Whoever is rostered on can run it
A real camera on a tripod, a volunteer who has never opened the app, and families holding their photos before they reach the car park. The job on the night is three things: scan the code, take the photo, tap Done.
No card. Run the whole loop with your own team before you spend anything.
Your rostered volunteer can run this
Not the person who set it up. Someone who has never opened the app, arrives twenty minutes before doors, reads one page, and runs the night.
What they actually do
- Scan the code on the guest’s phone. The app now knows who this is.
- Take the photo. Same frame, same spot, all night.
- Tap Done. That is the whole loop.
- No typing. Nobody spells an email address at the camera.
- No matching. Nobody sorts photos to people afterwards.
- No editing. Your adjustments and your logo go on automatically.
If the volunteer changes at half time, the next one picks up the same laptop and carries on. Nothing lives in one person’s head.
You decide who gets photographed
Consent belongs to you and your safeguarding policy, not to a setting in our app. PopStudio never asks anyone their age and makes no judgement about who is a child. It takes the photo you take and sends it where that guest asked.
Your policy, your process
If your policy or the law where you are says you need a parent’s permission before you photograph a young person, you get it your way, before the night, on the form you already use.
Nobody is in by accident
A guest is only photographed after they choose to join the queue and hand over their code at the camera. Walk past and you are in nothing.
One address, no gallery
Photos go to the email address that guest typed in, and nowhere else. There is no public gallery, and we never sell or share the list.
What we can actually promise
These are the facts you can put in front of a parent or a trustee, because they are built into how the product works rather than into a policy document.
- Opt-in only. No queue, no photos. There is no way to be added by accident.
- Nothing biometric. No face recognition at capture, at delivery, or anywhere in between.
- The guest holds the delete button, in every delivery email, and it works.
- Auto-deletion after 30 days by default, whether or not anyone remembers.
Where biometric privacy rules apply, they put real obligations on any vendor that matches faces. PopStudio sits outside that entirely, because guests are matched by a five-character code they asked for, never by their face. The full privacy position →
What to tell parents
Written to be copied straight into a newsletter, a sign-up form or a message to a parents’ group. Fill in the highlighted bits, including the permission step your own policy asks for, and send it.
Copy and paste, then edit the highlighted parts
We will have a photo station running at [EVENT NAME] on [DATE], and anyone who would like a photo is welcome to one. If you want photos, you join the queue on your own phone with a name and an email address, and you get a short code to show the photographer. That code is how photos get matched to people, and there is no face recognition involved at any point. Nobody is photographed unless they have joined the queue and shown their code, and photos are emailed only to the address that person typed in. For anyone under [AGE], we ask a parent or caregiver to [YOUR PERMISSION STEP, for example tick the photo consent box on the sign-up form] before the event, and we are happy for the photos to come to your own inbox instead. Just use your email address when you join the queue. Every photo deletes itself automatically after 30 days, and the email we send includes a delete button that removes them straight away if you would rather not keep them. If you would prefer no photos at all, simply do not join the queue. Nothing is taken or stored without it. If you change your mind later, email [CONTACT] and we will remove them for you.
Everything in that paragraph about the app is literally how it behaves. The highlighted permission step is yours, because PopStudio does not ask anyone’s age or collect consent on your behalf. If you change a claim, check it is still true.
The occasions you already plan for
Examples, not a menu. The setup is the same sign, camera and laptop every time, so any service or event with families in it works.
Father’s Day and Mother’s Day
Everyone is dressed up and in the same room, so the hard part of a family photo has already happened. Two minutes per family after the service gives every dad a photo with his kids before lunch, and every mum the updated family photo she has been asking someone to organise for years.
Dedications and baptisms
Grandparents travelled and the baby is in the good outfit. Photograph the family straight after the service and the photos arrive while everyone is still at morning tea, with a privacy answer that holds up in front of parents and the board.
And any night with a queue in it
Youth night
A queue that keeps moving while people talk, and photos in the group chat before anyone gets picked up.
Christmas carols
Families in their good clothes once a year. Set up beside the supper table and catch them on the way out.
Family fun day
Group sessions, so a whole family scans in as one, and photos land before the bouncy castle deflates.
Church fair
A stall that gives people something real to take home, and a reason to leave an email address willingly.
