Photo Booth
Silly Faces Made Easy
30 October 2005 Justin Williams Skip to comments
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In this tutorial, Justin Williams walks you through the new Photo Booth application included with the iMac G5.
When Apple announced the new iMac G5 on October 12th, it did so with little fanfare compared to the 5th generation iPod Video. From a hardware perspective, the new iMac didn’t offer much more besides upgrades to existing parts and the integration of an iSight camera in the iMac enclosure itself.
From a software perspective, Mac users were intrigued by two new software applications: Front Row and Photo Booth. Front Row captured most people’s attention because it marked the beginning of Apple’s entrance into the media center market currently dominated by Microsoft. Imagine having a Mac running Front Row connected to your television and having it become the center of your media experience.
Unfortunately, Front Row, at present, is only available with the purchase of a new iMac. Resourceful Mac users have pirated the application and distributed it around the Internet allowing the application to run on any Macintosh running Mac OS X Tiger. The Unofficial Apple Weblog posted a video of Front Row running on a Mac mini.
In all the Front Row fanfare, the other iMac-only application seemed to fall through the cracks. Photo Booth is Apple’s solution to physical photo booths scattered around the country in malls and the corners of shady gas stations. Using the built-in iSight, iMac users can take photos of themselves and share them with their friends and family.
Photo Booth allows users to also place one of sixteen filters on top of your actual video image to give it a Sepia, X-Ray, Mirrored or Comic Book effect (among others). This is made possible by Core Image using Image Units. Core Image was one of the highly touted developer features in Mac OS X Tiger.
Using Photo Booth
If you have a new iMac, using Photo Booth couldn’t be easier: Just launch the application and push the camera button in the center of the application. When the camera button is pressed the area containing the button as well as the effects tabs transforms to a countdown that lets you know when the photo will be taken. As the counter hits zero, your entire screen flashes white and the photo is taken. The burst of white is Apple’s solution for a flash. There is no way to disable this functionality at present time.
After your photo is taken, it will be added to the film reel below the image capture window. From there you can share it, flip it or delete it.
Adding effects is just as easy as taking a picture. Click on one of the two effects button. The first one is for overlays such as Sepia, Comic Book and Thermal Camera. The second button distorts your image with Bulge, Light Tunnel, Twirl and other awkward manipulations. In the middle of each effects view is Normal which will return to the normal image view.
When the time comes that you actually want to use the photos you have taken, you can select the photo you want to share (no multiple selection) and perform one of the following actions:
- E-mail it to a friend or family member.
- Send it to iPhoto where you can edit it or share it in another manner (using FlickrExport for example).
- Set it as your Mac OS X account picture.
- Set it as your iChat icon.
It’s somewhat lacking in functionality, but this isn’t a widely scoped application. Even so, I was surprised there was no button that allowed for the photo to be sent to a .Mac account for display on a photo page.
Now It’s Your Turn
There isn’t much that can be discussed in terms of using Photo Booth as the application is straight-forward. The purpose of this tutorial was to give readers who don’t have access to a new iMac a general overview of what the application is about and what it does. If you have any questions that you want answered about Photo Booth in general, leave a comment, and I will do my best to answer it.
Update: If you have an iSight and a relatively new Mac running Mac OS X Tiger you can achieve most of the same PhotoBooth functionality with the just released WebcamTweaker. Check it out.
Justin Williams is founder and chief author for MacZealots. He switched to the Mac almost five years ago hasn't looked back since. When not blogging or coding, you can find him watching copious amounts of TV. Justin can be reached at
Reader Comments (23)
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#1) On October 30, 2005 9:04 PM
I think the .Mac integration comes from iPhoto. Take your pictures with Photo Booth - import them to iPhoto - Upload to .Mac.
Makes sense
#2) On October 30, 2005 9:21 PM
Too many steps, in my opinion.
#3) On October 31, 2005 2:56 PM
I AM ADDICTED !!!!!! It is HILARIOUS,,,,, My friends are passing the photos I made in PHOTOBOOTH all around and laughing there you know whats off !!!!!!!! My buddy and I were in stitches one morning ,,like till 4am,,,, fooling around with it ,,,,, AND I’M AN OLD GUY ,,,, can’t wait till my great nephew sees this ,,,,, he will defintely want an iMAC ,,,,, and make the switch,,,, he’s also into music ,,,, THE CLINCHER
#4) On November 14, 2005 12:13 PM
I have the i sight camera/mike and it works very well. I talk with my son regularly.
But I cannot get the Photo Booth to keep the pics; it counts and flashes but there is nothing but a dark slide. Can anyone help me???
Thanks,
RLP
#5) On November 16, 2005 11:43 AM
Love to know if there is a way in the Command Line to take a snap shot.?
