Using iPhoto to Master Digital Images

Mac OS X includes one of the most amazing image applications ever produced: Apple's iPhoto. iPhoto enables you to work with digital photos you have captured using a digital camera or from any other source. With iPhoto, you can organize, edit, print, e-mail, and export your photos. You can also do all sorts of other cool things with your images, such as creating books, Web pages, and screensavers.

When you open iPhoto, you will see its three panes (see Figure 15.6). The Source pane enables you to select a source to work with. The Content pane shows either the contents of the selected source or the image you are working with, depending on the mode you are in. The Tool pane of the window contains various tools you use for the mode you are working in. Between the Tool pane and the other two panes, you will see iPhoto controls, the mode buttons, and the Size slider.

Figure 15.6. iPhoto might be one of the best applications ever created for the Mac.

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iPhoto has five modes of operation:

  • Import You use the Import mode to import images from a camera.

  • Organize Use this mode to create photo albums, apply keywords to your images, and perform other tasks to keep your images organized.

  • Edit In the Edit mode, you can edit your images by cropping, changing brightness and contrast, removing red-eye, and so on.

  • Book Using Book mode, you can create custom books to display your images.

  • Share The Share mode enables you to do all kinds of interesting things with your images, from printing them to creating custom screensavers.

Between the Source and Content panes and the Tool pane, you see iPhoto controls that are available in whichever mode you are in (see Figure 15.7).

Figure 15.7. You can use the iPhoto tools to perform basic actions with images being displayed in the Content pane.

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You have the following controls available to you at all times:

  • Create Album Click this button to create a new album. You will learn more about creating albums later in this chapter.

  • Play Slide Show Click this button and a nice slide show displaying the images in the selected album will play (accompanied by a music soundtrack).

  • Info Click to open or expand the Information area of the Source pane. If the Info area is not displayed, clicking this button once will open it. If it is displayed, clicking this button will expand it. If it is expanded, clicking this button will close it.

  • Rotate Use this button to rotate a selected image by 90° increments in the counterclockwise direction. When you select an image and then click this button, the image is rotated in the Content pane; the image assumes the orientation you choose from that point forward (meaning that the image itself is changed to be the orientation you select). You can change the direction of rotation in the Preferences window. You can also rotate in the opposite direction by holding down the Option key.

  • Selected Image Ratio This ratio shows the number of images you have selected compared to the total number of images in the selected album. If you don't have any images selected, this number will be the total number of images in the selected album.

  • Mode buttons Use these buttons to change the mode in which iPhoto is working. When you click a mode button, the Content and Tool panes will change to reflect the mode you select.

  • Display Size Drag this slider to change the size of the images you see in the Content pane. Moving the slider to the right makes the images larger, whereas moving it to the left makes the images appear smaller and shows more images at the same time. The setting of this slider doesn't actually change the image in any way; it only determines how large the images appear onscreen.

To get started in iPhoto, you should set several of its preferences. The first time you open iPhoto, you will be prompted to set some of these preferences, but you can make changes to them at any time by opening the iPhoto Preferences dialog box (see Figure 15.8).

Figure 15.8. iPhoto's Preferences enables you to fine-tune the application.

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The iPhoto preferences you can set are described in Table 15.5.

Table 15.5. iPhoto Preferences
Preference Options Description
Photos Shadow The Shadow option puts a drop shadow behind the thumbnail images in the Content pane when you are in the Organize mode.
Frame The Frame option puts each thumbnail in a frame. Use the slider to set the color of the frame (from black to white).
Align to grid With this option checked, your images remain aligned to the iPhoto grid.
Most recent at top When this check box is checked, the photos you imported most recently appear at the top of the Content pane.
Rotate photos Clockwise When you click the Rotate button, the selected images are rotated in the clockwise direction.
Counter Clockwise When you click the Rotate button, the selected images are rotated in the counter-clockwise direction.
Double-click action Edit View With the Edit View option, when you double click an image, it opens in the Edit mode.
Separate Window When you double-click an image with the Separate Window option, it opens in a separate window in which you can view the image.
Other When you choose Other and then use the Set button to choose an application, the image you double-click will open in the application you select. For example, you might choose to double click images to open them in another image editing application.
Assign/Search uses Keywords When you choose Keywords, you assign keywords to images and then search for them using those keywords.
 Comments When you choose Comments, you can perform searches for images by the comments you have entered for those images.
Slide Show Play each slide for __ seconds Use this control to set the amount of time each image appears on the screen when you click the Slide Show button located under the Source pane.
Repeat slide show when finished Music With this check box checked, slide shows will continue to play until you stop them manually. Choose the music that plays when you show a slide show when you use the Slide Show butto located under the Source pane. You can choose from several default pieces, you can use Other to select an MP3 file (the application looks in your iTunes music collection by default), or you can edit the list of songs by choosing Edit List.

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When you use the Other option in the Music pop-up menu to select more music for your slide shows, the music you select is added to the Music menu so that you can choose it from there when you play future slide shows. If you want to remove music from this menu, choose Edit List, select the songs you want to remove, and then click Delete.


Finally, set iPhoto to open automatically when you connect a camera to your Mac.

