Starting with RightBooth version 7.3.28 the way that screen items are resized has changed.

To size an item in the Screen Designer, first click on any item on the screen in order to select it.  This will then display the pickup sizing boxes on the right side edge, the bottom edge and the bottom right corner of the selected item.

Now you you have two sizing options:

• 1)  Click and drag any pickup sizing box to change the size of the item relative to the item's top left corner. 
  

OR

• 2)  Press and hold down the keyboard Shift (or Ctrl) key, and while doing so you can then click and drag any pickup sizing box to change the size of the item relative to the item's centre point.​

Starting from RightBooth version 7.3.25 you can now allow other applications to modify your photos as part of the RightBooth event flow.  This article explains how to apply Photoshop filters to your RightBooth photos.

Step 1 - Get Photoshop
Perhaps it goes without saying but the process described in this article will only work if you actually have a copy of Photoshop installed on the same PC as RightBooth.  At the time of writing, Photoshop is no longer available as a single purchase product, so you must take out a monthly subscription.  This can start out from as little as £8 per month on a rolling contract.   Visit www.adobe.com for all the details.

Step 2 - Create some Photoshop Droplets
What are Photoshop Droplets?  A droplet is an executable file generated by Photoshop that allows you to apply a set of actions to an image just by providing the droplet with the filename of a photo.  When the droplet runs, it will open Photoshop, load the RightBooth photo, then apply all the actions to the photo and re-save the modified photo with the same filename, overwriting the original.  Using this approach, you can create droplets that can modify photos in many different ways using any of the incredible photo manipulation features available in Photoshop.

This article will not be explaining how to create Photoshop droplets, there is a huge amount of information on how to do this on the Internet. ​Here is a typical article:  https://pixel77.com/how-create-droplet/

Step 3 - Use the Droplet in RightBooth
To do this:

• Go to the RightBooth Screen Editor.
• Look at the Show Photo screen.
• Add a new label object to the screen.  Enter the text: 'Convert to Black and White'  (for example).
• Open the Label properties and add the Click action:  'Run Program Minimised'
• Add the commend line parameter:
  • "c:\droplet\blackandwhite.exe"  rb:photo  rb:wait  rb:next

​As shown in this screenshot:

Now when the event is played and a photo is taken, if the user clicks (or touches) the label item,  RightBooth will:

• run the blackandwhite droplet (in hidden mode so you don't see it running) and  will provide the droplet with the name of the current RightBooth photo, due to the rb:photo parameter,
• RightBooth will then wait for the droplet to complete its work ( i.e converting the photo to black and white using PhotoShop), due to the rb:wait parameter,
• RightBooth will then progress the event onto the next event screen in the screen list, due to the rb:next parameter.

Step 4 - Show the modified photo in RightBooth
In order to show the user the resulting modified photo:

• In the Screen Editor, tick the 'Add items' checkbox.
• On the 'Add Items' toolbox, click the 'Screen' button to add a new screen to the screen list, let's call this screen: 'Show filter'
• Use the down arrow button to move the new screen below the 'Show photo' screen in the screen list:

Now when the event is played if the user clicks (or touches) the 'Convert to Black and white' label item on the 'Show photo' screen,  RightBooth will then show the modified black and white image on the 'Show Filter' screen.

Allow Users to Change their Filter Choice
If you would like users to try a different filter after having chosen one:

• On the 'Show filter' screen add a new label.  Enter the text: 'Choose another filter'  (for example)
• Open the Label properties and add the Click action:  'Show screen'
• Add the commend line parameter:
  • Show photo  /resetp

​As shown in this screenshot:

Prevent Photoshop appearing
When a Photoshop droplet runs it will automatically open Photoshop and apply all the actions to the photo.  This may cause Photoshop to appear in front of your event when the user selects one of the filters.  To prevent Photoshop appearing you can set the RightBooth event to remain on top of all other applications as follows:

• Go into RightBooth Settings
• Click on the Security tab
• Tick the setting: Event on top

If your RightBooth event contains questions that require video answers then the recording time for each answer is initially set to the value you have entered in the Maximum recording time text box.   Here you can see we have set the event to be a Question event and the default recording time has been set to 40 seconds:

In this example, each time you add a new question to the Questions table (in the Event questions section) the question will be given an initial video recording time of 40 seconds.

