88. Import Photos from a Digital Camera  SEE ALSO 89 Create an iPhoto Album or Slideshow 91 Order Photo Prints Online
When you plug a digital camera into your Mac, iPhoto launches automatically; you don't have to install any drivers. iPhoto goes into Import mode so that it can report how many photos you've taken and are stored on your camera, what kind of camera it is, and other such information. The Import button is the only thing you have to click to get your photos from your camera onto your computer and into your iPhoto Library . | 1. | Connect Your Camera and Launch iPhoto
Plug your camera into your Mac using the USB cable that came with it. Most cameras connect directly to the computerall you have to do is plug it in and turn it on, and then wait a few seconds for iPhoto to launch. Some kinds of cameras have a cradle that you rest the camera in and press a button to download the photos; with other cameras, you remove the memory card and put it in a USB card reader to download the photos from it. Consult the instruction manual for your camera to determine the appropriate way to connect your camera to the Mac.
| | 2. | Import the Photos iPhoto launches as soon as it detects that the camera is connected and turned on. The camera appears in the Source column at the left; iPhoto switches to Import mode and reports the model of camera (if it can be determined) and how many photos are available to import. 88. Import Photos from a Digital Camera  TIP If you select the Delete items from camera after importing check box, all the photos are erased from your camera after iPhoto has finished importing them. This is the simplest way to keep your camera's memory card clean and ready for you to take more photos. If you want to leave the photos on the camera after importing them into iPhoto, deselect the check box. Optionally, type in a name for this "film roll" (a single batch of imported photos) and a description; this can help you identify and search for these photos later, for example if this is a batch of photos from a baseball game or a ski trip and you label the film roll accordingly . Click the Import button to copy the photos from your camera into iPhoto. | | 3. | "Eject" the Camera  As soon as iPhoto has completed importing the photos (it will beep to let you know it's done), you should eject and disconnect the camera from your Mac. If you forget to do this, your camera's battery can waste away while you edit your pictures! NOTE A key difference between USB (as is used on most digital cameras and the iPod shuffle) and FireWire (as used on external hard disks, camcorders, and the hard-drive-based iPods) is that FireWire is designed to carry enough electricity to power and even charge devices that are connected, as when you plug in an iPod to charge its battery, whereas USB can only provide enough power to run very low-power devices such as mice and keyboards. USB devices that rely on batteries for power will usually not be recharged by a USB connection (though the iPod shuffle will). Some variants of FireWire (such as Sony's i-Link) do not carry any power at all, and devices (such as camcorders) that use these unpowered FireWire cables can run out of battery power when connected, just as with USB. Many digital cameras act as mounted disks when connected to the Mac. Thus, before you simply unplug your camera from the USB cable, you should properly "eject" ( unmount ) the camera from the system to make sure that there is no damage done to the memory card, the camera, or the Mac. Click the Eject icon next to the camera's name in the Source column and wait for the camera to disappear from the pane. Then you can disconnect the USB cable and turn off the camera. Some digital cameras do not need to be ejected, and unmount themselves automatically after you have finished importing your pictures. If there is no Eject button next to the camera's name in the Source column, and if iPhoto is not busy working with it, it is safe to unplug and turn off the camera at any time. | | 4. | Delete Unwanted Photos Now that your camera is unplugged, you can edit your photos as your leisure. Scroll through the contact sheet in iPhoto's main window to browse your newly imported photos. Use the Zoom slider to select a comfortable size for viewing the thumbnails. TIP By default, when you double-click a photo in Organize view, that photo appears in iPhoto's Edit view. To save editing changes and return to Organize view, click the Done button. You might find it less constraining to have iPhoto open the picture in a separate editing window instead of in Edit view in the main iPhoto window. Select Opens photo in separate window in the iPhoto Preferences window to set this as the default double-click behavior. Editing changes are applied when you close the window or click the Forward or Back buttons . Not all your photos will be masterpieces; it's best to admit that right away and delete the ones that you aren't likely to show off to all your friends . Click any photo and press Delete or drag it to the Trash to delete it. Select Empty Trash from the iPhoto File menu to permanently delete all the photos you have moved to the Trash. Until you empty the Trash, all photos in the Trash can be safely moved back into the iPhoto Library if you change your mind. | | 5. | Rotate Photos
Chances are that you will have taken some pictures with the camera in a vertical orientation. iPhoto lets you rotate any photo 90 degrees in either direction, repeatedly if necessary. (With some higher-end digital cameras, this is not necessary, as the camera senses when you take a vertical picture and rotates it automatically during import.)
Select any photo and then click the Rotate button to rotate the photo 90 degrees counter-clockwise. To rotate the photo clockwise, hold down the Option key while you click.
| | 6. | Browse by Film Rolls or Calendar Date Normally, iPhoto keeps every photo that you've ever taken in a single large Photo Library that you can scroll through visually. It can be useful for organizational purposes, however, to divide this huge mass of photosas huge as it will inevitably becomeon the basis of "film rolls," which is how iPhoto refers to a single imported batch of photos. Obviously there's no film involved in digital photography, but it does make sense to group your photos as though they were part of an actual developed film rollof which the digital equivalent is a batch of photos downloaded at once from the camera. Select View, Film Rolls to allow iPhoto to divide its Photo Library by film rolls. When you have done this, each film roll is delineated by a horizontal line and a "film roll" icon along with the roll name you specified (or a generic name, such as Roll 3 ) and the date and time when the batch of photos was imported. Give an unnamed film roll a name by clicking the "film roll" icon, clicking the Show Photo Information button (an "i" icon), and then typing a name in the title field shown in the information window and pressing Return . TIP You can expand or collapse film rolls in the Photo Library view for easier browsing. If you don't want to see all the photos you've ever taken, you can collapse the film rolls you don't want by clicking the triangle icon next to each one. Film rolls have their drawbacks, though; sometimes they're not the most convenient way to organize your photos, especially if you're in the habit of taking only one or two photos at a time and then importing them immediately. (You could end up with hundreds of very small film rolls this way.) An alternate method, then, is to click the Show Calendar Navigator button; this displays a year calendar with month names shown in bold that contain photos. Click any bold entry to show just the photos taken that month. To zoom in further, click the right arrow next to the year; this shows you a month view that lets you select a particular week's photos or just a single day. Click the left arrow to return to the year view, or the X icon to unfilter your search and show all photos. TIP Keywords can be an efficient way to organize your photos. Define custom keywords in the iPhoto Preferences (under the Keywords pane), such as Dogs, House , or Hawaii ; assign keywords by selecting photos and choosing Photos, Get Info , then selecting the Keywords tab and checking the appropriate keywords. Then you can browse photos by keyword using the Show Keyword Navigator button in the lower left. All photos matching any selected keywords are shown. | | 7. | Name Your Photos
After you import them, each of your photos will have a nondescript, numeric name, such as DSCN0724 (although this name varies depending on the manufacturer of your camera). Give your photos more descriptive names; this will be very helpful in the future when you order prints or create a photo book.
First make sure the Information pane is shown (click the Show Photo information button). Click any photo to view its information. Type a title for the selected photo in the title field and press Return to set a name for the photo.
| TIP Although the title for a photo can be just about as long as you want, certain exporting and sharing featuressuch as HomePage and the Photo Booklimit the title field to only 20 or 40 characters . It's best to keep the name of each photo as short as possible while still being descriptive. If you want to add a longer description to a photo, such as notes about when and where it was taken or under what circumstances, enter them into the comments field at the bottom. You can do this for an entire film roll if you want.
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