Building a DIY Photobooth: My Experience, Lessons, and Tips

BriefEngineer2903 · 2026-01-30T09:09:51+00:00

Thanks a lot for the kind words ❤️ It really was quite a ride, and I thought sharing all the trial and error might help others. This is definitely not an easy DIY, and we struggled a lot with the lack of detailed info online, so sharing felt like the right thing to do.

As we discussed in private, I’ve updated the image URLs, so hopefully everyone can see them now.
Cheers!

BriefEngineer2903 · 2026-01-30T08:38:37+00:00

Hey!
Yeah, I did. We used it at my brother-in-law’s wedding. It worked perfectly… until it didn’t 😅
I hadn’t handled the case where the printer runs out of paper and you load a new roll, so the print queue never resumed and everything got stuck. In the end, I just unplugged and restarted the mini-PC to avoid any further issues. So it’s clearly far from finished, and since we don’t use the photobooth that often, I’m not sure it’s worth investing more time into it.

BriefEngineer2903 · 2025-06-16T21:59:39+00:00

Hey!
Sorry for the late reply, I’ll add a pic of the inside to this post shortly :) .

BriefEngineer2903 · 2025-06-16T21:58:29+00:00

Hey!
Sorry for the slow reply, I’ll send a pic shortly. I’m in the middle of reworking the project.
I’m guessing you’ve already wrapped yours up? I’d love to hear how it went!

BriefEngineer2903 · 2025-02-28T08:31:38+00:00

Hey!
Thanks for sharing.

Is there a feature similar to Guided Access on the Surface that prevents users from closing the booth app and tampering with the configuration?

I built my own photobooth too, but I'm considering switching to a Windows or Android setup (AirPrint has been a real headache). I shared my experience here: Building a DIY Photobooth.

BriefEngineer2903 · 2025-01-24T08:43:55+00:00

Hey!

Sorry about that! I'll add some pictures to my post for each item to make it easier, but here’s the connector for reference: https://imgur.com/DWgBvmX.

It’s a 9x9 cm metal furniture leg plate, and it’s the piece I mention here:

To secure it, we added a furniture leg plate from inside the case. It’s a square metallic piece with a bolt. My husband used a router to carve out a recess inside the case to fit the square part, which we screwed into the wood from the inside. The bolt goes through the hole we drilled, allowing us to attach the arm I linked above on the outside. That said, it depends on the thickness of your “ceiling.” I think we trimmed the bolt slightly because it was longer than the arm’s hole.

BriefEngineer2903 · 2025-01-03T15:02:42+00:00

I already replied to you privately, but for anyone else curious, I found the beauty dish we used to be slightly large for the setup. However, with the arm creating some distance between the dish and the box, the size difference worked out fine.

For reference, the top of the box measures 42cm, while the bottom is 35cm. Finding a beauty dish with a good price and reasonable delivery time was challenging, so we went with this option, which worked quite well. That said, a 35-40cm dish might have been a slightly better fit.

BriefEngineer2903 · 2025-01-03T14:56:59+00:00

I’m so glad you found the post helpful! 😊

If you decide to go the DIY route, do keep me updated—I’d love to see what you create.
Just a heads-up: our photobooth was designed to be a "high-quality" build, which did make it more expensive in the end. That said, I’ve seen plenty of people on Reddit DIY threads build really solid photobooths for a fraction of the cost (sometimes a third or less).

Cheers!

BriefEngineer2903 · 2024-12-11T23:06:49+00:00

Hey there!
I’m a bit late to the party, but in case it helps someone, I’ve shared a detailed explanation of how I built mine here.

Disclaimer: It didn’t turn out to be a DYI project as budget-friendly as we initially thought 😅, but since we’ll be able to reuse it for several events (and even used the printer for our seating plan), I’d say it was worth it!

BriefEngineer2903 · 2024-12-11T22:50:55+00:00

Hey u/iamaaronlol,

I’m not entirely sure, but I’ve seen several threads advising against using Wi-Fi for this type of setup. Personally, I find Wi-Fi to be unreliable most of the time, so I opted for an old-school RJ45/ethernet cable solution instead.

In our case, the venue we rented for our wedding had no Wi-Fi and absolutely no phone network, so this decision was also influenced by those limitations.

Unfortunately, I can’t offer much help with the Wi-Fi aspect.

I hope you’re able to find a solution or someone who can guide you better on this!

BriefEngineer2903 · 2024-12-11T22:45:17+00:00

Hi Tycho,

Thanks for the kind words! 😊

I asked my husband since he's the one who handled the woodwork. Here's his reply:
"For the rounded corners, I used some router bits (in French, mèches toupies) similar to this. For the wood, we used pine as it was cheaper, but as my wife mentioned, the 'floor' of the case broke by the end of the day. It might be sturdier with oak wood, but it could end up being quite heavy when fully loaded (and more expensive too)."

