Creative features

Four features change a guest's picture: the digital background swaps what is behind them, an AI portrait redraws them in a chosen style, a filter is applied to the shot afterwards, and when decorating the guest draws on it. They sit together because they act together — each one adds a decision and lengthens the session.

Digital background#

The digital background replaces whatever is behind the guests. It is configured in the background studio (admin area "Creative features" > "Digital background", then "Open background studio"), based on a reference photo rather than on guesswork. Switching it on or off for the event does not need the studio: "Enable digital background" sits directly in this section.

Chroma key#

In the studio the key colour is picked on the reference photo, along with the tolerance. The mask preview shows immediately what is being cut away.

To avoid going through the sliders one by one, use the assistant: "Set up step by step" at the top of the studio. It renders the result with the current values, asks what is wrong with it — remains of the old background, missing parts of the subject, a green fringe or a hard edge — and places two proposals next to the current image for every answer. The choice is made by comparing. If the current image remains the best choice, the next proposal is smaller. "Discard" restores the state from before the run.

The fine tuning below is split into blocks. In most cases the key colour is enough; the other sliders only matter when the cloth does not cooperate.

Fitting the background#

Three settings apply to every cut-out method, including the AI cut-out:

AI cutout#

AI cutout is handled by the RAWCaptureBooth AI Service: a separate 64-bit program installed once on the same computer. The booth sends the photo there and places it on the new background. The AI models are included in the AI Service; only BRIA RMBG 2.0 has to be licensed and added yourself. Settings:

AI cut-out via Replicate#

This route needs no extra software on the booth: the cut-out is computed by the provider Replicate — the same one the AI portraits use. Account and key are stored once per device under “Access & accounts” and then serve both.

“BRIA RMBG” is meant for commercial use: the model is trained exclusively on licensed material.

Managing backgrounds#

Background images are uploaded as PNG or JPG and named. Every background can be marked active:

• One active background is always used.
• Several active backgrounds produce a choice for guests during the session.
• With the choice switched off, the background marked active in the studio is always used.

Under "Background" the studio has two more switches for the choice:

• Show “Random” button: the guest has one of the active backgrounds drawn at random and can accept it or draw again. Takes effect with at least two active backgrounds.
• Offer “Continue without background”: the guest can leave out the background for their shot. The photo then keeps the real background, in the live view and on later recalculation as well. For this, the choice already appears with one active background.

Filter selection#

"Enable filter overview" shows guests a choice of looks — black and white, comic or a warm vintage look for example. Tick which filters are on offer.

How a filter looks is shown using the photo from Appearance > "Preview images".

Time of selection and preview images#

"Guest flow" sets when the selection appears. Before capture is the shortest flow and the right choice for long queues. After capture lets guests choose with their own photos in view — the choice is more confident, the session takes a little longer. Filter per image pays off for layouts with several photos when guests like to combine looks; for corporate events with one consistent look it is too much.

"Preview images" sets what the tiles show. The sample image is there immediately. With the guest's image the photo booth calculates every tile anew — after capture from the photos, before capture from a still of the live view. This costs time per filter, with "Filter per image" additionally per photo. On a slow computer, enable only a few filters; the note below the selection states the number of previews.

Switching off "Filters for AI portraits too" pays off when the AI styles set the look anyway — a black-and-white filter over an oil painting spoils more than it helps. Guests with an AI style then save a step; anyone taking pictures without AI chooses the filter as usual.

Own filters from a LUT file#

Besides the supplied filters, own ones can be created. The basis is a LUT file (extension .cube) — a colour table as produced by Lightroom, DaVinci Resolve or a purchased preset package. Under "Own filters" the file is chosen, named and added; the photo booth reads it right away and renders a preview image. An unusable file is rejected there, not with the first guest. The description is optional; it appears below the name for guests — where the supplied filters show their explanatory sentence.

Every own filter has a strength. It sets how strongly the colour table acts: 100 % is the template unchanged, 40 % mixes it only partly into the original. That way a template that is too strong can be tamed without changing the file.

Own filters belong to the event. They travel along with copy, export and handover, but are not available in another event by themselves. A factory reset of the area only takes back the releases — the uploaded files stay.