However, once a question has been added to the event, subsequent changes to the Maximum recording time value will not alter the recording time for any of the existing video answers in the event.  This is because each defined video answer maintains its own independent recording time once it has been created.

So what if you want to alter the recording time for one (or more) of the video answers in your event?

​Here's how:​

• Enter the RightBooth Screen Designer.
• Select the Answer screen from the Screen list on the main Toolbox.
• Use the numeric Up/Down Answer selector to choose the relevant Answer screen.
• Select the Countdown item on the chosen answer screen.
• Alter the countdown value to the required amount.
• Repeat this process for any other video answer screens you would like to alter.

In this example screen shot we have changed the countdown value to 60 seconds on Answer screen number 2.  In other words, we have set the maximum recording time to 60 seconds for the video answer on the second question in the event:

RightBooth is a graphics intensive application, especially if you are using multiple video files and graphics animations in your event designs.  For this reason you may find that it performs better if you add RightBooth to the Windows 10 graphics performance list and set it to 'High performance'.

To do this:

• Right click on your desktop and from the pop up menu, choose 'Display settings'
• In Windows Display settings, scroll down to the bottom of the panel and click on: 'Graphics settings'
• On the Graphics settings panel, click the Browse button
• Choose the file: RightBooth7.exe which you will find in the folder: C:\Program Files (x86)\RightBooth7\
• RightBooth 7 will now be added to the Performance list.  Click on its name and then click the Options button.
• On the Graphics specifications panel, click the 'High performance' option.

RightBooth 7 will now be set to use the High performance graphics mode as shown below:

Over the years I have tried many apps and online utilities for downloading videos from the Internet, especially YouTube.  These utilities tend to come and go, and some of them can install all kinds of unwanted files, services and viruses on your PC.

This article describes what I consider to be one of the safest methods for downloading videos from the Internet.

Step 1 - Get VLC Media Player
This excellent and well trusted freeware app can be downloaded here:
https://www.videolan.org/index.html

Step 2 - Obtain the URL of the video you want to download
For example in YouTube find a video and start it playing.  Then right click on the playing video and choose: 'Copy video URL' from the popup menu.

Step 3 - Paste the Video URL into VLC and Start it Playing

• Run VLC Media Player.
• On the VLC main menu, select:  Media --> Open Network Stream.
• Paste your previously copied video URL into the box, then click the Play button:

Step 4 - Get the Video Location URL
Once the video starts playing in VLC media player, on the main menu select: Tools --> Codec Information and then copy the Location URL:

Step 5 - Enter the Location URL into your Browser Address Bar
Navigate to the video location by pasting the copied location url into the address bar of your browser.
When the video is playing in your browser, right click on the playing video and choose 'Save As' from the popup menu to download the video to a chosen folder on your PC.

Job done, and without any risk of installing unwanted garbage on your PC :-)

RightBooth version 7.3.19 has just been released.  It allows you to add video backgrounds to your karaoke video recordings (and your standard video recordings).  Here's a small section of a karaoke video I received from a RightBooth user.

It was created using the karaoke recording feature and the real-time green screen video background replacement feature.

​It was recorded at 720p, 30fps using a Logitech C920 and it just shows what you can achieve when you have the right equipment, the right lighting and the right software...

​And here is a photo showing the actual green screen background set up that was used for the karaoke video recording:

Latest RightBooth video tutorial:

Now play the event and when you record videos the volume meter will show you the current audio input level.  This video shows how the meter provides constant feedback, using my drill to provide a consistent noise !  :-) ...

DISCLAIMER:  Please be advised that the hardware configuration and wiring information presented in this article has not been reviewed by qualified people with the expertise required to provide you with complete, accurate or reliable information. Therefore we (Aire Valley Software) cannot guarantee the validity of the information found here and we do not guarantee expressly or implicitly, nor take on any legal responsibility about the correctness, the exhaustiveness or the usefulness of the information. For these reasons we cannot be held liable for any problems that may arise as a result of acting upon this information.
You should ALWAYS seek the advice of a qualified professional electrician.

Article
COB LED lights produce excellent light and these can be used to greatly improve the quality of your webcam (and DSLR camera) photo capture quality, especially when the room's ambient lighting conditions are not great.

This article shows you how to design your own low cost 'flash setup' using COB LED lights  situated near your webcam which point towards your users and are automatically controlled by RightBooth’s USB relay switch action command.

