How to Take a Photo on a Mac – 3 Efficient Methods You Should Know

Last Updated on March 16, 2023 by Peter Wood


Have you ever think about taking a photo on a MacBook? The next time you want to post a new profile picture, you should notice the built-in webcam on your MacBook.

Different from the camera of a phone, the webcam of your MacBook should be stable. It is an easy way to take a picture with a webcam on macOS. The webcam is available for all types of Mac computers, such as MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and so on.

But the quality of photos depends on the performance of your FaceTime camera, or the external webcam. Besides the performance of your webcam, the right way to take a photo on Mac will improve the quality of pictures as well. Just learn more about the best ways from the article.

How to Take Photos on macOS

Part 1. How to Take Pictures with Photo Booth

Photo Booth is the professional shooting software developed by Apple. It is usually pre-installed on all Macs. You can use Photo Booth to take photos via iSight. In addition to taking photos, it also provides several special effects to polish them. You can follow the steps below to shoot a picture with Photo Booth on Mac.

Photo Booth Mac

Step 1. Launch Photo Booth application on your Mac. You can find the program in the Applications folder. After that, your FaceTime camera will activate automatically. The green indicator light turns on once the webcam has been activated.

Step 2. If you want to add some special effect to your picture, you can tap on the Effects button on the bottom right corner and make a choice. Otherwise, you can skip to the next step.

Step 3. There are three options on the bottom left corner. The left one is the Burst mode, which allows you to take four pictures at once. The middle one is the Single-photo mode. And the right one is the Video mode. Select a mode to take photos on Mac depending on your requirements.

Step 4. When you are ready, press the camera button to shoot a picture. You’d better take multiple photos and choose the best one.

Step 5. After shooting, go to the File menu and choose Export option to save the picture on the Mac. Or you can press the share button on the bottom to post the picture online.

Photo Booth provides more than ten special effects. You can try to take unique selfies with Photo Booth and FaceTime camera.

Take Photo with Photo Booth

Part 2. How to Take a Picture on a Mac Online

Many online services that have the ability to take pictures on Mac with a webcam. The online services are compatible with all operating systems, and do not have computability problems. Moreover, you can enjoy more webcam effects with an online webcam effects website, Pixect should be the best program to take a picture online.

Step 1. Enter pixect.com in the address bar of your browser and press the Enter key to access Pixect.

Step 2. Tap on the Get started now button to go to webcam page. There will be a pop-up message to request you open your webcam. You should choose the permit to continue.

Step 3. Then you can make some settings before shooting. The options on the left side are related to photo quality, like Brightness, Contrast, and more. You can adjust them by moving sliders.

Step 4. Located to the bottom, you can select a webcam effect by pressing the triangle icon with the MacBook photo booth effects online. It also supports a time-lapse photography feature.

Step 5. After settings, press the big camera icon to take a photo on a Mac.

Pixect is a powerful online webcam application with hundreds of webcam effects.

Take Picture on Mac with Pixect.com

Part 3. How to Capture a Photo with a Custom Frame

Whether you need to take a photo on Mac with a custom frame or record a video chat with others, Screen Recorder is a versatile method to capture all onscreen activities on Mac. It not only enables you to custom the frames, but also provides features for adding watermarks, selecting a recording window, tweaking the mouse settings, and adjusting the output quality.

When you need to take a photo on a Mac in PDF form, you can customize the frame with width and height. There are some advanced editing features and annotations to polish photos, such as the text, arrow, highlighter, and other elements.

Win Download Mac Download

Step 1. Download and install Screen Recorder, you can launch the program on your computer. Select the Webcam Recorder button to take a photo on Mac. It will launch a Webcam Recorder window with the FaceTime HD camera to take a photo on Mac by default.

Launch Screen Recorder Mac

Step 2. When the green light for the webcam turns on, you can place the best position and click the Camera icon to take a photo on your MacBook with the custom frame at certain width and height. Moreover, you can use the REC button to capture a video with the webcam.

Webcam with Aiseesoft Screen Recorder

Step 3. It will save the photo to the default folder automatically. After that, you can click the Recording history button from the main interface to preview the photos. Double-click the captured photo to further edit it within Preview or other photo editors on Mac accordingly.

Recording History Screen Recorder Win Download Mac Download

Part 4. How to Polish Photos on Mac

Once you have taken photos on Mac with the built-in webcam, how do you polish the file as a profile picture? WidsMob Portrait Pro is a versatile portrait image editor to detect and touch-up portraits with advanced features. When there are multiple faces within the same photo, it can switch to the desired one with all the facial points. It enables you to get the optimal photo with AI algorithms.

Whether you need to retouch a selfie with a default preset, enhance the portrait, or even make up the portrait for a certain profile picture, you can touch up skin, remove circles, brighten eyes, lift cheeks and even whiten teeth to the photos taken with your MacBook within clicks.

1. Choose and custom portrait editing presets to polish photos taken on Mac directly.

2. Enable you to manage skin, enhance portraits, and do makeup with AI algorithms.

3. Provide multiple settings and parameters to get the optimal portraits in a few clicks.

4. Apply batch conversions, tweak photo quality, and provide Before/After mode.

Mac Download Win Download

Step 1. Once you have installed the portrait editor on your MacBook, you can launch the program on your computer. After that, click the Select Photos button to load the taken photos into the program.

Import Photo to WidsMob Portrait Pro

Step 2. Then you can choose the preset from the Preset menu. Moreover, you can also select the Edit menu to adjust the skin color, remove some imperfections, and even have makeup.

Apply Presets WidsMob Portrait Pro

Step 3. When you are satisfied with the photo, you can click the Export button. It enables you to rename the photos, resize them to a certain size, change to another file format, or tweak the file quality.

Export Portrait WidsMob Portrait Pro Mac Download Win Download

Tips and Tricks about Taking Photos on Mac

1What is the Default Resolution of a Webcam on a Mac?
Whether it is a MacBook or an iMac, there is a 720P webcam. There is only one exception, the high-end iMac Pro, which has a 1080P FaceTime HD camera. When you need to take photos on a Mac with a high resolution, you can choose a photo enhancer or use digital cameras.
2How do you take a photo on Mac as a profile picture?
To take a photo on Mac as a profile picture, you can raise the webcam to have a good ergonomic position, make sure a good source of natural sunlight, and even choose a better webcam from Logitech or other professional webcam manufacturers.
3How to take an external video camera on Mac?
Make sure the webcam from Logitech is connected to the MacBook. In the Photo Booth app on your Mac, you can find the View Photo button with a camera icon. Then you can take a still picture button, or click the Take four quick picture button to take a sequence of four photos on Mac.

Conclusion

You should grasp 3 easy ways to take photos on a Mac. Photo Booth for Mac is a pre-installed app with several special effects. If you want to apply more MacBook photo booth effects online, Pixect should be a nice choice. When you have to take a custom frame as a profile picture, you can also choose Screen Recorder instead.

Mac Download Win Download

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