Photo Booth with an iPad: What the App Can Do, Which Camera Fits and When Windows Is Better

An iPad is the easiest way into your own photo booth. Camera, screen and touch are in one device, the app comes from the App Store, and with a stand and good light it becomes a booth that fits in a car boot.

This article shows what an iPad photo booth with BoothDock Studio can do today, which camera suits which purpose, how printing works and where a Windows PC remains the better choice. It describes version 1.4.0.

What you need

• An iPad with iPadOS 17 or later. Since version 1.4.0 the app also runs on iPhone, and for the Mac there is a native Mac app in the same App Store listing.
• A stand or an enclosure that brings screen and camera to your guests' eye level.
• Light. A continuous light in front of the guests makes more difference with any camera than the resolution.
• Power. For a whole evening the iPad belongs on its charger. BoothDock keeps the screen awake by itself as long as the app is open.
• A BoothDock Hub account. There you pair the iPad with a pairing code, create events and design layouts. The booth downloads everything for its event.

Printer, system camera and a network for the online gallery are optional. The booth works for up to 30 days without internet and uploads the captures as soon as it is connected again.

Which camera: built-in, webcam or system camera

BoothDock uses whatever the iPad offers:

• The built-in camera. Front or back, plus every other lens your iPad has, an ultra-wide for example. For the classic photo booth the front camera is right, because guests then see themselves on the screen.
• A USB webcam on the USB-C port, if the iPad's camera sits in the wrong place or you need a different framing.
• Canon and Sony on a cable. With live view on the screen, shutter release from the app and aperture, shutter speed, ISO and white balance right in BoothDock. Videos come over the cable too. The only exceptions are Sony bodies that demonstrably do not hand out their videos over the cable, such as the A7 III and the ZV-E10.

A tip on the built-in camera: some iPads combine several lenses into one camera that switches by itself depending on distance. The framing can jump briefly when it does. For a steady framing, choose a fixed lens in the admin area.

For photos a current iPad is enough, as long as the light is right. A system camera pays off in dark halls, for large prints and for a blurred background. More on this in the article Webcam or system camera. Which bodies BoothDock knows is listed under Cameras.

What guests do with it

• Photo, GIF, boomerang and video. The iPad builds GIFs and boomerangs itself, without a detour via the internet.
• Background removal without a backdrop. The iPad separates people from the background with Apple's own image recognition, right on the device. It downloads no model for this, and no photo leaves the iPad for the cut-out. A classic green screen with a backdrop works as well.
• Layouts from the Hub. You design frames and print layouts once in the Hub. They apply to the iPad just as they do to a Windows booth.

360° with slow motion, new in version 1.4.0

Since 1.4.0 the iPad does 360° as well. It films, builds the slow-motion clip with music, frame and colour look itself and hands it to the guest by QR code. Sequences and presets are the same as on Windows. How to choose them is explained in the article 360° photo booth with real slow motion. On the iPad, four special points come on top:

• The built-in camera films fast. For the length of the clip, BoothDock sets it to a high frame rate and back afterwards. The admin area only lists the frame rates the chosen lens can really reach. Combined cameras with several lenses often only manage 30 or 60 frames per second, so for real slow motion a fixed lens is the better choice.
• Start by motion. If the iPad itself sits on the platform's rotating arm, the clip starts as soon as the arm turns. You set how sensitively this happens in the admin area. You then need neither a foot switch nor a phone. The Mac lacks the motion sensor for this.
• Canon and Sony on a cable. If you prefer to film with the system camera: BoothDock reads the real frame rate of every clip. If it knows the body's video formats, it sets the camera to 100 frames per second for 360° by itself and back afterwards; otherwise you set the frame rate on the camera.
• Animated overlays as MOV. On the iPad an animated logo needs a MOV file with transparency, that is ProRes 4444 or HEVC with alpha. WebM files, which work on Windows, cannot be played by the iPad. BoothDock tells you so as soon as you upload.

Printing

The iPad prints via AirPrint, without a print dialog. You choose the printer once in the admin area, after that the booth prints silently. This works with every AirPrint photo printer, for example from Canon, Epson or HP.

DNP printers, the most common ones in photo booths, do not support AirPrint. The iPad reaches them through the DNP network adapter WCM or WCM Plus. There every paper size appears as a printer of its own, and you choose the right one in the admin area. Connecting a DNP directly by USB, without an adapter, is in preparation for the iPad.

Which printers handle which formats is covered in the article Photo booth print formats, the printing path for each device under Printing.

Sharing: QR code, email and AirDrop

After the capture, guests take their picture with them by QR code, have it sent by email or get it straight onto their iPhone by AirDrop. On top of that, every capture lands in the event's online gallery. If there is no network, the iPad collects the captures and uploads them later. How that works without internet is explained in the article Photo booth without internet.

Kiosk mode: guests stay in the app

On Windows, BoothDock locks the computer itself. On the iPad, Apple takes care of this with Guided Access. It keeps the iPad in one app until someone enters the passcode:

1. Under Settings › Accessibility › Guided Access, turn on the switch and set a passcode.
2. Open BoothDock and quickly press the top button three times, or the Home button on iPads that have one.
3. Tap “Start”. Guided Access can only be ended with the passcode.

When you are away, you keep an eye on the booth in the Hub. There you see whether it is online and, through remote maintenance, what the iPad is showing right now. You can also operate it remotely.

Control by phone, Stream Deck or script, new in version 1.4.0

Since 1.4.0 the iPad has the local interface (API) too, the same one as on Windows. Other devices on the same Wi-Fi use it to start a session, cancel it, reprint the last picture or lock the booth for a moment. A typical case: the attendant at the 360° platform starts the clip from a phone.

The interface is off by default and protected by a password. It responds as long as BoothDock runs in the foreground, which is the case in kiosk mode anyway. All commands are in the wiki.

iPad or Windows?

Both run with the same Hub account, the same events and the same layouts. The differences lie in cameras, printing and automation:

The iPad is the right choice if you want to set up quickly and with little technology, above all with the built-in camera and an AirPrint or DNP printer. Go for Windows if you shoot with a Nikon, run many different printers, want to export every capture to a folder right away or want to notify other programs at every session.

Checklist for the first event

• Is the iPad running iPadOS 17 or later and BoothDock version 1.4.0?
• Is the iPad paired in the Hub and assigned to the event, and have the layouts arrived?
• Have you taken a test photo with exactly the camera that will run in the evening, and chosen a fixed lens for the built-in camera?
• Has the printer been chosen once in the admin area, and has a test print gone through?
• Is Guided Access set up and the passcode written down?
• Is the iPad on its charger?
• For 360°: does the admin area show at least 100 frames per second if you want to use 0.25×?
• Is there Wi-Fi or mobile data for the gallery, or do your clients know that the pictures will follow after the event?

BoothDock Studio for iPad is on the App Store. You can try the Hub account for events, layouts and galleries for free.

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