  1. Open the Image Capture application.

  2. Choose Image Capture, Preferences.

  3. On the Camera Preferences pop-up menu, choose iPhoto.

  4. Close the Preferences window and quit Image Capture.

NOTE

The first time you open iPhoto, you are prompted to have iPhoto open automatically when you connect a camera to your Mac. If you do this, you don't need to use Image Capture to set that preference.


Importing Digital Images

The first step in working with images in iPhoto is to import the images you want to work with into the iPhoto Photo Library. You can do this in the following two ways:

  • From a digital camera.

  • From image files outside of iPhoto.

To import images into iPhoto, you use its Import mode. In this mode, the Tool pane contains the following elements (see Figure 15.9):

  • Camera information When iPhoto is communicating with a camera, you will see that camera's information, such as its model name. You'll also see how many images are available to be downloaded into iPhoto. When a camera is not connected, you see the "No camera connected" message.

  • Preview window When you import images, you will see a preview of each image in the Preview window.

  • Progress bar The progress bar displays the progress of the import process.

  • Import/Stop button This button is Import when you aren't importing images. When you click the Import button, the import process starts, and the button becomes Stop (the Stop button does just what you think it does).

  • "Erase" check box If you check the "Erase camera contents after transfer" check box, the images on your digital camera will be erased after they have been imported into iPhoto.

Figure 15.9. When you connect a camera to your Mac, iPhoto moves into the Import mode automatically.

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Erasing Images

Here are two comments for you on the "Erase" check box. First, if you don't have a camera connected to your Mac, it is inactive. Second, even when it is active, I recommend that you don't use it. I suggest that you leave images on your camera until you are sure that they have been imported correctly. If something happens to the image you import and it is erased from your camera, it is gone forever. After you have verified that your images have been imported successfully, you can delete them by using your camera's controls.

Downloading Images from a Digital Camera into iPhoto

To download images from your camera into your iPhoto Photo Library, perform the following steps:

  1. Connect your camera to your Mac with its USB cable.

  2. Power up your camera. iPhoto will open if it isn't already open and will move into the Import mode. Your camera will be recognized in the lower-left corner of the Import Tool pane, and you will see how many photos are ready to be downloaded.

  3. Click Import. The application will begin moving the images from the camera's memory into your Photo Library. As the process proceeds, you can see its progress in the Progress bar (see Figure 15.9).

  4. Click the Last Import album in the Source pane. iPhoto will move into the Organize mode, and you will see the photos you just imported.

  5. Work with the Organization mode tools to organize and identify the images you just imported.

To learn how to use iPhoto's Organize mode, see "Organizing Your Images," p. 432.

After you have organized the images you have imported, use your camera's tools to empty its memory card so that you will be ready for your next shooting session.

To remove images from your Photo Library, select the images and press the Delete key. Click OK in the warning dialog box, and the image will be deleted from iPhoto. Obviously, you should do this only with images you are sure you will never want again.

Importing Other Images into iPhoto

You can also add images from other sources to your iPhoto Photo Library. For example, if your digital camera is not compatible with iPhoto, you will have to download images from that camera (such as by using a USB memory card reader) and then import them into iPhoto. Or you might want to add previously scanned photos to iPhoto so that you can use iPhoto's great tools to work with them.

You can import a wide variety of image file formats into iPhoto, including JPEGs, Photoshop files, and other formats you are likely to encounter when dealing with digital images.

  1. Prepare the images you want to import (for example, scan the photos or download them from a USB memory card reader to your Mac).

  2. Choose File, Import. You will see the Import Photos dialog box.

  3. Move to the files you want to import and select them. You can select multiple images at the same time by holding down the graphics/symbol.gif key while you click each image.

  4. Click Import (or press Return). The images will be imported into your Photo Library. You can monitor the process by watching the Progress bar importing images from files is much faster than importing them from a camera, so the process moves along pretty quickly.

  5. Click the Last Import album in the Source pane. iPhoto will move into the Organize mode, and you will see the images you just imported.

  6. Work with the Organization mode tools to organize and identify the images you just imported.

To learn how to use iPhoto's Organize mode, see "Organizing Your Images," p. 432.

NOTE

The Last Import album contains the most recent set of images that you imported or downloaded from a camera. The images remain in this album until the next import, at which point they are replaced by the next set. Of course, because it is an album, it doesn't actually contain the images themselves, just pointers to them. The imported images are always stored in your Photo Library.


Organizing Your Images

Images in iPhoto can be organized into albums; iPhoto albums are analogous to "analog" photo albums that contain the images in your collection. The iPhoto Source pane shows all the albums that are contained in your image collection. iPhoto includes two albums that are always present: Photo Library and Last Import. The Photo Library album contains all the images you have imported into iPhoto (regardless of how you imported the images). The Last Import album contains the images you downloaded during the last time you imported images.

To work with an album, you select it in the Source pane and its contents will be shown in the Content pane. iPhoto will move into the Organize mode automatically. When in the Organize mode, the Tool pane contains tools that enable you to assign keywords to images and to find images based on those keywords (see Figure 15.10).

Figure 15.10. In the Organize mode, you can organize all the images in your Photo Library.

