This Photo Booth Shoots ‘Professional’ Headshots for $20

IRIS is a new photo booth that’s designed to shoot “professional” portraits of professionals for only $20. Instead of looking like typical photo book snapshots, the portraits are supposed to look like they were shot by a headshot photographer with studio lighting.

You can pay for your shoot on the IRIS website before visiting a booth, or you can make your payment at the booth itself.

Once you’re inside the booth, enter your email to get things rolling. The screen will then guide you with instructions and advice for posing.

Your session includes 6 different shots. You can pick one to edit afterward on the screen using “professional retouching tools” — things like teeth whitening, blemish removal, and skin softening.

After you’re satisfied with your photos, you can choose to download one high-res photo file from the IRIS website as part of your paid session. If you’d like the other 5 photos as well, you can purchase them for an additional $5.

Here are some sample photos that show what the IRIS photo booth can do:

The IRIS has been launched at about 9 locations so far — places like university buildings and airports, where students and professionals in a rush might be found scrambling for a quick headshot.

Here’s a short video showing how the IRIS photo booth works:

“From the quality of the photos, these absolutely will never replace a great headshot photographer,” writes retoucher Pratik Naik of Retouchist. “The limitations are also the fact that people don’t know what looks good. However, is it enough to fill the needs of most people? I guess we’ll have to see.”