Here's something we've noticed after a few hundred events: the theme that looks best in the room isn't always the theme that looks best in the photos. Soft lighting and moody colours can be gorgeous to stand in and completely flat by the time they reach a print.

So this list is a little different. These are five themes picked through a camera, not a Pinterest board. They photograph beautifully, they give people something to do with their hands, and they still look good on your fridge a year later.

Disco Glam

Sequins are the most photogenic material there is. Every one catches the light at a slightly different angle, so a flash turns a plain jacket into a thousand tiny highlights. Add a mirror ball and you get warm gold everywhere, on faces, on the backdrop, on the floor.

It's also a low-effort theme for your guests. Nobody has to build a costume — one sparkly thing is enough, and most people already own one sparkly thing.

Booth note: hang the mirror ball off to one side rather than directly overhead. Above the booth it throws speckles across everyone's foreheads.

Neon Eighties

Big saturated colour, high-waisted everything, and signage that does half the decorating for you. The palette is the appeal here — hot pink and electric blue read strongly even in a small print, which is more than you can say for a tasteful neutral scheme.

One honest caveat. Neon looks amazing to the eye and mediocre behind a flash, because the flash is simply brighter than the tubes and flattens them out. The fix is easy once you know it.

The best backdrop is the one that still looks like something after the flash goes off.

Booth note: put the neon signs beside the booth, not behind it. They'll glow properly in the background of every candid instead of washing out in the posed shots.

Garden Party

The flower wall is a photo booth cliché for a genuinely good reason: it has texture. Light falls into the gaps between the blooms and creates depth, so the background stays interesting instead of going to a flat wash the way painted backdrops do.

It's also the most forgiving theme on this list. Guests can turn up in whatever they were going to wear anyway and still look like they're part of it.

Booth note: greenery photographs richer than pastels. If you're choosing between a wall of soft pink roses and a wall of eucalyptus, take the eucalyptus.

Old Hollywood

Black and gold, and not much else. This is the highest-contrast theme you can run, which is exactly why it works — dark suits and gowns against warm metallics give the camera a clean separation between the person and everything behind them.

The other argument for it is longevity. Trend themes date fast, and a photo from a themed party can start to look like a costume within about two years. Old Hollywood has been looking like this since the 1940s and shows no sign of stopping.

Booth note: this is the one theme where a red carpet earns its keep. It gives people a place to stand and a way to stand there.

The One-Colour Party

Our favourite, and the one almost nobody thinks of. Pick a single colour and put it on the invitation as a dress code. That's the whole theme.

What happens is that every single photo comes out looking art-directed. Twelve people in twelve different shades of green, all in one frame, looks deliberate in a way no amount of decorating can buy you. It costs one line in the invite and nothing else.

It's also the easiest theme to say yes to. There's no costume to source and no joke to be in on — people just reach for something they already own.

Booth note: name a specific colour, not a family. "Green" gets you a muddled frame. "Emerald green" gets you a photograph.

None of this requires an enormous budget. Every theme here comes down to two decisions — what's behind people and what they're holding — and both are cheap compared to the room you've already booked.

If you'd like a hand thinking one through, tell us about your event. We've watched a lot of these play out and we're happy to say which ones actually earned their keep.