Here’s a simple tip for those of you who like to use Photo Booth’s distortion effects (those on the second page of the four pages of effects) on your photos. When you choose one of these effects, say Twirl, you’ll see a slider appear over your photo, which lets you change the size of the effect. But did you know you can also move the origin of the effect?
This capability isn’t covered in Photo Booth’s Help, nor is it in the menus, but it’s amazingly simple—just click and drag the mouse on the effects window, and you’ll move the origin of the effect to the mouse’s current location. When you’ve got the effect set to your desired size and position, click the red camera button to snap your distorted image.
I told you it was a simple tip—still, when I asked a number of friends about this, only a couple were aware that you could move the origin of the distortion in this manner. I know this works in OS X 10.5, and I would assume in 10.4 as well. However, I don’t have a machine running 10.4 that also included Photo Booth, so I can’t test that assumption.