Here you'll receive an introduction to the Preferences tab within Photo Booth Upload and an explanation of all the options therein. The Preferences tab is the first tab you see when you open Photo Booth Upload Settings. PBU Settings can be accessed by pressing "S" on your keyboard or triple-clicking the bottom right corner of the PBU home screen.

Folders

Use this area to modify your Originals and Output folders, select a home screen background image, and adjust the filename prefix that will appear at the beginning of every filename for all media you create.

Originals Folder: This folder will contain all the unaltered, unedited, photos and videos taken with the camera. For example, if your activation includes an image on green screen and page design, only the photo with your guest in front of a green screen will appear here.

Make Sub-folder of output folder: With this checked, the Originals folder will be automatically saved as a sub-folder in the Output folder. This can help keep your photos organized within a single folder. If it is unchecked, you'll have the option to choose an Originals Folder destination.

Output Folder: This folder is where your final photos/videos will appear. This includes any effect applied with page design, green screen, overlays, etc. Note: If the Helper is running and you have Auto sync turned on in the PPU/Printing tab, the Helper Watched folder will be automatically set to the Output Folder.

Filename Prefix: Anything entered here will appear at the beginning of every filename for all the media you create. Please Note: If you intend to use an iPad, do not use special characters in your Filename Prefix as images will display incorrectly on iPad. Will appear normally on Windows.

Append Random Sequence: Check this box if you would like PBU to append a random sequence of numbers to the file name.

Software Background: Allows you to import an image to replace the green and red background of the software.

Hot Keys

Use this area to customize the hot keys used to access PBU Settings, Exit the application, and Minimize the application. To do so, click the hot key you would like to change then press a key on your keyboard. The letters will automatically update with your input. Select the Hotkeys button to manually access Settings, Minimize, Exit, or Trigger Photo.

Trigger Photo With

Use this area to configure the photo trigger, which will determine how the guests' photo will be taken.

Countdown: A countdown, of the duration of your choice, will display on the touch-screen monitor to alert guests when the photo will be taken if this option is select. Select Countdown Settings for options to change the size, color, and position of the Countdown clock, and to have a voice speak the countdown.

Key: Trigger the photo with a keyboard key of your choice.  Select a key to trigger the photo from the drop down menu

Mouse: Clicking the right mouse button will trigger the photo if this option is selected.

Mouse with Countdown: Clicking the mouse will begin a countdown clock.

Smile: A photo will be taken when a guest smiles. Multiple guests will have to smile at the same time. The threshold setting will adjust how big of a smile each guest has to hold. Please note to use this trigger requires an ample amount of light.

All triggers can be activated by tapping the left or right side of the screen, outside of the live view area.

Options

Use this area to customize aspects of PBU

Disable Photo: Removes the Photo button as an option for your guests. This will prevent you from taking photos (plain or green screen) and using Page Designs.

Disable Share Screen: Skips the Share button screen after the guests' photo/video/GIF is captured.

Quick Mode: Eliminates transitions between screens. If only one activation is enabled with Auto-Apply, Quick Mode will ready the activation immediately following the previous session.

Enable Home Button: Adds a Home button to the bottom left of the screen that will cancel the current session and return to the home screen. Please note that the home button is hidden during a live video capture and will be available after the capture.

Disable Live Preview: Disables the Live Preview on the Main Screen.

Save "Processing" Preview: Saves a thumbnail of the media (typically from a GIF or video) that guests can share while their media is being processed. When the media is fully processed, it will be shared instead of the thumbnail. This allows guests to share immediately without having to wait for their media to be processed.

Enable Redo: Allows guests to retake their photos. You must click Accept for each photo to proceed.

Enable Photo Edit: Allows guests to make changes to green screen, text, and photo placement after the photo is taken.

Enable standard photo positioning: Allows guests or attendants to resize and re-position standard (non-Green Screen) photos prior to capture and in the photo edit screen. 

Play Shutter Sound: Plays the sound of a camera shutter when a photo is taken.

Show disclaimer before shooting: If you have a disclaimer turned on for your event in the Event Manager, enabling this option will make it so that the disclaimer appears after the activation button is selected (Photo, Animate, Video, etc.) but before the content is captured. Otherwise, the Disclaimer will appear by default after a share option is selected in PBU or PPU Kiosk.

Enable settings password: Checking this box will add a field into which you can type a password to restrict access to your settings in PBU. The password will be required whenever a user attempts to enter Settings, Minimize, or Exit the application.

