iUseApple

Go Crazy With Photo Booth

By now almost every Mac user has played around with Photo Booth. It is so easy to get caught up in a photo session with friends making funny faces and cool poses. If we look into Photo Booth a tad further, we can find many more alternative uses for it…

Take Great Snapshots

Here is some helpful advice on posing for the iSight from a professional photographer. Find a light source that is not the monitor and position myself facing the light. Alternatively, turn off all the lights in the room, turn your monitors brightness up, and use it for your light. Using a lamp is helpful, since dramatic shadows look great with some of the effects. Position your body at a slight angle to the iSight, meaning do not look at it straight on. This is particularly useful for people who wear glasses, as demonstrated below. The human body at an angle is also more flattering. Stay still when in low light conditions. The flash provided by the screen is rather soft, so be still when a picture is being taken or it might come out blurry. Also, sit at least 1 ft. away from the screen, but still fill the frame. Don’t leave space above my head. Look below at the differences between a poorly shot photo and a decent one, and that’s not even my good side!

Bad photo: Looking straight on.

Good photo: Positioned at an angle.

Connect a Better Camera

For those of us with a built-in iSight camera, we have the option of connecting a miniDV camera with Firewire. Just plug in the smaller end of the Firewire cable to camera and the fatter end to the computer. Open Photo Booth and ta da! Photo Booth now uses the Firewire camera instead of the iSight. Now I have more versatility with camera placement and lighting, and should have a better lens and manual control over the picture quality.

Upload Photo Booth to Flickr!

FlickrBooth is a simple plug-in for Photo Booth that will upload snapshots directly to Flickr! FlickrBooth can be downloaded here.

Create a Live Security Camera

Did you know you could be watching your room from the iSight while you are gone via email? Using Automator, I can run a script that makes a new mail message in Mail, takes a photo with Photo Booth, attaches that photo to the email, and sends it to my email. In iCal, I can schedule a recurring timer to run the Automator script however often I want. Take a photo every minute to catch someone tampering with your Mac. Here is a simple script below to automate taking a photo and sending it via email. The only downside to this script is that iPhoto must be open for it to work.

Is anyone out there up to the challenge? Create an Automator / AppleScript workflow that hides Photo Booth during this process or even displays an alternative screen! Be featured on iUseApple.com! Ask Steve Blue for more details.

Change the Photo Booth Effects

I found this awesome article on macosxhints.com that explains how to change the effects in Photo Booth. I must be a little Quartz Composer savvy to make this work. I successfully made this work, but remember to back up the original files so Photo Booth can be returned to it’s original state!

Discover If the Apple Remote is Working

I can point the Apple Remote at the iSight and see the light inside turn on when I press a button. This is handy if I think the Apple Remote is running low on battery or is malfunctioning.