Photo booth

[Michel Hardy-Vallée]

It's passeport renewing time for me and thought I'd try it the old fashioned way. I went to a metro station and sat in a photo booth, put my money in, smiled, waited for the flash to come up, and waited the requisite three minutes before receiving my prints.

Well this thing is so old I can't even figure out where they would get the supplies anymore. My photo was printed on a warmtone B&W paper that had that weird textured plasticky surface like a beehive that I have seen often on old family snapshots. Best of all things, the print was damp when it came out of the machine. And the emulsion seems not even panchromatic because my face is way more wizened than I really am (I'm rather pallid).

In the end I did not use it because it was badly exposed and I didn't have change left to re-do the shoot, but I will keep the photo because I can tell my grandchildren about my life in the fifties...

I wonder what kind of supplies these things use. Is that a negative/positive process or simply a direct reversal on paper stock? The tones are very smooth and soft, the edges slightly diffused. Think I'll go back to play with my new "camera" !

BTW, if you're in Montreal, it's the booth at Place-des-Arts station, just near the Jeanne-Mance exit.

 

[BWKate]

You should post the images in this thread?

 

[copake_ham]

Wow! I haven't seen one of those photo booths in decades!

You should take a picture of the booth itself - your grandkids will never believe you otherwise!

EDIT: FYI. I found this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photo_booth

But unfortunately it doesn't give any info on how the pics are processed.

 

[Michel Hardy-Vallée]

I'll post some scans later today when I'm at the uni library, but meanwhile I've found the information about the surface I was looking for: it's Kodak's "Y" surface, which is described by the Darkroom Dataguide as

"Y: Simulates silk, is popular for wedding photography. Also, a very attractive medium for expressing brightness in snow scenes, seascapes, etc."

 

[htmlguru4242]

I saw the inside of one once; it was a bunch of metal trays on a rotating platform, with a roll of paper inserted. There was a light bulb inside (id say 15 watt-ish), but im not sure if it was for reversal or for helping people reload it.

I only got to see it for a minute or two, so I didnt go see how it works.

Would be interesting to find out though.

 

[JBrunner]

There is one in a store near my house, 4 exposures for a dollar. I Make a point to use it every time I am in the store. It makes really great noises, my 4 year old loves it

 

[Michel Hardy-Vallée]

Here's me!

Here's the scan, you might be able to detect the textured surface of the photo from it. It's a pretty nice warmtone I must say, although the photo is badly exposed.

 

[Photo Engineer]

Shouldn't there be a # in the picture? The police usually do that. Oh, this wasn't a police mug shot, just a plain mug shot, right?

Seriously, many of these used a direct reversal paper that Kodak once made. The color version was trade trialed in France and the name was expected to be Direktachrome. This method was also used in Kodak instant products.

Direct reversal emulsions held a lot of promise and then were abandoned due to the death of instant, and the number of technical problems inherent in their manufacture.

IDK what this booth uses, or if it is direct reversal who makes the product. There was another product that used a lamination method to get positive images. This was sold by Kodak under the Bi-Mat name and was used for early space imaging.

PE

 

[BWKate]

Michel,

Very interesting look to the images. Thanks for posting them. I wish we had one where I live.

 

[Michel Hardy-Vallée]

Shouldn't there be a # in the picture? The police usually do that. Oh, this wasn't a police mug shot, just a plain mug shot, right?

You know I was thinking exactly the same thing, and this booth would be an excellent tool to make fake mugshots!

 

[copake_ham]

You know I was thinking exactly the same thing, and this booth would be an excellent tool to make fake mugshots!

Well with one exception. You were "posing" and have a relaxed look on your face. In most mug shots, the "perp" has a "deer in the headlights" expression. Also, you need that glaring contrast like Weegie would have shot!

 

[Michel Hardy-Vallée]

Well with one exception. You were "posing" and have a relaxed look on your face. In most mug shots, the "perp" has a "deer in the headlights" expression. Also, you need that glaring contrast like Weegie would have shot!

I sure can look startled, it's just a question of Method! I think the bright white light is enough contrasty, but the emulsion seems rather lower contrast and not sharp. Nevertheless, the white background and front light would probably be enough to give the impression. I think I have an assignment for this week...

 

[copake_ham]

I sure can look startled, it's just a question of Method! I think the bright white light is enough contrasty, but the emulsion seems rather lower contrast and not sharp. Nevertheless, the white background and front light would probably be enough to give the impression. I think I have an assignment for this week...

Presumably this "assignment" will not require the direct involvment of the Sûreté du Québec fulfilling their official duties!

 

[frobozz]

Seems like as good a thread as any to post some scans I made of advertising materials for old photo booths! The first one goes into a little detail of how the mechanism worked, at least in this era (1950's)

http://backglass.org/williams/kordek_archives/auto_photo_intro_flyer_100.pdf

http://backglass.org/williams/kordek_archives/auto_photo_model_11_flyer_pamphlet_100.pdf

http://backglass.org/williams/kordek_archives/auto_photo_model_14_flyer_100.pdf

(wouldn't you love to pull that random assortment of change out of your pocket these days, like they did for the front cover of that flyer!)

http://backglass.org/williams/kordek_archives/mutoscope_fine_portraits_flyer_100.pdf

http://backglass.org/williams/kordek_archives/mutoscope_multi_pose_photomat_flyer_100.pdf

Duncan

 

[David Allen]

Old fashioned Photobooths are all the rage here in Berlin.

Two enterprising chaps started off with one in Berlin and now they have a chain running to 7 cities:

http://www.photoautomat.de

Bests,

David.
www.dsallen.de

 

[analoguey]

They seem to be running well in the malls here at least. Or some of them.

Sent from Tap-a-talk

 

[Jeff Kubach]

I always thought they were neat! There is one at the local mall where I live.

Jeff

 

[Andrew K]

There are 3 traditional wet black and white photobooths here in Melbourne.

2 are outside Flinders Street Station (the main railway station in the city). On weekends it's not unusual to see people waiting for them to be free so they can use them. They are especially popular with girls who are into Rockabilly/50's/60's fashion to get an "authentic" photograph.

The other one is in Chapel St Prahran, which is a major suburban shopping strip.

I've used the ones in the city - in fact when my cousin got married and I did their wedding photos I took them to one of the photobooths and they clowned around and we got some great shots...

 

[darkosaric]

In Hamburg photo booths are very popular, on famous flea market "Flohschanze" (http://www.marktkultur-hamburg.de/flohschanze.html) you have 2 photo booths, and you have every Saturday queue all day long, hundreds of people making photos in a booth (2€ for 4 B&W photos).

 

[darkosaric]

Old fashioned Photobooths are all the rage here in Berlin.

Two enterprising chaps started off with one in Berlin and now they have a chain running to 7 cities:

http://www.photoautomat.de

That is the one I was talking about, David as usual gives fast and accurate infos

 

[Ghostman]

We still have photo-booths all over Switzerland.

 

[Loulou]

There are three photo booths that I know of in the small town I live in which is near to Zurich. Like Ghostman says they are everywhere in Switzerland; every railway station, shopping centre etc.

 

[darkosaric]

I saw many photo booths in Paris, but they are all digital. hose here in Hamburg and other cities from photoautomat.de are pure analog B&W. That is what makes them special IOAO (in our apug opinion) .

 

[removed account4]

incase you didn't see this in the article section

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

 

[darkosaric]

incase you didn't see this in the article section

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

Just now saw it , thanks!