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You can resize the Source pane by dragging the Resize handle to the left or right.


The Organize tool pane has two modes; the mode you are in is determined by the Mode switch setting.

When the switch is in the Assign position, you can assign keywords to images (you'll learn how to create and assign keywords to images later in this chapter). When the switch is in the Search position, only the photos with which the highlighted keywords are associated will be shown in the Content pane.

At the far right of the Tool pane, you see the three Show check boxes. When one of the check boxes is checked, the check box's label is shown next to the images in the Content pane. For example, in Figure 15.10, you can see that the "Titles" check box is checked, so the image titles are shown next to the images in the Content pane.

Identifying and Labeling Your Images

To help you keep your images organized, you can attach several kinds of information to your photos. This information includes the following:

  • Title Each image in your Photo Library can have a title. When you import images, the title iPhoto assigns to them is a sequential number based on the "roll" number in which you imported them (iPhoto counts each import session as a "roll" of film), such as Roll 10-10, Roll 10-11, and so on. These titles aren't very meaningful; fortunately, you can change them easily.

  • Comments The application enables you to add comments to each image. For example, you can provide the context for the image so that when you look at it later, you will understand it better or, if you have a poor memory like I do, you can explain where the information was captured. Comments are especially useful when you create books because they include interesting things you've said about those images.

  • Keywords As you learned earlier, you can attach keywords to your images and use these keywords to find the images with which you want to work using only a couple of mouse clicks.

NOTE

You might have noticed that I did not mention adding date and time information to an image. This is because most digital cameras capture the date on which an image is taken, and iPhoto can read this date and attach it to the images automatically. However, if the date isn't automatically read from the image (such as images you scan and then import), you will probably want to enter the date on which you captured the image as a comment.


Working with Keywords

Keywords help you find photos because you can search a group of images that are associated with specific keywords. You can use keywords to perform fairly complex searches because you can search by multiple keywords at the same time.

iPhoto includes some keywords by default; you will see these in the Tool pane when you are in the Organize mode. However, you can create your own keywords, and you can change any keywords that are available. After you have set the keywords you want to use, you can associate them with your images and use them to search for specific images.

iPhoto's default keywords are okay, but you will probably want to use some that are more specific to your photos. For example, you might want to create a keyword containing a child's name so that you can find photos of that child quickly and easily. To add new keywords to the Organize Tool pane, use the following steps:

  1. Choose Edit, Edit Keywords (or press graphics/symbol.gif+K). The None button on the Keyword list will be replaced by the Done button to indicate that you are in the keyword edit mode.

  2. Move into an empty keyword slot in the Tool pane.

  3. Type a new keyword.

  4. Repeat Steps 2 and 3 until you have added all the keywords you want to have available.

  5. Click Done; choose Edit, Done Editing Keywords; or press graphics/symbol.gif+K to stop creating keywords.

You can change existing keywords by using steps that are quite similar to those you use when creating new keywords:

  1. Choose Edit, Edit Keywords (or press graphics/symbol.gif+K).

  2. Select the keyword you want to change. It will become highlighted to indicate that you can edit it.

  3. Make changes to the keyword.

  4. Repeat Steps 2 and 3 until you have changed all the keywords you want.

  5. Click Done; choose Edit, Done Editing Keywords; or press graphics/symbol.gif+K to stop editing keywords.

When you change a keyword on the Tool pane, it changes where it is associated with your photos automatically.

Associating Keywords and Information with Your Images

After you have set your keywords, add information to your images and associate keywords with them.

  1. Click the Organize mode button.

  2. Make sure that the "Titles" and "Keywords" check boxes in the Tool pane are checked; these cause Photo to display this information next to each image.

  3. Locate the group of images that includes the images to which you want to add information. For example, click the Last Import album to work with images you imported in the most recent session. Or check the "Film Rolls" check box and scroll in the Photo Library to find the images you want to work with.

  4. Click the Info button located just underneath the Source pane until you can see the Comments box. Depending on your starting point, you might have to click the button once, twice, or not at all if the Comments box is already displayed.

  5. Select an image you want to attach information to. The image will be enclosed in a box to show that it is selected. In the Info area, you will see iPhoto's default title for the image, the date on which the image was captured (assuming that iPhoto was able to retrieve this information from the source), the size (the resolution at which the image was captured), and the image's file size.

  6. Click in the Title box in the Info area and select the default title.

  7. Type a new title for the image. Titles should be relatively short, such as four words or less (see Figure 15.11).

    Figure 15.11. You can use the Comments box to add comments to your images.

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  8. Click in the Comments box and enter comments about the image.

  9. Make sure that the Assign/Search switch is in the Assign position, and click the keywords you want to associate with the image; you can choose as many keywords as you have available. As you click keywords, they remain highlighted to indicate that they will be associated with the selected image.

    If you have the Show check boxes checked, you will see an image's title and keywords next to it in the Source pane.

  10. Repeat Steps 5 through 9 for each image in a roll. When you are done, your images will be more useful because specific images will be easier to find.

