Editing Your Images

You can use iPhoto's Edit tools to make changes to your images. There are lots of editing tools you can use to make basic changes to your images, such as cropping them, to more sophisticated changes, such as exposure levels. Unfortunately, I don't have room to explain the details of using all these tools. In this section, you will get information about general editing steps and an overview of each editing tool.

Editing a Copy of the Original

When you edit an image, your changes affect all instances of that image in all your photo albums, in the Library, and wherever else that image is used within the application (such as in projects).

This is a problem if you want to have multiple versions of an image, say one cropped and one not cropped or one in black-and-white for a book and another in color for a slideshow. Fortunately, you can create duplicates of images. Each copy becomes a new, independent image just as if you had imported it again. You can create one copy for each version of the image you want to use in your projects.

You can create as many copies of an image as you'd like, but remember that each image consumes disk storage space. If you are going to use only one version, you don't need to duplicate it because iPhoto maintains the original version for you. But, if you do want to use multiple versions of the same image, select the images you want to duplicate and select Photos, Duplicate or press -D. You move into the Import mode temporarily and a copy of the images you selected will be created.

The copies have all the same information associated with them as the originals, such as keywords, dates, and so on. The only difference is that the word copy is appended to the images' titles.

NOTE

If an image you copy is in a smart album, the copy will be too because it is an exact copy. If you don't want the copy in a smart album, you'll have to change something about it so that it no longer meets the smart album's criteria.

Choosing Editing Options

When you edit images within iPhoto, there are two basic ways the Edit window can be configured. Slight differences exist between the two ways, but they each work similarly.

One way is to edit images within the iPhoto window itselfthis is the default configuration. When you use this configuration and double-click an image (or select it and click the Edit button), the image fills the Contents pane and the edit tools appear in the Tool pane (see Figure 21.10).

Figure 21.10. You can edit images within the main iPhoto window.

TIP

Along the top of the Editing window, you'll see thumbnails of the other images in the selected source. You can use the scrollbar to view all these. Click an image to move it into the Editing area.

The other way is to have the images you edit appear in a separate Edit window. To enable this method, open the General pane of the iPhoto Preferences dialog box and set the "Double-click photo" preference to "Opens photo in edit window." With this preference set, when you double-click an image, a new, separate Edit window appears (see Figure 21.11). You can use the editing tools that appear in the window's toolbar to edit the image.

Figure 21.11. You can also configure iPhoto so you can edit images in the Edit window.

TIP

One advantage of using the separate Edit window is that you can have multiple Edit windows at the same time. You will also see the image in a slightly larger window, which can be helpful for detailed editing.

Both methods are easy to use. I recommend that you configure the application to use the Edit window (by setting the "Opens photo in edit window" preference). When you want to use the Edit window, double-click the image you want to edit; it will open in the Edit window. When you want to edit an image within the iPhoto window, select the image and click the Edit button; the image will appear in the Edit view and you can edit it there.

NOTE

A third editing option is to use a different application to edit images, such as Photoshop. Set the "Double-click photo" preference to "Opens photo in" and use the Select Application button to choose the application you want to use. When you double-click an image, the editing application you selected will open and you can edit your image. When you save your changes, the edited image is stored in the Library.

Selecting Parts of an Image You Want to Edit

The Crop and Red-Eye editing tools require that you select the part of the image to which you want to apply the editing tool. When you select parts of an image, you have two basic choices: unconstrained or constrained. When you use the unconstrained option, you can select any part of the image. When you use the constrained option, you can only choose part of the image based a specific proportion.

You typically should use the constrained option when you crop images and the unconstrained option when you are applying the Red-Eye tool. To select part of an image using the unconstrained technique, do the following steps:

1.	Open the image in the Edit window or select the image and click the Edit button.
2.	Move the pointer over the image. The cursor becomes a plus sign.
3.	Drag in the image. As you drag, a selection box appears and the part of the image you have selected remains clear while the part that is not selected becomes shaded.
4.	When the part of the image you want is selected, release the mouse button.
5.	To move the selection box around in the image, move the pointer inside the selection box. The pointer becomes a hand icon. Drag the selection box to the location that contains the part of the image you want to select.
6.	To resize the selection box, drag one of its borders.

When you want to ensure that the part of the image you select has a specific proportion, you use the constrained option:

1.	Open the image in the Edit window or select the image and click the Edit mode button.
2.	On the Constrain pop-up menu, select the option you want, such as 4 x 3 (DVD).
3.	Use steps 26 in the previous list to select part of the image. The only difference is that the selection box remains in the proportion you selected on the Constrain pop-up menu.