Camp
Patchy rural wifi is fine. The station queues everything and sends the lot when you are back in range.
Welcome event
New people, a photo they actually want, and a first email from you that is not a newsletter.
US$50 an event
Churches are spending other people’s money, so here is the plain version.
- Up to 400 guests on the night
- 2 stations sharing one live queue
- 30-day hosting, then automatic deletion
- No subscription for a thing you run twice a year
Running more than 5 events a year? The Studio annual plan is US$249 for unlimited events. Bigger nights are US$75 for up to 2,000 guests.
Hiring in an automated photo machine for one evening usually costs several times the line on the left, before delivery, an attendant, or the printing. We are not going to invent a precise figure for you.
You almost certainly already own the two expensive parts: a camera, and somebody who can use it.
Your first event, step by step
Most of this happens once, in the office, on a weekday.
Create the event
Name, date, and how many days the photos stay live before they delete themselves. Everything else is admin.
5 minutesInstall and tether
Install the app on the laptop, plug the camera in by USB, confirm a test shot lands. Follow the guide for your brand.
15 minutes, onceSet the look and the logo
Set brightness, contrast and white balance once, upload your overlay. Every photo from then on comes out consistent without anyone editing anything.
10 minutesPut up the QR sign
One static QR code, printed once or shown on a foyer screen, reused at every event. Put it where the queue starts, not where the camera is.
5 minutesBrief the volunteer
Hand over the one-page run sheet, walk one person through the loop, done. Do this on the night, not a week before.
10 minutes on the nightShoot
Scan, shoot, Done. Photos develop and deliver themselves while the queue keeps moving. Nobody stays late.
The event itself
Questions to expect
Our hall wifi is terrible. Is that fatal?
No. The station keeps shooting with no connection at all. Captures and deliveries queue on the laptop and send themselves the moment wifi comes back, after the event is fine. The only thing guests need a signal for is the queue page on their own phone, and phone data covers that in most halls.
We do not have a photographer in the congregation. What then?
You need someone who can take a reasonably framed photo with a camera on a tripod, not a professional. Set the camera up once, mark the floor with tape where people stand, and the volunteer shoots the same frame all night. If nobody owns a camera, borrowing a Canon, Nikon or Sony body from someone in the building is usually the cheapest way to start.
We have several campuses. Do we buy this several times?
Each event is its own event, with its own guest list, its own overlay and its own retention window, so campuses stay separate. If you are running more than 5 events across the year in total, the Studio annual plan at US$249 costs less than buying them one at a time.
Some of our volunteers are not confident with technology. Will they cope?
The job on the night is three actions: scan the code on the guest’s phone, take the photo, tap Done. There is no matching, no typing of email addresses, no editing and no uploading. The run sheet fits on one page, and the loop is the same three actions for every guest.
What if nobody joins the queue?
Then nobody gets photographed, which is the safe failure. A static QR sign at the front of the queue and one person saying "scan that and you get your photos emailed" is all it needs. Anyone who arrives at the camera without joining the queue can be given a code to redeem later, so you never have to turn someone away.
What if a parent objects to photos of their child?
Nothing happens unless someone joins the queue, so the simplest answer is not to join that child, no queue, no photo, nothing stored. If photos already exist, the delivery email carries a delete button that removes them immediately, and you can delete them from the event yourself. Because you decide who is photographed on the night, you can also just say no at the camera.
Does PopStudio handle parental consent for us?
No, and we would rather be plain about it. PopStudio never asks anyone their age and makes no judgement about who is a child. You are the organiser: deciding who you photograph, and getting whatever permission your safeguarding policy or the law requires, is your job, done your way, before the event. What the product gives you is a narrow, checkable set of facts you can put in front of a parent, no face recognition, photos only for people who chose to join the queue, delivery only to the address that person typed, a delete button in every email, and automatic deletion after the retention window.
What does a guest have to give you when they joined the queue?
A name and an email address. That is the whole form. There is no age question, no guardian field, and nothing about the person beyond what they typed. Their photos go to that address and nowhere else, and everything deletes itself after 30 days by default.
Try it on a Tuesday, not on the night
Run the whole loop with two staff and your own camera. If it does not feel simple enough to hand to a volunteer, do not pay us.