Step 1 - Items list
Obtain the following items:

• 12V COB LED Lights 
• 12V Dimmer switch 
• 5V/12V USB HID Relay 
• USB A-B Male Cable  
• 12V 2A Power adapter  
• Wire   
• Webcam (any).

Step 2 - Build
Connect the items together as follows,  you don't need a soldering iron :-)...

Note that in this setup the single switch USB relay takes its power from the PC via the USB port.  1 and 2 way relays can take power from the USB but if you are using a 4 way relay (or larger) you will need an additional 12V adapter to power it.

Step 3 Testing
Make sure your flash setup is powered, and the webcam and relay are both connected to USB ports on your PC.

• Run RightBooth
• Go to RightBooth Settings --> Start & Stop
• Tick the setting: ‘ Start USB HID relay boards’
• Check that your flash setup is working correctly by entering the following command into the relay test textbox and pressing the ‘Test’ button:  1 W 1000 0

​This is the amount of time that RightBooth will wait before taking a photo on the ‘Take photo’ event screen.
​

• Return to the RightBooth main window and go to the Screen Editor.
• Select the ‘Take photo’ screen.
• Click Properties to view the Screen properties.
• In the Action section, select ‘Show’
• Choose the action: ‘Set relay channels’.
• In the action text box, enter ‘1 W 700 0’...

Save your event.  Job done !

The Result
When you play your event, each time the ‘Take photo’ screen is shown, your COB lights will be switched on before each photo is taken and will then switch off immediately after.

Note:  You may want to play around with the timings.  In this article the lights are turned on, then 0.5 seconds later the photo is taken, then 0.2 seconds later the lights are turned off. 

Tip:  To ensure that the lights are definitely on when the photo is taken, try pointing the webcam at the lights, while you tweak the capture timings, and if the captured photo is showing complete white out, then you know you've got it right !

When you create your RightBooth events you will usually include images and videos from various locations on your computer.  As time goes by, when you return to previously created events you may forget which folders the referenced files are located.  Here's how you can discover the location of the files in your events.

• Open the event in RightBooth
• Go to the Screen Editor
• On the Screen Editor Toolbox, tick the option: Item tooltips
• Now, when you move the mouse over items on the screen you will see a tooltip appear that shows the full path to the underlying image or video.

In this example screenshot the mouse has been moved over an image on the Start screen and the tooltip is showing the image name and location as:  c:\users\nrpsu\pictures\pic.jpg

RightBooth version 7.3.1 introduces some additional action commands for improved  control of one or more USB relay boards.  This video shows some of the new capabilities and full details can be found in the latest RightBooth User Manual:

IMPORTANT:  Be sure to obtain programmable HID relay boards.  Here is a typical supplier:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/152464651505?ul_noapp=true

Version 7.3 includes a number of new features including the video green background remover.  For a complete list of all the new features, refer to the Release Notes
​
Here I show how to turn on the video green remover and also how to tweak the settings to cater for differences in each of the videos:

If you'd like to have a play, there are some example green videos which can be downloaded here

This release has (among other things) the ability to define individual countdown values for each photo in the event.  Details here.

See the release notes for all the new features and bug fixes.

RightBooth version 7.1.2 (released today) now allows certain screens to be optionally shown only for specific photos taken in the set of photos for each user.

Full details here

RightBooth version 7.1.1 (or later) now supports creating Boomerang animated GIFs.  Here is a standard animated GIF and a Boomerang animation of the  same activity:

Today RightBooth version 7.1.0 is released containing the Event Packaging feature.  See here for full description.

RightBooth version 7.0.46 adds two more application languages: French and German, in addition to English and Spanish.

If you would like to switch the RightBooth application user interface to use one of these new languages:

• From the RightBooth main screen, click the Settings button.
• In Settings, click the 'Text & Language' tab.
• Select your chosen language from the 'Application language' combo box.
  

In this screenshot we are choosing the French language...

• You will then need to exit RightBooth and restart the app for the new language to take effect.

When you start for the first time with a new language, RightBooth will create a translated Media Library by copying all the files and folders from the English media library.  This process may take a few minutes, so please be patient !

Note: The RightBooth user manual and help file will remain in English.

Call for Feedback
If you are fluent in French, Spanish or German we would love to receive your feedback on the RightBooth application language translations.  If you find any problems, or see any word or phrase that is either miss-spelt or is contextually incorrect then please let us know.