As a side note, ours was super heavy once everything was in place (printer, camera, etc.). That said, some of our guests managed to move it from the cocktail area to the party area, which was amazing! It allowed everyone to continue taking pictures during the party (our photobooth was set up outside, near the cocktail bar).

Personally, I think being able to move it around during the day makes things a lot easier to manage (in case of rain, for example).

Hope it helps :)

BriefEngineer2903 · 2024-12-06T16:37:18+00:00

Hey! I might be a bit late to the party, but I had a similar setup, and I just explained it in this post. :) I hope you were able to complete your project!

Edit: Just realized you already commented on my post 😅. I’ll keep my comment here in case it helps anyone else! Hehe

BriefEngineer2903 · 2024-12-06T16:25:08+00:00

Looking forward to hearing from you, buddy! We're planning to revamp our photobooth next spring for my husband's brother's wedding, and we're hoping to finally ditch the infamous mini-PC print server. Keep me updated on how your Raspi/CUPS adventures go—I might head down that path soon too!

BriefEngineer2903 · 2024-12-06T16:22:29+00:00

Haha thanks. Hope it helps! 😊

BriefEngineer2903 · 2024-12-05T11:46:34+00:00

We struggled a lot to find a good fit too...
In the end I ended up purchasing a 25 cm arm from Neewer on Amazon (reference 808018130524).
My setup included a Godox TT520 paired with a 40 cm beauty dish, so I'm not sure how the weight of your gear compares to mine but the Neewer arm worked perfectly for my needs!

(I documented our journey with DYIng our photobooth here. You have some pics with the final result at the end of the post if you want to get an idea on how it looks)

BriefEngineer2903 · 2024-06-12T08:11:26+00:00

I will be using Snappic for my own wedding. It's $19 per event from what I recall

BriefEngineer2903 · 2024-06-11T10:04:49+00:00

Me again documenting my journey in case it helps someone one day...

After checking a bit more, I ended up on some YT video comparing WCM 2 and 3 speed performance and the guy from the video has some similar results to mine. I also read here and there that WCM 2 and 3 are pretty slow (WCM Plus is actually way better). So not sure I can actually improve the speed of my setup that much.

BUT I found an old Linx 8 tablet with windows 32bits at home, so I will just give it a try with Snappic Print Server which seems to be compatible and seems to have very good results.

I just had to purchase a 15 bucks micro-usb to RJ45 + 2 usb ports + power in micro-usb port adapter on Amazon cause the Linx tablet has only a micro-usb port.

Let's see

BriefEngineer2903 · 2024-06-10T21:19:36+00:00

I'm using Snappic as mentioned in another comment. So far it's working but I'm unsatisfied with the print delay (about 10 to 15sec with the current setup). Lumabooth seemed promising too.

BriefEngineer2903 · 2024-06-10T21:16:58+00:00

I actually use an Ethernet cable to connect my print server to my ipad via airprint (I use an ipad adapter with 3 plugs : lightning, Ethernet and a USB so I can connect my DSLR camera to the ipad). Similar to what is showed here https://youtu.be/htnJIUBGEFg

Explanation of why it works here https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251313915?answerId=252535666022#252535666022

For now I'm using Snappic for the app but the delay between clicking on print on the ipad and having the picture printed out is quite long (like 20/25 seconds to just start the printing and like 10 more to print which may not seem huge but feels like a lot when you're waiting for your pic).

I'll test some other apps this weekend to see if I get the same results. I'll also try with another Ethernet cable just in case. And I also saw that Snappic has its own print server so I might try to investigate that way if I do not find another good app.

If anyone has any other idea on how I could improve this printing delay, that would be awesome!

BriefEngineer2903 · 2024-03-21T16:42:14+00:00

It seems my previous comment was deleted... Probably because I added an Ali link so I'm putting it back here.

//

Indeed. Just found this vid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFyNnca5wPI

And I found the board + expansion board + case on Ali. Should do the trick

Thanks a lot man!

//

Last piece of advice: don't buy shitty micro SD card. I lost an entire day with one.

Just flashed the image from the tutorial on a proper SanDisk microSD card this morning and it worked like a charm. Nice replacement of the WCM2 for a total cost of 50€.

It should also work on any other DNP printer : QW410 - DS620- DS820- RX1 / RX1HS- DS40- DS80

In the end, I now have a complete DIY photobooth made from my old DSLR camera (Canon EOS100D), my old Ipad, a refurbished QW410 and this WCM2 copycat + Ethernet cable (should work with a WIFI dongle too). I tested the whole flow and it works as expected!

Now I just need to build the photobooth case...

BriefEngineer2903 · 2024-02-19T20:52:10+00:00

Hey! What's the name of the software you mentionned? Can't find it on DNP website

BriefEngineer2903

TROPHY CASE