This process can be a bit of a pain, but it does pay off when you want to find and use your images later. If you do these steps on a roll of images as soon as you create it (such as when you import images from a camera), the process takes just a few minutes. However, if you wait until you have lots of rolls to do, it can take longer and you aren't as likely to actually keep your image information current.

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To remove a keyword from images, select the images that contain the keyword, make sure that the switch is in the Assign position, and click the keyword in the Tool pane. It becomes unhighlighted and will be disassociated from the selected images.


You might notice that one of iPhoto's default keywords is a checkmark. This is the one keyword you can't change. The checkmark is intended to be assigned to images temporarily so that you can perform a specific task for those images. For example, you might want to order prints from only a few photos in an album. You can apply the checkmark keyword to each image you want a print of and then find those images by searching for the checkmark keyword. (The checkmark actually appears in the lower-right corner of the image itself instead of next to it.) After you order the prints, you can remove the checkmark keyword (choose Edit, Undo Add Keyword, or select the images and click the checkmark keyword again).

Using Keywords to Find Images

After you have associated keywords with your images, it is quite simple to use those keywords to find all the images associated with one or more keywords.

  1. Select the album in the Source pane in which you want to search for images; choose Photo Library if you want to search all the images you have imported into iPhoto.

  2. Click the Organize mode button if it is not already selected.

  3. Move the Assign/Search switch to the Search position. When you are in the Search mode, the None button becomes the Show All button.

  4. Click the keywords that are associated with the images you want to see. For example, if you click the keyword "Vacation," you will find those images to which the keyword "Vacation" has been assigned. You can click as many keywords as you'd like to make your search more specific. For example, clicking "Vacation" and "Scenic" would find only those photos with which both keywords are associated. As you click on keywords, the images in the Content pane will include only those with which the keywords you clicked are associated.

To view all the images in the selected album again, click the Show All button.

Organizing Your Images with Photo Albums

Photo albums are the tool you use to create collections of images for specific purposes, such as to view specific images or to create slide shows, books, and other projects. You can create albums containing the images you are interested in and then work with those images by selecting an album in the Source pane.

NOTE

If you have used iTunes's playlists, the concept of albums should be easy to grasp because playlists and albums are analogous.


You can choose any criteria for the photos you include in an album, and you can include any number of photos in any album you create.

  1. Click the New Album button located just below the Source pane; choose File, New Album; or press graphics/symbol.gif+N. You will see the New Album dialog box.

  2. Name your album and click OK. The album you create will appear in the Source pane.

  3. Find the images you want to include in the new album; use the keyword searching technique you learned in the preceding section to do so.

  4. Select the images you want to include in the album (select multiple images by holding down the graphics/symbol.gif key), and drag them onto the new album in the Source pane. As you drag the images onto the album, a red circle containing a number will appear the number is the number of images you have selected.

  5. Continue finding images and dragging them onto the album.

  6. When you are done, select the album in the Source pane, and you will see the images it contains in the Content pane.

Following are points to consider when you work with albums:

  • Placing images in an album does not remove them from the Photo Library; the Photo Library always contains all the images you have imported into iPhoto (unless you have deleted some images from the Library). When you drag an image onto an album, a pointer from the original image to the album is created.

  • You can create an album by dragging images from the Photo Library or from other albums onto the Source pane. An album called Album-# will be created; you can edit the album name by selecting it and, when it is highlighted, changing the name to what you want it to be.

  • You can place the same image in as many albums as you'd like.

  • When you select an album, you can select and then drag the images around in the Content pane to change their order. The order in which images appear in an album will affect projects you create from that album. For example, if you create a book, the images will appear in the book in the same order in which they appear in the album.

  • To remove an image from an album, select it and press the Delete key. The image will be removed from the album, but not from the Photo Library.

  • Changes you make to an image in an album, such as associating keywords with it or rotating it, do affect the image in all its locations, including in the Photo Library.

Editing Your Images

You can use iPhoto's Edit mode to make changes to your images. Although iPhoto is not a full-featured image editing application such as Adobe Photoshop, its tools enable you to make common changes that most people want to make to their images. For example, you can remove red-eye, crop, and so on.

To edit an image, you select it and then click the Edit mode button. The image will fill the Content pane, and you will see the Edit mode's Tool pane (see Figure 15.12). For most actions, you will then select the part of the image you want to work with. You do this by dragging over an area of the image to select it the selected area of the image appears clear and the unselected part is shaded.

Figure 15.12. In the Edit mode, you can make changes to an image, such as cropping it or removing red-eye.

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Most of the Edit buttons don't become active until you select a part of the image (for example, you must select part of the image before the Crop button becomes active).

The tools you see on the Edit mode Tool pane are the following:

  • Constrain You can use this pop-up menu to constrain the portion of the image you select to a specific size. For example, if you choose 5x7, when you select part of the image, the selection will have the 5x7 proportion. This makes it easy to crop images to specific proportions for different purposes.

  • Crop Use this tool to remove any of the image that is outside of the selected area. This helps you get rid of wasted space or parts of the image you don't want to see.