AI portraits#

AI portraits redraw the guest's picture in a chosen style — as a comic, an oil painting, an astronaut. Unlike the digital background this is not computed by the booth but by a service on the internet: Replicate. That needs an account there, and the pictures leave the local network.

Setting it up#

The access to the provider sits under "System and device settings" > "Access & accounts" > "AI Provider (Replicate)". It belongs to the device, applies to every AI function and stays put when the event changes. The instructions are there under "Setup". Two steps are easily missed:

• Automatic top-up of the credit belongs switched on. If it runs out during the event, guests get their picture without a style - and nobody is standing by to notice.
• A payment method has to stay stored on the account permanently. Accounts that hold nothing but credit are throttled to six pictures per minute. In operation that looks like a fault of the booth.
• The event's privacy notice has to be adjusted before the feature is switched on. See Data and privacy.

"Check connection" names the reason in plain words — wrong key, unknown model, throttling, no credit or no connection at all.

Intermediate step or separate mode#

Style selection in the flow decides where the guest picks the style.

• Part of the photo flow — the style selection appears before the filter selection as an intermediate step. Anyone who wants no style passes it with "Continue without AI".
• Separate capture mode — "AI portrait" sits as its own tile next to Photo, GIF and Boomerang. Whoever taps it then picks a style; the photo mode is left without a style selection.

The separate mode has its own layouts, default layout, layout selection and print permission, set under "Capture Modes & Layout Assignment". In the layout editor the modes additionally show an AI portrait box. It captures with the photo camera. When updating to this version, the mode takes over the photo layouts ticked "Use for AI portraits" and the values of the photo mode; nothing changes for the guests.

As part of the photo flow the Use for AI portraits tick in the layout editor still applies: guests do not get to see a layout deselected there once they have chosen a style.

Without a stored key and in offline operation the tile does not appear at all — instead of leading into a flow that ends in an ordinary photo anyway. With the quota used up it stays, greyed out, and its button names the reason instead of “Select”. Vanishing in the middle of the party would be worse: the guest would look for the mode they saw a moment ago.

Model and quality#

Only models the provider keeps warm are offered. A community model would spend minutes booting on its first call — unusable with guests waiting. The price list below the selection shows all models side by side with their price per portrait, in the order of the selection: per quality, plus whether and at what extra cost an own background is possible. The column of the selected quality is highlighted, as is the selected model; tapping a name selects the model. The amounts come from the provider's model pages and carry their date, as there is no interface for retrieving prices. The Background Studio shows the same kind of list for AI cut-out.

Styles#

180 styles in twelve groups are supplied. Tick what the guest gets to choose from; "Deselect all" clears the list in one go.

The groups themselves can be adjusted: rename them, add your own and sort them with the arrows. The order applies to the guest as well — whatever is at the top is what they see first. Renaming applies to the language the admin area is currently in; the other languages keep the factory name. A group without released styles is not shown to the guest.

"Allow combining two styles" lets the guest put two styles on one image, such as "Viking" and "Oil painting". After the first style, a page of its own with its sample image asks whether a second one should be added: "Continue with one style" or "Choose a second style". The second one is picked from the group overview again, the first is marked there, and a tap on the second continues straight away. Both styles go to the provider in a single run: it costs as much as one style and counts once towards the quota. Off by default.

Three rules apply to a combination: the person only stays recognisable if both styles keep them. The Beauty rules only apply if both styles come from the "Beauty" group. And if either of the two is photorealistic, the image is labelled like a photorealistic one.

Own styles#

Below the supplied styles there is an area of its own for styles you create yourself.

Your own style needs only a name and an instruction for the model. The instruction is followed far more reliably in English.

Keeping the person recognisable is what the "Keep the person’s appearance" box in the edit window does. It is set from the factory and appends a sentence when sending that holds face, gender, age, skin tone, hairstyle, beard and glasses — none of that has to be in the instruction. Clearing it is only worth it when the style is meant to change the person on purpose: a different age, a fantasy creature, a caricature. The box belongs to a single style and can be changed for the bundled styles as well.

"Render example picture" sends the same person through your style that is shown on the supplied tiles. That way your style fits into the row instead of standing there with a stranger's face. The run costs the same at the provider as a guest's picture and counts towards the quota.

