Ideas and Thoughts - Renaissance Photography Concession

Yes, you only have 2 weeks or so before opening. Good luck!

focalist:
So, it is with no small amount of pride that I announce that a friend and I have landed the contract for "Ye King's Royal Photographers" for King Richard's Faire, the largest Renaissance and folk festival in New England. Suffice to say, this is a huge win, and I will be working with people who know me and my limitations well. Twenty hours a week, I will probably be able to manage. I have backup if I can't.

We are naming our concession "The Alchemist's Instant Portraiture" (we will be selling souvenir photography printed onsite as well as via the internet).

Arduino is the core of the chromatic accent lighting, 92 watts of RGB+W LED's each. Color blending via PWM.

I have a good number of ideas for props for the site, which is a building approximately 12x20 feet... but I figure this is a great one to toss out here, as we are going for "mad scientist/alchemist" look.

Ideas? (They have to be CHEAP and not necessarily Arduino related!)

Well the closest to the spirit of a renasaince festival photographer I can think of would be a large format camera (with the dark sheet covering the photographer, but using a DSLR instead of a film holder/glass plate. For lighting I would suggest flash powder as the most period appropriate. Then I would use a optical flash trigger, wired to trigger the DSLR's shutter when it detected the flash from the flash powder.

Flash powder has a long enough duration, that a DSLR shutter should have plenty of time to operate within the flash's window.

Oh, and the post processing should include some artifacts and degredation of the sharpness of the image to make it as period as possible.

Or possibly, using the 'painterly' functionality of some of the packages to make the photograph look like a painting...

Or - you could dress as Spock and the crew of the Enterprise...

(sorry, I work in television and get stuck seeing all that stuff...)

As somebody who does both steampunk events and renaissance faires (both as a patron, and faire worker, depending on the event), I do tend to prefer vendors to stick with the theme. I.e. its great if you sell both steampunk and ren-faire stuff, but I would prefer to see mostly the ren-faire stuff at a ren-faire, and steampunk stuff at a steampunk event. Patrons (or playtrons if you prefer) will wear whatever they please, but depending on how inappropriate the costume is, you will be talked about.

Now for a photo booth, you can disguise the camera, but it is a lot of work. And note, a large format camera design like my steampunk camera, is still about 200 years in the future of the period set by the faire. I've thought about doing a general artist gig, where you have an easel set up and put a live view screen on the canvas, and disguise the camera with paints and rags draped over it. But with only 2 weeks to showtime, now may not be the time to do redesigns.

I would probably not do the flash paper, while it would be cool, since it might get dry enough that it could be a potential fire hazard. I don't recall if you need a permit to use it. If you do it, you would have to factor in the cost of flash paper into each photo. I could imagine using the Arduino to fire off the flash paper, and it doesn't even have to be used for the photo, you can use normal flash, but close enough that most people won't notice.

Obviously you need to factor in how long your camera and flash batteries last, and make sure you have plenty of extras. Bear in mind you will need to either have enough to last you all 3 days of the Labor day and Columbus weekends, or you need to have enough chargers and amperage to be able to charge the batteries overnight. You don't want to have to wake up every 2-3 hours to change batteries if you only have one charger.

You presumably have already thought to have enough paper and ink to last each weekend. Given the dust in the area, I would suggest making sure you have backups if/when some gear fails.

If you are doing special effects on the computer (tinting, etc.), make sure they are automated enough that you can just pop in the card, or upload from the camera, and have everything happen. You mention internet sales, my sense is in general you won't get that many, since the essence of a lot of these photo booths is instant gratification.

Have fun!

MichaelMeissner:
I could imagine using the Arduino to fire off the flash paper, and it doesn't even have to be used for the photo, you can use normal flash, but close enough that most people won't notice.

I suggested using the flash powder to trigger the camera, instead of the other way around because in my experience the powder is more more variable in the time from ignition to full light as well as the total time is much longer than modern shutter durations. In short your camera shutter will likely open and close before the light from the flash powder can illuminate the scene.

The stuff can be a fire hazard, but that just is part of the 'authenticity'. Also Camera Obscura's are appropriate to the time frame. I don't think it would be a tough sell to set the costume to that theme, perhaps combined with the role of an alchemist...

wanderson:
The stuff can be a fire hazard, but that just is part of the 'authenticity'.

Watch your mailbox for laundry bills from some of the 37 lawyers who had spontaneous orgasms when they heard about that that suggestion 8)

The camera obscura idea is a really neat one. A friend of mine showed me a trick he'd done with a Photoshop-like app that made a digital photo look very painting-like (some sort of solarization-ish effect that reduced the ranges of color and light variations). You could demo the Marvel of the Modern Age, perhaps with some portholes on the side that would allow attendees to see the image projection. Then have the "painter" make a show of entering the camera, surreptitiously replacing the pinhole with the digicam. A minute later, he emerges with an amazingly-accurate portrait of the customer(s).

