How to Use Photo Booth on your iMac
See “Effects” below for explanation of above video
To capture your own photos and create videos on your iMac, find and select the Photo Booth Icon in the Applications folder. Click to open.
Then to take a PHOTO with Photo Booth, select camera icon on far left.
A camera image control will then appear in the center
For VIDEO, select the filmstrip icon, third one in on the left.
A movie camera image control will now appear in the center.
When ready for your photograph or video, click on the appropriate control button in the center.
Also, be sure to look up at the camera lens, green light – center along the very top of your computer frame.
Focusing on the lens is important if you want to appear to be maintaining eye contact while “talking” to your audiences.
Note – There is a 3 second countdown, after you click the control, before the photo is taken or the video starts, so you will have time to look up. To stop the video recording, simply click the movie camera icon again.
Creating Photos or Videos Using the “Effects” Option
Here’s where fun and play come in, if you so choose.
Photo Booth has an “Effects” range of choices. I first learned about it when trying out one of my grandsons’ iPad. I shared some photos I did with it in an issue of Treasure Your Life Now – See iPad Effects Call Attention to Varied Interpretations.
Quite a bit after I discovered that “Effects” is also in Photo Booth on my iMac. Then just this past week, when summarizing activity with a client and writing a follow-up tutorial for her on using Photo Booth, I discovered we can also video using “Effects.”
What fun!
(Note – As an application on the iPad, Photo Booth is limited to one page of Effects for taking single shot photographs only. Although the Camera app on the iPad does video also, there is not an option for it in Photo Booth.)
The EFFECTS button is on the far right. Click on it to bring up a variety of different effects. The arrow to the right of of the button brings you to more choices. Your “normal” image will stay in the center. Choose it any time you want to resume regular recording.
The rest of the photographing or recording process is the same as above. Choose PHOTO or VIDEO on the left and proceed as you did with the instructions above.
Again, when you want to get out of Effects choose the “Normal” photo in the center and you’ll be back to the beginning.
What’s Next with the Video or Photo
Click to select a photo or video along the bottom strip.
You can then
A – Send the photo or video by email;
B – Send it to iPhoto; or
C – Drag it to your desktop or another folder to attach to emails or insert into a document
As I mentioned in an earlier post on Technology for Seniors Made Easy Blog, I’ve started having fun emailing birthday and now, anniversary, videos from (see) Photo Booth or my iPhone. Below is one I did the other day using an EFFECTS option.
Please share your experiences with Photo Booth in the “Leave a Reply” box below or your responses to the videos or anything else in this post.
I cannot get the background effects to work right. They bleed through when I enter the picture for a video or a photo. any suggestions? Thanks.
Hi, Phyllis. I’m not quite sure I understand your question. And I just checked my computer. Evidently Photo Booth choices have changed with the Operating Systems. When I did the above post I was using Tiger… 10.6 When I went now on another computer with Yosemite 10.10.5, I saw more 5 “pages” of Effects, instead of 3. On some of the individual images there is a slider to make adjustments. Have you worked with both of those? Sometime in the next few days, I’ll update this post to show those images.
Please let me know if you’ve used those controls and the images are still not doing what you want. Moving your image around in the photo will also make a difference.