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Follow a few easy tips and create a memorable experience at your small church. Photo booths help your members and guests connect with each other. In addition, they can boost your presence in your community to future attendees.
Photo booths create memories. Use them to commemorate an event or just to create some fun at your small church. They bring people together for a moment of fun and connection together.
Small Church Photo Booths Have Great Value
Photo booths are one of the most under-used resources in small churches. Many people overlook the value of photo booths and trivialize them as just something fun that has no useful value. Or, they view them as too costly to put together and not worth their time.
Contrary to those thoughts, photo booths have amazing value and can be very cost-efficient, even for small churches with little or no budget.
- Increase congregation connection
- Build community on your ministry teams
- Advertise your small church in your city
The biggest value of photo booths is delivering community and moments of connection. Feeling connected, belonging, and friendship helps a church grow and develop strength, steadfastness, and commitment.
Jen Morris from La Porte, Indiana, shows how her church, Journey Church, uses balloons to fill in the top to make a festive photo booth area for Christmas.
Small church decorating, whether photo booths or creating an experience for a service, can greatly impact your church culture, community, and connection with God and others.
Any small church can create a photo booth area with as little as a seating area and a few decorations or props. If you have little or no budget at this time, set up a small seating area next to a table with a vase of flowers. As your budget, decorations, or supplies increase, you can add them to the photo booth resources list or begin strategically purchasing more for your photo area.
Aaron Sanchez from Redeemed Life Fellowship in Napoleonville, Louisiana, shares another local church’s simple and elegant Christmas photo booth. It uses five elements: a bench for seating, two lighted pine trees, two lighted white trees with branches, and a piece of fabric to frame the area.
Photo Booth Potential For Small Churches
Every photo booth you offer has the potential to:
- Engage new visitors
- Increase social media presence when you post pix
- Work with a small church’s little or no budget
- Generate excitement when launching a new ministry
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- Increase community among congregants
- Provide an element that’s super fun
Most materials can be found within your church resources, and the supplies are reusable! This is a big cost-saving for churches or ministry teams who want to create photo booths more than once or twice a year.
Plan Your Small Church Photo Booth
To offer a visually engaging photo booth area, make your design plan. Consider four elements when planning photo booths in your small church.
- The photo area where people will sit or stand
- Lighting
- Backdrop
- Decorations or props to create the picture and the experience
Kristie Rodgers from Crystal Springs, Mississippi, shows how they incorporated a full-size sofa into a photo booth area at their state women’s conference. Two vases of feather plumes on either side create a nice balance between the black curtain and the beautiful lead glass windows in the background.
Top Tips For Your Photo Booth
Photo Area
Set your photo booth area to be 8 feet tall and up to 7 feet wide if you have space. The goal is when someone takes a picture, the picture only contains the people and the backdrop (and any props, etc.) No wall should be showing in the pix that isn’t your created backdrop or part of the natural backdrop.
Even though your area may be broad, place decorations and props near the seating or standing area. Use your decorations to “frame in” the photo area.
Participants will want to take selfies. Having someone taking pictures for the church is also a great idea. To encourage pictures to be more about the people and less about the decorations, use tape to make an X for the photographer (picture taker) to stand on. Ideally, this will be 6 to 8 feet from the wall or backdrop.
Provide Seating In Your Photo Booth Area
Unless you are creating a photo booth where there’s a specific reason people should stand, always provide seating for the picture. Chairs, benches, and straw bales are good options for photo booth seats.
Using a large picture frame as a prop is one idea where you may not need to use seating but have a chair off to the side in case someone needs to sit.
Providing seating gives you a greater possibility for more people to participate. It allows three distinct areas for people to position themselves. They can lay, sit, or stand in the foreground, middle ground, or background.
Often, providing seating can be the difference between a Photo Booth yes or no for families, single parents with young children, senior adults, larger groups, and those with mobility issues.
Seating helps pictures look so much better when two or more people have several inches in height difference. In this case, seating helps keep the focal point in one place rather than higher and lower to see the faces.
Debbie Davis, from Savannah, Missouri, shares how Cornerstone Church created an easy photo booth by hanging tulle in front of a window and placing a tablecloth over a desk to create seating. They created a space that is beautiful, works well with the theme, and the extras don’t distract from the people.
Providing seating is helpful with groups of friends or large families. It allows some to sit, stand behind the seating, and sit or kneel on the floor in front. Keeping a group close together gives a better picture than having seven friends stand in a line, shoulder to shoulder.
