Apple's Photo Booth

If you have a Mac or know someone who has one, have you ever tried "Photo Booth"? I think it is one of the hidden gems of OS X.

For those not familiar with Photo Booth, it is a simple way to take pictures using a Mac's built-in camera. Photo Booth has been around for at least a couple of years, and it comes pre-installed in all new Macs. You click on the camera icon, then it counts down 3-2-1-*CLICK*, and you've got your photo! Just like a real photo booth.

However, I suspect there are some who have used Photo Booth and not realized its full potential: the effects! Photo Booth uses the computer to manipulate an image in real-time, so you can easily set up and take some really interesting pictures.

Why do I think some people may have used Photo Booth but not used the effects? It is because of a user interface problem, in my opinion. If you were a new Photo Booth user, you might try this: open Photo Booth, click on the camera icon, and take a picture. Then click on the picture you just took. Now I've told you that you can make cool effects with Photo Booth, so you might look for the Effects button to set up your next photo. But the Effects button is not there! You have to click on the camera icon to enter live mode, and then the "Effects" button will show up. You might not think this is an issue, but I was totally frustrated with this a couple of years ago, and earlier this month, my cousin had the same problem. They have improved things in the latest version by letting you select Effects from the menus, but they also could have simply had the Effects button always visible; clicking on the button would then switch the camera to live mode.

From Photo Booth

One of the new effects in Photo Booth is to put a custom scene behind you. Here, I am riding a roller coaster! One more reason I never have to leave home!