Lion In The Spotlight: Photo Booth
Written by John Thompson on July 26, 2011 · Filed under Software
If apps were in the dictionary, Photo Booth would probably lie somewhere in between recreation and procrastination. It’s an Apple Store favourite, and its effects are pretty good at breaking the ice over a video call too when the situation arises.
Fans of the application will be glad to know, then, that it has been given a fresh lick of paint for its Lion debut, and it has some pretty cool new effects that you will want to goof around with as well.
Before we get to the effects in Photo Booth themselves, one of the major changes in the new version is the ability to launch the application in full screen mode. This is a trend with many Apple applications in Lion – Safari, Mail and iTunes, just to name a few, all take advantage of this ability too – and Photo Booth is no exception.
When you’re in full screen mode in Photo Booth, the traditional window is replaced by a graphically rich interface, with red curtains lacing the side of your screen and a wood panel providing a backdrop behind your frame. As you could in Snow Leopard, you can take a single picture, four pictures in quick succession, or record a video.
All of the effects from Photo Booth in Snow Leopard are present here too, including the popular backdrops such as the Eiffel Tower, Yosemite and even the Moon. If you were hoping that these had been updated, you will unfortunately be left disappointed, but they’re still fun to play around with nevertheless.
On top of the existing effects, nine new ones have been added for Photo Booth in Lion, and instead of simply providing static effects at a point on the screen, the program is now capable of tracking your face from the camera and applying effects more effectively.
Two such effects are ‘Lovestruck’, which makes hearts float over your head – just because your manliness couldn’t sink any lower – and ‘Dizzy’, in which birds are rotated around your head. Both effects are capable of tracking your location within the frame, and they follow you around pretty well.
The other new effects which use facial recognition include ‘Space Alien’, which is fairly self explanatory; ‘Nose Twirl’, which makes your nose look like it’s just taken a punch from Mike Tyson; ‘Bug Out’, which makes you look like a character off Disney’s ‘Antz’; and ‘Frog’, which can make you look like Kermit’s double, but can’t guarantee that you’ll get to kiss a princess.
If you used Photo Booth a lot before upgrading to Lion, then you’ll no doubt love the new effects which come with the new version of the application. The full screen interface works really well whether you’re using a Mac with an 11-inch or 27-inch display, and some of the additional face tracking effects are quite impressive too. If you’re in the mood to brighten up an iChat conversation with these new effects, then knock yourself out! They’re bound to keep you entertained for a while, and they’re a great way to show off your Mac when you have visitors, too.
