I was walking in a posh town centre when an obese man, shirtless, came walking from the opposite direction. For some reason, a well dressed woman with a camera was following at some distance behind him, taking photos with a really large camera, but the sound of photos being snapped was eerily silent.

I think you could really up your man-in-the-street photos by getting their attention with a brief siren, laughtrack, or just a chorus of children shouting "Cheese".

Eventually there would be an entire market of Cheese tracks for cameras, much like cellphone ringtones.
-- 4and20, Aug 19 2021

most cameras come with an option to shut off the sound of taking a photo. It’s often called a *museum* setting.

I’m not quite sure about the cheese part and have to re-read this idea again.
-- xandram, Aug 19 2021


According to Japanese law all smartphones that are sold in Japan need to have the camera shutter sound on by default and it can't be turned off. Why? The goal is to prevent people from taking photos from others without their permission. (ie 'upskirting')
-- AusCan531, Aug 19 2021


// all smartphones that are sold in Japan need to have the camera shutter sound on //

This merely proves my point, although most people would have added some French baked goods as well. If the Japanese can't sell Cheese for cell phones, haven't they been making the wrong game shows?
-- 4and20, Aug 19 2021


A better option would be the availability of the camera being able to emit a loud "BOOOO!" exclamation to make people jump just as the photograph was being taken.
-- xenzag, Aug 19 2021


My parents had a quite serious and good quality digital stills camera that had a huge built in library of "ringtones" and also I think allowed user uploads of mp3 files. They set it to "dog squeaky toy sound" so that every photo-taking moment was accompanied by an "ee-sqee" sound.
-- pocmloc, Aug 19 2021


How do we envisage the shirtless fat- man story playing out differently if cheese- enabled?

Far away, someone calls out "Cooee, Bono!"
-- pertinax, Aug 19 2021


[xandram] & [AusCan531]; I noticed that with my various smartphones: the first couple (HTC) had "camera shutter noise" able to be turned off, but the newer ones (HTC, Samung) had no such function.
My "real" camera is a DSLR, so it has built-in mechanical noise.
-- neutrinos_shadow, Aug 19 2021


I was hoping for a new level of food snootiness in where the best new cheeses are identified by the particular sound they make while being cut.
-- RayfordSteele, Aug 20 2021


//a new level of food snootiness//

[RS] People who think they are top level connoisseurs already do this.

The actual top level connoisseurs giggle at them because they know that a skilled cutter can make any cheese sound like any other depending on the way the knife is honed and wielded.
-- pocmloc, Aug 20 2021


... so that "Who cut the cheese?" is the question demonstrating the very highest level of sophistication.
-- pertinax, Aug 20 2021



random, halfbakery