Among the useful features and applications bundled into Mac OS X, Photo Booth is not exactly the most useful. Still, it’s handy to sometimes have an application to snap a photo of yourself or your surroundings while on the go. But Photo Booth has no preferences pane, and the default delay and BRIGHT screen flash can ruin your picture. Here’s a quick tip on how to use Photo Both with either (or both) turned off!
Eliminate the Flash
When Photo Booth takes a picture, it flashes the entire screen to white momentarily. I’ve never found this at all useful, and in fact have resorted to all sorts of unnatural acts to eliminate it – dimming the screen, moving away, and even covering it up. See the photo above for an idea why it’s particularly awful with the large, bright screen on the iMac!
But it’s easy to eliminate the flash. Just hold down the Shift key when you press the camera button! Note that you don’t need to keep holding it down, so you can get in position before the photo is taken.
Eliminate the Delay
I normally like having the delay, since it gives me a chance to see what I’ll look like. But there are times that you want to take a photo right now, and there’s a fix for that too.
Hold down the Option key when you press the camera button to take a picture immediately.
Use the Keyboard
As an avid keyboarder (and mouse hater) I was pleased to locate a shortcut to snap a photo. Command-T will take a photo with no click, and this can be combined with the options above as well!