Make a DIY photo booth with the Canon Zoemini S2

Special events are about creating memories, and taking photos to capture the joy of the moment can be both fun and a great way to document the day. Whether it's a wedding, birthday or themed party with friends, photo booths have become the go-to way to get everyone involved. You can get your guests excited about playing with props and editing images, and give them a tangible memory to take home that will make them smile for years to come.

Hiring a photo booth can be expensive and take up a lot of space but with the Canon Zoemini S2, you can create your own and have fun editing and printing instant photos to cherish and share. Here, we explain how to set up your own DIY photo booth with the Canon Zoemini S2 and the Canon Mini Print app.

You may have used a photo booth at a wedding, work event or birthday party, but creating an interactive space to capture snaps can be great for any event. Why not set up your Canon Zoemini photo booth at a hen party, Christmas or Halloween gathering, birthday party, reunion or carnival-themed party with friends? While traditional photo booths are generally used in large indoor spaces, the possibilities are endless with the Canon Zoemini S2. With no need to hook up a big machine to an electricity supply, your DIY photo booth setup could be in a cute, cosy corner or even outside, for a garden party or barbecue.

You could choose a specific space to snap guests at any point during the event, maybe arranging your photo booth by the entrance or exit to capture photos on the way in or out, or use different locations as you go. The Canon Zoemini S2 prints onto sticky-backed paper so you can create an instant photo wall. There's also an app for editing your snaps and the option to print multiple versions of the same image to share with friends.

Make sure to set up your Canon Zoemini S2 on a shelf or table at the right height for the imagery you're after. If your space doesn't have somewhere suitable, get creative and take some low photo booth-style shots with you and your friends in weird or funny poses.

In traditional photo booths you usually sit on a seat in a small, confined space, but with your Canon Zoemini S2 photo booth, you can get more creative. Experiment with making backgrounds – whether it's arranging decorations, fashioning an entire backdrop, or just finding a plain wall to create a blank canvas – and think about whether you want to add any props for guests to pose with. Backdrops and Creative Park props added plenty of life and colour to the carnival-themed party shots here, and you can also add additional flourishes and personalisation at the next stage.

Once you have your space set up, test out how far away you want to place your Canon Zoemini S2 to capture your snaps. It may be that you stand just in front of the backdrop for some and come closer to the camera for others, depending on whether you want just faces or whole bodies in shot. The 8MP camera can capture your scenes in fine detail from a range of distances.

You don't need to allocate a photographer to miss out on being in the photo either as the free Canon Mini Print app enables you to shoot and print remotely. Once you've connected your smartphone to your Canon Zoemini S2 via Bluetooth, you can use the app's self-timer and remote shutter to get your perfect shots. Check that you're ready for your close-up in the camera's selfie mirror, then set a delay of either three, five or ten seconds via the app to give you and your friends plenty of time to strike a pose. Just position your camera against a wall or something sturdy and off you go! With a battery life of up to 25 photo sheets, you can keep snapping and capture plenty of memories before your next charge.

The Canon Mini Print app doesn't let you just shoot and print remotely; you can also use it to add lots of fun photo booth extras and effects. It enables you to create images such as the iconic Japanese purikura – photo booths that have been a hit with young people since the 90s and have influencers flocking to take pics with their friends today. The hugely popular purikura took the traditional photo booth and enhanced the experience with the ability to add all kinds of extra touches, such as stickers, filters and graphics ideal for social media.

The Mini Print app opens up the same world for your Canon Zoemini S2, with similar ways to change the layout, add text, frames, drawings and filters, or test out the live camera effects and AR for a shareable printout with an added touch.

There are so many things you can do with your Canon Zoemini photo booth prints. Why not use the sticky-backed paper to create instant stickers for personalised party games? You can load the Canon Zoemini S2 with up to 10 sheets of ZINK Photo Paper at a time, either 5 x 7.6cm or 3.3cm pre-cut circle stickers, and it takes less than a minute to print each sheet. Guests can also take away the prints as keepsakes.

Upload your images straight to social media or create a post with your friends holding the images. You could also gather them for use in a scrapbook, or why not have a photo wall at your event so your friends can add their own images, creating a giant collage that you can later frame to commemorate the day.

As well as the ability to print on the spot, the Canon Zoemini S2 has a Micro SD card slot, so you can save lots more images as you go to edit and print later. You could send photos as a thank you to guests for sharing an important celebration with you, or use the app to create collages or a sticky poster made up of smaller snaps to put on your wall as a decorative reminder of a magical day.