for the backdrop, the structure holding it and, depending on the model, a light placed slightly above.

Points to measure rather than estimate:

• Under the beams in a barn or a farm venue: the height in the middle of the room says nothing about the height under the beams.
• Under a suspended ceiling or under ductwork, common in sports halls and municipal rooms.
• Under hanging light fittings. A low chandelier over the intended spot can be enough to move the whole installation.

If you cannot reach 2.4 m, say so: some configurations adapt, others do not. Better to know three months ahead than on the night.

The power

This is the simplest technical point, and the one that causes the most incidents when nobody deals with it.

What is needed:

• An ordinary 220 V socket, less than ten metres from the spot.
• Ideally a circuit that is not already feeding the caterer. Hot plates, ovens and coffee machines draw a lot; that is almost always where the breaker trips.
• No shared extension block with the PA. The DJ pulls a significant load too.

The venue’s Wi-Fi is not needed with us: our booths carry their own mobile connection for sending photos. It is a good question to ask any supplier, because a basement venue with no signal can block image delivery if the equipment depends on it.

Access and unloading

A photo booth arrives in a van, in wheeled flight cases. Three things to get from your venue:

1. Where do we park to unload, and how far is that from the entrance?
2. Are there steps, a lift, a goods lift? A flight of six steps is not a problem; two floors with no lift is something else and needs flagging.
3. From what time is the venue accessible? We arrive at least an hour before the booth opens, often two in larger places. If the venue only opens at 6 pm for a 7 pm start, we need to know.

Think about the way out too: the take-down takes about thirty minutes at the end of the evening, and it is better if the route is not blocked by stacked tables.

Historic venues, châteaux and farms

Places with character are beautiful and slightly more demanding. The recurring points to watch:

• Older electrical installations. Ask whether the board is recent and whether there is an RCD. Some venues deliberately limit how many appliances can run at once.
• Uneven floors. Cobbles, old flagstones, floorboards that flex: the booth can be levelled, but there has to be room to do it.
• Narrow doors and spiral staircases. Measure the narrowest door on the route. Below 80 cm, let us know.
• Fixing restrictions. Many listed buildings forbid drilling or fixing anything to the walls. Our structures are free-standing, but confirm it with your supplier.

Outdoors: possible, with conditions

Yes, a photo booth can be set up outside — garden, terrace, marquee, open barn. On three non-negotiable conditions:

• A roof. A marquee closed on at least three sides, a covered pergola, an awning. The equipment does not tolerate rain, and “it probably will not rain” is not enough.
• No direct sun on the screen or on the posing area. Early on a summer evening, a due-west orientation makes the screen unreadable and the portraits unusable.
• Firm ground. Very soft grass, waterlogged earth and sand will not hold a structure. A marquee floor, a terrace or compacted ground will do.

Add the question of cooling: a closed marquee in the middle of August can go past 35 °C, which is good neither for the printer nor for the queue. Plan an opening or some ventilation.

What you do not have to arrange

To avoid any misunderstanding, here is what is included in all our plans:

• delivery, assembly, calibration, take-down and collection of the equipment;
• phone support for the whole booking;
• the extension leads, the lighting and the backdrop structure;
• the back-up kit in the van.

So you have no table to provide and nothing to hire elsewhere. A socket, a square of floor and an access route: that is all we ask.

When in doubt, send a photo

This is the most useful piece of advice in the article. A photo of the corner you have in mind, taken from the entrance of the room, tells us more than ten lines of description. In thirty seconds we can say whether it fits, whether another angle would be better, or whether a different model is worth considering.

Other technical questions are covered in our FAQ, and the plans and models available are set out on the pricing page. For an opinion on your specific venue, a quote request is enough: tell us the venue and we will take a look.