PhotoBooth Oddity - or is it?


I thought PhotoBooth did something strange, but on reflection, I changed my mind.

I really love PhotoBooth. It's fun to play with, and the results are excellent.

But something didn't look quite right with the picture I took to use as the icon for my "My Life and Welcome to It" category. I couldn't put my finger on it until my wife questioned the part in my hair. Then I figured it out.

PhotoBooth acts like one side of iChat AV. iChat AV shows the preview reversed, just like a mirror. In fact, it always shows yourself as if you were looking in the mirror. Of course, it flips you so the person at the other end sees you as if they were looking right at you. That way, everyone sees what they expect.

At first, I thought this was a flaw in PhotoBooth, because while it is good to see myself as in a mirror to prepare for a picture, once I get the picture, I want it to look like a normal picture. When I looked at PhotoBooth's menus, however, I found that the Apple engineers had thought of that as well. Not only can you flip pictures once they have been taken, but you can set PhotoBooth to auto-flip pictures when they are taken.

This is how it should be, I believe (though I think the auto-flip should be the default). Here's my reasoning. We are used to looking at ourselves moving in the mirror. Most of us don't often see ourselves in a TV monitor. So while we are preparing for a picture, is is more comforting and easier to prepare ourselves to see the mirror image. We are also more used to seeing ourselves in still images the right way around. That's why I think PhotoBooth should auto-flip.

The Apple engineers have provided both, which I think is another example of the Apple attention to fit and finish.

Posted: Wed - November 2, 2005 at 07:27 PM          

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