Why Are You Shaking Your Photo Booth Picture? It’s Not a Polaroid!

At a recent wedding, we finally decided to get a picture of it happening on purpose. We asked a couple of guests to demonstrate the shake for us. They knew exactly what we meant and laughed because they had seen people do it too.

We see it all the time.

A photo comes out of the printer, someone grabs it, and almost immediately they start waving it through the air. It happens at middle school events and high school dances. We’ve watched college students do it, too, and every once in a while we’ll even see it at a wedding.

We usually smile and tell them the same thing: It’s not a Polaroid.

They usually keep shaking it anyway.

Your Photo Is Already Finished

When a picture comes out of our photo booth printer, there’s nothing left to develop. The image you’re holding is already the finished photograph.

Our open-air photo booth uses a DSLR camera and a professional dye-sublimation photo printer. The photograph is captured digitally, the photo layout is created, and the finished image is sent to the printer. By the time the print reaches your hand, the process is complete.

Waving it through the air isn’t going to make the picture appear any faster. It’s already there.

So Why Does Everyone Shake It?

That’s the part we’ve always found interesting, especially when we see younger guests doing it. Instant photography certainly hasn’t disappeared. Polaroid cameras are still around, and cameras such as Fujifilm Instax have introduced another generation to the experience of taking a picture and watching the image develop in front of them.

The gesture itself is also everywhere. Movies, television, advertising, music and social media have helped make waving or shaking an instant photograph something almost everyone recognizes. For some people, it may simply feel like what you’re supposed to do when a picture comes out.

Fresh picture in your hand? Give it a shake.

The Funny Part? Polaroids Don’t Need It Either

Shaking an actual Polaroid isn’t what makes the image develop. Instant film needs time for its chemical process to take place, but waving the photograph through the air doesn’t speed that process along.

So somehow we’ve kept a photo tradition alive that wasn’t particularly helpful in the first place. We have to admit, that makes watching it happen at our photo booth even funnier.

A Photo Booth Print Is a Different Kind of Instant Photo

There is still something instant about the experience. You step in front of the camera, take your pictures, and a short time later you’re holding a physical photograph from the celebration.

But that’s where the similarity ends. A Lotsa Laffs photo booth print isn’t instant film. There isn’t a hidden image slowly appearing after the photograph leaves the printer. The colors aren’t developing while you stand there waving it around. What comes out of our printer is the photograph you get to keep.

And yes, you can touch it.

Are We Going to Stop You From Shaking It?

Probably not. We’ve learned that telling someone, “You know that’s not a Polaroid, right?” doesn’t necessarily stop them. Sometimes they laugh. Sometimes they look at the picture, look at us, and keep right on waving.

And that’s okay. Wave it because you love the picture. Hold it up for your friends to see. Take it back to your table. Carry it onto the dance floor.