Picture yourself in Photo Booth
Mac Tip #282/28-March-2007

If your new Mac has a small black square at the top of the monitor then it includes a built-in iSight camera. You can use this while video chatting, or you can use Apple’s own Photo Booth software to take some still shots, email them to friends, add them to a web page, use them as your iChat buddy icon or as your user picture for the login screen.

Get in the booth

Look in your Applications folder for Photo Booth.app and open it. A green light next to the iSight camera comes on to show you the camera’s active. You’ll also probably suddenly see yourself on screen.

Take a photo

Take a shot by clicking the red Shutter button below the image. A countdown appears below the image and after three seconds the screen flashes to add some light while the camera takes the photo.

Where’s my photo?

Photos you’ve taken appear in a strip below the main window. Click on one to see it.

Share your photos

With a photo selected you can click a button on the Toolbar to email it using Apple’s Mail.app, send it to iPhoto, set it as your Account picture or as your iChat Buddy picture.

Delete your photo

Click the small x in the bottom left of a photo thumbnail to delete the photo. If that was a mistake choose Undo Delete Photo from the Edit menu. If you choose Delete All Photos… from the Edit menu you won’t be able to Undo that action, so be careful with it.