Live View: Overview
The Live View step turns the booth into a mirror. It starts the live camera feed on screen so guests can see themselves, adjust their pose, and get their group into frame before the photo is taken. Without Live View, a guest is posing blind and the countdown is a guess.
Live View is a mode step: one Live View step with Start turns the feed on, and a later Live View step with Stop turns it off. Everything in between is drawn over the live feed.
What Is the Live View Step?
From the workflow's point of view, Live View:
- Opens the camera and streams its feed to the booth screen when set to Start
- Closes that feed when set to Stop
- Does not capture anything itself: capture is always the job of a separate Take Photo or Record Video step
- Has one workflow setting, Mode (Start or Stop); camera and live chroma-key behavior are configured in Global Settings
From the guest's point of view:
- They see themselves full-screen, mirrored, in real time
- Any animation placed after Live View Start draws on top of the feed, which is how countdowns appear over a live image
- The feed disappears the moment a Stop step runs, or when a full-screen step such as Preview takes over
When Should You Use Live View?
Use Live View in almost every workflow that captures a photo or video with a front-facing camera. It is what makes a mirror booth a mirror booth.
Typical reasons:
- Guests need to see themselves to pose, fix their hair, or fit a group into frame
- You are running a countdown and want it drawn over a live image rather than a static screen
- You are using green screen and want guests to see the keyed result before you capture it
- You want the booth to look active and inviting between sessions
You usually do not need Live View for:
- Scan, survey, or selection-only flows where the camera is never used
- Workflows driven entirely by an attendant with a tethered camera, where the guest looks at the photographer rather than the screen
- Screen Capture or Screen Recording flows that are about on-screen content, not the guest
How Live View Fits in the Workflow
The normal shape is:
- Live View (Start) turns on the feed
- A countdown animation plays over the feed
- Take Photo or Record Video captures
- Live View (Stop) turns the feed off
- Preview, AI, layout, print, or share steps follow
A few placement rules worth knowing:
- Put Live View Start before the countdown, not after: the countdown is meant to be seen over the live image
- Use a transparent countdown animation so the feed shows through it. A solid-background countdown hides the very thing Live View exists to show
- Always pair Start with Stop. An unstopped feed keeps the camera busy and can block the next capture
- For multi-shot flows, you can leave the feed running across several Take Photo steps rather than stopping and starting between each one
Platform notes
On iPad, FMX is smarter about the Stop step than the workflow implies. If a Preview step follows a Live View Stop, the app defers the actual stop until the Preview overlay closes. This avoids toggling the electronic viewfinder on tethered DSLR cameras for no reason, which is slow and causes visible flicker.
Also on iPad, if a Record Video step is coming up within the next few steps, Live View Start pre-switches the camera into video mode, so there is no mode-change delay when the recording actually begins.
Chroma key
The Live View node does not expose chroma-key controls. Configure the camera's green- or blue-screen mode in Global Settings for the booth platform, then use Live View Start to show that configured feed. Light the backdrop evenly before tuning the global camera settings; most chroma-key problems begin with uneven lighting.
Why Live View Is Useful
For event operators:
- Better photos with less attendant effort, because guests self-correct their pose
- Fewer retakes, which keeps the line moving
- A booth that looks alive from across the room, which draws guests in
- Live confirmation that green screen is working before anything is captured
For guests:
- They can see what they will get before the shutter fires
- Groups can arrange themselves without an attendant directing them
- The mirror effect is, for many guests, the fun part of the booth
Troubleshooting
Nothing appears when Live View starts. Check that the camera is connected and selected in Global Settings → Camera, and that no other application is holding the camera. On iPad with a tethered Canon, confirm the USB connection and that the camera is powered and out of sleep.
The countdown covers the whole screen. The countdown animation is not transparent. Replace it with a transparent-format version.
The feed keeps running after capture. There is no Live View Stop step on that branch. Remember that each branch of a Selection Screen needs its own Stop, or a shared one downstream of the merge.
The camera is busy on the next session. Almost always an unstopped Live View from the previous run. Add the Stop step, or move it before End Session.
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