Create unmirrored Photo Booth movies
Jan 27, '09 07:30:04AM
Contributed by: macosnoob
Although Photo Booth 2.0.3 allows one to flip (Command-F) previously captured photos and auto-flip (Shift-Command-F) new photos to an unmirrored -- "correct," some would say -- orientation, the application makes no such provision for movies made with Photo Booth. Other applications, such as QuickTime Pro and iMovie, do create unmirrored video, but lack the real-time access to image effects that Photo Booth provides.
A recent question in the macosxhints forums, and some similar posts in Apple forums, sent me in search of a Photo Booth solution. It turned out to take only a small tweak to one Quartz composition inside the Photo Booth application package to produce unmirrored movies. Note that to edit the Quartz composition, you'll need Xcode installed.
- Make a backup of Photo Booth so that you can return easily to the application's original behavior if desired.
- Control-click on the Photo Booth application, pick Show Package Contents from the pop-up menu, then navigate into the Contents » Resources folder. Double-click on Effect.qtz within that folder to open it in Quartz Composer.
- Locate the left-most Flip patch. Select it and click the Patch Parameters gear.
- Uncheck the 'Flip' box.
- Save Effect.qtz and quit Quartz Composer.
Movies (and photos, too) produced with the modified Photo Booth will now be unmirrored. However, Photo Booth's nine-up preview mosaic of effects remains unchanged, and will still show mirrored images -- a minor anomaly that can also probably be corrected with the adjustment of another 'flip' patch yet to be located somewhere in Photo Booth's quartz compositions.
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Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20090125141307324