Photo Booth Lighting
Lighting is super important to the success of your photo area. If your lighting is poor, the pictures might be shadowed and hide the people, or the pictures won’t show the fantastic photo area you took the time to plan, create, and build.
- Be sure there is good lighting in your photo area. Ring lights work great
- If your overhead lighting isn’t strong, consider adding a floor or table lamp
- Twinkle lights in the background can elevate the design
Jen Morris, from La Porte, Indiana, shares Journey Church’s photo booth. This is a great example of using lighting behind the backdrop. They use rope lights (or twinkle lights) and stand-alone lights to create interest and add design to their Mother’s Day photo booth.
Photo Booth Backdrop
You already have the start of a backdrop, whether it is a wall or empty space. It exists. It is behind your standing or seating area. Your backdrop should be visually interesting. The people are the first focal point of your pictures. The backdrop is the second focal point.
A backdrop doesn’t have to be complicated or even fancy. Its purpose is to provide visual interest and a framework for the picture.
Design or run your backdrop to the floor if you do full shots of people.
Heather Harkins, from Trussville, Alabama, USA, shares this photo booth from her church, Ridgecrest Baptist Church. They framed their backdrop with white pulled-back curtains and a floral garland across the top. They were sure to have the backdrop meet the floor for a clean look.
Simple & Easy Backdrop Ideas
- Plastic table cloths whole or cut into “streamer size” strips
- Long pieces of fabric, overlapping, so no seams are evident against the wall
- Shower curtains
- Order from Amazon
- Patchwork pieces of construction paper
- Streamers
- Fabric
- Wall art
Inexpensive Ways to Dress Up the Backdrop
Creating interest for a photo booth backdrop can be simple and low-cost. Adding something to give dimension to the wall, fabric, or vinyl backdrop can make a better background for your small church photo booth.
- Paper flowers
- Squares (or other shapes) of construction paper
- Letters premade or diy cut from posterboard or construction paper
- Balloons
- Twinkle lights or fairy lights – in front of your backdrop or behind lightweight fabric
- Signs
- Greenery
Heather Harkins from Trussville, Alabama, USA, shows how her church, Ridgecrest Baptist Church, added neckties to this wood-grained background to create their Father’s Day Photo Booth. It is simple and easy, with one chair for seating.
Photo Booth Props Help People Loosen Up
Props can help people have fun. They should make sense of the theme of the photo booth. Silly props are great for youth or children. Think about your photo booth theme before purchasing your props. Photo opportunities such as VBS, a ministry Christmas party, or a youth lock-in are better choices for silly props than a Mother’s Day or Christmas Eve photo opportunity.
Fun Props:
- Holiday-themed decorations or pieces of clothing
- Bouquet of helium-filled latex balloons
- Sun Glasses
- Hats
- Costume jewelry
- Hawaiian leis
- Items that complement your theme (bouquet of flowers for Valentine’s Day, hard/hat & drill or fishing poles for Father’s Day, ice skates (with blade covers) to carefully sling over the shoulder for winter themes.
- Extra-large picture frame
- Big flower bouquet
- Big props are always fun, especially for kids and teenagers
- Check out the simple props in this I’m Grateful Photo Booth
- Borrow props: fishing poles, teapots and tea cups, ice skates, sleds, sports gear, etc.
Photo booths allow your small church to build your church family. They can help build connections through fun and laughter.
Build Photo Booths Into Your Event Planning
- Offer an opportunity for family to share photos with family or friends who only attend on Christmas or Easter. Read here for The Dos And Don’ts Of Planning Worship For Easter And Christmas.
- Draw attention to the celebration.
- Deliver an easy & inexpensive way to generate excitement. Create excitement at your next youth lock-in with a photo booth.
- Promote future events
- Give photos for future church use: anniversary, event promo.
Remember These Tips For Photo Booth Success
Photo booths can be a helpful tool for small churches. When planning a photo booth for your next event, keep in mind these tips. Try not to crowd your photo booth into a tiny corner. Plan your area to provide adequate space and seating for your congregation members.
Consider the lighting in your photo area and add additional lights if needed. Remember, backdrops don’t have to break the bank. But they do need to create some interest in the photo. Be mindful of props. Choose props that fit your theme. Think about safety when choosing props. Use blade covers for ice skates. Notice the hooks or lures on fishing poles and switch the lures or hooks out if needed.
It’s a good idea to ask someone to stay at the booth to take pictures for future church use. These pictures can be great for a church anniversary slideshow or future announcements for event promo.
Finally, remember to have fun! Photo booths can provide great fun and a time of laughter and connection for your guests and small church members.
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