How to Take Pictures on Mac

The built-in camera on your Mac isn’t for video calls only; it takes pictures and records videos. If the built-in webcam is faulty, you can remotely take pictures using your iPhone or iPad’s camera. This tutorial will show you how to take a picture on a Mac computer or notebook.

How to Take Photos on Mac Using Photo Booth

Photo Booth is Apple’s official application for taking photos and recording videos on Mac computers. The app also supports iPadOS and is available for iPad users. Follow the steps below to take pictures on your Mac using Photo Booth.

1. Open the Applications folder in Finder and select Photo Booth.
   

You can also launch Photo Booth via Spotlight Search. Press Command + Space bar, type “photo booth” in the search bar, and select Photo Booth.

2. Selecting the camera icon in the bottom-left corner activates “Photo” mode. Tap the Take Photo button to take a photo. By default, the Photo Booth displays a 3-second countdown and flashes your screen when you take a photo.
   

Photo Booth also has a “4-up photo” mode, which takes a sequence of four pictures and groups them into one photo. To use this mode, choose the Four Pictures icon in the bottom-left corner and select the Take Photo button.

Again, Photo Booth starts a three-second countdown before flashing your screen four times—one for each photo captured. You can turn off the countdown and flash if you want. We’ll show you how to do so in the next section.

Select the Effects button in the bottom-right to explore Photo Booth’s effects collection.

The app has 24 effects you can preview and apply to your photos.

3. Photo Booth keeps a gallery of recently captured pictures below the viewfinder. Select a picture to preview it, or right-click and choose Export to save it to your Mac.
   

4. To delete a picture from the gallery, hover your cursor over it and select the X icon. Alternatively, right-click and choose Delete.
   

5. Want to share your picture with your friends or save it to iCloud Photos? Choose the photo, select the Share icon in the bottom corner, and choose where or who to share the photo with.
   

Pro Tip: Press Command + A to select all photos in the gallery. You can also Command-click to choose (and share) multiple photos.

How to Control Photo Booth’s Countdown and Flash

By default, Photo Booth displays a countdown and flashes your screen before and when taking photos. You can turn off the countdown and flash for every picture. Apple also lets you turn off the screen flash entirely.

Holding down the Option key while selecting the Take Photo button prompts Photo Booth to capture photos without counting down.

Don’t want Photo Booth flashing your Mac’s screen before a photo? Press and hold the Shift key, then select the Take Photo button. That’ll turn off Screen Flash for that specific photo.

Press and hold Option + Shift while taking a photo to turn off the flash and countdown.

Apple also allows you to turn off the Screen Flash entirely. To do so, open Photo Booth, select Camera on the menu bar, and deselect Enable Screen Flash.

How to Take Photos on Mac Using Your iPhone or iPad

Thanks to Apple’s Continuity Camera technology, you can take pictures on your Mac using your iPhone or iPad’s rear-facing camera. Since iPhones and iPads have better cameras, Continuity Camera lets you take high-quality pictures or videos. However, your devices must meet specific (system and software) requirements to use Continuity Camera.

For starters, your iPhone or iPad must run at least iOS 12. Likewise, your Mac must be running macOS Mojave or newer macOS versions.

It’s also worth mentioning that not all Mac computers or notebooks support Continuity Camera. The technology is only available on these Mac computer models:

• MacBook introduced in 2015 or later
  
• MacBook Pro introduced in 2012 or later
  
• MacBook Air introduced in 2012 or later
  
• Mac mini introduced in 2012 or later
  
• iMac introduced in 2012 or later
  
• iMac Pro
  
• Mac Pro introduced in 2013 or later
  
• Mac Studio introduced in 2022 or later
  

Hardware and software requirements aside, your devices must also be signed in to the same Apple ID using two-factor authentication. Both devices must also have Bluetooth and Wi-Fi turned on.

You can use Continuity Camera to take or import photos in the following macOS apps:

• Finder
  
• Photo Booth
  
• Notes
  
• Messages
  
• Mail
  
• TextEdit
  
• Keynote (v8.2 or later)
  
• Numbers (v5.2 or later)
  
• Pages (v7.2 or later)
  

We recommend connecting your devices to the same Wi-Fi network and installing the latest software updates. Then, you’re set to take photos on your Mac using your iPhone or iPad.

Take Continuity Camera Photos in Photo Booth Using Your iPhone

Launch Photo Booth, select Camera on the menu bar and choose [Your iPhone name] Camera.

Photo Booth’s preview window should immediately switch to your iPhone/iPad’s rear camera. Your iPhone/iPad should also display a “Connected to Mac/MacBook” screen where you can pause, resume, or disconnect the Continuity Camera session.

Select the Take Photo button in the Photo Booth app to take a photo.

Take Continuity Camera Photos in Finder Using Your iPhone

Say you want to take a photo on your iPhone or iPad and import it to a specific Finder folder. Continuity Camera lets you do that with a few mouse clicks.

1. Right-click anywhere in the destination folder, select Import from iPhone/iPad, and choose Take Photo.
   

You should see “Take a photo with “[iPhone name]”” on the screen. The Continuity Camera feature then launches your iPhone or iPad’s Camera app.

2. Tap the Shutter button in the Camera app to capture the photo. Tap Use Photo on the preview screen to send the photo to your Mac or Retake Photo to take another photo.
   

3. The photo should be available in the Finder window or destination folder.
   

Taking or importing Continuity Camera photos in other supported applications follows a similar process. Right-click or Control-click where you want to import the photo, select Import from iPhone or iPad or Take Photo.

Use an External Camera

Mac computers support external cameras or webcams. Applications that capture photos or videos will automatically detect compatible external cameras connected to your Mac properly. However, some apps require you to choose the camera manually.

In Photo Booth, for instance, you must manually choose or switch to your preferred camera in the menu bar. That also applies to applications like FaceTime, QuickTime Player, and some third-party applications. For more information on switching cameras in these applications, refer to Apple’s tutorial on choosing external cameras on Mac.