| You know how to import your photos off your digital | | | | just underneath the place where the colored graph line |
| camera into iPhoto, and you know how to create a | | | | starts to rise from 0. Move the right-hand slider to the |
| slideshow with your photos. What else can you do | | | | left until it's just underneath the place where the |
| with it? Here is a list of 5 things to do with iPhoto that | | | | colored graph line dips down to 0. |
| you may not know about. | | | | 3. Click Done. |
| 1. Emailing your photos if you're not using Apple Mail | | | | This way, the blacks should be very black and the |
| In the iPhoto window, at the bottom right, there's a | | | | whites should be very white, and you've got the range |
| button for emailing your photos. If you use this button, it | | | | of colors between. |
| will attach your selected photos to an Apple Mail email. | | | | Tip: I find photos that look good when printed often |
| But what if you don't use Apple Mail for your email? | | | | look too bright when onscreen. So often I will make a |
| What if you use Entourage, or another email program? | | | | duplicate of the photo before I color-correct it. Then I |
| Here's how to change the default email program. | | | | have one copy with original color, and one copy with |
| | | | brighter color for putting into a book. |
| 1. Under the iPhoto menu at the top, choose | | | | 4. Smart Albums |
| Preferences. | | | | If I want to pull up all the pictures with my brother in |
| 2. At the top, select General (which is probably | | | | them, for example, I can use the Smart Album feature. |
| selected already, but just make sure.) | | | | Smart Album automatically pulls all photos that have |
| 3. Under "Email photos using" click to get a dropdown | | | | whatever characteristic you specify, whether that's a |
| list. Here you can select which email program you're | | | | keyword tag, a date, a title, your rating--even the |
| using. | | | | camera you took the photos with. |
| You only need to do this once. From now on, when | | | | To create a Smart Album, click on the "+" button at |
| you click the email button in the main iPhoto window, | | | | the bottom left of the screen, and then click "Smart |
| the photos you've selected will be attached to an email | | | | Album" from the icons at the top of the window. |
| in the program of your choice. | | | | Of course this requires that when you import the |
| 2. Making books as gifts | | | | photos, you tag them with names and keywords of |
| When I go visiting friends and relatives, I find an ideal | | | | anything you might want to make a Smart Album with |
| housewarming present is something I send | | | | later. |
| afterwards-a custom-made book of photos from my | | | | Tip: Two new features of iPhoto '09 eliminate the |
| visit. It's also great as a memento of a special event, | | | | need to add certain tags to your photos: |
| like a birthday party or a reunion of old friends or | | | | |
| classmates. | | | | 1. Faces uses face recognition software to |
| For my mother's birthday, my brother and I made a | | | | automatically find all the pictures of, say, my brother in |
| book of photos of us, including some baby photos, | | | | my entire photo library. |
| some long-ago family trips, recent vacations with | | | | 2. The Geotagging feature means that if you take |
| spouses, and photos from his wedding. We took all | | | | pictures with an iPhone or a GPS-enabled camera, |
| those photos and made a classy hardcover. But for | | | | each photo automatically gets tagged with the location |
| other friends, I've made the tiny wallet-size booklets | | | | where it was taken. (If you're taking photos with a |
| (you get 3 for $12, so you can give one to each | | | | regular camera, you need to manually tag your own |
| person who was present at the event). | | | | photos by location.) |
| The great thing about iPhoto and bookmaking is that | | | | 5. Inspiration and reference albums |
| they have templates to choose from, so you don't | | | | You can use iPhoto for way more than just storing |
| have to be a designer yourself, but within that template | | | | and organizing your own photos. You can also use it |
| there is a lot of freedom to create different page | | | | as a way to store and sort images of any kind that |
| layouts. And it's easy. | | | | you want to use on a project, or for inspiration, or for |
| Tip: If you want to use a special font in your iPhoto | | | | reference. |
| book, you can create the text in Word, using the | | | | For example I do knitting, sewing, and crochet--and |
| special font, and then cut and paste the text into | | | | while surfing the net I come across images of scarves, |
| iPhoto. Voila, your original font style will be preserved. | | | | handbags, sweaters, shawls, and tons of other |
| Tip: I have found that my photos look somewhat dark | | | | handmade items that are inspirational, or give me ideas |
| when printed in book form, so I always alter the color | | | | for future projects. So I've created a few albums in |
| on my photos by doing Awesome Thing #3: | | | | iPhoto specifically for craft inspiration. |
| 3. Quick color correction | | | | When you see a photo online that you want to keep |
| I'm no expert with Photoshop, and I certainly don't | | | | for reference, here's what you do: |
| know how to adjust all that RGB stuff, but I've found a | | | | |
| few tricks that make my photos look better without | | | | 1. Right-click (or hold down the Option key and click, |
| taking too much time. | | | | same thing) on the image. |
| Color correction can be done through the editing area. | | | | 2. From the pop-up menu that comes up, choose "Add |
| To get to the editing area, select a photo and then | | | | image to iPhoto Library." |
| click the "Edit" button at the bottom left (the pencil icon). | | | | 3. Open up iPhoto and from the items on the left-hand |
| You'll see the options at the bottom: I never ever use | | | | side, choose "Last import." The photo you just found |
| "Enhance" as I think it doesn't work that well. Instead | | | | on the web should be here. Click and drag that image |
| click on "Adjust." The adjust palette pops up. | | | | into any photo album. |
| Don't overdo it with the sliders unless you're going for | | | | You could use this system for storing photos of |
| a photo that looks dreamlike or just plain weird. Instead | | | | interiors (if you're thinking of redoing your living room), |
| here's what I do: | | | | or images of business card designs (if you're looking |
| | | | for inspirational material for your own business cards), |
| 1. Move the exposure slider just a bit to the right, to | | | | as just two examples. This system works great in |
| see if it brightens things up nicely without washing | | | | tandem with Google Images--search for photos on |
| everything out. | | | | Google Images and then save and store them in |
| 2. Then use the sliders under the colored Levels graph | | | | iPhoto for reference. |
| at the top-move the left-hand slider to the right until it's | | | | |