Having a photo booth at any event is a hot trend nowadays and the market is being flooded with people who want to make fast cash and gain your business. While many of them have good intentions, the truth is that their overall experience falls short and will leave you underwhelmed; and unfortunately, you don't get a second chance of your special day.

It’s all about the souvenir photo when it comes to a birthday, wedding, sweet 16, bar / bat mitzvah or corporate event. The old-fashioned film strip photo booth shouldn’t exist with today’s technology. Why pay for grainy mugshot selfies with questionable lighting when you can have a quality photo that you can apply a filter, print a frameable 4X6 picture and instantly share to the world from one platform? It may seem like common sense with the technology of today, but the automated, selfie-taking platform has been around for decades and has experienced resurgence due to their cheapness.

The variety of these cheap photo booth options include the enclosed photo booth typically seen in movie theaters and malls, the blow up, bounce house looking monstrosity, the “open air” style and the magic mirror. Unfortunately, these options still leave you with an inferior environment and a poor-quality photograph, often taken with a webcam, an entry level DSLR or on an iPad. Filmstrip and multiple photo experiences purposely make each individual picture small so you do not notice their inferior quality.

Another fun fact behind the automated system, or as we like to say the “Press Start” photo booth is that it is a session-based timed software. What this means is once you press start until the end when it prints your photo this application is running off a timer. So get ready to take a an automated picture three or four times before it automatically prints. Once the photos have been printed, they are gone forever and you cannot edit the filter or request more prints.

A photo session from start to finish is preprogramed to last 5 minutes. Let us break this operational cost down for a typical 4-hour event at $995: 5 minutes per photo session equals only 12 photo sessions per hour. This gives you an event photo session total of 48. This is 48 single 4X6 prints at $20.72 a picture or 96 2X6 filmstrip prints at $10.36 per strip. 48 sessions does not include the time allotted for introductions at the beginning of your event, special performances and speeches during which the photo booth is closed, or the photo booth attendants’ dinner break.

The photo booth experience by Step It Up Events®, however is a different story. Our photo booth engagement software platform "THINK Photo Booth Fun®" was created by us, exclusively for use by our guests on our kiosk. Every photo taken at your event will stay on screen the entire time and you can instantly customize your picture with 6 filters, instantly share your pictures to Email, Text, Facebook and Twitter and print UNLIMITED single shot 4X6 thermal prints. Are you worried about personalizing or signing your picture? We have an APP for that in iTunes called THINK Photo Booth Fun®. We use the latest and greatest equipment in the industry such as professional photography lighting not sold in retail stores. These aspects of ‘phototainment’ that Step It Up Events® has mastered are where the other vendors on the market fall short.

Our master photo booth photographer makes sure every picture is perfect while our photo technician is personally assisting every guest with the unlimited printing and unlimited sharing of their pictures. We continue to take pictures while guests are engaging with their pictures as our camera is running independently from our THINK Photo Booth Fun® application so the fun never has to stop! Because of how we changed the industry process, we are the ONLY 100% unlimited service worldwide as you have access to every photo for the time we are providing our service, all day or night long. In a typical 4 hour reception time we will share on average 750+ pictures and print on average 400 to 850 4x6 pictures providing a cost of only $0.82 per print all from one experience. To date, we have printed 285 pictures in 1 hour!

Pricing will likely be a major factor in your event planning, but if price is your only consideration then unfortunately you might just get what you paid for (or didn’t pay for).

You should ask yourself not just what are you paying for, but what are you missing out on? What are your priorities with your photo booth vendor? What are your expectations for your photo booth? You must be sure to check what is included in any price quote and what is conveniently left out. How long is the true operation period? Do you have to pay extra for options such as a graphic design, digital photo sharing with live data, online galleries or other customizations that are INCLUDED with Step It Up Events®? Is there a travel fee? Are there any hidden fees? Beware of DJ’s and wedding photographers that will “throw in” a photo booth for FREE or a small extra fee. These companies do not specialize in photo booths like we do and are not doing you any favors. They are simply looking to make a few extra bucks from your event.

Many companies offer very confusing pricing structures that make it difficult to compare their features and options against other photo booth companies. They purposely advertise low pricing with minimal hours and options and then try to up-sell you once you have committed to their company. These tactics will end up costing you more than you imagined paying and you will be left with the same lackluster product. These same companies will tell you that they will match any price, but are they matching the quality, service and reputation of their competitors? Do they and their staff have the professional experience in the industry to guarantee your event will be treated as if it was their own?

Step It Up Events® is a premier, award winning full-service event branding company specializing in the open photo booth experience & photography for corporate and private party engagement and entertainment!

We are owner operated, fully licensed & insured, and we do not sub contract or hire sub-contractors. This is all we do, full-time, all the time. Photo booths are NOT an “add-on” to our business, they are our business.

Remember: “An event lasts a day, a memory lasts forever.”