Apply Photoshop Filters To RightBooth Photos

Updated: Feb 2021
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RightBooth can 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/

For the rest of this article we will use a simple example droplet: BlackAndWhite.exe which as the name suggests will take any photo and automatically convert it to black and white in Photoshop.  Feel free to download and use this droplet when testing this solution yourself.
Simply download the droplet exe and save it somewhere on your computer.  For the purposes of this tutorial we will assume that the droplet is saved in the folder: C:\Droplet

blackandwhite.exe
File Size:	341 kb
File Type:	exe

Download File

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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:

• Look at the Screen properties for the 'Show Filter' screen and make sure the Click action is set to 'Next screen'.  This will allow the user to progress past the 'Show Filter' screen when the event is played.
• Add a new image item to the 'Show Filter'  screen and set it to 'Latest photo capture' in its image properties:

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.

Using More Droplets
This idea can be extended with more droplets so that you can provide users with a choice of filters on the 'Show photo' screen, with the resulting modified photo always being shown on the 'Show filter' screen.

In the example screen shot we have added two more droplets for user selection:

You just need to create your own droplets in Photoshop :-)

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:

Now when the event is played if the user clicks (or touches) the 'Choose another filter' label item on the 'Show Filter' screen,  RightBooth will return to the 'Show photo' screen and will show the user the original, unmodified photo again ( due to the /resetp parameter ),  allowing the user to select another filter.

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