sorry about the uvc thing.. i wasn't clear on that. it's uvc camera control. here's the link:
http://www.phoboslab.org/log/2009/07/uvc-camera-control-for-mac-os-x
this will work in photobooth but not skype, at least for my cam. when you open Camera Control you will see what your cam is on and you can open Photobooth at the same time and control exposure and white balance. it just mirrors Photobooth. but it will not work in skype. this may be different on other cams.
i found something soooo much better and now my camera (Microsoft LifeCam Cinema) works like it did on windows (i think better now). it works in skype too. I didn't want to go out and look for a compatible cam. i really wanted to get this one working because it was a good cam for what i use it for. last night i found a program called "Webcam Settings" by Mactaris at the Apple store. I looked at their blog -
http://mactaris.blogspot.com/p/webcam-settings.html and found a comment with a guy that has the same cam as mine. so i bought it. i figured that if this works, I wouldn't find a cam at $7.99. if it didn't, then i'm out $7.99. but when i tried it, it worked great!! i was trying it out when the room was full of daylight and it looks great!! i can control the brightness, contrast, saturation, sharpeness, white balance, exposure time (very sensitive). the aperture priority works great in a bright room. press that and it adjusts everything automatically. the advance mode, i can control the focus and backlight comp. but not the zoom, pan, and tilt. maybe that would vary depending on what kind of cam you have. you can email them and ask if it works for your cam or check their testimonies to see if someone has the same cam. hope this helps others. it's a great alternative if you have a compatible cam.
also, "Webcam Settings" will only work in one program at a time.