Group Photo Overlays
Buzzshot makes it really easy for you to take photos of your players and teams. By default Buzzshot automatically puts the relevant team name in the bottom left corner of your photos and adds your business logo to the bottom right corner.
To make your photos really special and to increase the likelihood of team photos being shared by your players you should definitely consider designing your own unique Group Photo Overlay (inspiration and examples coming soon).
We can help you take pretty much any design and put it into the Buzzshot software. From a logo position change, to a fully customised frame design. You can vary content and design according to which game a team played (a different Photo Overlay for each escape game type), or whether or not they won (automatically reveal or hide graphics and text such as ‘time to escape: 20 mins 7 secs’ based on successful or unsuccessful escape times).
If there is anything else special you'd like to do just ask, it's probably possible!
Designing a Group Photo Overlay
Choosing the right pixel size:
Buzzshot supports custom designs.
Our recommended 4:3 Template 1600px x 1200px (.psd) is available for download here. It includes named Photoshop layers to help you get started designing and customising.
Buzzshot’s default size is ‘1600 pixels wide x 1200 pixels high’ to suit the standard 4:3 photo ratio of most cameras and device outputs. Buzzshot can also support custom sizes so please do talk to us if your devices are 16:9 (1920x1080 – 1080p), 1:1 Square (1600x1600), or something else entirely. Or if you have been a Buzzshot customer for a long time (2019 or earlier) you may find that your old overlays still use our legacy size (2156x1470). Either way, please don't hesiate to talk to us.
Sending us Photoshop .psd files (with each design element on a different photoshop layer) certainly makes it easier for the Buzzshot Team to setup everything you’d like. It’s not a problem if you use other image editing software because we can also accept .jpg and .png files as long as you save them to include transparency.
Don't have Photoshop? You can use whatever programme you are comfortable with. Create your overlay at size 1600 x 1200 then save out to a PNG file. Make sure that the PNG file uses transparency so we can place the overlay over a photo.
Layers of customisation:
Upon opening our 4:3 Template you will see each layer is named – this should help you add your own logos and graphics – and enable the Buzzshot team to see exactly how you’d like things. If you’d like your group photos to be scaled down within a frame border please show us how that looks using the photoshop file (tip: holding the shift button down on your keyboard when transforming/scaling things up and down will stop image distortion).
For any "dynamic" text (Ie. any wording or numbers that change dependent on room, team name or result) please use a text layer so we clearly know the font name, size, colour and position. When it comes to adding the time it took the team to complete the room, it is also possible for Buzzshot to do some math for you and add the amount of time left instead. Buzzshot can also do things like show a number of points instead of time , so just let us know what you need and we’ll do our best.
Please make sure all the fonts you choose are royalty free or you’ve secured license to use them for Buzzshot.
If you’d like to automatically apply colors effects to your photos you can use Photoshop Adjustment Layers (Ie. if you want to apply a specific sepia or black/white adjustment). You can also use the following blending modes: multiply, screen or overlay, soft light, color dodge, color burn, vivid light, linear dodge. Don't worry if you don't understand this paragraph, it's not essential!
When you're done, please save everything as .PSD file ‘with layers’ (the default for Photoshop files) plus the fonts you used and any special instructions you have and then send it to support@buzzshot.com and we'll do our best to get everything set up for you!
Whatever route you choose for creating your photo overlay(s), if you ever need any help just get in touch, we're always happy to help!