#6) On November 29, 2005 3:31 PM
Can you get Photo Booth without having the new IMAC. Apple has litle cameras that you can buy and attch to the top of your computer. Would this work?
#7) On December 14, 2005 8:38 AM
This is the future of all future home entertainment. We absolutely worship this program. Never had so many laughs using a Mac computer in all my life. Have had the biggest bellylaugh moments using this thing & created some masterpieces incuding a BeadeeEye (Not Fish Eye) picture amongst many other classics. There should be a place setup for crazee fans of this masterpiece creation of software.
#8) On December 14, 2005 12:46 PM
Is it possible to set it up to email directly from gmail ratehr than through mac mail?
#9) On December 21, 2005 8:12 AM
Well, I wonder if its possible to use PhotoBooth with an ordinary camera connected, instead of the built-in one. Or if there is some tweak for that too? Any experienced geeks out there?
#10) On January 14, 2006 11:07 PM
I was just at the Apple Store and saw this for the first time. It’s a hoot! Unfortunately, according to the sales people at the store, you have to have one of the new macs w/ the camera built in to use it. Wah! I did just download the WebcamTweaker, and for some reason it’s just not as much fun. Hum.
#11) On February 2, 2006 7:05 PM
There is a website that has Photobooth for free download… U need
Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger
and
A FireWire camera (or specifically iSight, not sure)
I know the website but im afraid of telling
#12) On February 2, 2006 7:26 PM
ok ok ok
here you go:
http://www.mcmacsite.com/page11/page17/page50/page50.html
#13) On February 12, 2006 4:01 PM
no question…Photobooth is keeping my kids….and various adult friendsand family-off the streets….hours of good clean fun…..that’s all the application we need for now….who doesn’t need an honest giggle - about themselves right now??
#14) On February 14, 2006 10:03 AM
Hello.
We just came back from Toronto and our friend’s seven-year old blew our collective mind(s) with PhotoBooth on her dad’s brand new G5 (we thinks).
Don’t hate us because we’re still Mac-challenged, but is there a reasonably priced PhotoBooth “simulator,” if you will, available for Windows.
We figured if anyone knew the shortcut to PhotoBooth emulation it would be youse guys.
Thank you!!
Regards.
RitAngelo Pastormerlo @ allkinzabookz@gmail.com
#15) On February 14, 2006 4:22 PM
I downloaded Photo Booth for my Mac mini and I’m using Macam to get my USB webcam to work. But in photo booth the effects are not working, only the Stretch effect does work but the others just come out as a normal photo. Is this because I’m on Mini or my Cam or Macam? Is there anyway I can fix it? I’ve had lots of fun with stretch but I know that I could have so much more with the others as well.
Thanks.
RichardBrown
#16) On February 17, 2006 8:27 AM
I downloaded Photo Booth on my iMac G5; everything worked well and within minutes my daughter and me were ‘addicted’. Now my G5 is send away for repair and i’m working on a n iBook G3 (osX.4.4 installed - same as on iMac G5). Downloaded photo booth again, but there’s now picture, just a black screen appears (everything is connected the right way!).
Rebooted several times, dowloaded webcamtweaker but here’s the same result - black screen!
iSight camera workes fine with iChat.
Please, can anyone help me?
Thanks, IsabeldePater
#17) On February 18, 2006 1:09 PM
So I got the photo booth software from the link above, and apparently it’s a 15 day trial?? Also I couldn’t get the photo booth to work correctly, I would only start as iphoto does and leave me to my picture collection.
How do I switch to the actual photo booth with all the effects?
I have the iSight and the latest PowerBook runing Tiger 10.4.4 - thanks.
#18) On February 18, 2006 1:14 PM
nm.. I had an older software called phot booth that did the same thing as iPhoto loaded.. weird.. now everything works SCHWEET!
#19) On February 20, 2006 4:44 PM
I downloaded Photo Booth from the mcmacsite page…it doesn’t recognize my isight camera though…when i open the program, it doesn’t start the camera…any help?????
#20) On February 28, 2006 10:31 PM
is there any software like this for windows pc’s?????
this is awesome software and i just ordered a webcam.
please, please help.
nosuchluck1970@hotmail.com
#21) On March 2, 2006 5:00 AM
i open photo booth and the screen is green, i can turn on any effects and the normal function results in this green screen. when i take a photo the green screen remains and thats my picture. has this happened to anyone else and how can i fix it?
please help me
sgupta102@gmail.com
#22) On March 19, 2006 11:44 AM
can we download photo booth for a hp computer? or a window computer? thanks
#23) On March 24, 2006 11:18 AM
My screen’s green as well Sachin - Can anyone help please…. allen_luther@mac.com
i open photo booth and the screen is green, i can turn on any effects and the normal function results in this green screen. when i take a photo the green screen remains and thats my picture. has this happened to anyone else and how can i fix it? please help me sgupta102@gmail.com