Rather than painting, how about stained glass or brass etching effects?

As my daughter and I were thinking about going to KRF this Sunday, I recalled this thread. I was wondering how things worked out with the photo booth?

Well, a few minor bumps both technical (power) and personal (I am paying pretty harshly, medically, for the two days of fairly high activity requiring that I also not eat solid food starting noon on Fridays thru Sunday nite)-- but we are in fact doing it, and in my opinion (and the opinion of customers) we are doing a far better job than should be expected given that we are running a photo studio out of leanto in the woods on an extension cord that ranges minute by minute from as low as 90 to as high as 150 volts depending on what else is powered on the circuit by other vendors at any given time!

I built a total hackjob lighting rig using dimmable fluorescents of mixed temp, mostly warmer tones, with balanced backdrop, hair, and side (45 degrees off, a sort of poor man's Rembrandt balance) lighting, while also needing to accomodate changing conditions as we do non-studio shots all over the Faire.

Here's a couple of shots I tagged on Pinterest:

Sounds like this weekend may be kinda wet and cold.. I am hoping for the best! I have got the city asking me if I am planning to shoot the city's fall festival again this year, which is Sunday- there are going to be some unhappy people when they find out that this year, free advertising photography via my donated time to the city isn't going to be there. I had already informed them in August of this, but did skip out on Labor Day to do the parade, which is the largest Labor Day parade in New England. I am one of the coordinators of the parade as well as the photographer for many years running, and due to the politicos turning out in such force (Brown, Warren, etc) I didn't want to leave it in the hands of someone else. It is very interesting the reactions and emails I am getting from people who have for years gotten things for free and this year won't. Says a lot. It might just be a good thing for some of these folks to notice the vacuum where their freebies used to be..

In any case, even though it's kicking my hind end and it really is going to be a struggle to come out of this in the black, the value of working cannot be overstated. It's been a long time, and it feels preety good no matter how bad it feels.....

Facebook gallery of afew of the politco shots from the parade:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.4619511133607.2187706.1467522154&type=3

Yeah I've run into that where people always expect you to keep on giving stuff for free even when circumstances change.

I tend to get migraines after being in the sun a lot, and in the past, I've gotten some whoppers after doing faire weekends. Though now that I try to keep the sunglasses on, it helps quite a bit (I just got a mask to try and hide the glasses).

Nice looking faire photos.

I just finished up the Abbadia Mare (Hammond Castle) photos and videos (199 photos, 6 hours of video) from the one weekend. Now on to the Waterville Valley Renaissance faire photos (2 weekends).

For the Watch City steampunk event (Mother's day weekend at Charles River Museum of Industry in Waltham), I did suggest to one of the organizers, that I could host a panel entitled 'So you want to be an event photographer' covering some of the things I've learned over the last 5 or so years.

If you see a goofy looking guy in either green/yellow or red/black with squirrel mascots, that is probably me. :grin:

I've never been to a steampunk event, I must check one out. I'd only been to KRF once before, twenty years ago, as an extremely drunk patron. Being a vendor, in fact really participating in one of these theme events is a totally new thing for me. Highly entertaining. I think it's the fact that everyone (pretty much) is in on the idea and theme and plays along. KRF is particularly fun I think because the first place most every patron hits is a vendor to get a Yard of ale or mead, at ten thirty in the morning, many having gotten a head start in the parking lots. By noon half the place has a decent buzz going, by three what you have is a couple of thousand drunks, a good half of them of them impressively armed. This thought does give me pause, I must admit, as I am typically obnoxious as is my.. my... (idiom, sir?) Yes! Idiom.

We were given an obvious "out" the first day.. some guy dressed (remarkably similar looking too!) as The Doctor (THE Doctor. Not just The Doctor. Tom. Nuff said.) passed by. We agreed that it was too easy a copout despite me crawling around in the mud explaining how much I wanted to spray paint a cardboard box and be K-9, and my wife seemed to take offense at the suggestion that "Dalek" and "Wench" are both five letter words. Oh well. At least her allergies have settled down, I had gotten more disapproving looks from her while explaining that her coughing and sneezing were a great costume addition, TB is very period-appropriate. However it seems that her humors (or lack thereof?) or the balance of Phlogiston have worked themselves out, with only minor forays into Ye Olde Bendryl.

That being said, I fully have called Shenanigans on the (obese) dude that showed up as Darth Vader.

Particularly as the weather may be uncooperative, I may be able to get my hands on some gate passes, PM me if you'd like a couple and I'll see if I can get a couple for you....

Could you get away with a Discworld box camera disguise, have a little demon pop out for a smoke now and then? Of course you'd need to set it down before the print came out.

GoForSmoke:
Could you get away with a Discworld box camera disguise, have a little demon pop out for a smoke now and then? Of course you'd need to set it down before the print came out.