  • Brightness/Contrast Use these sliders to adjust the brightness and contrast of an image. Brightness changes the overall appearance of the image: Dragging the slider to the left makes the image darker, whereas moving it to the right makes the image lighter. Contrast adjusts the relative brightness of objects in the image to one another. Dragging the Contrast slider to the right makes dark parts of the image darker and light parts lighter. Dragging the Contrast slider to the left makes dark parts light so that there is less difference between light and dark (moving the slider all the way to the left washes out the image).

  • Red-Eye Use this tool to remove the red from eyes that is often seen when people or animals are looking directly at the camera when the flash goes off. To use this tool, select an area around the eyes that have that certain demon-eyed appearance. When you click the Red-Eye button, the red will be removed from the selected area. Keep your selection to a small area of the image, because the application doesn't really know what is an eye and what is not; it looks for and removes red, whether it is in an eye or elsewhere.

  • Black & White This button converts the image you are editing into black and white.

  • Previous/Next These buttons take you to the previous or next image in the selected album.

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You can rotate images in any mode. Select the images you want to rotate and then click the Rotate button that is always available just below the Source pane. You can also select images and choose Edit, Rotate, Counter Clockwise (press graphics/symbol.gif+R) or Edit, Rotate, Clockwise (press Shift+graphics/symbol.gif+R). Hold down the Option key while you click the Rotate button to rotate images in the opposite direction.


When you edit an image, your changes affect all instances of that image in all your albums and in the Photo Library. Fortunately, iPhoto maintains the original image should you ever want to go back to it. Simply select the image you have edited and choose File, Revert to Original. You will be warned that if you revert to the original, any changes you have made will be lost (which is the whole idea). Click OK, and the image will be returned to the version you imported into iPhoto.

If you want to have multiple versions of an image, say one cropped and one not, you can create duplicates of images. To create a duplicate, select the images you want to duplicate. Choose File, Duplicate or press graphics/symbol.gif+D. A copy of the image, including its information and keywords, will be created. This duplicate image is created in the Photo Library and behaves just like the original. You can then perform any actions on the copy that you can on the original, such as adding a title or comments to it, and editing it.

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 make changes to only one version, there is no need to duplicate it because iPhoto maintains the original version for you.

Building Image Books

In Book mode, you can create very nice books of your photos in various formats and styles. You can also choose to display a variety of information next to the photos in the book. After you have created a book, you can print it yourself or order a printed copy.

In Book mode, the Content pane contains a preview of the selected book page above thumbnails of each page in the book. The Tool pane contains the tools you use to build your book (see Figure 15.13).

Figure 15.13. You can create custom photo albums in various formats and then print them or order copies from Apple.

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Creating books is a relatively simple process. First, select the album for which you want to create a book. Second, place the images in the order in which you want them to appear in the book. For example, the first image in the album will be on the cover of the book. Then, use the following tools to create the book:

  • Theme pop-up menu Each book you create can be on one of six themes. The theme determines how images are displayed on each page of the book. For example, if you choose Story Book, images appear at different sizes and orientations on the pages for a more casual look. If you choose the Year Book theme, thumbnail images will appear on each page of the book. Each theme style also has corresponding text boxes in which you can enter commentary of other information for the book.

  • "Show Guides" check box When this box is checked, you see blue guidelines around the various text boxes on a page.

  • Show check boxes These check boxes determine which elements of an image's information appear next to the image in the book. If a check box is checked, that information will appear on the book page. However, some themes don't show certain information, even if the check box is checked. For example, the Story Book theme doesn't display any of the image's information regardless of the check box settings. Instead, that theme provides a separate text box for each page in which you can use text to narrate the book you create.

  • Page Design pop-up menu Use this pop-up menu to choose a page's design, such as making it the Cover or Introduction, or to choose how many images will appear on that page. If pages are selected when you make a choice on this menu, only the selected pages are affected. If you don't select pages, all the pages are affected. You can choose different designs for each page in the book.

  • "Lock Page" check box When this box is checked, you can't change a page's design. Use this to prevent accidental changes to a page.

  • Preview button When you click the Preview button, a separate preview window opens, and you can page through your book as it will be when it is printed. You can also make changes to the book in this window, such as adding text to pages.

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Remember to use the Display Size slider in each mode. For example, when you are editing an image, you can make the image appear larger so that you can make more refined selections. In the Book mode, use the slider to change the size at which the pages you work with appear in the Content pane.


After you create a book, you can print it or you can order a professionally printed book from Apple by using the Share mode.

Sharing Your Images

The Share mode enables you to output your images in various ways. The Share Tool pane contains the tools that are shown in Figure 15.14 and explained in the following list.

  • Print I'll bet you can guess what this tool does. You can configure various options for the prints, such as the style (Contact Sheet, Full Page, Greeting Card, or Standard Prints) and the size of the margins.

  • Slide Show When you click this button, you can show the images in the selected album in a slide show. You can choose the music you want to accompany the images, and you can choose the time for which the images are displayed.

  • Mail Use this tool to e-mail selected photos using the Mail application.

  • Order Prints You can use this tool to order prints from the Kodak Print Service through Apple's 1-Click service. Select the images of which you want to buy prints, click the Share mode button, and then click Order Prints. You will move to the 1-Click setup screen. After your account is set up, you can choose the number and sizes of prints you want to order. This tool makes it quite easy to get professional-quality prints of your photos delivered to you or other people.