Zooming on Images for Editing

As you edit images, you need to zoom in and out to see the results of your changes. How you do this depends on the editing mode you are in.

When you use the "same window" editing mode, use the Thumbnail Size slider to zoom in or zoom out.

TIP

If you select part of the image before you zoom, iPhoto attempts to keep that part of the image centered on the screen as you zoom.

If you use the "separate window" option, use the Size pop-up menu to adjust the size of the image relative to the Edit window and then resize the Edit window to adjust the overall size.

Using iPhoto's Editing Tools

iPhoto includes a number of useful editing tools. Here's an overview of what each does:

• Rotate This does the same thing as the Rotate button in the Organize mode. Each click rotates the image by 90°.

• Crop Use this to get rid of parts of an image you don't want, to focus on a specific image, or to prepare an image to print at a specific size. Use the selection techniques you learned earlier to choose the part of the image you want to keep. When you click the Crop button, all the image outside of the selection box will be removed.

• Enhance When an image doesn't look quite right, you can use the Enhance tool to enhance the image. This tool attempts to adjust colors and contrast so an image looks "better." You might be amazed at how well this tool works. Each time you click the button, another enhancement is done. You can enhance an image as many times as you'd like. At some point, the image will get worse instead of better. Use the Undo command to remove the last enhancement.

  TIP

  You can temporarily show the previous version of an image, such as the one prior to the last enhancement, by holding down the Control key. The image will appear as it was before your most recent change. When you release the key, the image will appear as you have edited it again. This is a good way to compare the editing you have done. To move back to this version, use the Undo command.

  
  

• Red-Eye If you take photos of anything with eyes (for example, people or animals) in conditions where you use a flash, you have no doubt seen the dreaded demon eye effect that can sometimes occur. This red-eye can ruin an otherwise good photo. Use the Red-Eye tool to restore eyes to a more pleasing color. Select the portion of the image (such as a subject's eyes) from which you want to remove the red. When click the Red-Eye button, the red will be removed from that part of the image. Or, click the Red-Eye button and the click in the center of each eye; when you click an eye, the red will be removed.

• Retouch The Retouch tool enables you to blend in scratches and other unwanted marks from a photo by blending the mark into the surrounding image. You have to use this one carefully because too much retouching becomes very obvious and has a detrimental effect on the image. Zoom in on the part of the image you want to retouch and click the Retouch button. Move the cursorwhich will now be a crosshairto the area you want to retouch. Press the mouse button down and move the pointer over the area you want to retouch. As you move the pointer, the area will be smudged so that the blemish is blended in with the surrounding area of the image.

• B & W For some images, you might like the artistic look and feel of black-and-white. When you click the B & W button, the image you are editing will be converted into black and white.

• Sepia Sepia tone is a common effect applied to images, especially to make them look old. To convert an image to Sepia tone, click the Sepia button.

• Adjust This is by far the most sophisticated editing tool in iPhoto's arsenal. When you choose this, the Adjust tool will appear (see Figure 21.12). This tool contains a number of sliders you can use to configure specific aspects of the image, including Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Temperature, Tint, Sharpness, Straighten, and Exposure. You change these properties of the image by changing the values of each property using the related slider. As you make changes, you will see the results on the image you are editing.

  Figure 21.12. Use the Adjust tool to control various technical aspects of an image.

  

  
  

  NOTE

  You might see different properties in the Adjust palette of different Macs because the tools on the palette depend on how much processing power your Mac has.

  
  

  TIP

  You can return all the sliders in the Adjust tool to their default values by clicking the Reset Sliders button.

  
  

• Next/Previous Use these buttons to move to the next or the previous image in the selected source. This enables you to edit a series of images quickly.

When you have finished editing an image, click the Done button or close the Edit window. The changes you made to the image will be saved.

Restoring an Image

One of the great things about iPhoto is that it maintains an original version of all the images you edit. If you make several kinds of edits, such as a crop followed by an enhancement and retouch, and then decide you really want the image back to the way it was before you improved it, you can easily recover the original version of the image.

CAUTION

Just as when you edit an image, when you restore an image, that image is changed everywhere the image is used, such as in photo albums, books, and so on. Restoring an image to its original condition, just like editing an image, can have unintended results.

1.	Select an edited image you want to restore to original. You can select it in a photo album, select in the Library, or display it in the Edit window.
2.	Select Photos, Revert to Original. The image will be restored to the state it was in when you first imported it into iPhoto.