Enable Single Share: Return to the beginning immediately after sharing with one method.

Enable Gallery Bar: The Gallery Bar will show as a small up arrow on the bottom of the screen, and when pressed will show a gallery of the photos captured. This is handy if you do not have a sharing kiosk and need to find previous photos to re-print/re-share. Please Note: You should also enable the Gallery Bar if you are capturing AI photos without the Kiosk App. The final renderings will appear in the Gallery Bar once processed. If you select 'Enable Sessions' the gallery bar will reset after each photo session (for privacy reasons). You may view more about the Gallery Bar here.

Edit Final Message: A message can be toggled on or off to be displayed at the end of the guests' session. This includes options to add text, adjust duration (in seconds), text color, and font.

Edit Welcome Video: Welcome videos can be set to play as guests begin their session for a variety of different activations. These activations include Photo, Video, Gif, Zoom-Scape, Light Painting, Morphing and VR 360. Simply check the box to enable a welcome video under your desired activation, then import a video from your PC. You also have the choice to loop the video.

Idle/Splash Screen: Idle and Splash screens can be enabled and will allow you to import an image or video (generally brand or logo) that will appear before and/or after selecting an activation. When activated without an image uploaded, the default text "Click to Start" will appear.

Preview Screen: Gives you options to add a full screen preview at the end of the guest session. You can set a specific amount of time that the preview appears, or don't set a time and the preview screen will stay up until it is dismissed by a tap/click.

Live View Scale: Sets the scale of the Live Preview as a percentage of the full screen.

Settings

Use this area to export your settings to be saved for future events, important settings from a previous session, or restore the original green screens, Page Designs, etc. that are included with PBU.

Export: Export your current PBU settings, designs, graphics, etc., into a .pbu file. It can be stored locally, transferred to a USB drive or cloud storage, or imported in another computer using PBU.

Import: Import settings and designs from a .pbu file. 

Restore Generic: Restore original green screens, Page Designs, etc. that are included with PBU.

Clear All: This will remove all Page Designs, green screens, gifs, etc., including those that are included with the software, and restore all settings to their default values.The Preferences tab and LED light patterns are not affected.

Settings Backup

When an event's settings are saved, a backup of those settings is automatically created and stored on your computer. These backups include all PBU settings, including camera settings and green screen photo positions. Graphics files like overlays and backgrounds are not saved, but they will be restored if the graphics files are saved in the same location from which they were originally imported. Use this area to specify how many backups you would like to keep.

Restore Backup: (If applicable) Choose from a list of previous backups

Clear Backups: Removes all previous backups

Language

Choose a language from a drop down list. Currently English, Spanish, and French languages are available. You can create a new language file by copying and editing the French language file in C:\Program Files\Photo Booth Upload\Languages

Program Version

With this enabled, the software will check that you have the most recent version of Photo Booth Upload when the program starts. You must be connected to the internet to check for a newer version. You can also export the log as a .txt file, which may help troubleshooting issues with LA Photo Party Support staff.

Check Now: Click this button to perform a version check at any time.

Export Log: Export a PBU log file that can be saved somewhere convenient on your PC. It can be sent to LA Photo Party Support staff if errors are occurring within the software.

License

This section displays the status and duration for your Photo Booth Upload license. If you select, "Enter New License" you can enter new license information. If you are interested in learning more about licenses, please refer to our License solution section HERE.

Enter New License: This will open a window that allows you to update your license, deactivate your current license, or enter an old license code. It will appear as so:

Below the Enter New License button is a Help button. Clicking it will open a browser and take you to the LA Photo Party Support page.

Number of Warnings: X - Click for more info: This field may or may not appear based on settings on your computer regarding Helper or PBU. Click this button to see the warning prompts in a popup. The prompts change based on circumstances but as an example could state: "Sharing is turned on in PBU but turned off in your selected Photo Party Upload Event - guests will not be able to upload until you select an event with sharing."

The most common warning with new installs of PBU regards the K-Lite Codec pack. PBU requires this codec pack to be installed before any videos can be encoded. A link to the download page for K-Lite Codec pack will be included in the warning prompt.

Simple Mode

When Simple mode is enabled, many advanced features are removed throughout the settings of PBU. When enabled, you'll be prompted if you would like to keep the current settings of the options that will be hidden, or if you would like to disable them. Here is an example of the Preferences tab when simple mode is turned on:

Congratulations! You've learned all there is to know about the Preferences tab of PBU!