  • Order Book This tool is similar to the Order Prints function except you get books printed instead of individual photos.

  • HomePage Use this tool to assemble a .Mac Web page to display the selected photos.

  • Desktop Use this tool to quickly apply an image to your desktop.

  • Screen Saver Use this tool to create a custom screensaver from the selected images.

  • Export You use this tool to export your images in various ways. You can export images as separate files, in case you want to use them in other applications or for other purposes. You can also export images in a Web page or as a QuickTime movie. This is useful for creating and saving custom slide shows.

Figure 15.14. You will find all sorts of cool things to do with your images in the Share mode.

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NOTE

The difference between the Slide Show button in the Share Tool pane and the Slide Show button just below the Source pane is that with the Slide Show button below the Source pane, you can't choose any options; the slide show plays with the preferences you have set in the iPhoto Preferences dialog box. When you use the Slide Show tool on the Share Tool pane, you can choose the options for the slide show.


Printing Your Images

Even using an inexpensive inkjet printer, you can print photos that are of pretty good quality. Printing photos from iPhoto is similar to printing documents from other applications (although the specific settings you use are more important because of their effect on the quality of the printed images).

  1. Select the images you want to print.

  2. Click the Share mode button.

  3. Click the Print button. You will see the Print dialog box.

  4. Choose the printer on which you want to print the selected images from the Printer pop-up menu. You will see a preview of the images as they will print in the preview pane.

  5. Use the Presets pop-up menu to select preset settings for the selected printer.

  6. Select the style of prints on the Style pop-up menu and then use the resulting controls to configure that style. For example, if you choose Contact Sheet, you can choose the number of images that are printed across the sheet of paper.

  7. Click the Advanced Options button to use the other controls in the dialog box to adjust how your image will be printed.

  8. When you are done setting options, click Preview. The image as it will be printed appears in the Preview application.

  9. If the image appears as you want it to, print the image. If not, move back into iPhoto and make changes to the print settings.

Each printer has its own set of print options. You should explore the user manual included with your printer so that you understand its options and how they impact the quality of images you print.

Printing images with the highest quality will take some experimentation with your specific printer, printer settings, paper, and so on. Minor changes in settings or using a different type of paper can have dramatic effects on the quality of the images you print. I recommend that you spend some time printing with different combinations of printer settings and paper until you achieve the best results. Then, document the combination that works the best for you so that you can use those same settings the next time you print images.

Viewing a Slide Show from Your Images

iPhoto slide shows are a great way to view images on your Mac.

  1. Select a group of images you want to see in a slide show or choose an album to see all of its images in the show. (If you have a lot of time or not many photos, you can select your Photo Library to see all of your photos in the same slide show).

  2. Click the Share mode button.

  3. Click the Slide Show button in the Tool pane. You will see the Slide Show Settings dialog box.

  4. Use the "Play each slide for __ seconds" box and arrows to set the number of seconds that each image will appear on the screen. The default is about 2 seconds, which seems about right for most photos. If you like to linger over your photos, increase this number. If you are relatively impatient, change this to 1 second.

  5. If you want the slide show to play through once and then stop, uncheck the "Repeat slide show" check box. If you leave this checked, you can stop a slide show by pressing the Esc button or clicking the mouse button.

  6. Choose the music you want to play on the Music pop-up menu. Choose None to play a silent slide show. Choose Other to select a song that does not appear on the list. Choose Edit List to delete songs from the menu.

  7. Click OK or press Return. Prepare to be impressed as your screen fills with your images and they transition smoothly from one to the next.

  8. To stop the slide show before it finishes or if it repeats, click the mouse button or press Esc.

You can display an iPhoto slide show in any mode by selecting some images and clicking the Slide Show button located under the Source pane (the Play button). When you click this, the slide show plays with the settings you have most recently selected in the Slide Show Settings dialog box, which are also transferred to the iPhoto Preferences dialog box.

When you use iPhoto's slide show function, you create a temporary slide show just to view the images on your Mac. You can't save the slide shows that you view with this tool. However, you can use iPhoto to export a series of images as a slide show and then use other digital lifestyle applications to add a sound track, effects, and so on.

E-mailing Your Images

NOTE

By default, this feature works only with the Mail application. However, you can add third-party tools to make it work with other applications, such as Microsoft Entourage.


E-mail is a great way to send your images to other people. To e-mail one or more images, follow these steps:

  1. Select the images you want to e-mail. You can select images individually or select an album to e-mail all the images in that album at the same time.

  2. Click the Share mode button.

  3. Click Mail. You will see the Mail Photo dialog box (see Figure 15.15).

    Figure 15.15. Using the Mail Photo dialog box, you configure how you want the selected photos to be e-mailed.

    graphics/15fig15.jpg

  4. Choose the resolution of the images on the Size pop-up menu. When you make a selection on this menu, you will see the estimated file size below the menu. Remember what you learned about file size and image resolution earlier. If the recipient uses a slow Internet connection, consider sending low-resolution images or sending the images in small batches.

