Mac OS X Tiger/Meet the Applications/Photo Booth

Introduction

In October of 2005, Apple's CEO Steve Jobs took the stage and dropped the video iPod bomb on the world. But he also introduced another product; the first Mac with a built-in iSight camera. This camera let users video chat with friends right out of the box using Apple's iChat AV software. But to offset the productivity gained by simple videoconferencing capabilities, a second iSight-enabled application made its debut. This application was dubbed Photo Booth.

Photo Booth lets you take your picture. While it sounds simple, and it is, Photo Booth comes with some fun extras that make it hilariously fun, including fourteen special effects that are applied in real-time before your picture is actually taken. (The real-time effects are applied using Core Image, a new technology in Tiger which makes it possible to apply multiple "halfway" complex effects to images using the graphics card.)

Taking a Photo

When Photo Booth loads, you're greeted by a picture of yourself. Taken live from the iSight camera in your Mac, this gives the effect of looking in a mirror. The large red camera button directly below this picture starts the 3-second timer for taking a photo. At the end of the countdown, your screen flashes white and the photo appears in the "tray" below the camera button.