Features
Guests send their own photos from their phones
Print a QR code for your booth. Guests scan it, pick a photo on their phone, check the auto-framed crop, and it lands in your print queue ready to go.
Updated
The problem
Half the best photos at an event are already on guests' phones. Without a way to get them to the booth, someone has to collect them by text or AirDrop, save them to a laptop, and crop each one by hand. A photo booth guest upload QR code removes that step: guests send the photo themselves, and it shows up where you print.
The catch is framing. A photo sent straight from a phone is a tall rectangle, and your keychain is a small circle. If nobody checks the crop, heads get cut off at the punch line.
How the photo booth guest upload QR code works
Turn on the portal and print the QR sheet
Each Punchframe event has a guest portal you can switch on from the event page. Punchframe gives it a short code and a link, and builds a printable QR sheet with your event name, the words "Scan to send a photo", the QR code, and the event code printed underneath. Print it and set it up at the booth.
Guests pick a photo on their phone
Scanning the Punchframe QR code opens the guest upload portal in the phone's browser. There is no app to install and no account to create. The guest taps to pick a photo from their camera roll or take a new one.
The crop is done for them, and they can adjust it
Punchframe finds the faces in the guest's photo with automatic cropping and frames them inside your keychain shape automatically. The guest sees the result with a "Looking good" check. If the framing could not fit everyone, it says so and asks them to adjust. Tapping Adjust opens a cropper where they drag and zoom until the subject sits inside the circle. If you have a printed border turned on, the guest sees it around their photo while they crop.
Photos arrive framed and go onto the sheet
A guest photo lands in your Punchframe incoming queue already cropped as soon as the guest sends it. On the run screen, guest photos are placed into the next empty slots on the sheet on their own, so you only have to print. For two-sided keychains the portal asks for a front photo and then a back photo.
Limits that keep the line moving
The Punchframe guest portal stops offering to send another after three keychains, which keeps one guest from filling your sheets. You can pause uploads for an event at any time, and guests who scan will see that uploads are paused.
At a real event
Here is how Punchframe guest upload works at a corporate party. You switch on the guest portal, print the QR sheet from the event page and stand it next to the booth. A guest who took a good team photo earlier in the evening scans the code, picks the photo from their camera roll, sees it framed in your keychain shape and sends it. On your laptop the photo drops into the next empty slot on the keychain sheet, and you print it with the rest. The guest can then tap Send another if they have more.
If the booth gets too busy, you can pause uploads from the event page, then turn the portal back on when the line clears.
Common problems
- The QR code will not scan. The guest can go to punchframe.app/g and type the event code printed under the QR code.
- "That photo is too big". The guest portal accepts photos up to 10 MB. A screenshot of the photo is usually smaller and works.
- "We couldn't fit everyone". The guest taps Adjust and places the photo by hand. If framing is slow, a "Position it myself" button appears.
- The guest closed the page by accident. Reopening the same event on the same phone within 6 hours picks up where they left off.
- "Photo uploads are paused for this event right now." The portal is paused from your event page. Turn it back on there.
Who it's for
Punchframe's guest upload portal suits any event where people are already taking their own photos:
- Wedding photo booths
- Corporate event activations
- Bar and bat mitzvahs
- Trade-show booths
- Party favor businesses
- Brand pop-ups
On the Business plan the guest portal carries your own logo and colors instead of Punchframe's, so it looks like your service.
Questions
Do guests need to download an app to upload photos?
No. The QR code opens a web page in the phone's browser. Guests pick a photo, check the crop and send it.
What if the QR code will not scan?
The QR sheet prints the event code under the QR code. Guests can go to punchframe.app/g and type that code to reach the same upload page.
Do I have to crop guest photos before printing?
Usually not. Guest photos are framed automatically on the guest's phone, and the guest can adjust the crop before sending. They arrive in your queue ready to print.
Can I stop guest uploads during the event?
Yes. Turn the portal off from the event page and anyone who scans the code is told that uploads are paused.