  5. Use the check boxes in the Include area to determine whether titles and comments are included with the figures.

  6. Click Compose. The selected images will be processed and a new Compose Mail window will appear in the Mail application.

  7. Complete the message by addressing it, adding text, and so on.

  8. Send the message just like any other messages you create.

Ordering Prints and Books of Your Images

Although most of us have an inkjet printer that is capable of printing fairly nice photos, printing photos can be a bit of a pain, and the results you get aren't always the best. Plus, if you want to share those photos with other people, you have to go through the hassle of mailing them, which might be enough to stop you from sharing them.

To save you the hassle of printing or mailing images, you can order prints from Apple (the prints are actually provided by Kodak). The first time you order prints, you will use or create an Apple account; after that, you can order prints with a single click by using the appropriately named 1-Click service.

  1. Select the photos for which you want to order prints (such as by selecting an album).

  2. Click the Share mode button.

  3. Click the Order Prints button. You will see the Order Prints dialog box (see Figure 15.16). Along the left side of the dialog box, you will see the photos you have selected. You can scroll up and down in the dialog box to view all of them. In the right side of the window, you see the list of available sizes, the prices, and the quantity box.

    Figure 15.16. The nicest thing about ordering prints is that they can be ordered and mailed right from your Mac.

    graphics/15fig16.jpg

  4. Enter the quantity of each size of photo you want to order. The total cost of your order will appear at the bottom of the dialog box. If you want to order 4x6 or 5x7 photos of all the selected images, use the quantity boxes at the very top of the dialog box.

  5. If you haven't used this service before, open the Ship To pop-up menu, choose Add New Address, and create an address. Add addresses for everyone to whom you will send photos.

  6. Choose the address to which you want the current order sent on the Ship To pop-up menu.

  7. Choose the shipping method on the Ship Via pop-up menu. Your choices are Standard or Express. Obviously, Express is faster and is also more expensive.

  8. When you are ready to order, click the Buy Now With 1-Click button.

  9. Follow the onscreen instructions to complete the order. The first time you use this service, you will create or enter information for your Apple account. Then you will work through the remainder of the ordering screens. Your photos will be printed and shipped; Apple keeps you notified of the status of your order via e-mail.

In the Order Prints dialog box, you see the cost of each size of print you can order. Most of these costs are quite reasonable when compared to the cost of the ink and paper required to print images on an inkjet printer. The shipping costs are also reasonable given that you don't have to do any work to get the order shipped anywhere you'd like. However, because it is so easy to order prints, you might find yourself going overboard the first time or two you order. So before you click the Buy Now With 1-Click button, take a moment to double-check what you are ordering.

If images in a group that you select in an album or individually are low resolution, they will have the low-resolution warning icon placed on them. This icon is a yellow triangle with an exclamation point inside it. An image with this icon might or might not print well in prints or in a book you order. Be cautious about including low-resolution images in your orders, or you might be disappointed in the results you get.

If you do want to print low-resolution images, print them in a smaller size to make them look as good as possible.

You can also order professionally printed and bound books by using the same service you use to order prints. The process is also quite similar.

  1. Build the book you want to have printed.

    NOTE

    printed book has to be at least 10 pages long, and it will be whether you have images on all 10 pages or not. So make sure you have at least 10 pages of content before you print a book or your book will be printed with blank pages.

  2. Print your book and check it. Use the draft or black-and-white mode of your printer to make the process faster and less expensive.

  3. When you are sure that your book is right, click the Share mode button.

  4. Click Order Book. Your book will be assembled. Depending on the number of images and pages in your book, this process can take a few minutes. If your book contains low-resolution images or fewer than 10 pages, you will be warned. When the process is complete, you will see the Order Book dialog box. This dialog box is very similar to the Order Prints dialog box and works in the same way.

  5. Select a cover for your book on the Cover Color pop-up menu.

  6. Use the Ship To and Ship Via pop-up menus to enter the shipping information. Use the quantity box and arrows to set the number of books you want to order.

  7. When you are ready to order, click the Buy Now With 1-Click button and follow the onscreen instructions.

Be aware that ordering books is a relatively expensive proposition. The first 10 pages cost $29.99, and additional pages are $3 per page. Shipping for a book is also relatively expensive at $7.99. Take plenty of time to design and check your book before you order it unless you don't mind $40 "experiments."

Creating a .Mac Image HomePage

If you have a .Mac Web site, it is simple to post a group of images on that Web site.

To learn how to create a .Mac Web site, see "Using .Mac to Create and Serve Your Web Pages," p. 371.

  1. Select the images you want to place on the Web (such as selecting an album on the Source pane).

  2. Click the Share mode button.

  3. Click the HomePage button. Your Mac will connect to your .Mac account and you will see the Publish HomePage dialog box (see Figure 15.17).

    Figure 15.17. Using iPhoto's HomePage button, you can create a Web page for your photos in mere seconds.

    graphics/15fig17.jpg

  4. Select the title text at the top of the page and edit it.

  5. Select the page text just below that and edit it.

  6. Click a frame style at the bottom of the dialog box to apply that frame to all the images.

  7. Choose the .Mac site to which you want to publish the page on the Publish to pop-up menu. If you have created only one site, that is the only one you will see on the menu.