No supplied style names a work, a brand or a character. What is described is the look - a caped hero without an emblem, a masked vigilante, a northern adventurer. Whoever wants to get closer to one particular original creates their own style; then it is their call.

"Show the guest the groups first" switches on the intermediate step: the guest picks a group and then a style within it. With many styles released that is much quicker than one long list. If only one group has styles, the step falls away by itself.

"Show “Random” button" places a dice button below the selection. With it the guest has one of the released styles drawn at random, sees it with its sample image and accepts it or draws again. Inside an opened group, only its styles are drawn. The button only appears with at least two released styles.

For all events: the device library#

Own styles and changed factory styles belong to the event. Whatever should be part of every party goes via the pencil and "Move to device library" into the device library. In the event its styles carry the badge "Device" and can only be switched on and off there.

Background#

Most styles place the person in a scene of their own — a superhero on a rooftop above the city, a knight in front of a castle. "Background with AI styles" decides whether that stays so:

Styles in the "Beauty" group keep the background anyway; the setting changes nothing for them.

Replace background. In the same sub-section, own images can be uploaded that the model places the person into — the venue, a beach, a castle hall. The chosen style applies to the whole image, including the new background. It works like the Background Studio: switch images active, set one as the main image, add labels. If several are active, the guest picks one after the style; "Random" and "Continue without background" can be switched on. Without a selection, the main image applies.

Images are reduced to at most 2048 pixels on the long edge and travel with the event when it is duplicated, exported or used in presets. Some models charge extra for every image sent along; a portrait with an own background can therefore cost a little more.

Style choice by the guest#

With "Allow the guest to add a wish" switched on, the guest can append a short sentence to the chosen style - for instance "astronaut on the left, knight on the right". It is meant for group pictures where each person is to become something different. The wish adds to the style, it does not replace it, and the sentence that keeps the person stays in place.

The input is off out of the box. What the guest types goes to the provider as an instruction: if they name protected characters, its content filter decides what comes of it. And typing costs time at the booth - with a queue that is the real price.

"Always mark when a wish was added" is on out of the box: where the guest writes along, the picture is more likely to show people doing something that never happened. The rule then applies even when labelling is otherwise set to "Never"; it can still be switched off.

Quota#

The count is listed under Counters and limits and can be reset there on its own. Only what was actually computed is counted — a failure at the provider consumes nothing.

Limit and message are also listed under Counters and limits - the same field, reachable in two places. Once the quota is used up, the guest gets a notice card with the stored text instead of the style selection and can go back or continue without a style from there.

Labelling#

The AI Act requires visible disclosure where a picture could falsely be taken for real. A cartoon style is not covered, a photorealistic portrait is. Out of the box exactly the photorealistic styles are labelled; the default can be switched to "Always" or "Never" and the position of the label chosen.

The operator of the booth makes that call — under the regulation they are the one deploying the system.

What the guest sees#

The style is chosen in a step of its own right after the mode selection, before the filter and layout selection: it determines which layouts fit and whether a digital background is still asked for. Filter and AI style can be combined: first the model redraws the picture, then the filter is laid over it. If "Filters for AI portraits too" is switched off in the filter settings, the filter selection is skipped after a style. All pictures of a session get the same style.

The step does not appear at all when no key is stored, when the booth runs in offline mode or when the data-minimising default is switched on. In none of these cases does the guest see an error message.

While the picture is being computed the waiting screen says that the portrait is being drawn and shows the remaining time. The duration is measured on every run, so the display appears from the second shot with AI onwards.

Layouts and framing#

In the layout editor you can set per layout whether it comes into question for AI portraits. Out of the box all of them do. Once the guest has chosen a style, deselected layouts are no longer shown - and if multi-picture layouts are not released for AI portraits, only those with a single placeholder remain. Whoever chose "no AI" still sees them all.

The capture goes to the provider in the crop of its layout slot. The model therefore computes for exactly the format that will be seen; otherwise fitting it in would cut away the very part it worked on.

Three reasons can only be fixed by the operator: missing credit, an invalid key or none at all. They go out as errors and trigger the immediate status notification, if set up - otherwise the event would run on without anyone learning of the missing portraits.

Decorate picture#

Lets guests draw on the finished picture and add stickers before sharing or printing.

Custom stickers can be uploaded; they appear in the sidebar before the built-in ones.