23 Apr, 2008
Over the last few weeks I have been documenting the various adjustments available in iPhoto 08. Many people do not really make full use of the adjustments offered by iPhoto. With iPhoto 08, Apple has introduced image adjustments that were usually only previously found in professional image editing applications.
Each of the following articles concentrates on a specific set of iPhoto adjustments.
I hope you have enjoyed following this series of articles and that it will inspire you to start experimenting more with the adjustments. I will hopefully be revisiting the iPhoto adjustments in future articles, perhaps concentrating in more detail on one or two specific features.
22 Apr, 2008
This article is the last part of a series where I have covered the image adjustment features of iPhoto. Many users do not make full use of the adjustments offered by iPhoto. With iPhoto 08, Apple has introduced image adjustments that were usually only previously found in professional image editing applications.
Sharpness & Reduce Noise
The Sharpness & Reduce Noise tools allow you to adjust the edge and noise definition of an image.
Sharpness - Increasing the sharpness above the default increased the edge definition, giving the image a more crisp appearance.
Reduce Noise - Increasing the reduce noise above the default removes the peaks and troughs from the image textures, smoothing out the image.
For most image editing requirements, these adjustments should provide you with a very complete set of color adjustment tools. It should be noted that these tools operate on the whole photo. I have been in situations where I only wish to adjust a part of the image. In these cases, a more advanced image editing tool, such as Apple Aperture or Adobe Lightroom/Photoshop is required.
Read the rest of this entry »
11 Apr, 2008
One of the easiest ways of sharing your iPhoto photos is using email. The integration of the iPhoto (and the other iLife applications) with Mail gives you a seamless way of send photos using email. If you want to quickly send photos to family and friends, iPhoto offers a quick and painless approach.
To start, select the photo(s) that you wish to email. If you wish to select photos across multiple photo albums, you will need to select each album whilst holding down the Apple key. This adds each album’s photos to the current view, allowing you to scroll through the albums in a single page.
Selecting the Share -> Email menu will bring up the Mail Photo preferences.
The Size drop-down allows you to change the size of the photos to be sent. Note that iPhoto will always use JPEG images, even if all of your photos are RAW. The Large (Higher Quality) option is selected by default. The other available options are Medium, Small (Faster Downloading), and Actual Size (Full Quality). The preferences dialog also includes an estimate of the size of the photos when attached to the email and the option to include either the photos title or comments.
Clicking Compose will temporarily display a Preparing photos for email message as iPhoto will perform any necessary image resizing. A Mail message will be created with the photos embedded within (including any titles and comments if requested.) You can now add contacts and update the default subject as normal.
The integration between the iPhoto applications and Mail allows you to easily attach photos to email messages without the inconvenience of exporting to a temporary location and them attaching to the email message.
8 Apr, 2008
This article is part of a series where I will cover the image adjustment features of iPhoto. Many users do not make full use of the adjustments offered by iPhoto. With iPhoto 08, Apple has introduced image adjustments that were usually only previously found in professional image editing applications.
Saturation, Temperature & Tint
The Saturation, Temperature & Tint controls are focused upon adjusting the image colors.
Saturation - Saturation describes the richness of the color in your photo.
Temperature - Temperature describes the coolness or warmth of the colors in your photo. Temperature is also used to define white balance in RAW images.
Tint - Tint describes an overall color cast in your photo.
For most image editing requirements, these adjustments should provide you with a very complete set of color adjustment tools. It should be noted that these tools operate on the whole photo. I have been in situations where I only wish to adjust a part of the image. In these cases, a more advanced image editing tool, such as Apple Aperture or Adobe Lightroom/Photoshop is required.
Read the rest of this entry »
4 Apr, 2008
This article is part of a series where I will cover the image adjustment features of iPhoto. Many users do not make full use of the adjustments offered by iPhoto. With iPhoto 08, Apple has introduced image adjustments that were usually only previously found in professional image editing applications.
Highlights & Shadows
The highlights can be considered the lighter areas of a photo. However, it should not be confused with the overall brightness of a photo, as when you adjust the highlights it does not change the overall brightness of the photo, but concentrates the adjustment on areas considered to be highlights, leaving the lower and mid tones alone. It is easier to understand after you have made highlight adjustments on a couple of photos. Increasing the highlights will darken the highlights, that has the effect of increasing the detail in the highlighted areas.
Shadows are the converse of highlights. Adjusting the shadows will adjust the darker areas of the photo, whilst leaving the mid and high tones alone. Increasing the shadow will lighten the shadow areas, that has the effect of increasing the detail in the shadow areas.
Read the rest of this entry »
3 Apr, 2008
This may be common knowledge, but I found a real gem when researching my iPhoto Adjustment articles.
When you are adjusting an image using the Adjust HUD, if you press the Shift key, iPhoto will display the original image before the adjustments were made. This is a really quick way of previewing your changes and seeing what changes they have made to the original photo.
We have so far covered the Levels Adjustments and the Exposure & Contrast Adjustments. We will be covering the other available iPhoto adjustments in upcoming articles.
2 Apr, 2008
This article is part of a series where I will cover the image adjustment features of iPhoto. Many users do not make full use of the adjustments offered by iPhoto. With iPhoto 08, Apple has introduced image adjustments that were usually only previously found in professional image editing applications.
Exposure & Contrast
The exposure adjustment controls the overall lightness and darkness of the image. Similar to its meaning when taking a photo, a low exposure describes a darker image and a high exposure describes a lighter image. Even though the exposure adjustment can change the overall exposure of an image, it will not add any detail lost if the original image was either under (too dark) or over (too light) exposed. You should always be trying to take shots that are correctly exposed, ensuring that maximum detail has been captured.
The contrast adjustment changes the differences between the lightness and darkness of the image. By increasing the contrast, the lighter parts of the image become lighter and the darker parts become darker. Conversely, if you decrease the contrast, the differences between lighter and darker parts of the image decreases.
Read the rest of this entry »
1 Apr, 2008
This article represents the first in a series where I will cover the image adjustment features of iPhoto. Many users do not make full use of the adjustments offered by iPhoto. With iPhoto 08, Apple has introduced image adjustments that were usually only previously found in professional image editing applications.
To display the image adjustments HUD (Head’s Up Display) in iPhoto, either of the following will work.
- Select a photo in the browser and click the ‘Edit’ button in the toolbar at the bottom, or
- Double click a photo in the browser and then select the ‘Edit’ button in the toolbar at the bottom
Levels
The Levels adjustment is displayed as an RGB (Red, Green, Blue) graph at the top of the adjustments HUD. Three sliders are provided underneath the graph that control the various tone levels of the image, the Lows, the Mids and the Highs. More advanced applications such as Aperture allow finer-grained control of each color channel; however, iPhoto only operates across all three channels at once. For most adjustments this restriction is perfectly fine.
Read the rest of this entry »