  8. Click Publish. iPhoto will connect to the Internet and transfer your photos to your .Mac account. When the process is complete, you will see a completion dialog box that provides the URL to the page you just created.

  9. Click the Visit Page Now button and enjoy (see Figure 15.18). You can click any image to see a larger version of it.

    Figure 15.18. I added a Web page containing a group of iPhoto images to my .Mac Web site in about 2 minutes.

    graphics/15fig18.jpg

Using Your iPhoto Images on the Desktop

NOTE

If you use multiple monitors, you can't set a desktop image from within iPhoto. Export the images you want to use, and use the Desktop pane to configure those images on your desktop.


One of the weaker iPhoto tools is the Desktop function. If you select an image and click the Desktop button, the image you selected will be placed on your desktop. Using a single image on a desktop is a bit boring; you can get better results by exporting a group of images and using the Desktop pane of the System Preferences utility to use that group of images and to change them periodically.

To learn how to use a group of images on your desktop, see "Customizing the Mac OS X Desktop," p. 99.

Creating an iPhoto Screensaver

You can create a custom screensaver from a photo album from within iPhoto.

  1. Click the Screen Saver button. You will see the Screen Saver dialog box.

  2. Choose the album containing the images you want to use in your screensaver on the Use pop-up menu.

  3. Click OK. That group of images will be used as your screensaver using the current settings on the Screen Effects pane of the System Preferences utility.

TIP

You can jump to the Screen Effects pane to configure the screensaver by clicking the Preferences button on the Screen Saver dialog box.


Exporting Images from iPhoto

There are various ways you can export images from iPhoto for different purposes. You can export images as separate files so that you can work with them in other applications or to send those files to other people. Or you can export a set of images as a Web site. Another option is to export a set of images as a QuickTime movie.

If you want to use iPhoto photos in other applications, such as iMovie, you need to export those images as individual files.

  1. Select the images you want to export as files, such as by selecting an album.

  2. Click the Share mode button and then click Export (or choose File, Export). You will see the Export Images dialog box (see Figure 15.19).

    Figure 15.19. The three export options you have appear as tabs in the Export Images dialog box.

    graphics/15fig19.jpg

  3. Click the File Export tab if it isn't already selected.

  4. Choose the file format into which you want the images exported from the Format pop-up menu.

  5. Check the "Use file names" radio button if you want iPhoto to generate filenames for you. Check the "Use titles" radio button if you want the filenames to be the image titles.

  6. Click the "Full-size images" radio button to export the files at their current resolution, or click the "Scale images no larger than" radio button and enter the resolution at which you want the image files to be exported.

  7. Click Export.

  8. Use the resulting sheet to choose a location in which to save the images and click OK. Each image will be saved as a file with the format you selected (such as TIFF) in the location you selected.

Earlier, you saw how easy it is to create a Web page containing photos via .Mac's HomePage. It is also quite easy to create a separate Web site for your photos from within iPhoto so that you can view them on your hard drive, publish the site on a local network, or publish it to a Web site you host with a different Web hosting service.

  1. Select the images you want to include in the Web site, for example, by selecting an album.

  2. Click Share and then click Export.

  3. Click the Web Page tab of the Export Images dialog box.

  4. Enter the title of the page you are creating in the Title box.

  5. Choose the number of rows and columns in which you want the images to be displayed on the Web site. The number of pages in the site will be calculated for you.

  6. Use the "Color" radio button and bar to set the page background to a color (it is white by default) or the "Image" radio button and "Set" button to choose an image as a background for the page.

  7. Use the Thumbnail Max. Width and Max. Height boxes to set the maximum size of the thumbnails of each image.

  8. Use the Image boxes to set the maximum size of the images when the viewer clicks on them on the Web site's Home page.

  9. If you want the titles displayed, check the "Show title" check box.

  10. Click Export.

  11. Select a location to which to save the Web site and click OK. Note that you have to choose a specific folder in which to store the Web site. The Web site will be created in the location you specified.

  12. Open the folder you selected in Step 11 and open the index.html file. You will see the page in a Web browser. You can use this site as a standalone site or add it to other Web sites you have created. You can also edit the site using your favorite Web application.

Viewing a slide show in iPhoto is cool, but it can be even better to create slide shows you can save and place on DVD, the Web, and so on. To do this, you can export images as a QuickTime movie. The steps to do this are similar to the steps to export image files or a Web page.

  1. Select the images you want to include in the Web site, for example, by selecting an album.

  2. Click Share and then click Export.

  3. Click the QuickTime tab of the Export Images dialog box.

  4. Use the Width and Height boxes to enter the size of the QuickTime movie you are creating.

  5. Enter the amount of time you want each image to be displayed in the Display image for box.

  6. Use the Background tools to choose a color or image for the slide show's background.

  7. Check the "Music" check box if you want the current music soundtrack to be exported with the movie.

  8. Use the Save sheet to name the movie and choose a location in which to save it. You can view the slide show with any application capable of playing QuickTime movies.



Special Edition Using Mac OS X v10. 2
Special Edition Using Mac OS X v10.2
ISBN: 0789729040
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 260
Authors: Brad Miser

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