You may have noticed the Faster screen updates checkbox in RightBooth Video settings and wondered what it is all about.  Read on...

RightBooth event screens are rendered using Windows Presentation Foundation (a.k.a WPF) which itself is built on the Microsoft DirectX graphics system, the bedrock of all things gaming on the MS platform. 

So WPF is the reason why RightBooth provides you with an amazing array of graphics design capabilities, including the ability to display rotated, animated, semi transparent items such as video, images and even the live webcam feed.  And WPF will always strive to update your event screens at 60 frames per second to provide a smooth, 'lag free' experience.

Now in order to see the best performance from all this graphics wizardry your computer needs a modern, fast graphics card with a reasonable amount of graphics memory and it is fair to say that most of today's modern Windows computers are more than capable in this respect. 

Having said this, one of the indications that your system might be struggling to keep up on the graphics front is if you notice a delay ( lag ) between your actual movements and those shown on the live webcam feed, especially during periods of video recording.  In this situation, RightBooth will give priority to the actual recording process at the expense of the screen updating to help prevent problems occurring in your recorded video files.

But if you are experiencing this visual delay and would prefer to reduce it, you can try turning on the 'Faster screen updates' video setting...

When this option is set, RightBooth will write the live webcam frame data directly to your monitor display at the exact size and position where you have placed the webcam item on the event screen, and it will no longer be sent to the DirectX screen compositor.  This will reduce the time it takes to update the webcam live feed on your display and therefore you should see a reduction in any delay.

But this setting comes at a price... 

The live webcam frame data will be shown on the display in an unrotated rectangular area, without any graphics effects, transparency or rounded corners applied to it.  It will also be displayed on top of all other screen items, effectively hiding your designed WPF webcam item, which itself will be frozen for the duration of the recording.  For this reason you be need to make sure that any other screen items are not placed on top of the webcam item at design time.  So for example, you will need to re-position the recording countdown text item so that it does not overlap the webcam item.

So while this setting can help reduce the visual delay in the live feed, it does slightly restrict your design capabilities with the webcam item on your 'Record video' event screens.

Please note that none of your other design decisions on other screen items will be affected by using the 'Faster screen updates' setting and remember that if you are using a half decent computer then you will not need to use this setting at all.

One final point, if you are considering using 'Faster screen updates' then make sure you are running with RightBooth version 7.0.45 (or later).

RightBooth version 7.0.43 is released today.

The main change is the addition of the 'Event hardware' tab in the Event Designer.

This allows each of your event files to be set to specifically use either your webcam, your DSLR camera or whichever device has been chosen in RightBooth Settings.

You will find this feature useful if you have both a webcam and a DSLR camera attached to your PC and you want to provide users with a choice of features.
​
For example, you could design one event file for real-time webcam inking and image stamping during video recording and then provide a second event file for hi-res DSLR photo capture, with both events being user-selectable from a menu.

In this example screenshot we have set the event file 'mirrorvideo' to specifically use the webcam for both video recording and photo capture:

​Starting from July 15, 2019, Google are changing the way that third party apps are allowed to make use of their Gmail API.  While this change primarily affects the way in which apps can access Gmail data, it might also affect the ability for third party apps to send gmails.

For more details on this change read this.

If you are using a Gmail account to send emails from RightBooth, then as a precaution we recommend that you have another email account ready to switch to should Google block third party app emailing.

For example, you can create a free outlook email account at https://outlook.live.com. Then in RightBooth Social media settings, set the Email server as follows:

• From:  your name
• Host: smtp-mail.outlook.com
• Account:  your outlook email address
• Password: your outlook email password 
• Port number: 587
• Use SSL: Ticked

RightBooth version 7.0.42 (or newer) adds improvements to the quality of your printed photos.

To demonstrate the difference, a Canon 1100D was pointed at a fixed scene.
RightBooth version 7.0.41 was first used to capture a photo and create a photo print layout file and then RightBooth version 7.0.42 was used to capture the same photo and create a second photo print layout file.

​The scene...

Here is the same enlarged area taken from each of the photo print layout files:

​Here are the two print layout files you can download for comparison:

I think you'll agree that there is marked improvement. And you will get this improvement when you are using either a DSLR camera or a webcam to take photos.

Happy photo printing !

Latest training video published explaining how to use label, image and video sequence items on your RightBooth event screens