In theory yes. However, the OP is running a photo booth, and probably can't afford the extra time a special effect like that would take.

Now, for my steampunk camera, I have something similar with my squirrel artist. I have several mascots (finger puppets) on my camera, a squirrel (Nutzo) who has a camera, and also two hats that match my 2 renaissance outfits, a squirrel (Livinia, named after Livinia Turlock, a female court painter for Henry VIII and Elizabeth I) who is an artist, a raccoon (Racky) that has a steampunk top hat and a set of tools, a dragon (Spark) that has his own castle, and a beaver (Eva) that will eventually get nerd glasses and handles calculations with abacus and slide rule. When I manage to remember all of the wires, batteries, and LCD monitor, I have Livinea set up with an easel and a small LCD monitor that is the output of the camera's live view screen to make it look like she is painting the image.

Here is a picture of my 3 cameras (Olympus E-P2 inside of a 1915 Kodak Pony Premo 5x7 camera on the left, main steampunk camera in the middle with Olympus E-5 inside (note, in this picture Livinia does not have the monitor), and Olympus VG-120 in a wooden frame on the right):

Here is Livinia with the monitor, at some point I need to wrap the monitor in wood and leather:

Okay, so when are you going to get a couple of servos and animate the fauna? If you couldn't fit a motor inside the plushie, then put the motor inside the box and pull a length of fishing line to move it.

I really love the Kodak-housed Olympus.. that is a very cool looking rig. The wooden pocket digi is awesome!

We have assembled quite a list of "lessons learned" during this, there's now three weeks left and discovered that people care much more about staying "in character" and playing along than explaining how we are doing photography in the 1300's.

I'm actually spending the afternoon putting together yet another camera trigger, Arduino-based of course. Putting a phototransistor and a sound trigger in, with variable delay from sense to trigger. One thing KRF is not short on is some rather interesting subject matter- I have some ideas and want to try a few things with "Jacque the Whipper", and the lead trainer with the King's Zoo is game to see if we could some action shots of the trained hawks and eagles, as well as of the big cats-- including my new buddies the Ligers. Nine hundred pounds of kitten, the big boy is...

focalist:
Okay, so when are you going to get a couple of servos and animate the fauna? If you couldn't fit a motor inside the plushie, then put the motor inside the box and pull a length of fishing line to move it.

Just what I need more ideas. :grin: 8)

focalist:
I really love the Kodak-housed Olympus.. that is a very cool looking rig. The wooden pocket digi is awesome!

Thanks, the Kodak Pony Premo is the original, but I don't take it out as often now because the 1915 camera is starting to show its age. Also, I recently had the tripod socket on the E-P2 camera I use in the Premo come out, and the camera wouldn't be able to be attached to the quick release. I think I have the thing back together, but I'm not sure it will handle rough work.

Unfortunately, I need to rethink the wooden pocket camera, since the VG-120 is such a poor camera when doing inside stuff (outside it is ok).

focalist:
We have assembled quite a list of "lessons learned" during this, there's now three weeks left and discovered that people care much more about staying "in character" and playing along than explaining how we are doing photography in the 1300's.

I'm actually spending the afternoon putting together yet another camera trigger, Arduino-based of course. Putting a phototransistor and a sound trigger in, with variable delay from sense to trigger. One thing KRF is not short on is some rather interesting subject matter- I have some ideas and want to try a few things with "Jacque the Whipper", and the lead trainer with the King's Zoo is game to see if we could some action shots of the trained hawks and eagles, as well as of the big cats-- including my new buddies the Ligers. Nine hundred pounds of kitten, the big boy is...

There are two commercial Arduino setups that have triggers like you are building, that you might want to check out in terms of ideas, etc:

BTW, I did a talk at the Charles River Museum on the history of the steampunk camera, and my slides are here: Slide 1.

As I'm starting to ramp up with Arduino, I am starting to think of things to do with embedded devices, but I haven't had any time to hack in the last couple of months.

MichaelMeissner:

GoForSmoke:
Could you get away with a Discworld box camera disguise, have a little demon pop out for a smoke now and then? Of course you'd need to set it down before the print came out.

In theory yes. However, the OP is running a photo booth, and probably can't afford the extra time a special effect like that would take.

A pin for an axle, a lever to move with a finger and a tiny demon statue in a smoking pose might remove the need to say cheese. It could probably use a spring somewhere in there.

What were you thinking? He don't have a whole lot of time or money to use.

I was more wondering if Discworld $#!+ would float or not?

Camera triggers in general are pretty easy projects, I've made ones triggered by IR photogates, sound, among others. I'm putting together one that I think I will keep as a perm project, as I find myself rebuilding one version or another of this every few months. This one is the most advanced, it utilizes a 4x4 keypad and 16x2 LCD, has triggers for shutter, flash, and aux drive, and accepts an external input for triggering also. Should cover most of my needs. Arduino based of course!