Mac 101: Photo Booth Tips
When’s the last time you played with Photo Booth? I’m guessing you and your friends had some raucous laughs with it when you first got your Mac, and then haven’t done much with it since. Well I’m here to suggest you bring it out of mothballs and check out a few things that you may not have known before. (Oh, and if you have kids, let them at it and it’ll keep them busy for hours!)
Secret Keys
You know when you’ve been moving your head around and trying to get that squeeze effect to look just right, and then you have to press the button to take the photo, and then hold your head still for the countdown, and you inevitably move and the shot is ruined? Yeah, that’s lame. So if you want to cut directly to the chase, hold down the OPTION key and click the red snapshot button at the same time. BAM! No countdown.
The there are some times that the screen flash may not be desirable — I particularly need little help looking pasty white in the winter months… Nix that annoying flash by holding down the SHIFT key when pressing the red snapshot button. Want an instant, no flash Photo Booth picture? Hold SHIFT and OPTION at the same time while clicking the red snapshot button.
If you’ve got dozens of pictures in the Photo Booth viewer, it can take time to click through each set of photos. If you want to get to the beginning or the end of the collection, hold down the COMMAND key while pressing either direction arrow to fly all the way to either end instantly.
Fun Effects
Photo Booth is loaded with some fun effects to begin with, and it’s got some ‘green screen’ type effects to make it look like you’re someplace you’re not. Then on the fourth effects page, there’s space for you to add your own. Here you can drag any photo you want and use it as a backdrop. But you can also use Apple’s Quartz composer effects to do other cool things like the Star Wars Hologram or the Shepard Fairey effects. But you could also use Quartz Composer to roll your own, if you’re the adventurous type.
So there you have it. If simply reminding you about the fun that’s to be had with Photo Booth wasn’t enough, these simple tricks should help to rejuvenate that experience — not to mention, impress your friends all over again!
F1 Racing on December 25th, 2008 at 4:18 am
tried shift and photo in photobooth- did nothing.
only flash work-around , that I know , is to press ctrl-option-cmd-8 to invert screen then flash is black and then return screen to normal.
why you say shift work but not working for me?
Renata on December 25th, 2008 at 7:04 am
It was fun! But the shift didn’t worked for me neither!
AthenaEmily on December 25th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Thank you so much for this tip!!!!!!
I have always wanted to disable the flash in PhotoBooth!!!
The Shift key works fine for me!!!!!
Nick Santilli on December 25th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
Well I’m using the latest version of Leopard (10.5.6), so if you’re on an older (possibly 10.4.X?) version, the keys may not work as I outlined…
El Brag on December 26th, 2008 at 7:18 am
Can’t believe disabling the flash was so simple! Thanks for this.
Renata on December 26th, 2008 at 9:11 am
Oh Thanks Nick! It must be it. Anyways I can test it at work.
Mike Thomas on January 2nd, 2009 at 4:37 pm
When I take a Photo Booth pic, it’s in reverse. So wearing any clothing with lettering or numbers comes out looking backwards. How do you fix that?
Renata on January 2nd, 2009 at 5:59 pm
It’s simple just click command+F to flip the photo or command+shift+F to flip all photos you take. you might take a look at the edit menu for more info.
oregonkim on July 12th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
That’s dumb. If it’s a camera, why would the pictures come out backwards? It doesn’t make any sense.
But thanks for the fix anyway.
Mike Thomas on January 3rd, 2009 at 8:15 am
Awesome. THANK YOU!
Melissa on January 21st, 2009 at 4:44 pm
Nick, I have been searching and searching to find an answer to a photo booth question and I’m hoping you have an answer for me. :o)
On the photo booth icon, the 3 pictures are VERTICAL. But when you take pictures in photo booth, it becomes 4 pictures in a SQUARE. Can you change the settings somehow to be vertical, just like the “old fashioned” photo booths? Thanks for your help!
Mark on April 5th, 2009 at 9:21 am
I accidentally deleted photo booth….. how do I get it back?
email me please
smithma1@mac.com
barkinglips on July 29th, 2009 at 10:42 am
A month ago I “accidentally” (???) took a short video of myself with the computer, sitting at the desk like I do for Photobooth. It shows up on the screen as a Quicktime video. But how did I do it? Why can’t I figure it out???
I’d like to do short lil videos to go with some emails.
barkinglips on July 29th, 2009 at 10:44 am
A month ago I “accidentally” (???) took a short video of myself with the computer, sitting at the desk like I do for Photobooth. It shows up on the screen as a Quicktime video. But how did I do it? Why can’t I figure it out???
I’d like to do short lil videos to go with some emails. (sorry 2nd postg…forgot notify button)